Victor Snow has obtained what he views as a favourable estimate for costs of moving the Stanton Hotel to the county museum, and appears optimistic that such a move could happen at no cost to taxpayers.

In a phone interview Monday, Mr. Snow said he provided two movers with details of the hotel’s structure. One of them estimated a cost of $20,000. He said knowledge of the hotel’s interior, including photos, is well enough documented that its integrity would be preserved.

But that was only half of the good news. The other half is that it appears donors would be readily available to cover the cost.

Mr. Snow said he discussed the move with a person who asked to remain anonymous. “He said he couldn’t offer the whole $20,000, but that he would donate (a substantial amount) toward the cost,” Mr. Snow said.

Mr. Snow, a heritage advocate and consultant, is teaming with Carl Tafel, chairman of Mulmur’s Heritage Committee, in efforts not only to preserve but also, or so it would appear, to emphasize the importance of the settlement of Stanton to the early history of the township.

Hotels – of which Mulmur had nine in the 1860s – might have been the most important structures in the years when they were needed by settlers as “stopping places” as they traversed long distances over rugged terrain on their way to carve their homesteads out of the wilderness beyond.

But by 1870, Stanton had a population of 100; the site of Mulmur’s first school; a post office; divisional courthouse; at least two stores; three blacksmiths; and an Orange Lodge along with its two hotels.

But history and a community’s heritage aren’t entirely made up of architecture. The people who created the communities are of equal importance. Hence Mr. Snow delved into their lives.

The first two families in Stanton, dating from about 1820, were the Walkers and the Hands. The settlement might, therefore been named either Walkerville or Handville, but the issue was settled by a judge who chose the name Stanton.

Of the first families, Win Hand became what Mr. Snow believes would have been the most colourful character in the history of Dufferin County.

That takes us to 8 Parson Street in Orangeville, a house built for Win Hand between July 24 and Nov. 8, 1876, at a cost of exactly $95.59. The house is now the home of Dave Apple, whom Mr. Snow and Mr. Tafel credit with much of the research into Win Hand’s sojourn as an auctioneer, businessman, constable, bailiff and hotel keeper, among other things.

The house, says Mr. Snow, is also of heritage value because it is of “salt box” design – unusual for this area but not as rare as the authentically Georgian architecture of the Stanton hotel, which is doubly of historical value because it is possibly one of only two in all of Ontario built into a bank, and is of post and beam construction.

Much of the information about early history, the buildings and the people, was derived from a 1951 Elmer Reid book, Mulmur, the Story of a Township, plus a 1978 John E. Marshall one, 50 Years of Rural Life in Dufferin County.

“Stanton once was a thriving pioneer village in Mulmur but little of it remains in an active sense. This old hotel is a reminder of what the community once was, having been a busy place indeed,” wrote Mr. Marshall under a photo of the hotel.

Whether or not the hotel will be preserved by moving it to the museum has yet to be determined. But Dufferin Public Works Committee recently expressed no opposition to such a move.

That, when coupled with Mr. Snow’s optimism for donor funding along with the township’s heritage designation, might tend to suggest the move.