on June 4, 2016
1850 – The large white frame built over a stone house served as a merchant’s store and had a blacksmith’s building at the end of the property. The merchant, John Menzies, became the registrar of North Lanark County.
This photograph shows Menzies House, taken before 1880. The lumber mill in the foreground was on the site of the present Town Hall, which started construction in 1880.
The period of 1850 to 1870 saw Almonte as one of the principal wool manufacturing towns in the Ottawa Valley because of its unlimited water power from the Mississippi River. Menzies House was ideally situated in the centre of this thriving industry.
The House is of Anglo-Norman design, so called because of the long verandah entranceway and dormers, features which are found in Quebec.