We are the people who own the shops.
No board, no staff, no office and no dues. The businesses on three streets, sharing the cost of the things none of us could do alone.
What the group actually does.
Puts things on
Sidewalk Days, light-up night, pumpkins on the street.
Buys things together
Advertising, planters and the Christmas lights, bought once and split between us.
Speaks to the Town as one voice
Street work, parking, snow clearing, grant applications. The group writes one letter with every downtown business named on it.
Keeps a list
Who is downtown, what they sell and when they are open. That list is this website.
175 years on three streets.
The shops have changed hands many times over. Most of the buildings are the same ones.
1851
Daniel McLachlin buys the land and lays out the town plot
He bought the ground where the Madawaska runs into the Ottawa, drew the streets, and named them. John, Elgin and Madawaska are still where he put them, which is why the downtown is a walkable grid and not a strip.
1894
The McLachlin bridge and office, 1894
Daniel McLachlin bought the land at the mouth of the Madawaska in 1851, laid out the town plot, and his family mills ran the riverfront for two generations.
1895
Mill No. 1 from the office roof, 1894
The big mill at full tilt, photographed from the company office. Everything on this page sits within a few blocks of where it stood.
1906
John Street, 1906
A dirt road, board sidewalks, and storefronts you can still walk past today. The clock tower at the foot of the street was ten years old.
1921
Lumber on the river, 1921
For most of a century wood was the economy here. Arnprior called itself the Lumber Capital of Canada, and for a while it was true.
1995
The highway and the big boxes
Highway 417 made Ottawa a half hour away in both directions, and that cuts two ways. Some of the trade left for Kanata. Some of Kanata started coming here on a Saturday. The downtown that survived is the one that stopped trying to be a department store.
2026
No head office, and no plans for one
Independent, mostly owner-run, mostly on three streets. There is no legal status, no office and no budget. When something costs money, the shops that want it split the bill. People sort things out where and when they can, which most days means over a counter or on the phone.
Who runs it.
Nobody is paid and nobody is in charge. Three jobs get done because three owners said they would do them, and they change hands when somebody has had enough.
This is not a club and there is nothing to join. If you run a business on John, Elgin or Madawaska you are already part of it, and getting your shop on the site is free.
Get your shop listedArnprior has no Chamber of Commerce and no BIA.
The Town’s own 2024 business retention and expansion study says so. There is no membership body collecting dues, no business improvement area levy on the tax bill, and no paid staff anywhere in the picture.
That is why this site exists and why it looks the way it does. What a Chamber would do with a budget and an office, the shops do between themselves with a group chat and whoever is willing to split the bill. It is slower and it is less polished, and it is also nobody’s job to protect, which means it can be honest about what is and is not working downtown.
Source: Town of Arnprior, Business Retention and Expansion study, 2024.