Shawville Walking Tour

The village of Clarendon Center, which would later become Shawville, grew up along what was then the Sixth Line of Clarendon Township. The services of a farming village sprung up along that line. Taverns were among the first to arrive, while blacksmiths, coopers, tailors, and general stores came soon after. Shawville merchants developed a thriving trade by purchasing agricultural produce from local farmers and selling them consumer goods. The merchants then sold the produce to the many lumber companies that operated in the Ottawa Valley. The lumber companies usually paid in the hard cash with which the enterprising merchant could then use to buy goods from Ottawa and Montreal wholesalers. In this way the storekeepers of the village kept the local economy running.

When the town was incorporated in 1873, Shawville was a thriving centre of more than a dozen businesses. The coming of the railway solidified the position of the town as the agricultural service centre of the region. Produce and livestock flooded into the town to be sent out by rail. The business of merchants, craftsmen, and millowners was greatly increased. Merchants brought goods in by the steel tracks. It was an exciting day when the year’s shipment of farm machinery and buggies and cutters arrived. Businessmen would parade their new wares through the streets of town, undoubtedly making customers out of the hundreds who came to watch.

It was in the first heady decades after the arrival of the railway that Shawville’s downtown acquired much of its present look. In the prosperity of that time new buildings went up like G.F. Hodgns’ store, which became the Stedman’s building and, more recently, the Chateau Du Dollar Plus. If you look to the second storey, the Hodgins name is still clearly visible. The W.A. Hodgins store on Main has been in the same family for over one hundred and fifty years. Two grand Victoria hotels, the Pontiac House and The Russel l House ran fiercly competitiv businesse son the Main Street. Sadly, they both succumbed to fire. On the whole, the commercial core retains much of the look and feel that it did one hundred years ago.