About Us
The Experience
The Queens Merritt Room isn't just about delicious food and cold beer, it's about giving you an experience that brings you back in time. Our pub has 132 year old tin ceilings, brick walls, and a wooden bar. Our dining room gives an old Victorian feel with a warm fireplace, an over 100 year old wall unit, and old photos of the building. There is history all over... if only walls could talk! By the way, if you like ghost stories, we've got lots of them. Stop in and we will chat!
Learn about the History
The Merritt Room is named after William Hamilton Merritt. Mr. Merritt projected and built the Welland Canal in the 1820's to bypass the mighty Lakes in one unbroken water highway of commerce. Before the building of the Welland Canal, all ships had to unload their cargoes at the mouth of the rapids-filled Niagara River for carriage overland along high slopes and have them reloaded into other vessels above and beyond the roaring falls - a cumbersome and costly procedure. But Merritt's canal, opened in 1829, provided a through shipping route across the heartlands of North America that would prove of almost incalculable value. In completing the Canal System the Feeder Canal was dug which started at the Grand River. It fed water to the Welland Canal System. It was at this time that Mr. Merritt spent time in Dunnville. He was very fond of Haldimand County. He took up politics and represented Haldimand County in the Upper Canada Assembly from 1832 to 1841. In this period he built the Queen's Hotel. The Queen's was built in 1837 and William Hamilton Merritt owned the hotel for 9 years.