Lalor Estate

The Lalor Estate is named for its builder, Francis Ramsey Lalor, a prominent Dunnville businessman, politician, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. Lalor was born in 1855, in St. Catherines, Ontario and came to Dunnville three years later with his widowed mother. His many business interests included two dry goods stores, a grocery store, an apple evaporator, natural gas wells, the F.R. Lalor Canning Factories, the F.R. Lalor Ashes Company, and the Monarch Knitting Mills.

The original estate consisted of six lots, a carriage house, an ice house, and the current residence. In the 1940s, parts of three lots were severed along with the carriage and ice houses. The original dwelling, two-and-a-half-stories high, has remained mostly unaltered for almost 100 years. The wrap-around porch, with its fluted columns, and the four-gable roof, are of particular interest. The exterior walls are red brick with dark brick flourishes near the roofline. Inside the house are seven different and visually unique fireplaces. The formal dining room has wood paneled walls, adding a bit of elegance, along with the front main stairway and banister and the wooden archway and pillars at the front of the second floor hallway.