Almonte in 1860

When Almonte’s first doctor arrived in the town, he was presented with a rapidly growing community with new businesses arriving all the time. The town was not formally incorporated until 1880 but that did not stop swarths of business men from arriving and building the essential businesses for the community. By 1860 the town boasted a hotel, a photography studio, a barber, general stores, a shoe maker, even a brewer, and of course the Brockville-Ottawa Canadian Pacific Railway line arrived in 1859, further accelerating the development. Dozens of mills and factories operated along the Mississippi River, and stone churches and a school were being built.