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E.B. Sutton, who opened the Swastika Hotel in 1910.

E.B. Sutton, who opened the Swastika Hotel in 1910.

The Bala Bay Inn was built in 1910 by E.B. Sutton and opened July 17th 1910. The hotel has been a symbol of Bala’s rich history and continues to leave its mark.

Sutton, born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, on Nov. 8, 1854, died in Bala at 63. In his short lifetime, he managed to live several lives — as a businessman, writer, musician, composer, environmentalist, and non-stop promoter of Bala and Muskoka. Sutton got his middle name from a famous relative, poet Robert Browning, who died in 1889, seven years after the younger relative left for Canada.

Fred and Lillian Sutton ran Muskoka’s first brick summer hotel between 1910 and the early 1940s

Fred and Lillian Sutton ran Muskoka’s first brick summer hotel between 1910 and the early 1940s

Sutton, who left school in his early teens to work for a book publishing company in London, England, corresponded with author, Charles Dickens, until Dickens died in 1870.

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