143 Metcalfe Street

I've been standing at this corner since 1865, which has given me plenty of time to change my mind about what I want to be. I began as the Dalby House, one of Elora's major hotels.

In those days, a hotel could be much more than a place to spend the night. Robert Dalby also operated stagecoach routes from here, connecting Elora with Guelph, Fergus, and communities farther north and west. Across Geddes Street stood my stone stable, where horses, coaches, and travellers came and went. I was part accommodation, part transportation hub, part meeting place, and part business centre. And man, was I busy!

Over the years, spaces within my walls have been used for a remarkable variety of purposes. I've housed a hardware store, barber shop, offices, photography studio, medical services, shops, and homes. For a time, my upper floors contained apartments with retail space below. More recently, I've returned to accommodation use, bringing one of my earliest functions back into the building.

In planning, you'll sometimes hear the term adaptive reuse. It describes giving an existing building a new purpose while continuing to use the building itself. That can be especially valuable in an established downtown. Reusing a building can conserve materials and embodied energy, maintain the shape and character of a streetscape, and allow a property to respond to new economic and community needs without starting again from an empty lot.

My unusual shape has helped make me recognizable for generations. Look at the narrow point where Geddes and Metcalfe meet. The building follows the geometry of the streets around it rather than sitting on a conventional rectangular footprint. This triangularly shaped building is typically called a “Flatiron Building”.

And those streets have changed around me too. When I opened, coaches pulled up outside. Today, people arrive on foot, by bicycle, and by car. Businesses have come and gone. The way people use downtown Elora has changed many times, and I've changed with it.

Our next stop has been adapting for quite some time as well, although its story began with classrooms rather than hotel rooms. Continue south along Geddes Street, then follow Church Street and turn south onto Melville Street. You'll know you've arrived when you see the large limestone building at 75 Melville Street.