Old Stone Mill, Delta, Ontario

Old Town Hall, Delta, Ontario

This is a mix of historic and modern photos of the Old Town Hall in Delta, Ontario.

It was built in 1879/80 as municipal offices and a courtroom on the 1st floor with the 2nd floor leased to a Masonic Lodge (Harmony Lodge #370).

The bricks for construction were locally made at the Jasper Russell Brickyard. Russell charged 4 cents per 1,000 bricks.

In the early 1900s, a side expansion was added for municipal office and police services with a jail in the basement. Hall use was split between concert hall uses (plays, musical performances, etc.), municipal meetings and division court trials.

In the 1960s a washroom and kitchen area was added. In 1979, the municipality and lodge vacated the building.

It was then used for a time by the Delta Lion’s Club who repurposed the hall as a general community hall. They relenequished their lease in early 1985.

Shortly after the Lion's vacated, the Delta Mill Society started to use the building. In 1994, the DMS purchased the building from the Municipality of Bastard and South Burgess.

From 1999 to 2011 it housed the DMS's Museum of Industrial Technology.

In 2012 the DMS conducted extensive renovations, including adding a lift, accessible washrooms, a commercial kitchen and rehabilitating the hall in order to restore the building to one of its original uses, that of a community hall.

Today it houses the DMS office with the upper floor hosting much of our artefact collections.
The DMS operates the hall as a community hall for Delta and also makes its washrooms available to the public when the Old Stone Mill is open.

Click on any photo to see a larger version

$Old Town Hall c.1900\n\nThe date is unclear, the left side addition doesn't appear on the 1897 insurance map of Delta, it was a later addition. The tree on the right appears to be a similar size to a photo dated to the early 1900s.\n\nThe stain on the left side, present to this day, is creosote, likely from liquid creosote wicking through unlined, porous brickwork due to a combination of burning wet wood and a deteriorating internal mortar lining of the chimney.\n\nThe logs in the front are destined for the sawmill that was attached to the Old Stone Mill.\n\nThe reason for the men, several in uniform, is unclear.$	$Old Town Hall, c. early 1900s\n\nThe Old Town Hall, built in 1879/80, had municipal offices and a courthouse on the lower floor and a Masonic Lodge on the upper floor. The brick side addition was built sometime after 1897 to make more room for the municipal offices as well as hosting the police services. A jail was also created below this addition.$	$Who let a cat walk over the wet bricks?\n\nWhen the bricks were drying in the Jasper Russell brickyard in 1879, a cat walked over several of them. The evidence of that can still be seen today in the front bricks of the Old Town Hall.\n\nSee our Old Town History brochure for information about this as well as the fire of 1888 that almost destroyed the building.$	$Cast of Annual New Years' Day amateur play in the Old Town Hall, c. early1900s. \n\nLeft to right, back row: George Godkin, Bill Percival, Mattie Percival, Isaac Stevens, Brayton Bresee, Ruby Stevens, Sam Waley, Mrs Sam Whaley, William Birch, Tommy Collister, Jerb Suffle, Bill Morris, Ed Barlow.\n\nFront Row (l to r): Margaret Barlow, Dr. Kreegan, Harry Knox (a commercial salesman from Iroquois, Ontario who was commandeered to participate because he could play the banjo).$
			$Aerial View of Delta in the late 1980s\n\nHastings Steele's house suffered a fire on March 5, 1996 and had to be demolished.\n\nThe Russell Store was allowed to deteriorate and was demolished by the Township of Rideau Lakes in 2019.\n\nThe Confederated Foods Complex (Maple Syrup Factory) was allowed to deteriorate and was demolished by the Township of Rideau Lakes in 2025\n\nThe Old Stone Mill, Old Town Hall and Blacksmith Shop are all owned by the Delta Mill Society and remain standing.$
$Delta Maple Syrup Festival, c.early 1980s\n\nThe Delta Maple Syrup Festival started in 1967. During the event at the time of this photo, the Old Town Hall was the "Pancake Hub", serving pancakes on both floors of the building.\n\nThe building next door was built by Confederated Foods of Canada in the early 1940s. A primary brand and subsidiary of the company was United Maple Products as seen on the sign in this photo. \n\nDuring Maple Syrup Festival the United Maple Products building was open for tours to show how maple syrup was made as well as see one of it's major products, 60 pound blocks of maple sugar that were exported to Europe where they were used to sugar cure pipe tobacco.\n\nThe company ceased operation in the late 1980s and the building was eventually left derelict and had to be torn down in 2025.\n\nIn 1999, the pancake breakfasts out outgrew the Old Town Hall and were moved to Delta Agricultural Hall. The event continues to be a village wide event with vendors and other activities throughout the village. This includes the Delta Mill Society's annual used book sale which can create lineups such as seen in this photo.$	$Old Town Hall c.1985.\n\nWe date this photo to about 1985 due to the car parked in front of the building (see below). Also, the sign "Delta Community Hall" was put up by the Delta Lion's Club who leased the building from the Township of Bastard and South Burgess from about 1979/80 until early 1985 when they relinquished their lease. \n\nThe car is a 1983-1986 Ford Thunderbird, which, together with the Delta Community Hall signs dates the photo to the mid to late 1980s.$		$Museum of Industrial Technology in 2008\n\nDuring the restoration of the Old Stone Mill from 1999 to 2003, exhibits from the mill were on display in the Old Town Hall.\n\nWhen the mill re-opened to the public in 2004, the Old Town Hall remained open as a museum, rebranded as the Museum of Industrial Technology.\n\nThe DMS had to close that in 2011, there was insufficient funding and resources to keep both the Old Stone Mill and Old Town Hall open for a full summer season.$
$Old Town Hall and Maple Syrup Factory\n\nA view of the Old Town Hall and Confederated Foods Maple Syrup Factory. \n\nThe Maple Syrup Factory at this point had been abandoned for many years. Due its derelict condition, it was declared a public danger and demolished by the Township of Rideau Lakes in 2025.$			$Old Town Hall, December 2025\n\nThe demolition of the Maple Syrup Factory by the Township of Rideau Lakes (contracted to Fast Eddie) is ongoing.\n\nYou can see some of the damage caused by the attachment of the Maple Syrup Factory to the Old Town Hall.\n\nOnce the demolition is complete and the Old Town Hall is repaired, it will again stand as a feature heritage building in Delta (see first photos in this series).$
	$Old Town Hall, December 2025\n\nThe iconic front door of the Old Town Hall.$	$Old Town Hall Fundraising in 2011\n\nAfter the DMS closed the Museum of Industrial Technology in 2011, attention turned to restoring part of the building back to its original use, that of a community hall.\n\nIn 2012, with the help of an Ontario Trillum Grant, the DMS spent $104,000 (145,000 in 2025$) renovating the Old Town Hall.$	$Old Town Hall - Main Hall in 2013\n\nThe "Concert Hall" was built with a sloping floor so that people in the rear could see over the heads of those in front.\n\nThis shows the gleaming floor and sparkling ceiling of the newly (2012) renovated hall.$
			$Books and Treats in 2013\n\nWhat is now our "Ginormous" Used Book Sale (see next slide) had a modest start in the early 2010s.$
$The "Ginormous" Used Book Sale \n\nThis is an annual fundraiser by the Delta Mill Society and the Rideau Lakes Public Library held during Delta's Maple Syrup Festival. Proceeds are split 50:50 between the DMS and the RLPL.$		$An Old Fashioned Picnic - Canada Day 2017\n\nAll sorts of period activites were held including sack races.$	$Christmas Concert - 2022\n\nWe host many concerts, including a Christmas Concert with local musicians such as the Mensen Family.$


$Celebrating the Season\n\nWe had the Old Town Hall open with hot chocolate and children's activities such as gingerbread decorating when Celebating the Season (lights in Lower Beverley Lake Park) was held.$

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