By Phil Egan – Special to The Sarnia Journal
(2015) It is a warm evening in early July, 1910. King George V is in his second month on the throne of the British Empire. Sir Wilfred Laurier is Prime Minister.
You have just boarded the 100 foot long ferry, Skater at Ferry Dock Hill. The ferry has been chartered by the Grandview Hotel on Wees Beach, at the foot of today`s Colborne Road. Skater is going to take you up river and into Lake Huron for an evening of dancing and fun at the popular summer resort. Tonight is the opening ball of the season.
You are soon underway and mingling and chatting with other guests. You watch the town glide by on your right. The Bluewater Bridge, so familiar to us today, is still 28 years in the future. As Skater makes her way into Lake Huron and travels east along the shore, the brilliantly illuminated Grandview Hotel looms ahead. Stretching for 100 feet along the great sandy beach, the Grandview is four storeys high, and boasts a broad verandah that runs the entire length of the second floor. A broad wooden staircase ascends to the second floor and verandah. Above the steps, a smaller balcony sits on the third floor. Eleven windows on the fourth floor overlook the inviting beach.
As Skater approaches the hotel, tastefully decorated for the evening`s festivities, other guests tell you that the water is too shallow for the ferry to dock. A slow process ensues in which smaller boats shuttle back and forth disembarking guests. Soon, however, you are dancing the evening away in the beach pavilion to the sounds of the London Harpers. There are over 200 in attendance. A perfect summer breeze off the lake is refreshing.
At midnight, there is a lavish supper served in the Grandview`s dining room, followed by more dancing under the stars. It is two in the morning before you embark for home.
In the days before packaged holidays to Mexico and the Caribbean, North Americans were urged to consider the Great Lakes as their “natural summering grounds.“ Guests would arrive for the week, for a month, or for the entire summer season, “taking the waters“ by enjoying their time during the day swimming, bathing and boating, or playing tennis, croquet, or fishing, Rates ranged from $7 to $10 a week, and a peek at an early guest registry revealed names from as far as New York City, St. Louis and Oklahoma City, and from Sault Ste. Marie, Detroit, Cleveland and Toronto.
Connections were available by trolley from downtown Sarnia, and guests would arrive into town by rail to Sarnia Station or by boat from Ferry Dock Hill. Some Sarnians would simply enjoy Grandview for a special day or evening on the beach.
Grandview was one of two great summer resorts on Lake Huron beach at Sarnia, but the era didn`t last. By 1919, the Grandview Hotel was for sale. Various schemes were floated to save it, but none took root.
Soon Grandview was gone, but the great days of the Sarnia beach resorts are not forgotten.