The first European who settled in the area in 1869 was
George Hunt, who built a small agricultural centre. In 1870, a post office was built and the area was named Huntsville after Hunt, who became the first postmaster. Huntsville's economic development was stimulated by the engineering of a navigable water route north from Port Sydney to Huntsville, which opened in 1877. A railway route from Gravenhurst was built by the
Northern and Pacific Junction Railway in 1885, which encouraged development and resulted in Huntsville becoming officially incorporated in 1886. In the following year, the
Muskoka Colonization Road reached this area. The
central Ontario community became an important industrial area in the late 19th century and had several saw, planing, and shingle mills, as well as a tannery. Today, the many lakes and hills in the area, combined with the town's proximity to both
Algonquin Park and
Toronto, make Huntsville and the Muskoka region a major tourist destination. In 1965, the town annexed part of Chaffey Township. On January 1, 1971, the Town of Huntsville was greatly enlarged during the district's restructuring when it amalgamated with the townships of Brunei, Chaffey, Stephenson, and Stisted, as well as the Village of Port Sydney. In June 2010,
Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville was host to the
36th G8 summit.
Empire Hotel On 8 October 2009, Huntsville lost one of its valued landmarks, the Empire Hotel. The first building erected at the site of the Empire Hotel was Jacob's Hotel, built around 1875 by James W. Jacobs. He later renamed it Dominion Hotel. Jacobs died in 1890 and left behind his wife and eldest daughter, both of whom were named Emma. It is unknown which woman married a McLaughlin man, but the McLaughlin family renovated the building after the horrible Main Street fire of 1894. The 26 July 1906 issue of the
Huntsville Forester reported the sale of the hotel to Robert T. McNairney and D. Kehoe, who demolished it to expand it three stories. By 1922, the Dominion was owned by Bruce Simmons. Organized in 1933, the town's
rotary club began to meet at the hotel and would for many years. In 1945, the hotel was bought Louis Mascioli of
Timmins. From 1947 to 1948, the Mascioli brothers renovated and expanded the facility, removing the porches, adding street level retail units, and erecting the adjoining four-story red brick building. They also renamed it the Empire Hotel. The first shops were a barbershop, a jewelry store, and a shoe store. Beilhartz shoes remained in business in the Empire Block until 1985. In the mid-1980s, Jim Tumber, who acquired the building along with Gary Macklaim, obtained a grant from the
Government of Ontario to help convert the now-derelict building from a hotel into an apartment building. Dave Keay, the building's last owner, bought the Empire in 1999. Over the next 10 years, he refurbished the basement bar and the 52 apartments and did most of the work personally. The fire happened on the day that Keay had just finished the outside painting. The fire was believed to be caused by an electrical problem, but the exact cause is still unclear. As of March 2026, the lot is empty. ==Geography==