The Queen Hotel
An Old Postcard of the Queen Hotel in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia Now we will look at the story of the Queen Hotel which is located across the street from the Hillsdale House Inn. It is called the Queen Anne Inn now. Another one of the Foster sisters of Annapolis Royal married a Mr. Ritchie. Now Mr. Ritchie was expecting to inherit a large fortune from a relative in England. He decided that he wanted to outdo his sister-in-law with her “Hillsdale House” and purchased the land across the road. On this land in 1865 he built a mansion with 22 rooms in it. The floors in this mansion were made of walnut and ash. A grand staircase was built and a special door bell was made to order from Philadelphia. On the roof he had a fancy iron grill surrounding around it. He had a water tank installed in the basement with a force pump to supply the kitchen with water. On the third floor he installed another water tank to supply the bathrooms and bedrooms. Each room had a small marble basin that was set in a wooden box-like compartment. This made the Queen Hotel to be the first place in town with running water. Mr. Ritchie opened his house as a private boarding house and he obtained a job running the stage coach to Caledonia. This proved profitable for him as many of his guests took the stage coach to the Milford region where they would spend the time hunting and fishing. Soon an alliance was made with the Milford house to best serve both their guest. One big highlight of the Ritchie property was a large moose which he had stuffed and mounted on his front lawn. It was a novelty for many people to sit upon this big stuffed moose and have their picture taken. Later between 1897 and 1906 the mansion became a private boy’s school named St. Andrews School. The school was run by Mr. H.M. Bradford, M.A. Cambridge University. This made an ideal location for a school with it’s large grounds and a gymnasium. Mr. Bradford kept it small with only 25 pupils at a time. After the school closed down Clara Sabean, a girl who had left town years before, moved back. She had learned to swim in the Annapolis River and then moved away to became a champion swimmer, she won many awards in the United States. Clara returned in style and set out to buy the mansion she had always loved as a little girl.
She installed all the best in furniture and named her new place “The Old Orchard House”. She was ready for the tourist season, but the tourist season was not good that year and she found she did not make enough to pay the bills. One morning she called Chas. Dargie & Son’s store and told them to come pick up the furniture and then she was gone on the midnight train. After the big fire of 1921 that wiped out a third of the town Mr. W.C. McPherson purchased the property to replace his Queen Hotel that burned down in the fire. Mr. & Mrs. McPherson kept a first class hotel and after their deaths their daughter and her husband, Mr. & Mrs. W.D. Crosby took it over. They ran the hotel during the 1940’s & 50’s and it grew so much they bought the adjacent property and opened the Queen Hotel Annex. The building changed hands a few times after the hotel closed. Today it is called the Queen Anne Inn and it is again considered a fine place to stay.
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