Isaac Robinson was frustrated.
His farm on Big Bay Point was proving unrewarding. No matter how much he laboured, no matter what methods he employed, the fields simply didn’t provide any level of prosperity. Robinson saw much greater profit from taking in summer boarders seeking an escape from the heat and smog of the city than he did from agricultural pursuits.
Why not, he asked himself, go all in catering to vacationers? He’d open a summer resort.
That decision not only was a turning point in Robinson’s life but in Innisfil’s development as well as it began the transformation of the lakeshore into a summer vacation destination.
Robinson arrived at Big Bay Point in 1875 and purchased 70 hectares (150 acres) that had once belonged to Francis Hewson, Big Bay Point’s first settler. Though it had been cleared and cultivated five decades earlier, the land had long since gone back to nature. Robinson would have to start the farm anew.
Carving a farm from the forest was hard work, and prosperity was slow in coming. Taking advantage of his farm’s lakefront location, Robinson began taking in vacationers over the summer. They demanded little beyond warm food, a roof over their heads, and the solace of the natural environment.
As the years passed, Robinson grew increasingly frustrated with the bounty that came from his rock-strewn fields. Any profits he saw came from his boarders, and so he decided to expand his home and transform it into a summer resort — the first in Innisfil.
Robinson House, sometimes referred to as Robinson’s Grove or Robinson’s Park, was a two-storey hotel that could accommodate 50 guests at a time. The steamer Enterprise would deliver guests to his resort from the railway in Barrie, and Robinson even bought a steam launch of his own, the Conqueror, so he could offer scenic excursions.
“The ‘Point’ at present is a very attractive place, having splendid groves of butternut, beech, and maple,” wrote the Toronto Daily Globe on Aug. 31, 1885, “with delightful little clearances between and is much visited in the summer months by fishing and camping parties, who find it a most pleasant place to while away a few days or weeks during the heated term.”
The hotel was a success. Robinson began to enjoy his first measure of real comfort.
When Robinson died in 1893, the hotel was still thriving. People took note, and other vacation properties — ranging from opulent resorts like Big Bay Point Hotel to camping grounds and cabin communities — emerged to cater to the growing demand for summer escapism.
Robinson’s decision to open a hotel not only changed the direction of his life but of Innisfil’s development.
