Mansion House Hotel – Martin’s Hotel

Photo Courtesy of Uxbridge The Good Old Days by: by J. Peter Hvidsten (Martin’s Hotel, IGA)

History

Located at the south-west corner of Brock Street and Toronto Street was the Mansion House Hotel – Martin’s Hotel. The hotel was built in 1871 by Joseph Gould and was originally known as the Mansion House Hotel. According to “Uxbridge The Good Old Days” Jim Martin later owned it as Martins Hotel in the 1950’s.

There was an alley way to the west of the hotel (see photo above) that went through the building and led to the stables at the rear of the hotel.

The above photo courtesy of Uxbridge – The First 100 Years 1800-1900 by: J. Peter Hvidsten shows the Mansion House circa 1914.

In 1963 the hotel was torn down and the building we know today was built in its place. In June 1964 Uxbridge got its first modern grocery store when the IGA opened its doors. As a kid I have many memories shopping the aisles with mom. Back in that time security was’t a big deal, you could enter or exit from the front or the back of the store.

Here in this photo courtesy of Uxbridge The Good Old Days by: by J. Peter Hvidsten taken in November 1963 you can see the hotel being torn down.

Uxbridge IGA Store

New IGA store

The new IGA store was opened in 1964 by John and Evelyn Hockley (shown above) and featured 4000 square feet of shopping space with large merchandise aisles, refrigerated space for produce and fresh meats. Photo courtesy of Uxbridge The Good Old Days by: by J. Peter Hvidsten

Today

Since IGA closed its doors there has been many different businesses open in this building. There was once a Sears store and a dollar store. The building was recently renovated into four different spaces (bottom) and now is the home of Uxbridge Shoes & Repair, Domino’s Pizza, Compressions 4 You (First Aid Training Services) and F.P.M. Solutions CPAP & Medical Devices.