Former Town of Mount Forest

Dr. A.R. Perry purchased the home of Alex Martin on the corner of Dublin and Princess Streets and established Strathcona Hospital, a 10-bed private hospital. In 1923, a group of citizens headed by G.L. Allen, changed Strathcona Hospital into a public hospital. Wentworth Marshall, a pharmacist, generously bought the hospital from Perry. Marshall’s mother, Louise, was the supervisor at the hospital until she became ill with cancer. It was closed in 1921, but a year later was reopened under a new name, Mount Forest General Hospital. In 1928, the Deed of the Hospital was turned over to the town and the name was changed yet again to Louise Marshall Hospital in honour of Marshall’s mother.

In 1909, a public vote established the need for a free library. Andrew Carnegie, a well-known philanthropist, approved a grant of $10,000 and in 1912 Mrs. Luxton donated the site on east side of Main Street, in memory of her father. The new library was officially opened in December 1913.

The Mount Forest Carriage Factory was established in 1903 near the CPR Station by the Steeles, two brothers from Palmerston, and employed about 70 people. They manufactured buggies, carriages and cutters and shipped them throughout western Ontario. The Steeles' fine houses on Dublin and Waterloo Streets held many parties and they had one of the first radios in town. The factory closed when the automobile replaced the horse-drawn carriage. The building later held the Mount Forest Basket Factory.