The listing for sale of the Montreal House in Chatham has a number of area residents talking about the building's history and speculating on its future.
Local history buff Jim Gilbert says the popular watering hole got its start in as a roadside inn for travelers.
"It goes back to the 1880s or 1890s and of course where it was situated was then a major thoroughfare, travelers either by horse or horse and wagon would stop there," he says. Gilbert added its family atmosphere and popularity as a neighbourhood pub kept it popular. "Ball teams, hockey teams, soccer teams still go there after they get done playing, in fact, I go their every Monday night in hockey season with the guys I play hockey with."
He says a lot of people remember the separate entrances that all pubs had because of segregated liquor laws beginning in 1937 that kept men and woman in different rooms. That law didn't change until the late 1970s.
