This month’s header is a photograph of the Brougham Hotel in Pickering taken sometime after 1880, which was when the double-decked veranda was added. The hotel was built in 1858 by John Gerow for Charles W. Matthews. The Brougham Hotel was a large building for its time, with an open shed to the west and a ballroom on the second floor. Livery stables and sheds were located north of the building.

Brougham is located at the intersection of Brock Rd. and Hwy. 7. It was one of the original settlements in Pickering and was the centre of municipal government in Pickering for many years until the Town Council was relocated to the south of Pickering in 1966. Today Brougham resembles a ghost town due to expropriation of the North Pickering Lands by the Federal Government in 1972.