At the time of the cholera epidemic in 1832, the village of Brockville established a quarantine centre on Refuge Island, a small island just off the shore, for foreign emmigrants who were landing at Brockville. By 1838, the island was known as Grant's Island, and a blockhouse was built as part of the order to build fortifications in response to the "Patriot War" threat from the US. The blockhouse remained until 1860, by which time the island was joined to the mainland by a causeway, and a roundhouse was built. Now known as Blockhouse Island, it became the terminus of the Brockville-Ottawa Railway, joining water transportation to rail, with the building of lumber docks, the current Customs Warf. Today the basin formed by the island, its causeway, and the customs warf for a very nice harbour basin for recreational boaters.
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