Manoir Hovey, one of Canada's Finest Inns
A Romantic, Turn-of-the-Century Inn in Quebec's Eastern Townships
Aug 28, 2009
“What I like best about this place is it can be completely full and it’s never noisy. In fact, you often won’t even see anyone else,” says Stephen Stafford, innkeeper and owner of Manoir Hovey. North American Inns magazine, which named it a Top 10 Favorite, has called it “One of Canada’s most charming and romantic turn-of-the-century inns offering lakeside seclusion, affordable luxury and haute cuisine."
Four Season Activities in North Hatley, Quebec
Located in the sleepy berg of North Hatley, in Quebec’s picturesque Eastern townships (about an hour southeast of Montreal), the inn lives up to its reputation. Couples sun themselves on Adirondack chairs, the air is infused with rose and lily scents from the magnificent garden. Lake Massawippi sparkles through many of the 40-guestroom windows. As night draws near and the temperature dips, fireplaces are lit throughout the inn. There are 26 in total, either wood burning or propane, in the rooms and in the shared areas. A 10,000 brick number governs the carriage house tap room and another large hearth glows in the cozy library. “The reason there are so many fireplaces is because the original building wasn’t heated,” explains Stafford.
This is an inn for all seasons. Lake activities like canoeing, paddle boating, kayaking and windsurfing are offered to guest free of charge, not to mention swimming at two beaches and fly fishing right on the property. Tennis and a heated outdoor pool are also on the property, while golf and horseback riding is nearby. Bikes are available for summer and fall cycles on the nearby rail to trail path and in winter cross-country skiing can be done on site, or downhill options include Montjoy, Bromont, Sutton and Owl’s Head, all an easy drive away.
North Hatley history
Manoir Hovey was built in 1900 by Henry Atkinson as a summer home. He named it The Birches. The owner of Georgia Power in Atlanta, Atkinson had the home designed after George Washington’s Mount Vernon, in Virginia. In those days, the estate even boasted its own 9-hole golf course (long since gone). At the time, North Hatley was a hot destination for Americans, southerners in particular, who came up to sail and summer and avoid their former stomping grounds in Yankee haunts like New England. They instilled a unique turn-of-the-century, Guilded Age charm. Large summer houses were built, and entertaining with the help of a flock of servants was the norm. Even today, a few families still keep the connection.
After Atkinson’s son,was killed in the second world war, the family stopped coming to North Hatley. At its peak, at the turn of the century, the village boasted a population of 3,000.
In 1950 it was converted into a inn by Robert F. Brown and renamed Hovey Manor, after early loyalist Capt. Ebenezer Hovey, who owned a large tract of land directly across the lake (he was one of the early settlers, left New England after 1785).
Stafford acquired the inn in 1979, and his family pedigree is deep. His parents bought the nearby Ripplecove Inn in Ayer’s Cliff in 1946 and Stephen grew up an innkeeper’s son, along with his brother Jeffery. Stephen took over Ripplecove from his parents, then sold it to his brother and bought Hovey.
“It’s not so much a business as an attachment. I’m the custodian of history,” he explains.
Eastern Township Inn
Manoir Hovey is an Eastern Township treasure that offers luxury, fine dining and a portal to the past.
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