l’urt ofIIie original Willow Hotel (now the Irvine ofTherin and Shirley Ellis).

Compared to today’s standards, the Willow Hotel was a large house; it contained two parlours, a smoker room, a dining room, a kitchen and several large bedrooms. The guests gathered for their evening entertainment in the smoker room. It was in this room where the men enjoyed their evening smoke, played cards, and dis- cussed the events of the day. Home cooked meals were served at the Willow Hotel.

This hotel was eventually bought by Edward Gorrill who came from Northam. Many of the guests at the hotel were commercial travellers and needed only overnight lodging. At this time, O’Leary was the centre of business and trade for the West Prince area and travellers found it a convenient stop over from which they could continue next day to various other centres such as Alberton and 'l‘ignish.

In the beginning the guests of Edward Gorrill‘s hotel would get off the train, leave their baggage in a storage room at the station, and walk across the fields to the hotel; but, as business began to prosper, Mr. Gorrill began to meet his guests at the train and transport them by horse and carriage or sleigh to their place of lodging.

The hotel has since been divided to provide two homes. One part on the original site on Barclay Road is owned by Thiren and Shirley

4‘)