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Don Wallace
(June 2008 Update - Don and Gail have sold the Lunenburg Inn and are looking for a place to rent until October when they expect to close on a Lunenburg house they have bid on.)
(May 2008) Don and his wife, Gail, own and operate the Lunenburg Inn on Dufferin street. They came from Aurora, Ontario, and bought the inn on their second visit to Lunenburg in 1995. Don was Vice President-Warehousing, Distribition and Logistics of an international freight forwarding company in Toronto when he decided to strike out on a new path in a community he would be happy to retire in at a later time. Don and Gail also started the Bridgewater M&M Meat Company in 1997 and ran it until they sold it in 2003.
Don had curled briefly about 35 years ago before joining the LCC in 2004 and taking the introductory lessons offered by the club. He curls mainly with the Masters and special events. He was on the winning B division team in the 2008 Curl For A Cause bonspiel.
Don and Gail have a son and daughter living in Ottawa. Don missed three weeks of curling last October to visit his son and daughter-in-law and his new granddaughter.
(photo - 2008 Curl For A Cause Division B winners - Roger, Leighton, Mark & Don)
A brief history of the Lunenburg Inn (abstracted from a research report prepared by Don’s daughter, Marnie V Wallace)
The Inn was built in 1893 by carpenter (and later the first Superintendent of Streets for The Town of Lunenburg) Reubin A.Conrad as a private residence. In 1913 the building was purchased by Lunenburg blacksmith George W. Hamm and his wife, Sophia, from the Conrads’ heirs. In 1924, Sophia Hamm opened her home to paying guests as The Hillside Hotel with 13 rooms and one bathroom. The new train station had opened next door in 1923 and many of the first guests arrived by train. During the infamous rum running during prohibition, it is rumoured that Joseph Kennedy, father of US President John F. Kennedy, was a frequent guest at The Hillside Hotel.
Sophia died in 1939 and Mildred Myra, Sophia’s daughter and executor, took possession until it was sold at auction to Eldora and Gabriel Berringer who quickly sold it to Gilbert and Ruth Demone. The Demones continued to run it as a hotel. At the time there were only two other hotels in Lunenburg – the Bluenose Lodge and the Boscawen.
The Demones sold the hotel in 1979 and the building passed through a series of three owners, all of whom used it as a family home and boarding house. During this time the building fell into a state of disrepair until it was purchased in 1987 by John & Faith Piccolo who restored it to a condition befitting a heritage property. The restored building had seven en suite bedrooms. In 1995 the Inn was purchased by Gail and Don who continue to maintain it in top condition.
