Dining History
Welcome to our house - and our traditional hospitality. This Victorian Gothic home was built in 1872, as the residence of the James Harris family for nearly a century. Today this house still stands proud and stately, though the generation of ownership by the Harris family has ceased.
The Harris family pioneered the cheese industry, then later added apple
orchards to its holdings and were involved in the apple export business.
A historical plaque located on the property commemorates Oxford County as the birthplace of the commercial cheese industry in Canada. In 1865 James Harris erected on this farm the first cheese factory in the Ingersoll district. To stimulate interest among foreign buyers, a group of Oxford's producers manufactured a gigantic cheese here in June 1866. Weighing 7300 pounds and measuring 21 feet in circumference, it was exhibited at the New York State Fair and in London, England.
In restoring the Elm Hurst Inn and Country Spa we have tried to capture the atmosphere reminiscent of that found in an upper class Victorian home in an Agrarian setting. We hope that the peace and traditional service will carry you back to Ontario's earlier less rushed days.