The History of the Owners of the Hotel
From the Bradford House to the Arlington Hotel
Mr. O.B. Bradford built the hotel in the early
1850's.
Originally from Pennsylvania, he came to Paris and made his living by farming. Mr. Bradford managed to amass a considerable fortune by owning and operating the hotel before he passed away in May of 1882.
Mr. Ealand, the second owner of the hotel, added a large
extension, and had the intent to operate a spa with the sulfur spring waters available in the area. But after a short time the water turned brown due to the rust in the lead pipes. Mr.Ealand, however, was still successful in the hotel business until his death in 1901.
Mr. Cornish then leased the hotel from 1901 to 1925 until the last surviving Ealand family member took over the operation of the hotel. Ms Eva Ealand owned and operated the hotel until she passed away in 1956. At this time Ms. Ealand's nephew, Herbert Ealand, operated the hotel until 1962.
Herbert Ealand sold the building to Wm .J. Ferguson who had frequented the hotel as a patron. Mr. Ferguson was a very active man in Paris. He successfully ran for council, and also made some minor improvements to the hotel before selling out to Mr. George Looker and Mr. Art McGill of Toronto in 1967.
Mr. Looker and Mr. McGill sold in 1967 after very short ownership to Bob and Rae Anderson. The two men ran the hotel from 1969 to 1972, ultimately selling the hotel to a Mr. Michael Perdue. Mr. Perdue carried on running the hotel until he became ill in the fall of 1983 at which time he closed the hotel and put it up for sale. The hotel was sold two days before Mr. Perdue passed away--ownership of
the hotel went to Mr. Adrian Parker.
Mr. Parker didn't make use of the upper floors. He did, however, do some renovations to try and re-open the bottom floor. He ultimately sold to a
Brantford businessman, Athanasios Sotiriow, who in turn sold the hotel to Mr. & Mrs. Joe Skupnik and his brother, John Skupnik, in the fall of 1988.
John & Joe began renovations in November 1998. The hotel was completely gutted and started from scratch, a project which took one year and six months to complete.
Paris now has a "brand new", 150 year old antique, a building which the town is extremely proud of.
TEN YEARS IN THE MAKING...
WELL WORTH THE WAIT!
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