Prudhommes Landing Inn was located on 80 acres of land in Vineland, Ontario close to the shores of Lake Ontario. It was a popular vacation getaway for tourists.
It all began in 1948 when brothers John and George Prudhomme built a fifteen room motel. By 1960 they had expanded the motel to 180 rooms. A restaurant on the grounds had eight dining rooms and five dance floors.
An amusement park was built on the property that included bumper boats, bumper cars, go-karts with a 1/4 mile track, a Tilt-A-Whirl, roller skating, putting greens, a children’s playground, a sandy beach and a video game arcade. A miniature train was also there in the Miniature World attraction. An old mansion on the grounds was made into a haunted house. Originally, the amusement park included horse riding and a small zoo.
An old dance hall was converted into a theatre where actors such as Raymond Burr, Jayne Mansfield, Liza Minnelli, Yvette Mimieux and Mickey Rooney performed.
The location saw up to 7,000 visitors per day. The Prudhomme brothers worked sixteen hours days, 7 days a week.
A 1967 blaze ripped through the main section of the complex, destroying 55 motel units, a dining room, five ballrooms and a curling rink and the Garden Centre Theatre.
By 1981, a $3-million expansion took place by the Pudhomme Group. These expansions included a snack bar, 9 hole mini-golf course, indoor swimming pool, outdoor pool, arcade, a four lane five pin bowling alley and four lanes that could be used as 5 or 10 pin.
A small water park was later opened with two water slides created on a man-made hill. The water park became known as Wet N Wild.
The park closed at the end of the summer in 2000 as attendance was continuing to decrease and operating costs increasing. Prudhommes Landing Inn closed around 2010.
The property sat abandoned until 2016 when it was sold to a developer for a new mixed-use subdivision consisting of residential, commercial and park space. The abandoned hotel and the remains of the water park were demolished in September 2016.
As a teenager I worked summers at Prudhommes. One summer in the late 60s, one of my jobs was to help the cleaning staff clean and ready the rooms for guests. Most of the time I worked alone with Rose, a married but unhappy women. It happened fast, without warning, ended quickly, and was increasingly frequent as the summer progressed. Rose taught me a lot in the empty rooms of that lonely motel by the lake. I was paid $1.50/hr but I would have done it for free.