Battle Ground Hotel Museum
5161 Lundy's Lane
Niagara Falls, Ontario
Phone: 905-357-9866

The Battle Ground Hotel is located at 6151 Lundy's Lane in the heart of Historic Drummondville, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.  The Battle Ground Hotel Museum sits on a part of the remaining untouched lands of the Lundy's Lane Battlefield.  Visitors to the site are offered a guided tour of the period rooms where they will experience tavern life in 1850.  Costumed staff are on hand to give visitors a glimpse into early tourism in Niagara and the fascination with battle fields from the War of 1812.

Located directly across Lundy's Lane from the Battle Ground Hotel is the Drummond Hill Cemetery, location of some of the fiercest fighting of the War of 1812.  A monument is located on-site to commemorate the Battle of Lundy's Lane.  This is also the location of Laura Secord's final resting place.

The Battle Ground Hotel is open daily from May 1st to October 31st.  During the winter months, the site is open by appointment by calling the Lundy's Lane Historical Museum at (905)358-5082.

Lundy's Lane Monument in the Drummond Hill Cemetery (photo courtesy of J. Brown)

For more information about the Battle Ground Hotel Museum please call (905)357-9866 or drop us an e-mail at llmuseum@city.niagarafalls.on.ca.

Statement of Purpose

The Battle Ground Hotel has been restored for the purpose of collecting, preserving, researching, exhibiting and interpreting, in-situ, artifacts relating to the early years of the tourism industry in Niagara Falls, and the legacy of the Battle of Lundy’s Lane.

The Museum also focuses its programme on early tavern keeping in the Province of Ontario and the life and times of Adam Fralick and his descendants.

The Museum also honours the memory of Ruth Redmond and her vision for preserving the Lundy’s Lane Battlefield

The Battle Ground Hotel is the only surviving example, in Ontario, of a 19th century Tavern which existed as a product of the commemoration of the War of 1812 and as an element of early Ontario tourism, as opposed to other examples of taverns which simply served a domestic role in the community as providers of refreshments and accommodations fro travelers. The Battle Ground Hotel could be said to be a manifestation or statement of Canadian identity because it thrived on the growing 19th century awareness that Ontario and Canada, although inhabited by similar people with parallel cultural and ethnic backgrounds, distinctly differed from the United States as defined by the War of 1812.(Fralick's Tavern Restoration Documents, 2001)

Take a Guided Tour through this spectacularly restored building and stroll the grounds of this national significant 1812 battle field site.

Taverns in the 1850's an Overview:

The Inn Keeper

Local Taverns, Hotels and Inns were landmarks in their community, and their owners, therefore became well known citizens.

An inn keeper fulfilled many roles in budding communities, including keeper of the peace and local magistrate, pawn broker, postman, walking newspaper, banker, political pundit, and of course his prime function was to preside over the workings of the Tavern - that oasis for weary travelers longing for the next tavern to appear, with the possibility of a brief respite from their punishing journey.

Within the walls of the tavern: bills were paid and deals were made, it served as a public place where men could meet in comfort, news of the world arrived at the door, local theatricals might be enacted here, some early church services occurred here, politics were discussed and debated, and of course food was served and drink flowed.

Tavern Fare

Food served in the Taverns of early Upper Canada was generally considered less than appetizing. To give the cook her due, however, there were great difficulties in cooking for unknown numbers of diners. A housekeeper would have no idea how many patrons would arrive on any given night.

Tavern food, in spite of the fact that it was most often floating in grease, could look particularly appealing after a hard night in a coach. A glass of gin and bitters helped to whet the appetite.

John Howison of Edinburgh wrote the following in Sketches of Upper Canada regarding tavern fare:

This tavern ... had a sign swinging before the door, so covered with gilt and emblematic paintings, that it probably cost more than the house itself ... there we found a table amply furnished with tea, beef-steaks, cucumbers, potatoes, honey, onions, eggs, etc. During this delectable repast, we were attended by the hostess, who poured out the tea as often as we required it, and having done so, seated herself in the door-way, and read a book (which I afterwards found to be Miss Edgeworth’s Tales of Fashionable Life)

Temperance Societies

The ills of alcohol consumption were well known to the 19th century settler in the Canadas. Many instances of the consequences of too much drink can be found in the writings of the day. Liquor consumption, however, was so much a part of life in the Backwoods of Canada and on the frontier of the United States, that some groups began to merely advocate cutting back on the consumption of alcohol, rather than quitting altogether.

In 1828 the first Temperance Society in Upper Canada was formed in Bastard Township.

There were a variety of approaches to the problem:

• total abstinence: these societies demanded that liquor only be used for medicinal purposes, in cases of bodily infirmity.
• partial abstinence: these groups allowed wine and beer only, while prohibiting hard liquor.

Temperance meetings were widely advertised to the public through sympathetic newspapers and the atmosphere at these meetings was usually very intense. The program usually consisted of a volatile sermon followed by either a heated debate on temperance -vs- abstinence or rousing song singing.

To prevent their members from backsliding from their pledge, some societies - The Royal Canadian Rifle Regiment Temperance Society of Niagara for example - urged members to be their brother’s policemen and communicate infringement of the rules to a committee. The committee would then advise and admonish the offending member and report all the circumstances to the Society at the next meeting for final decision.

To provide the same services as the local inns, temperance or abstinence taverns opened up all over the province. These attracted patrons who knew that within their walls, a traveler could avoid the noise and rowdyism that was often a part of the regular tavern scene and hear only the clink of ice in a pitcher filled with pure water.

In 1868 the Dunkin Act was enacted which gave counties the local option to become dry or not.

In 1878, the Canada Temperance Act, which was also referred to as the Scott Act, prohibited the sale of liquor in any county whose residents voted it into law. The Act, however proved to be ineffective because if lacked restrictions regarding where or by whom any liquor from another county could be consumed. In effect a person could drink a keg of rum in the town square so long as it wasn’t bought in the county.

Licences for Selling Spirits

The government of Upper Canada (in the same manner as our present government) looked upon people’s desire for drink as an excellent source of revenue. When the First Parliament of Upper Canada met in 1793, they amended the Act of the British Parliament dealing with the licencing for "keeping a house ... or retailing wine, brandy, rum or other spiritous liquour" by adding 20 shillings to the existing levy of 1/16/-, partially to fund the salaries of the Legislative Council an House of Assembly. Further legislation, and increases, followed through the years.

Basically there were three types of licences: one for distillers, another for shopkeepers and a third for innkeepers. To secure a licence, the applicant completed a "recognizance" asking for a licence and naming two people who would vouch for the applicant. If the application was approved, a licence was issued and usually, the list of licencees entered into a ledger. The approval often appeared in the record of the Court of Quarter Sessions for the District. Usually on an annual basis, a list was prepared and sent to the "treasurer". Sporadically, the lists were printed in the Journals of the Legislative Assembly.

The Restoration

• Towers on Lundy's Lane
• Early Tourism
• Drummondville in the 1850's

Ruth Redmond

The property on which the Battle Ground Hotel Museum now sits was donated to the City of Niagara Falls by Miss Ruth Redmond, a local school teacher and long time advocate for the preserving the remaining lands of the Lundy's Lane Battlefield.  Her dedication to the beautification of the lands at the crest of Lundy's Lane is a lasting example.

Friends remember the retired school teacher as a "unique Canadian patriot," a quiet gentle woman who surrounded herself with hundreds of geraniums. At the same time she spent much of her life aggressively acquiring as many portions of the historic battlefield as she could afford. She was determined that one day there would be a "tribute to the boys," as she called them, who died during one of the most significant battles in Canadian history.

In the same way that the poppies of Flanders have been associated with Canada’s First World War dead, Redmond wanted to associate red geraniums with those who fell at Lundy’s Lane.

Redmond was born in 1902 in Holiford, Ontario, a small town north of Kingston. She grew up aware of her United Empire Loyalist roots, but it wasn’t until the age of 94 that Redmond received the certificate verifying her ancestors were among Ontario’s early European settlers who had tried to defend Britain during the American Revolution. Redmond and her sister Norma Fiddes, both received their U.E. designation in 1996. (The Review, April 6, 1999)

A high school teacher at Stamford Collegiate for 41 years, Redmond purchased six properties, including Fralick’s Tavern, a circa 1830's watering hole adjacent to the historic site, and deeded them to the city several years ago.

Without her efforts, those parts of the original battlefield might have ended up in the hands of developers, local preservationists say.

Redmond graduated from Queen’s University in 1923. She attended the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in Toronto in 1924 to acquire her teaching degree.

In 1926, she followed her older sister, Mildred, a Thorold teacher, to Niagara and was hired by Stamford to teach English and history. She retired in 1967. (The Review, April 6, 1999)

"She chose the geranium to be her personal battlefield flower" said City Councillor Janice Wing, a friend and fellow United Empire Loyalist. This was her memorial to "the boys" as she called them.

Ruth Redmond was always shy about being given credit for what she did, and never sought out publicity or honours, but was always gracious when they came her way. Generations of Canadians will know their history a little better because of the effort she put into assembling the lands for the battlefield memorial park. (The Review, April 7, 1999)

Redmond earned a bachelor of Arts degree in English and history from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, in 1923 and then graduated from teacher’s college in Toronto. She taught at two Eastern Ontario high schools before coming to Niagara Falls.

But the majority of her teaching career - from 1926-1967 - was spent at Stamford Collegiate.

Once she retired from teaching, gardening became nearly a full-time hobby, earning her 10 summer trillium awards, the City’s prize for outstanding horticultural displays. (The Review, April 6, 1999)

The "real stuff" includes a stone marker allegedly placed by the Americans to mark territory claimed before they were pushed back by Canadian forces. It’s tucked in one of the lovingly tended flower beds, amidst the shelter of 200-odd evergreens Redmond planted decades ago in her "Shangri-La". The Review, Aug. 27, 1994)

Redmond’s fight began in 1954 when she cashed in her Bell telephone shares and purchased her first home.

"I got the house and was so happy," said Redmond, a former teacher at Stamford Collegiate. "Maybe no one else would like the house, but I love it. This is the only place I could ever live."

With that acquisition Redmond began forming a mini-realm. Soon after, she purchased four nearby houses and a plot of land adjacent to her home. The purchase prevented the circa 1831 Fralick’s Inn from being razed to make way for a motel.

"If I could just live to be 200. I’m sure I could make people realize the importance of preserving where they come from." (The St. Catharines Standard, Nov. 30, 1995)

• Drummond Hill Cemetery
• The Battle of Lundy's Lane
• Site History