Welcome to Willmotts General Store located in the Beaumaris area of Muskoka.
Proudly serving Beaumaris and the Muskoka area for 145 years.
Beaumaris is a small settlement in Ontario, Canada, on Lake Muskoka which once served as an important transit point during the steamship era on the lake, and once hosted a summer hotel, called the Beaumaris Hotel. The settlement is located on Tondern Island which, though a true island, is attached to the mainland by a small bridge at Milford Bay. Currently the settlement sports a government pier, The Beaumaris Marina, a general store named ‘Willmotts Store’ after a prominent Beaumaris family, Saint John's Anglican Church, and a private summer club; the Beaumaris Yacht Club.
In 1873 Maurice John McCarthy sold the island to Edward Prowse and John Harry Willmott for $1,560. The two divided the island in half with Willmott taking the northern and Prowse the southern half. The new owners named the settlement Beaumaris after the resort in Anglesey, Wales where they had vacationed.
Prowse settled in the big white house while Willmott built a log house next to the site of the present day Willmott store. They cleared part of the land for pasture, built a dock for the newly arrived steamships and connected the island to the mainland by a small log bridge.
As word of the excellent fishing, natural beauty, and an air completely free of ragweed providing relief for hay fever sufferers spread, tourists came to the area.
Willmott responded by building a general store in Beaumaris selling everything from foodstuffs to construction materials. Early tourists built camps around the lake, but were joined by others desiring better accommodations. The first wilderness hotel was built at the head of Lake Rosseau in 1870, called Rosseau House. It was owned by New Yorker W.H. Pratt.
Prowse saw success with his hotel due to Beaumaris' central location, approximately halfway between Bracebridge and Port Carling and the fine pier he had constructed near the hotel. Trains regularly made the run from Toronto to Gravenhurst where travelers and their luggage were transferred to the great steamers of the Muskoka Navigation Co such as the Sagamo. Making regular stops up the lakes, including Bracebridge, Beaumaris, and Port Carling, tourists there could transfer to smaller ships such as the Islander which could reach into smaller ports. Beaumaris became an important transfer point which brought business to the hotel and store. As the area developed it began to lose some of the wilderness qualities which initially led some of the early groups of campers to establish fishing camps in Beaumaris; Solid Comfort Camp and the Sharon Social Fishing Club. The Sharon Social Fishing Club was founded in 1891 by individuals living in Sharon, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. It is still in existence. Members of the Solid Comfort Camp departed for a more rustic site on the French River. Meanwhile, Willmott and Prowse mapped out lots which they intended to sell to vacationers seeking more permanent residence than the hotel.
Beaumaris Golf and Yacht Clubs
In 1911 a number of cottagers formed the Beaumaris Golf and Tennis Association which leased the tennis courts and 5 hole golf course from the hotel. The Association enlarged the golf course to 9 holes and in 1919 expanded it to today's 18 holes. They built a clubhouse on the golf course and invited cottager to join. Reflecting the heavily American presence in the area, in 1921 only 3 of the 48 members of the association were Canadian. The Beaumaris Yacht Club was started in 1912 by James Francis Burke and American congressman to foster sailing in the area and to provide what was considered to be a more wholesome environment for children than the hotel's activities offer. In 1921 the Yacht Club purchased its present location, the Gill's cottages called the Grumblenot.
