Blyth's Long Dry Spell - Glimpses of the Past with Cheryl Cronin
In January of 1876, a station on the London, Huron and Bruce Railway (CNR) was established at the east end of Dinsley Street and, a year later, the Village of Blyth was incorporated as a legal entity with a population of about 800.
There were hotels in Blyth before it was incorporated as a village in 1877. By 1884, there were “five hotels all selling liquor with or without a licence”. One of those hotels was the Commercial Hotel, better known in 2026 as The Blyth Inn or The Rubber Boot.
The Scott Act of 1878 was a significant piece of Canadian legislation that allowed local municipalities to prohibit the sale of liquor. In Huron County, the act played a major role in shaping local attitudes and policies toward alcohol from its initial adoption in 1878 until the act’s repeal in 1959.
The Scott Act, or Canada Temperance Act (CTA), provided community residents the opportunity to hold a referendum or plebiscite to decide whether to ban the sale of alcohol within their jurisdiction. The act was part of the broader temperance movement, which sought to reduce or eliminate alcohol consumption due to concerns about social problems, health and morality.
The Scott Act was not taken seriously in Blyth, which was considered to be a “dry” village.
In 1889, W. Smith of the Commercial was charged for violating the Crook’s Act, which ordered no liquor to be sold on the Sabbath or election day. He was fined $20 and court costs.
In November of 1893, it was reported that, “Perjury cases arising out of the prosecution of Blyth hotelkeepers for alleged infractions of the liquor licence act were continued in that village last week.”
In August of 1898, a Blyth hotelkeeper was fined $20 and court costs for serving liquor on Sunday.
William Mason of the Queen’s Hotel in Blyth was found guilty in 1919 of concealing whiskey in his establishment and was “committed to the county jail at Goderich for 24 days with hard labour.”
Also in 1919, the Queen’s Hotel owner “claimed his liquor was obtained on a prescription”.
In July of 1932, “Harry Johnston, Blyth hotelkeeper, has appealed a sentence of $500 and costs… levied in Goderich police court for a breach of the Liquor Control Act which Johnston maintains is excessive.”
Although the sale of liquor surreptitiously continued throughout the turn of the century, Blyth did not officially become a “wet” town again until 1964.
In 1960, the village residents voted “no” to the sale of liquor, resulting in the closure and boarding-up of the hotel. In 1961, the hotel was purchased by Henry “Con” Daly who completed extensive renovations and remodelling. On June 27, 1963, local Blyth residents voted 70 per cent in favour of the sale of beer and liquor in the village. On Friday, Sept. 5, 1964, for the first time in many years, beer and liquor were sold legally in the Blyth Hotel.
The current (2026) three-storey hotel was built in 1903 by Isaac Brown. The cement blocks were formed on site “with a large staff of men at work making cement blocks with a Eureka Cement Block machine”.
Daly replaced the old auction barn at the back of the hotel on Dinsley with a 60x40-foot cement block extension to accommodate the men’s and ladies’ beverage rooms. He reopened nine hotel rooms featuring new furniture and added 16 new aluminum windows to the first and second floors. The restaurant was expanded to serve lunch and dinner. Daly sold the business to Alf Wild in 1967. During Wild’s proprietorship, the name was changed to The Blyth Inn.
Garry and Peg Armbruster from Waterloo purchased The Blyth Inn from Alf Wild in February of 1971. They redecorated the interior and added entertainment in the lounge. Open hours were extended from midnight to 1 a.m. A year later, the Armbrusters appealed to the public in a Letter to the Editor to vote favourably to the question, “Are you in favour of the sale of liquor under a lounge licence for consumption on licensed premises?” Armbruster’s argument was, “We want to make The Blyth Inn an establishment you can be proud to have in your town.” And… the people voted in favour.
Armbrusters sold to Adrianus Schipper in September 1972, who in turn sold it a year later to Harry Kowalachuck.
Harold Ferguson purchased the hotel in August 1975. During Harold Ferguson’s proprietorship, the question about the sale of liquor was added to the municipal election ballot in December of 1976. The result was definitive: 298 to 169 residents voted in favour, a margin of 63.8 per cent.
Although difficult to believe, until the 1970s, a hotel was strictly divided into gender-based areas under the Ontario Liquor Act. Public hotel spaces, especially bars and lounges, were strictly separated by gender with male and female entrances: “ladies’ lounge,” and “ladies and escorts room”, with different prices for beverages and designated bathrooms.
This publicly-accepted segregation stemmed from the belief that women should be confined to the domestic realm and protected. This segregation was built into hotel design, with women’s spaces designed to be more like private homes, emphasizing protection from crude language and rowdy behaviour. The rules relaxed significantly by the 1970s and 1980s due to changing laws and social norms.
In The Blyth Inn during Ferguson’s ownership, the Hub Bar, as it was known, was a small area with three or four tables and the only area where liquor could be sold. Beside it was the room known as the “ladies and escorts room” where mixed company could meet and enjoy food and an alcoholic beverage. Separated by a wall from the two front rooms was the “men’s beverage lounge” where only beer was served. Women were not allowed in this area and the imbibers entered and exited through a “men-only door” at the southeast corner of the beverage room. In 2026, that door is still an “exit” door and the bathroom, which was for men only, is still located near the exit door.
The history of The Blyth Inn reflects how changing liquor laws and social rules gradually transformed hotels from segregated spaces into more inclusive community gathering places.