The Journal · The Brantford Club

Langdon Hall vs The Brantford Club: Two Houses of 1898

Langdon Hall is a country house hotel at 1 Langdon Drive, Cambridge, with guest rooms upstairs and a dining room open daily, on land its founder bought in 1898. The Brantford Club is a club, private and members’ own, at 98 George Street, Brantford, whose dining rooms have served the same roll since 1898. One house is the night away. The other is the working week.

A good share of those who type Langdon Hall into a search want the hotel, so here it is: Langdon Hall Country House Hotel and Spa, 1 Langdon Drive, Cambridge, Ontario N3H 4R8, telephone 519-740-2100, with rooms booked by phone at 1-800-268-1898 and its Dining Room serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily, by its own site. Private dining there goes through its event sales office, which its contact page lists at 519-624-3211 for parties of eight or more. Some of the same searchers have a client lunch or a board dinner to place and want to know which house is the room for it. This entry answers that, and gives the anniversary weekend to Langdon Hall without argument.

Two Houses, by Their Own Histories

Langdon Hall’s story page dates its beginning to 1898, when Eugene Langdon Wilks bought twenty-nine acres at the corner of the Cruickston property. The house was drawn in the Federal Revival style, planned mostly for summer use, thirty-two rooms and more than 25,000 square feet, and finished by 1902, by the same page. William Bennett and Mary Beaton bought the property in 1987, and Langdon Hall Country House Hotel opened in 1989. The Brantford Club’s house is older than either date: an Italianate residence at 98 George Street, erected about 1855, predating the City of Brantford, and the residence of Dr. John Y. Bown. The Club was formed in May 1898, bought the Bown property for $4,500.00 per its centennial history, and opened its door on the last night of that year. The two houses share a year and little else. One was begun in 1898 as a summer house for a New York family. The other was bought in 1898 by five Brantford men who wanted a club with a table in it, and the house’s own biography carries the earlier chapters.

Is The Brantford Club a country house hotel?

No. The Brantford Club is a private members’ club in a town house, and nobody sleeps at 98 George Street. There are no guest rooms. What the house keeps is a set of dining rooms and private rooms for members and the guests they bring: the dining room, the Waterous Family Dining Room, the 98 George Room, and the Bateson Lounge, with a kitchen under executive chef Eric Wasylenky that runs from a working lunch to full evening service. Langdon Hall is the other kind of house. By its own site it is a Relais & Châteaux member with sixty guest rooms and suites, a Dining Room, Wilks Bar, a spa, and twelve kilometres of trails. A country house hotel sells the night. A members’ club keeps the table, and it has kept this one for the same roll since 1898.

The Night Away Belongs to Langdon Hall

An anniversary weekend, a tasting dinner, a birthday that deserves a room upstairs and a slow morning: these are Langdon Hall’s evenings, and The Brantford Club has no answer to them and does not pretend to. Its Dining Room serves dinner daily from five to nine and offers a tasting menu, by its own dining page, and the night ends upstairs. Its private dining rooms, by its celebrations page, are Colonel Langdon’s Room and Conservatory, once the original main dining room; the Orchard Room and Terrace; the Firshade Room with the Hall and the Summer House beside it; and the Carolinian Room. Room rental fees apply, and the enquiry goes to its event sales office. A wedding belongs there as well, since Langdon Hall keeps two wedding venues as its own pages have it, and that settles the wedding question for this entry. Its directions page puts Brantford at thirty minutes up Highway 24, which is an evening’s outing, and a good one.

The Working Week at 98 George Street

The Brantford Club’s case is Tuesday. A client lunch that has to end by two so everyone is back at a desk. A board dinner on a Thursday with the minutes to get through before the main course. A table kept for the same six people every month, which is the oldest thing a members’ club sells and the one thing a hotel cannot. Private dining at The Brantford Club takes one of the house’s own rooms, with the menu settled with the kitchen beforehand, no walk-through traffic, and no second seating waiting for the table. The booking starts with three things, the occasion, a preferred date, and roughly how many chairs, sent by email or phone, and someone at the house writes back and explains. A member brings guests into the rooms at their side; that is how the house has run since 1898.

Langdon Hall vs The Brantford Club on Eight Counts

Langdon Hall vs The Brantford Club is a comparison of a country house hotel and a private members’ club, and the table below sets the two houses out on the eight points a host asks about first.

The Dress and the Menu at Either Table

Langdon Hall encourages smart attire in its Dining Room, by its own dining page, and its menus change with the season, French in style and drawn from local and on-site ingredients, by the answers on its meetings page. The Brantford Club publishes a shorter code than the reputation of private clubs suggests: casual in the pub, and smart casual in the dining room, where collarless t-shirts, shorts, ripped jeans, and hats are not permitted, with the longer answer in the Journal’s entry on the dress code. The Club’s signature is the Churchill Pork Chops, named for the guest who signed the Register on January 3, 1901. The seasonal menu shows what Chef Eric Wasylenky is serving now; for a private table the courses are chosen ahead and the kitchen is told the party’s needs before the first plate is set.

Asked most often

Sources: Langdon Hall’s own story page, celebrations and private dining page, meetings page, dining page, and contact page; The Brantford Club’s private dining and menu pages; the Club’s centennial history for the purchase and the Register. The rooms that dine, and what the renovations found in their walls, are in the entry on the rooms at 98 George Street. The house has been set beside thirty rooms and rolls; the register keeps the list.