Local authors and historians share stories about Kingsville’s people, places and past
By Deron Hamel – August 14, 2026
Southgate Village residents have been learning lots about the local area from authors and historians who have been visiting the Kingsville seniors living community recently as part of an ongoing program.
The series began with Bob Lynch, a historian and longtime Kingsville resident. He shared stories about the famed Lakeshore Tavern and his encounters with George the Ghost, a spirit that is said to have haunted Kingsville since the mid-19th century, explains Val Judas, Southgate Village’s fun co-ordinator.
Bob also shared stories of the Mettawas Hotel, which was built in 1889 by Hiram Walker, the American businessman who founded the Hiram Walker and Sons distillery in Windsor in 1858, and the benefits the hotel brought to the town.
The series continued with Carol Bell and Marcy Lane, authors who wrote “very different books,” Val says.
Carol had worked as a private investigator, a career she launched in her 40s, and told some “amazing stories” that included car chases and frightening run-ins with those she was pursuing through her casework.
Marcy, on the other hand, writes stories that are set in a small town, much like Kingsville.
“Suspense and intrigue are what she writes,” Val says.
Rosalind Knight, a local retired teacher and longtime Kingsville resident, was the latest author in the series to visit Southgate.
Her 2014 novel, That Summer at the Mettawas, begins with the clearing out of a family-owned cottage. The story retells visits to the cottage and summer days on the dock and in the lake at the beach up the road.
“(The story) then goes into the past as they find memories saved and tells a whole new story of the Mettawas Hotel and surrounding area with Hiram Walker and his friends,” Val explains.
Val says the best part of the series has been the way the authors and historians have brought local history to life for residents, particularly because many of the stories are connected to places they know well.
“Some of the stories we heard took place in our little corner of the world, literally on our street and on our property,” she says. “The Mettawas Hotel was across the street, one of Hiram Walker’s family cottages was on the land that Southgate sits on now, and the Lakeshore Tavern was just a short walk up the street.
“History is all around us,” she says.
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