In 1954, dynamite blew open the coffer dams that had held back part of the St. Lawrence River while construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway was underway. The St. Lawrence Seaway project provided better canal access for ocean-going vessels and provided greater hydro electric supplies for the region. The project also submerged a number of riverside villages now referred to as the “Lost Villages”. Before that blast, though, many of the homes affected by the Seaway development were moved to new locations. Once such building, moved during the Seaway Project, now resides in the Upper Canada Village as the Robertson House where it represents an example of a middle-class home of the 1860’s.
 
Every village needs a General Store and in Upper Canada Village that position goes to the Crysler’s Store, a building which was modified after being moved onto the Village property.
Feeding the masses would require food processing operations such as a bakery would provide so, in 1962, the Upper Canada Village got a bakery of its own to provide a couple of hundred loaves a day for sale to the visiting public and for use in the Willard Hotel. The bakery features a wood-fired brick oven which would be a common commercial bakery oven style in the 1860’s.
At the on-site Willard’s Hotel, visitors can enjoy a meal that would be typical of a mid-19th Century eatery with bakery products from the local bakery being one of the featured items.
