145 King Street

This site was once occupied by a building named Victoria Hotel. Simon Mcleod bought the hotel sometime between 1860-1870. In 1872, a neighbouring building caught fire, and it spread to the hotel and completely destroyed it.

The property was bought by Thomas Powell, who built a new hotel, Powell House. Powell operated the hotel until 1904, when he sold it to Charles Schomacher, who in turn sold it to John Schafer in 1907. 

Schafer renovated the building and renamed it Hotel Schafer. The hotel had certain negative connotations, as it had become the town drinking hub. Perhaps in an attempt to combat the damaging associations, Schafer attempted to rebrand the building, giving it the name "Blue Goose".

The hotel continued to decline, and became vacant in the 1920’s. In the late 1930s, the Parkhill Creamery bought the building for butter manufacturing. In 1963, the Parkhill Creamery was sold and closed shortly after. The building was torn down in 1970.

In 1985, Bill Waters founded Waters Seed and Feed, operating the business out of a former CN freight shed which had been moved here after the creamery was torn down and another building that had been the chicken processing plant for the creamery. The office at the north of the property was built in 1991. The feed portion of the business closed in 2009 and the seed business soon after.