In 1822 Ivy Hall (on the right) was built as the home of John Sandfield Macdonald, Ontario’s first Premier, and his wife Marie Christine Waggarman—the well-educated daughter of a whig senator and landed gentry from Louisiana and Maryland. She spoke French, English and Spanish fluently. Cornwall’s Roman Catholic community bought Ivy Hall on the corner of Water and York Streets to serve as their first Catholic hospital. The house was soon replaced by a larger structure (left) opened in June 1897. A wing added to the 1822 building served as living quarters for the nursing sisters.