(Map of Elora)

The first settler on the site of Elora was Roswell Matthews. He had worked for James Crooks at Crooks' Hollow and had been given the contract to build a saw mill on the Grand River. He was promised 100 acres of land for each member of his family. When he arrived in the area, he left his wife and the young children at Capt. Smith's house at the junction of the Conestogo and Grand Rivers, about 10 km north of the present-day Waterloo. Matthews then went with his older boys to clear the site, build what would be the first house in Elora, and start work on the mill. The dam for the mill was never entirely successful because the riverbed was not solid enough and the dam washed away in the first flood. Matthews never received his land and eventually left the area and moved on to Guelph in 1827.

In 1832, attracted by the water power of the waterfalls, Capt. William Gilkison, a cousin of John Galt, bought half of the township. He then laid out the town, which he named Elora. The origin of the name has a story. Captain Gilkison had a brother John, also a navy captain. John was captain of a ship that sailed between Glasgow in Scotland and Bombay in India. Not far from Bombay are the Cave Temples of Elora and presumably John must have visited them because, when he was given command of a new vessel, he named it Elora. William Gilkison remembered the unusual name when he named the village in Canada.

Captain Gilkison was born in Irvine, in Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1777 and he commemorated the town in naming the Irvine Creek, which flows into the Grand River at Elora.

Places to see in Elora:

• Kirk & Clarke's Dry Goods Store, Metcalfe and Church Streets

  Kirk & Clarke Dry Goods Store

  John Kirk and his stepson Charles Clarke opened a dry goods store in Elora in 1848. By 1861, they had done well enough to build this brick store on Metcalfe Street. In addition to dry goods, the store sold patent medicines and groceries.

• American House Hotel, Metcalfe Street

  American House Hotel

  Just across Metcalfe Street, this hotel was opened by Ephraim Land, who also operated a shoe-repair business on the same premises. Land was born about 1816 in England and is not related to the famous Land family. His daughter Harriet married Robert Dalby of the Dalby House Hotel in 1861.

• Clarke House, Church and Geddes Streets

  Clarke House

  After opening a dry goods business, Charles Clarke became an important figure in the community. As a local politician, he served as Reeve and member of the Provincial Legislature (1871-91), where he helped to bring in some things that we take for granted today: representation by population, universal male suffrage, and the secret ballot. In business, besides owning the dry goods store, he also helped found the town's first newspaper, the Elora Backwoodsman. During the Fenian invasion of 1866, he commanded the 1st Elora Volunteer Rifles, raised to counter the threat. This modest, two-storey, brick house was his home.

• Gordon Block and Dalby House Hotel, Metcalfe and Geddes Streets

  Gordon Block and Dalby House Hotel

  In the mid-1800s, there was a dispute over which side of the river was to be developed. This flat-iron building at the junction of Metcalfe and Geddes Streets was raised in 1865 by Andrew Gordon, harness maker and leading proponent of those favouring the north side. Robert Dalby, son-in-law of Ephraim Land of the American House Hotel, opened a hotel in the larger, southern end of the block in the same year and operated it for more than twenty-five years.

• Allan's Log House, Church Street

  Allan's Log House

  The oldest house on the north side of the river, this log house was built in 1843 by Charles Allan, who immigrated here from Perthshire in Scotland in about 1840. He was the main force behind a company called Allan, Ross & Co, which bought a large section of the Gilkison land near the falls and in the northern part of the town. This company built a new dam to replace Matthews' dam, and also built flour, carding, and woollen mills. Like Clarke, Allan represented the area in the Provincial Legislature.

• James Ross House, near the Elora Mill

  James Ross House

  This is the home of James Ross of Allan, Ross, & Co, builders and owners of the Elora mills. (More info needed.)

• Elora Mill, Mill Street

  Elora Mill

  A mill has been on this site since Roswell Matthews built his ill-fated building in 1833. Allan, Ross & Co. built a grist mill here and sold it to J.M. Fraser in 1865. After a fire destroyed the mill in 1870, Fraser rebuilt it in stone and this is the building that survives. (More needed.)

• Fraser House, Price Street

  Fraser House

  After buying the mill from Allan, Ross & Co., J.M. Fraser built this fine stone house on the hillside above the mill in 1863. A short, stocky, aggressive man, Fraser was known as the Elora Bantam. He was the leader of the south side in the dispute over development in Elora. The main fight came over where the Drill Shed was to be located.

• Drill Shed, Metcalfe Street

  Drill Shed

  J.M. Fraser was Reeve in 1865 when the dispute arose over where the Drill Shed was to be built. The building was to be the home of the Elora Volunteer Rifle Company. Over the intentions of the northern side forces under Andrew Gordon, the Elora Bantam had it built on the south side. To rub salt into the wounds, he had a rooster carved over the front entrance. The former Drill Shed is now an LCBO store but you can still see the rooster above the front door. An irony is that, in its later years, the shed was used as a meeting hall by various groups, one of which was the Temperance Society.

• Smith Book Store, Mill Street

  Smith Book Store

  RJ Smith opened a book store here in 1861. He later divided the store, letting out half to a druggist named Richard Newman. The mortar and pestle symbol between the upper windows is a relic of the drug store that used to be here.

• Gingerbread House, 22 Metcalfe Street

  Gingerbread House

  In the early years of the town, the area around here was the hub of business. James Geddes, after whom Geddes Street was named, built this house in 1852. It is a typical Ontario 1½-storey brick house with a gable and window above the front door. The front door has a transom and sidelights.