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The Grand Hotel
1920
Bear River, Digby County, Nova Scotia

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A store on the corner, owned by Mr. Edward Rice, was sold to Wilfred Chute. When remodelling was done and an addition built on, it was named the Grand Central Hotel. Sample rooms provided travelling salemen places to show their wares. Mrs. Chute's father, Captain Joseph Rawding, a former sea captain, made his home at the hotel for twelve years.

At ten minutes to twelve, the lights dimmed a warning, as at midnight Derby Jack and later Levi Peck turned lights off at the Power House. In the winter they were turned on at 5:00am. It was necessary to use kerosene lamps at times.

Above information taken from Digby Courier - December 10, 1981

The Grand Hotel, located in Bear River, still stands today as a link to Bear River's booming past, more than a half a century ago. Travellers often filled the Grand's twenty bedrooms when the town buzzed with activities from the wharves. By 1923, the Grand Central Hotel was turned into three apartments, with several businesses operating on the ground floor. Today the Grand stands unoccupied and insignificant in today's quite little community.