Eccleston Grove: Honouring the family that helped build Grand Bend
- May 6
- 6 min read
By Ed Fluter
A proposal is underway to rename Plan 24 as Eccleston Grove, honouring the Eccleston family’s longstanding contributions to Grand Bend.
The Eccleston family, who were grocers from London and who originally spent their summers in Grand Bend, made significant contributions to the community during the early to mid 1900s, yet their efforts and accomplishments have received little permanent recognition.
In the summer of 1917, George and Ida Eccleston purchased 45 acres of scrub land in Grand Bend for $9,100. The land, bordered approximately by Oakwood, Highway 21, Main Street and the North Beach, included what is known as Huron Vista—the large cinder block building at the end of Huron Street.
At that time, the area was little more than sand dunes, small trees, grass and shrubs, with only one structure present, Oak Lodge, a two-story building with an upstairs balcony, and located beside the Huron Street parking lot.
The area next to Oak Lodge became a favoured park and picnic spot called Eccleston Grove, hosting numerous gatherings including the annual Detroit Ford Company picnic.
In 1917, motivated by their entrepreneurial spirit and fondness for Grand Bend, George and Ida built a dance hall on the North Beach at the end of Main Street.
With a wooden roof, open sides and a wooden dance floor running parallel to the water’s edge, the venue debuted on July 29, 1917, with what would become the Guy Lombardo Orchestra. Since this was the first paid gig for the group, then called “the London Italian Orchestra,” they were thrilled to receive $10 for their efforts.
Sadly, harsh winter storms from Lake Huron destroyed the dance hall after just two seasons.
Undeterred, in 1919, the Ecclestons constructed a sturdier more permanent building, the renowned Lakeview Casino at the end of Main Street which even had a bowling alley attached, a baseball field behind and which served as a lively hub of entertainment and public service for Grand Bend for the next fifty years.
The Ecclestons donated use of the casino to the Catholic church for mass services for several years, and it was used as a venue for many community fundraisers.
During this period, Ida and her sister-in-law made and rented bathing suits each summer constructed of stockings, bloomers, tops and hats fashioned out of sugar bags, while George focused on building streets and sidewalks.
In the process, George paved Main Street at his own expense, which until then was a dirt road, and which he eventually turned over to the municipality.
Their adopted daughter Ella spent her summers in Grand Bend and winters in Toronto, where she met Eric Mcllroy, a successful buyer for the T. Eaton Co. They married in 1932, a year after her father’s passing, and they took over managing the casino from Ida in 1937.
In 1924 while running the casino, George and Ida also developed a subdivision of about 400 lots on their land, named Plan 24 — a generic title that has identified the area for over a hundred years.
For a time, Plan 24 was less favorably known as “The Jungle” due to the wild parties hosted in rental cottages, especially over long holiday weekends.
The excessive rowdyism in Plan 24 and other parts of Grand Bend continued until the early 1990s when the council of the day instituted some very strict bylaws and enforced them with rigour.
Yours truly was on council at that time, and I maintain that we helped (along with changing demographics) to curb much of the unruly culture that plagued Grand Bend for many years.
From the start, Eric Mcllroy, Ella’s husband, showed considerable interest and dedication to the village he’d joined. He was the first Lions Club president, became a member of the first Grand Bend council in 1951, helped form a Grand Bend promotion committee, was the first president of the chamber of commerce, was a charter member of the South Huron Hospital board, was made a life member of the Bluewater Shriners and was a charter member and director of the Ontario Harness Association. With regard to this latter interest, he purchased Merrywood Farm, owned today by Peter Warner, where he built a track to train his horses.
Eric’s contributions to the village were so great and so well appreciated that the village hosted an Eric McIllroy Day on June 6, 1981, and awarded him a Plaque and Cairn placed at the corner of Highways 21 and 81, presented in a ceremony by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.
After George Eccleston’s death in 1931, Ida had the momentous task of managing the business, so she sold it to Eric and Ella.
The Mcllroys then ran the Casino from 1937 to 1966 during the height of the big band era, when dances filled the casino every night featuring many famous entertainers of the time including Louis Armstrong, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Les Brown among the favorites.
In an article in the Holiday Newspaper in 1965 entitled “Eccleston Grove 1836 to 1965,” Dr. Judith Brigham, a very influential resident in the community at the time and owner of Oak Lodge, wrote the following: “The fine stores and high standards of the Lakeview Casino Dance Hall are a tribute to the knowledge, experience, planning and foresight of the Ecclestons, and provided a solid foundation for the future of Grand Bend.”
At the same time, they continued to build, rent, maintain and sell summer cottages and the community was “conscious of the transformation they wrought as bush — covered, wind-swept hilly sand dunes became well built, landscaped summer residences.”
Photos at the time show the wild and wind-swept nature of the environment that the Ecclestons had to endure.
In 1966, Ella and Eric sold the casino to a company from Windsor, and attempts at a revival to the “great old days” never succeeded. Subsequently, the casino catered to a younger rock clientele and in its latter years sat dormant until a fire burned it to the ground on July 1, 1981. Rumours still abound that it was arson that led to its demise. An Advocate newspaper article at the time affirmed this with the first line in the article reading “Arson had not been ruled out.”
During this time, the Ecclestons continued to develop Plan 24, beginning at Queen Street, behind what is now Tim Hortons, and working toward the lake. The story goes that as they progressed toward the lake, they sold the next line of properties as “lakefront” until they got to last streets before the beach.
To prevent another street from going up in front of them along the North Beach, which had allegedly been considered, the beachfront owners demanded unimpeded easements to and from the waters edge in their deeds. Thirteen properties along the North Beach still have these easements in their deeds today.
The Eccleston’s greatest gift of all to Grand Bend, however, was the North Beach which they owned, and which Ella donated to the village in 1981.
In order to protect the covenant, Ella included the following, that “no commercial enterprise of any kind whatsoever shall be constructed on the lands hereby conveyed nor shall there be any further subdivision thereof and that no erection, building or obstruction of any kind whatsoever shall be erected, built and placed upon the said strip of land.”
Ella wisely wanted to ensure that that the North Beach remain a public beach.
Because of the many years of joyful entertainment that the Ecclestons brought to the community with their Lakeview Casino, their development of Plan 24 from a deserted wasteland to a thriving subdivision of popular summer cottages (more recently permanent homes) and for their generous donation of the North Beach to the community, along with a multitude of other contributions, it is proposed that the Ecclestons be permanently recognized by the renaming of Plan 24 to “Eccleston Grove,” and by the placement of a memento in a prominent location with an appropriate accompanying ceremony.
Next steps include:
- educating the public with the history of Eccleston family and their considerable contributions to the community
- a survey of residents “to get a buy in” by the community, especially in Plan 24
- a presentation to council
- use of the new name in municipal and planning department correspondence and documentation
- design a permanent memento, establish a location, acquire funds install the memento and organize an appropriate dedication ceremony.
It is important to remember that history not recorded is history lost.
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