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Doors Open: Cranbrook Introduction CRANBROOK WAS FIRST known as "The Plot" - the government had purposely set aside 500 acres along the Maitland River for a townsite. It was surveyed into town and park lots in 1855. The official name was The Town Plot for Grey Township. William Tanner owned an adjacent piece of land and had it surveyed as a townsite in 1857, calling it Tannersville. The entire community was served by a post office called Grey that opened in 1854. The name of both the town and post office was changed to Cranbrook in September of 1878, named after a town in Kent, England. The first settler to "The Plot" was James Tuck. He built a hotel called the Montreal House, the first tavern in Grey Township in 1854. Council meetings were held here. It was known by locals as Tuck's Hotel despite changes in ownership. Tuck also operated a store adjoined to the hotel. One of the oldest buildings in the village was a log store built by John Leckie in the fall of 1855, west of the hotel. Leckie ran the store for a few years before selling to Thomas Leadbeater and moving to Brussels. When the building burnt in 1895 it was owned by Alexander McNair who was the postmaster and township treasurer. Hiram White had a portable sawmill on Lot 18 Concession 11 in 1859. A saw-mill was also oper-ated on the south side of the river on Park Lot 6 from 1875-85. In 1887-88, a flax mill was built here. By the end of 1889, under new ownership, the mill regularly employed 15 men and hired 40 men, women and boys at harvest time to pull flax. The Brussels Post reported in June 1897: "Cameron Bros. shipped 24 tons of dressed flax to Barbour Bros. of Pater-son, New Jersey, who own a mammoth spinning factory." A limeworks was begun in 1876 by the McNichols. The lime kiln was operated by Valentine Gramm in the 1880s. Limestone was readily available in the area. First-class lime was 13¢ per bushel and No. 1 lime for plastering was 15¢ per bushel. The Bakers also ran a lime kiln north of Gramm's limeworks, where they quarried stone. Large quantities of stone were removed for building material. The Bakers also ran a brickyard producing orange-red brick. An 1885 item in The Brussels Post noted: At present there are in the village four churches, two hotels, three blacksmith shops, one carriage shop, one pump shop, one shoe shop, two stores, a sawmill, lime kiln, post office, a school … and a cider mill. Site Submissions Knox Presbyterian Church Location: Cranbrook Year built: 1865 Rev. John Ferguson was inducted into the pastoral charge of Brussels, Cranbrook and Walton in 1865, the year the first church was built here. The church was moved to the north of the lot and placed on a stone foundation in 1888. A veneer of white brick was also added. more... Knox Presbyterian Cemetery Location: Cranbrook Rd & McNabb Line Year built: 1855 James McNair walked from Cranbrook to Goderich in 1855 to buy the land for a graveyard and church. Headstones with inscriptions in Gaelic, German and English reveal the village's diversity. Burials were made here before 1855, but the date of the oldest plot sold is 1858 to one William McKay. more... MDL Doors Location: 42918-B Year built: 1983 MDL Doors was started by Mervin Lichty in 1983 on his farm. MDL Doors sells pre-hung steel door systems and offers a wide range of doors: single, terrace, double, or front entrance doors with sidelights and transom. The farm was bought from the Crown by Philip Botz in 1868. more...
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