Hope’s Restaurant and Tourist Home in the 1930s
In 1930, Edward Hope bought the Stevenson (also known as Stephenson) house and added nine rooms to it in order to make it a nineteen room tourist home. This is the same property as the Imperial Bank was originally located on. He also ran a restaurant and gas station. His son Earl and Earl's wife Dorothy took over the business in 1939. In 1947, they built an addition to the restaurant and remodelled the exterior of the building.
People who remember the restaurant always remark on the great food, especially seafood and most people remember the two-headed fish that hung on the wall. The restaurant closed in 1972.
In 1973, Ray Keighan and his family bought the restaurant and named it R-Place. That restaurant was in business until 1975. Hope's property, and the adjacent land was bought by developers who built the Thorold Stone Mall. The land where Hope's Restaurant stood was "shaved down" to create a right hand turning lane from Thorold Stone Road to access Portage Road.
Hope’s Restaurant, 1972
Tim Horton’s – former location of Hope’s Restaurant (although Hope’s was more to the forefront), 1999