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As we make our home at the Inn we endeavour to provide the utmost in personal attention and service. We want your stay to be a memorable occasion. Beild House is a leisurely stroll to downtown shopping and a convenient base close to all the many year-round attractions in the Collingwood area. Consider this your invitation to discover the delightful accommodation offered by Beild House Country Inn. The Bield 1909 – 1912, 64 Third Street Built on a corner lot across from Dr. Donald McKay’s modern version of a French chateau ~ The Bield represented an architectural point of view that was almost diametrically opposed to the prevailing school of thought. Only a few years earlier, in 1900, Dr. Joseph Robbins Arthur had chosen Philip C. Palin, the Collingwood architect who designed Dr. McKay’s house, to prepare plans for a residence-cum-office on Hurontario Street. This time, however, he selected Toronto’s Eden Smith. The architect of choice for Toronto's wealthy facilities in the early 1900s, the English-born Smith has been credited with single-handedly revolutionizing domestic architecture in Canada. Smith disliked the massive arches, ostentatious towers and fussy Victorian verandahs that characterized most of the large houses being built at the turn of the century. His pared-down designs, stripped of extraneous ornamentation, reflected his fondness for the comfortable country cottages of the old country and became known as the English Cottage style. Like the Eden Smith houses that give such distinctive character to Toronto's Wychwood Park and Forest Hill, The Beild incorporates many of the elements that were Eden Smith trademarks—steeply pitched roofs, tall chimneys and rows of casement windows For Eden Smith the Collingwood project could not have
been an easy one. Construction began in 1909, but was not completed
for another three years. According to Dr. Arthur’s daughter,
Bethia Elliot, Smith’s plan called for the construction of an unusual-looking red brick and shingle-sided structure supported by massive steel beams. In typical Eden Smith Style, the doctor’s consulting rooms and offices were relegated to the colder, noisier, north end of the building, while the family’s sunny living and dining rooms, trimmed in gumwood and warmed by simple, but elegant, back to back fireplaces, faced south to the garden. On the spacious attic floor was the billiard room and the children’s playroom where Bethia, her younger brother and their friends spent many happy hours swinging from a set of gymnastics rings. "Anyone who could swing high enough could write their initials on the ceiling," recalls Bethia. Reaching lofty heights was a specialty for members of Bethia's family. Her father, a respected physician who practiced into his eighties, served as Mayor of Collingwood in 1919 and again from 1923 to 1929. Bethia’s mother, Katherine, was a commissioner of the Girl Guides and Regent of the IODE. Her aunt, Margaret Rose ( Mrs. Margaret Watts), one of the first women to earn her MA from the University of Toronto, was awarded an M BE (Member of the British Empire) for her international work with the Women’s Institute. Katherine and Margaret (Madge) were the daughters of Henry Robertson, a pioneer lawyer who played an active part in Collingwood’s development and was well known in the Masonic Lodge. Robertson came to live with the Arthurs after he spent his considerable wealth on an extravagant trip around the world. A man of strong convictions, he believed he was destined to die in his sixtieth year. The trip was to be his Swan Song. To his great disappointment, however, he lived to be eighty-two. The spacious house where Henry Robertson spent the rest of his days has lived up to the name Dr. Arthur so carefully chose for it. Over the past seventy-eight years," The Bield"—Scots English for ‘the shelter"—has been the sight of many community gatherings, and, during the Depression, transcients who passed through the town could be sure of a hot meal and fresh clothes in Dr. Arthur’s office quarters. © Beild House Country Inn |
This
grand turn-of-the-century home was built for Dr. Joseph Arthur who
named it Beild House (a Scottish word for shelter). Each of the guest
rooms features its own unique decor, a gentle blending of antique
furnishings with modern amenities. Dr. Arthur's original office has
been refurbished into a comfortable 3 room suite. All rooms have either
king or queen size canopy beds and our deluxe rooms have fireplaces
and televisions. Our spacious living room, warmed by two fireplaces,
presents a wonderful opportunity to sample tempting hors d’oeuvres
and to relax after an enjoyable day’s activities.
whom was seven
when the family moved into their new home, construction was delayed
by an unexpected encounter with bedrock. Beneath the rich topsoil,
that had supported the market garden of former police chief Benjamin
F. Lewis, was limestone that had to be blasted to make trenches for
the water pipes.