The Unlucky Landis Hotel

The Landis Hotel, c. 1915. Sign beside the door reads "Chautauqua."  Image source

Reading about all the people who once owned the now-demolished Landis Hotel really makes me want to learn more about them. There are stories in every hotel, but something tells me the stories in this one are truly compelling – and sometimes sad.

Gertrude and Noble Woodworth, n.d. Courtesy of their grandson, Michael Vasil.

The Woodworths

Noble and Gertrude Woodworth, originally from Nova Scotia, came to Saskatchewan (via Vancouver) in 1917 to try their luck a farming in the Landis area. As suitable land was not immediately available, they decided to run the Landis Hotel for a year. Built in 1909 by contractors Lee, Hope and Meldrome, the hotel had been in a slump since the start of Prohibition in 1915. To make matters worse, the Spanish Flu hit the village of Landis in the fall of 1918. An emergency influenza hospital was set up in the Landis Hotel. 

Hotel at the end of Main Street, n.d. Image source

Landis Hotel, 1913. From The Landis Record (1980)

The flu epidemic started in the trenches at the end of the First World War in May 1918.  It spread across the Atlantic as troops returned to Canadian ports in the late spring and early summer, and reached Saskatchewan on October 1, 1918. Infected soldiers bound for home disembarked from troop trains in Regina and from there, the flu spread rapidly throughout the province.  

Almost 4,000 Saskatchewan people died during the first three months of the epidemic, and the largest number of deaths occurred in villages (12.6 people out of 1,000). Landis was not spared. It was thought that the flu was brought to the community by troupe of Chautauqua performers. (A Chautauqua was a travelling summer fair featuring music, drama and educational lectures, popular across North America during the Teens and Twenties.) So severe was the epidemic that literally every household in the village and surrounding district was stricken. The Landis Record reports that schools and businesses were closed, “and it was difficult to find enough able-bodied people to tend the sick.” Several people from Landis and area died. The wife of the United Church minister, Mrs. Trevor Williams, died at age 30, leaving behind a daughter who was only a few months old. Four members of the Geary family succumbed to the flu, including Ted Geary, his wife and son.

The next year, the Woodworths moved to a quarter section of land on the outskirts of Landis. Their two room shack, with no conveniences and with straw and manure banked up around the foundation to keep the place warm in winter, was likely a welcome change to the sadness the couple witnessed in the Landis Hotel in the fall of 1918.

A page from the Landis Hotel guest register, c. 1917. "Guests without baggage will please pay in advance." Courtesy Michael Vasil.

Anna Haas (right) with her sister Clara.
From The Landis Record (1980)

Anna Haas

Anna Haas ran the Landis Hotel from 1919 to 1921. Anna, the eldest daughter of Adam and Mariana Haas, had immigrated to Canada from Galicia in 1900 when she was only a few months old. The family originally homesteaded in the area of Gimli, Manitoba, on Lake Winnipeg.  In 1918, when Anna was 18 years old and working in the garment industry in Winnipeg, her parents and siblings moved to Landis. Perhaps the family thought the operation of the village hotel would be a good opportunity for Anna, for she arrived by passenger train shortly afterwards.  Anna’s younger siblings lived at the hotel while they attended school in town. They helped her with some of the lighter chores like carrying wood and washing dishes. In 1921, Anna decided to return to Winnipeg, and then to Edmonton, where she worked for the G.W.G. Garment Company. Anna was “stricken with a mental disorder” in 1928. She was committed to the Weyburn Mental Hospital where she lived for 50 years, dying at the hospital in 1978 at 78 years old. She is buried in the Landis cemetery.

John and Mary Ann "Grannie" MacLeod in front of the hotel, c. 1940.
From The Landis Record (1980)

 

The MacLeods

John MacLeod his wife, Mary Ann, and their six children farmed near Lockwood, Saskatchewan for five years before taking over ownership of the Landis Hotel in 1923. The MacLeod family ran the hotel until 1961. John passed away in 1942, at which time his son Hector, who had been working in the hotel since 1930, bought the business. Mary Ann passed away in 1951. 

Woo Sing

The following year, Hector converted the dining room of the hotel into a café, and hired Woo Sing Kee from Rosetown to run it. Mr. Sing, as he was known, had a wife in China, but Canada’s restrictive immigration laws prevented him from bringing her to join him in Saskatchewan. Instead, he brought young Raymond Kwan from China to help him out. Raymond attended school in Landis when he wasn’t working at the hotel cafe. After Raymond left, Mr. Sing had Wing Woo and Wah Woo working with him in the café. The Chinese Immigration Act was finally repealed in 1947, but it wasn’t until 1958 that Mr. Sing’s wife joined him in Landis. Mr. Sing died two years later, in 1960. His wife continued to live in the Landis Hotel, with Wing Woo and Wah Woo looking after her until her death in 1968.

The empty Landis Hotel, March 2006.  Joan Champ photo

By 2006, the hotel was abandoned and empty – open to vandals and the elements – a real safety hazard. Its wooden exterior had been covered over with stucco at some point, painted in bright colours. At the back there were several small additions to the original structure – sheds, lean-tos and even a dog house, with doors everywhere. Looking around the place, one could not help but say, “If only these walls could talk....” The Landis Hotel was torn down a couple of years later.

Rear of the Landis Hotel, 2007. Image source

Rear of the Landis Hotel, 2007. Image source

© Joan Champ, 2011

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Hotel Fire Escapes

Many hotels once had covered balconies on upper floors and front verandas. As they were made of wood, however, they eventually became fire hazards and had to be removed. In their places, fire escapes were constructed. Some, like the Hafford Hotel, just had a hefty, knotted rope anchored by a metal ring near a window, long enough to reach the ground. Others had variations on stairways and ladders such as these, shown in my photos.

Commercial Hotel, Blaine Lake

Invermay Hotel

Royal Hotel, Weyburn

Royal Hotel, Strasbourg

Pennant Hotel

King George Hotel, Melville, 2006

King George Hotel, Melville, Feb. 17, 2010. Photo: Melville Advance

 “On the road, hotel fire exit locations were always implanted in my mind in the 50s after check-in.  I sometimes even checked to see if those doors really opened. ... There were guests, after lifting a couple too many in the beer parlour, who verified these escape routes." - Dave Anderson, To Get the Lights; A Memoir about Rural Electrification in Saskatchewan (2006)

© Joan Champ 2011

Govan Hotel: A Refuge for Weary Travellers

"New up-to-date hotel, Govan, Sask.," c. 1908. Image source

Govan’s first hotel, the Silver Plate, was built by a Mr. Sherriff in 1908. The large, four-storey wood-frame building, painted light yellow with dark brown trim, could accommodate about 40 guests. According to a 1908 issue of the Govan Prairie News, it was built.at a cost of $30,000 “under the most difficult conditions known to pioneer life.” 

Every penny’s worth of material was drayed [hauled by wagon] over raw prairie for over 20 miles, much of it during weather that would freeze the proverbial monkey. Mr. Kinneard, the contractor, and the proprietors deserve unstinted praise for the undaunted energy lent to the project; and many years after all are beneath the prairie sod, the building will stand as a fitting monument to prairie life in Last Mountain Valley.

The dining room could accommodate 100 guests, and was considered one of the most beautiful and spacious in the West at the time. “The halls, waiting rooms, and offices are airy and well furnished,” the 1908 Govan newspaper wrote. “The bar has but few equals, being massively constructed with mahogany effect, presided over by C. L. Dalton, who is adept at suiting every taste. All in all, the Silver Plate is a credit to the Hub, a decided acquisition to the town.”  

Silver Plate Hotel, 1909 Source

Silver Plate Hotel, 1909 Source

The top storey of the hotel, with its dormer windows, was never finished. For a few years it served as a dormitory for bachelor homesteaders who wanted to live in town for the winter, but couldn’t afford to pay for a proper room. Snow sifted onto their fourth floor beds during the fierce Saskatchewan winters, no doubt making the men long for the comforts of home. 

Guests from all across Canada stayed at the Silver Plate, as did hockey teams from Lanigan to Cupar. It had several amenities, including a tavern (of course), a barber shop, a pool room, and a bowling alley as well as a room for travelling salesmen to display their wares. The hotel dining room was extensively used for banquets and various celebrations.

The Silver Plate Hotel in Govan, c. 1925. Source

In 1957, the unused fourth floor was removed to save on fuel costs and a flat roof was constructed. Three years later, in 1960, the Silver Plate was destroyed by fire under the ownership of Vance Pokletar. The "fitting monument to prairie life" did outlast its builders after all, but not by much. Shortly after the fire, Floyd Rattray and Peter Roland Jr. built a much more modest two-storey hotel on the site of the old Silver Plate, naming it the Govan Hotel. The wood-frame building had ten guest rooms upstairs, and a 78-seat beverage room and a 38-seat restaurant on the main floor. Peter and his brother Albert ran the hotel until 1966. After that, it changed hands numerous times. 

Restaurant at the Govan Hotel, c. 1990.

Jeremy Warren, reporter

In 2009, retired Calgary businessman Jack Landry and his wife Charlie, bought the Govan Hotel, changing its name to the Govan Inn & Bar. After extensive renovations, the hotel’s grand opening was held in mid-June 2010. Saskatoon StarPhoenix reporter Jeremy Warren was the first guest at the hotel and wrote about his experience in a story entitled “Nothing to dislike about Govan” (July 3, 2010). “I arrived Thursday night and, after I sunk some change into the bar's jukebox, the couple handed me the keys to room No. 1,” Warren wrote. Landry told the young reporter that across Saskatchewan many small-town hotels and bars were closing their doors. When the bar in a neighbouring town closed recently, Landry said it felt like the whole town had shut down. “Bars are usually the only social centre in a small town,” he said. 

Govan Inn & Restaurant, c. 2010. Image source

Govan Restaurant, c. 2010. Image source

Jack and Charlie Landry plan to restore the Govan bar to its former glory and social importance in the community. By the summer of 2010, the couple had redecorated the bar and renovated the guest rooms, complete with new beds. There was still work to do on the hotel’s exterior, however. “Outside, the trim is peeling and the inn's street-front siding has turned a dull peach, contrasting with yellow along the rest of the building,” Jeremy Warren noted. “A computer printout – ‘Govan Bar Now Open’ -- in a front-street window corner is the only hint that one can find a drink inside. It is open and it is home for Jack and Charlie.”

View video of Govan's main street, February 2009, including the hotel (20 seconds in): YouTube link

© Joan Champ 2011

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Hotels Under Construction

With the arrival of several wagon loads or railway cars of lumber, construction began on the large two- or three-storey hotels in towns across the southern half of Saskatchewan. Many owners hired contractors to do the building. A large crew of carpenters raised the structures on full basements. 

Most of these early hotels were wood frame buildings of balloon (rather than platform) construction. This meant that the full height of the hotel walls were built with long, continuous studs that ran from bottom to top; ground floor to eaves, with the intermediate floor structures nailed to them. There was one big disadvantage to balloon construction: Fire could spread easily from floor to floor so buildings burned rapidly.

King George Hotel, Avonlea, 1907

King George Hotel in Avonlea, c. 1910. Destroyed by fire in 1916. Image source

Bengough Hotel built in 1911-12. Lew Sandeen was the main carpenter. From Echoes of the Past, 1906-1974

24-room hotel at Bounty, 1910. Image source

Empress Hotel at Shaunavon built for proprietors Peter Hoban and John Keefe for $30,000 in 1913. Destroyed by fire in 1914. Image source

Gillstrom Builders of Swift Current, builders of the Empress Hotel at Shaunavon (above). Image source

Women-Only Beer Parlours: Saskatchewan Liquor Laws in the 1930s - Part 2

Getty Images, Retrofile, George Marks photograph

When the Saskatchewan government legalized the sale of beer by the glass in 1935, the question arose as to whether or not women should be allowed in beer parlours. In the end, after much debate in the legislature, Saskatchewan women were granted the right to drink beer – in separate women-only parlours.

Despite stereotypes about women as temperance advocates in the early 1900s, Saskatchewan women from many walks of life drank wine, beer and hard liquor at formal dinners, at weddings and at other gatherings. In the years since 1924, when the only places people could legally drink were in their own homes or in a hotel room, many married couples spent some of their leisure time together at home. Some might have shared a drink or two. As Craig Heron surmises in his book, Booze: A Distilled History (Toronto, 2003), “Inadvertently, government policy may have had [the] effect of breaking down the male near-monopoly on drinking and giving their wives easier access to the bottle that their husband brought home.” (p.288) In addition, the single women of Saskatchewan's cities and towns who worked as telephone operators and salesclerks, hotel chambermaids and restaurant workers, might want to enjoy a drink in their local hotel beer parlour after a day’s work. 

Getty Images, Retrofile, George Marks photograph

The thought of women in beer parlours was frowned upon by many, however. While Saskatchewan women had won the right to vote in 1916, this had not given them real equality. The prevailing conviction was that a woman’s proper role was as a wife, mother and homemaker. Many considered beer parlours to be morally compromised places frequented by morally suspect patrons. Women might drink beer at the expense of their children. Much worse, women might be lured into illicit sexual activity if they were allowed to drink beer in parlours.  

Male bonding. Source: www.oldstmaryspa.com

The issue was further complicated by the fact that a lot of men, including many hotel operators, workers and their customers, simply did not want women in what was considered male social space. Hotelmen feared that the presence of women might curtail the consumption of beer. Male camaraderie might be inhibited. Charles Hurt of Vernon, B.C. gave voice to these qualms when he said, “Certainly there are many men who cannot be happy unless they are telling or listening to lewd stories or punctuating their conversation with a series of oaths, and such men do, no doubt, find their liberty of action circumscribed by the presence of ladies in the parlor.” (Quoted in Robert A. Campbell, Sit Down and Drink Your Beer; Vancouver’s Beer Parlours, 1925-1954, University of Toronto Press, 2001, p. 56) Many females agreed that a beer parlour was not a place for women. In the 1930s, most women were too busy running the family household to visit a beer parlour. Few could even afford it, given the hard times of the Depression. Some women, however, wanted in.

For several weeks in January 1935, members of the legislature debated the new liquor act and regulations. They received representaitons from both the Saskatchewan Moderation League and the Saskatchewan Temperance League asking for beer parlour privileges for women. According to the Regina newspaper, temperance advocates argued that since men and women voted together in the 1934 beer-by-the-glass plebiscite, they should be allowed to drink together. Premier James G. Gardiner said he was opposed to parlours for women because he believed that two thirds of the women in the province did not want beer at all. “He said he had been besieged by resolutions and letters from women’s organizations and individuals opposing beer parlors,” the paper reported, “but hadn’t received a single letter from any woman asking for them.” (Regina Leader-Post, Jan. 11, 1935, p. 3 and Jan. 19, 1935, p. 1).

Nevertheless, on January 22, 1935, the legislature approved separate, women-only beer parlours for all communities in the province. In cities, there had to be separate entrances for, and no means of communication between, the men’s and women’s parlours. In smaller centres, there could be a single entrance, but separate parlours. Omer Demers, MLA for Shellbrook, condemned the whole concept. “The very fact that we are not going to allow men and women to drink together is nothing short of an admission that the beer parlor is not going to be a decent place to go,” Demers said. (Regina Leader-Post, Jan. 22, 1935, p. 8)

Reaction to the establishment of women-only beer parlours was swift. “Fancy any real woman lowering her dignity by visiting such places,” wrote James Smith of Regina in a letter to the newspaper, “especially those who have the care and training of our future citizens.” S.G. Jamieson, on the other hand, thought that men and women should be allowed to drink together. His letter to the editor stated,“I would much sooner see my family drinking together in a public place than to … sneak off in a place where they practically have to hide to drink.” (Regina Leader-Post, Feb 7, 1935, p. 4) Perhaps the most interesting analysis of Saskatchewan’s new beer law came in an editorial by the Vancouver Province, quoted in the Leader-Post on March 21,1935:

The New York Times … hears about our new Saskatchewan beer law and doesn’t know what to make of us all. … In an age of sexual equality, the women of Saskatchewan are to have their beer-by-the-glass licensed houses, as well as the men of Saskatchewan. Even in the same house, but not in the same chaste parlor. Oh, no. No man except a beer waiter may be lawfully in a women’s beer parlor in the new Saskatchewan beer dispensation. And no woman may be lawfully in a man’s beer parlor. … separate compartments (beer-tight partitions, say), and there may not even be communicating doors… . They fought over these regulations for a whole week in the Saskatchewan House, before the beer separatists won. One member said, suppose a man and his wife dropped into a beer parlor together, wanting to have a thoughtful and connubial beer together, and then found they must go their separate ways, sundered by this harsh, estranging partition, drinking their lonely and uninspiring beer-by-the-glass, he on his side of the partition, she on hers, so that those whom God had joined together had been put asunder by the beer laws of Saskatchewan – how about it, what then? And the Saskatchewan House said, all right, what about it: it would just be too bad for them. 

All of this consternation was irrelevant, however. In March 1935, Regina hotelmen announced that they had decided not to provide separate beer parlors for women. It appears that the rest of the hotels in the province followed suit. Women would have to wait until 1960 to enter Saskatchewan’s beer parlours – or beverage rooms as they became known – through the “Ladies and Escorts” door.

© Joan Champ 2011