Hotel Fires

The Franklin Hotel, Assiniboia, burned down on December 16, 2008.  Photo by Landon Ullrich

Another small-town Saskatchewan hotel went up in flames this past weekend. Carol MacCallum, the owner of the Choiceland hotel and bar, vows to rebuild the hotel. “This is a great town, these are great people” MacCallum told the Saskatoon StarPhoenix. “They need a bar. The bar is a community centre.”

Many hotels that once commanded the corners of Railway and Main have burned to the ground over the years.  It didn’t take much – a live cinder drawn up the chimney by a strong wind and igniting the flat tar roof; the explosion of a coal oil stove – to set these rambling old wooden buildings ablaze.  

Queen’s Hotel fire, Macrorie, 1957.

From Jubilee Reminiscences:

A History of Macrorie (1957)

Hotel fires caused death and destruction. In 1912, the hotel in Antler, Saskatchewan, caught fire after an explosion of the gas works which provided the building’s light and heat. According to the town’s history book (1983), the guests in the front part of the hotel escaped unharmed, but it was a different story for staff members in the back of the building. “Two chambermaids were saved by the Chinese cook, who forcibly threw these two frightened girls over the hole, and they escaped unhurt. Dan Morrison, who was also in the back part, had his hair and face badly burnt. Fred Brown, a man of German descent, a carpenter and resident of the hotel, died in this event. He was found with his mattress still under him; evidently he died of smoke inhalation, never waking. They had held a birthday party for him the day before the fire.”

Aftermath of the Macoun Hotel explosion, 1914.

Image source

One of the most tragic hotel fires in Saskatchewan’s history occurred in Macoun on a windy April day in 1914. Thirteen people died and many were injured when an acetylene lighting plant in the hotel basement exploded. It was lunch time, and the hotel dining room was filled to capacity. The owner’s son smelled gas and decided to go down to the basement to investigate – with a lit cigar in his mouth. As soon as he opened the basement door, the place exploded. The entire building was thrown about thirty feet in the air, and then crashed back down. The young man with the cigar survived with only a few bruises, singed hair and eyebrows. Everyone else caught in the conflagration – save two – perished in the fire, or died later as a result of their injuries. 

Maple Leaf Hotel fire, Lumsden, 1909 Source

In the early days, few of Saskatchewan’s small towns had the means to extinguish the flames of a big fire. A disastrous hotel fire prompted many a town council to buy firefighting equipment. Other town passed bylaws mandating the construction of firewalls between adjacent buildings.  Roofs had to be made of incombustible materials. The front verandas and covered balconies that once graced most old hotels had to be removed as they added to the fire hazard. In 1933, the town of Radville passed a bylaw forcing every hotel to provide fire escapes, signs leading to theses escapes, fire extinguishers on each floor, and a rope for each guest room. The minute book of the town of Webb records Hotel Bylaw No. 19: “Every public hotel shall be provided with one cotton rope at least three-quarter inch in diameter to be firmly fastened at least two feet above the windowsill in each bedroom.”

Firefighting demonstration, Comstock Hotel, Halbrite, n.d.

Plowshares to Pumpjacks (1984)

Not everyone was sad to see the town hotel burn down.  When the women of Clavet heard that the hotel was on fire in 1915 - the year Prohibition was introduced in Saskatchewan, it is reported they said, "Hell is burning." 


Small-Town Saskatchewan Hotels Destroyed by Fire (list in progress):

1. Aberdeen: Aberdeen Hotel, March 3, 1997 
2. Abernethy: King Edward Hotel, May 27, 1909 
3. Aneroid: Aneroid Hotel, June 3, 1953 
4. Antler: Antler Hotel, December 16, 1912 [started in the hotel gas works; several injured, one killed]
5. Ardill: Ardill Hotel, October 1965
6. Asquith: Asquith Hotel, October 24, 1911 [explosion; four injured] 
7. Assiniboia: Franklin Hotel, December 16, 2008 
8. Atwater: Atwater Hotel, 1927 
9. Avonlea: King George Hotel, 1916 
10. Balcarres: Balcarres Hotel, November 3, 1974
11. Balgonie: Balgonie Hotel, November 7, 1909 
12. Beechy: Beechy Hotel, December 13, 1948 
13. Bengough: Bengough Hotel, January 16, 1977
14. Biggar: Eden Hotel, July 13, 1982 
15. Broadview: Broadview Hotel, Jan. 1956 [$100,000 fire; and café] 
16. Brownlee: City Hotel, June 30, 1929 [smaller hotel built in its place] 
17. Buchanan: Buchanan Hotel, June 20, 1988
18. Cabri: Cabri Hotel, March 12, 2022
19. Cadillac: Vendome Hotel, December 27, 1923 
20. Candle Lake: The Ship’s Lantern, November 26, 2006
21. Cadillac: Cadillac Hotel, 1946 [rebuilt] 
22. Carnduff: Clarendon/Queen’s Hotel, 1921 or 1924 
23. Carrot River: Carrot River Hotel (Derniuk’s), 1933 
24. Ceylon: Ceylon Hotel, December 25, 1911 
25. Chamberlain: Chamberlain Hotel, June 21, 1942 
26. Chaplin: Chaplin Hotel, September 1933
27. Chaplin: Chaplin Hotel, October 1956 [$80,000 damage] 
28. Choiceland: Choiceland Hotel, Feb. 19, 2011 
29. Christopher Lake: Christopher Lake Hotel, March 2019 [arson]
30. Clavet: French Hotel, 1915 
31. Colonsay: Colonsay Hotel, October 2, 1920
32. Consul: Consul Hotel, August 3, 2015
33. Craik: Craik Hotel, January 31, 2003 
34. Craven: Iroquois Hotel, 1908 
35. Craven: Empress Hotel, 1961 
36. Cudworth: Cudworth Hotel 1973 
37. Debden: Debden Hotel, 1926 
38. Debden: Debden Hotel, early 1930s 
39. Debden: Debden Hotel, early 1960s
40. Delmas: Delmas Hotel, 1912 [at least one person killed] 
41. Denholm: Denholm Hotel, October 6, 1913
42. Disley: Disley Hotel, July 1954 
43. Dubuc: Bernier Street Hotel, June 11, 2013
44. Earl Grey: Hotel Grey, 1924 
45. Eastend: Cypress Hotel, March 1916; rebuilt 
46. Edam: Rendezvous Hotel, June 5, 2017
47. Edenwold: Edenwold Hotel, July 1, 1991
48. Eldersley: White (Tice) Hotel, December 1927 
49. Elfros:  Tequilas Hotel, October 9, 2014
50. Elrose: Elrose Hotel, September 12, 1993 
51. Elstow: Elstow Hotel, 1916 or 1918 [two people killed] 
52. Estuary: Nordby Hotel, August 20, 1917 [entire business section of town destroyed]
53. Estevan: Kelly House, 1909
54. Estevan: Estevan Hotel, Feb. 27, 1936 [aka Clarendon or American; hospital also destroyed] 
55. Estevan: International Hotel, March 1973
56. Fairlight: Fairlight Hotel, 1978 
57. Fenwood: Fenwood Hotel, January 22, 1963
58. Fielding: Fielding Hotel, July 22, 1922 
59. Fiske: Fiske Hotel, May 27, 1919 
60. Flaxcombe: Silver Hotel, January 26, 1929 
61. Fort Qu’Appelle: Fort Hotel, Feb. 1974 [$250,000 damage]
62. Gainsborough: Queen’s Hotel, between 1900-1905 
63. Garrick: Garrick Hotel, March 1988
64. Glen Ewen: Glen Ewen Hotel, 2007 
65. Golden Prairie: Golden Prairie Hotel, December 1963
66. Goodeve: Goodeve Hotel, January 19, 1982
67. Govan: Silver Plate Hotel, 1960 
68. Govan: Govan Hotel damaged, February 1978 
69. Gravelbourg: Cecil Hotel, August 12, 1926 
70. Gravelbourg:  King's Hotel, May 1972 
71. Grenfell:  King’s Hotel, 1927 
72. Gull Lake: Lakeview Hotel, June 12, 1921 
73. Gull Lake: Clarendon Hotel, October 9, 2016 [arson]
74. Harris: Commercial Hotel, 1924 
75. Hawarden: Hawarden Hotel, January 1949
76. Hazel Dell: Hazel Dell Hotel, October 2, 1978 
77. Herbert: Commercial Hotel, 1918 
78. Herschel: Herschel Hotel, December 25, 1979 
79. Hoey: Hoey Hotel, 2004 
80. Hudson Bay:  Etoimamie Hotel, 1935 
81. Hudson Bay: Red Deer Motor Hotel, February 1979 [fatality]
82. Hughton: Hughton Hotel, September 24, 1914 [arson]
83. Hughton: Hughton Hotel, December 3, 1949
    
84. Humboldt: Humboldt Hotel, 1923 
85. Indian Head: McIntosh Hotel, early 1890s 
86. Indian Head: Indian Head Hotel, 1993 
87. Ituna: Carlton Hotel, 1925
88. Ituna: Ituna Hotel, December 11, 2020
89. Jasmin: Jasmin Hotel, 1920 
90. Kamsack: Woodlander Hotel, December 9, 2023
91. Kandahar: Lakeview Hotel, 1925 or 1926 
92. Kelliher: Grand Trunk Hotel, December 22, 1931
93. Killaly: Killaly Hotel, November 11, 1981 
94. Kinistino:  Kinistino Hotel, March 1950 [two killed] 
95. Kuroki: Kuroki Hotel, April 30, 1922 [one man killed] 
96. Kyle: Kyle Hotel, May 16, 2018
97. Laird:  Laird Hotel, August 1915
98. Lafleche:  Flying Goose Inn, May 21, 2013 [formerly Hotel Metropole, built in 1913]
99. Lampman: Lampman Hotel, January 24, 1932 
100. Lancer: Lancer Hotel, 1958
101. Lanigan: Lanigan Hotel, October 25, 1958
102. Laura: Laura Hotel, November 1, 1966 
103. Leask: Hotel Windsor , Feb. 9, 2011 [arson suspected] 
104. Lebret: Lebret Hotel, October 5, 1916 [and dance pavilion] 
105. Lebret:  Lebret Hotel, September 6, 1927
106. Lemberg: Lemberg Hotel, March 11, 2019
107. Liberty: Liberty Hotel, September 2, 1958 
108. Limerick: Dickenson Hotel, early 1920
109. Lockwood: Lockwood Hotel, March 9, 1951 
110. Loverna: Vernon Hotel, 1960s 
111. Lumsden: Maple Leaf Hotel, February 23, 1909 (see photo above)
     
112. Lumsden: Lumsden Hotel, Sept. 1977 [caused by smoking; people killed] 
113. Lumsden: Lumsden Hotel, Nov. 21, 1998 [damages in excess of $600,000] 
114. Macleod: Commercial Hotel, July 13, 1891 
115. Macoun:  Macoun Hotel, April 20, 1914 [13 people killed] 
116. MacNutt: MacNutt Hotel, 1924; rebuilt 
117. Macrorie: Queen’s Hotel, January 31, 1958 
118. Manitou Beach: Manitou Beach Hotel, 1943 
119. Mankota: Paris Hotel, December 28, 1988
120. Manor: Manor Hotel, 1910 
121. Marchwell: Central Hotel, April 5, 1973
122. Margo: Margo Hotel, November 5, 1954
123. Markinch: Markinch Hotel, March 3, 1930
124. Maryfield: Arlington Hotel, 1945; rebuilt 1946 
125. Mawer: Queen’s Hotel, 1918
126. Mayfair: Mayfair Hotel, March 21. 2002
127. McGee: Van Alstyne’s Hotel, 1915 
128. Meath Park: Meath Park Hotel, October 22, 1995 [arson?] 
129. Mendham: Mendham Country Inn, April 1997
130. Meota: King Edward Hotel, 192
131. Meyronne: Meyronne Hotel, November 14, 1988 [fatality]
132. Melville: King George Hotel, February 17, 2010 [arson]
133. Midale: Frances Hotel, November 8, 1987
134. Milden: Milden Hotel, 1985 
135. Milestone: Milestone Hotel, February 6, 1927 [15-year-old boy dead]
136. Montmartre: Montmarte Hotel, January 1993
137. Moosomin: Queen’s Hotel, 1905 
138. Moosomin: Moosomin Hotel, Jan. 19, 1969 [one man dead, two missing] 
139. Neilburg: Golden Oak Inn / Pitt's Bar & Grill, April 23, 2011
140. Neudorf: Neudorf Hotel, September 3, 2017
141. Nipawin: Anderson Hotel, 1923 
142. Nipawin: Nipawin Hotel, 1933 
143. Nipawin: Park Hotel, May 17, 1979 
144. Nokomis: Patricia Hotel, May 25, 1926
145. Norquay: Norquay Hotel, December 24, 2006
146. Nut Mountain: Mountain House Hotel, November 22, 2006 
147. Ogema: Little Amego Inn, April 20, 1958 
148. Otthon: Otthon Hotel, March 1925 [$20,000 loss] 
149. Oxbow: Palace Hotel, August 1907 [rebuilt as Alexandra Hotel] 
150. Parkbeg: Temperance Hotel, August 1919 
151. Parkside: Parkside Hotel, 1961 
152. Paynton: Paynton Hotel, 1915
153. Paynton: Leland Hotel, 1920 
154. Penzance: Penzance Hotel, May 18, 1941 
155. Piapot: Piapot Hotel, January 15, 1932 
156. Plato: Rymal’s Hotel, 1919 
157. Plenty: Plenty Hotel, 1981 [rebuilt by same owner]
158. Ponteix: Windsor Hotel, 1929 
159. Ponteix: Ponteix Hotel, June 26, 1930
160. Porcupine Plain: Porcupine Hotel, 2001
161. Portreeve: Portreeve Hotel, February 1919 or 1920 
162. Prelate: Prelate Hotel, August 10, 2009 
163. Prud’homme: Flanders Hotel, 1957 [rebuilt the same year] 
164. Punnichy: Glenrose Hotel, December 14, 1955 
165. Qu'Appelle: Queen's Hotel, April 17, 2003
166. Quinton: Quinton Hotel, May 10, 1983
167. Ravenscrag: Ravenscrag Hotel, 1954 
168. Redvers: King’s Hotel, 1951 
169. Redvers: Western Star Inn & Suites, January 18, 2021
170. Rhein: Rex Hotel, July 24, 1930
171. Rhein: Rhein Hotel, May 11, 1967
172. Riverhurst: Riverhurst Hotel, December 24, 1974
173. Rosetown: York Hotel, July 9, 1983
174. Rosthern: Klondike Hotel, 1906 
175. Rosthern: Occidental/National Hotel, August  26,1928 
176. Rosthern: Queen’s Hotel, 1961 
177. Rush Lake: Rush Lake Hotel, October 5, 1926 
178. Ruthilda: Boon’s Hotel, summer 1926 
179. St. Benedict: St. Benedict Hotel, April 18, 2018
180. Shaunavon: Empress Hotel, December 17, 1914 
181. Shell Lake: Shell Lake Hotel, 1956 
182. Shellbrook: Former Tynen Hotel, January 18, 1943.
183. Somme: Somme Hotel, 1943 
184. Sonningdale: Sonningdale Hotel, March 19, 1995 [cooking oil to blame]
185. Sovereign: Sovereign Hotel, 1915
186. Spalding: Spalding Hotel, 1922 
187. Speers: Speers Hotel, December 7, 1989 
188. Spiritwood: Spiritwood Hotel, November 20, 1946
189. Spy Hill: Spy Hill Hotel, 1940
     
190. Star City: Queen’s Bar and Grille, March 2021
191. Stenen: King George Hotel, October 26, 2011
     
192. Stoughton: King Edward Hotel, February 1, 1905 
193. Stoughton: Stoughton Hotel, August 1975 [two fatalities]
194. Sturgis: Hotel Sturgis, March 1926 
195. Swift Current: Empress Hotel, December 25, 1931 [$100,000 loss] 
196. Tantallon: Tantallon Hotel, December 5, 1938 
197. Tantallon: Valley View Hotel, April 25, 2019
198. Tisdale: Imperial Hotel, February 7, 1933
199. Tompkins: Pypres(?) Hotel, February 3, 1925
200. Turtleford: Glenhavon Hotel, February 1, 1922 
201. Tway:  Tway Hotel, April 5,1996 
202. Val Marie: Val Marie Hotel, April 20, 1954
203. Vidora: Vidora Hotel, Feb. 19, 1925 [also pool hall and a store; $14,000 loss] 
204. Vonda: Vonda Hotel, 1924 
205. Walpole: Walpole Hotel, 1923 or 1924 
206. Wapella: Wapella Hotel, June 1890 [two arsonists convicted of setting fire] 
207. Webb: [Weere’s] Hotel, January 1962
208. Willow Bunch: European Hotel, November 11, 1959
209. Willow Bunch: Hotel Manoir, Feb. 1995 [arson] 
210. Wolseley: Windsor Hotel, 1906
211. Wolseley: Leland Hotel, October 5, 1923 
212. Wynyard: Wynyard Hotel, March 6,1932 
213. Yellow Grass: Yellow Grass Hotel, November 13, 1994 [arson]
214. Young: Young Hotel, November 13, 2011

© Joan Champ, 2011

Saskatchewan’s Hotel Bars Before Prohibition

Bar at the Fielding Hotel, 1915.  Glenbow Archives, NA-3853-23

"You have to be a certain type of person to look after a bar in a hotel, as you meet all kinds of people under the influence of liquor.”

     - Irene Lessard, Baldwinton Hotel

The hotel bar was a busy place in small-town Saskatchewan in the early 1900s. The Legislative Assembly of the North West Territories passed the Liquor License Ordinance of 1892.  For about $200, hotels could obtain a license which allowed them to sell liquor by the glass at the bar, as well as off-sale liquor (by which bottles could be taken out of the premises).   

License for the Beaver Hotel at Denholm, 1914.

From Western Development Museum,

WDM-1973-NB-5524

The typical Saskatchewan hotel in 1910 had a long, ornate wooden bar complete with a large mirror behind it, brass foot rails, and brass spittoons.  A sign over the beverage room door read, “Licensed to sell spirituous or fermented liquors.” These were stand-up bars for men only – there were no chairs. Over the bar, the bartender served lager beer, wine, brandy and gin, as well as soft drinks.  Whiskey sold for ten cents a glass.  

W. Laing behind the bar of the Grand Hotel at Moosomin, c. 1905.

From Moosomin Century One: Town and Country (1981)

 The hotel bars did a roaring trade. According to the Pense local history book (1982), the Carlton Hotel was built at a cost of about $48,000, and the original owner made $25,000 in a single year. “It had 30 rooms and for several years after it was built it was full every day. It also had a large bar, which on one picnic day sold $1,000 worth of liquor, the liquor being purchased by the carload.” The hotel at MacNutt stayed open on sports days. “It was on days such as this that we usually sold 500 to 600 bottles of liquor in one day,” Philip Schappert, the hotel bartender recalled.   

Prud'homme Hotel bar, n.d. Owner Joseph Marcotte on right.  Glenbow Archives, NA-3853-33

Things really got hopping on Saturdays.  Farmers who had to haul their grain for many miles stopped into the hotel to eat and quench their thirst after a hot and dusty journey “With families dispersed into the country stores to shop, visit friends, and exchange gossip,” James Gray writes in Booze (1974), “the farmers had the opportunity [to slip away for a drink] if they had the urge.” There were a few fights on Saturday nights at the hotels in those days.  T. L. Ferris described the scene for the Fielding history book (1984). “A Saturday night was quite different from anything you might see today,” he recalled. “There were no street lights in those days and only the hanging light on the wide north porch lit up the entrance to the bar. We’d see noisy drunks come reeling out and many a fight livened up our evenings.” A story is told about the North-West Hotel in Ceylon owned by William J. Coffron of a certain Irishman who had a few too many drinks and wanted to cause a disturbance. “Mr. Coffron got him upstairs and handcuffed him to the bedstead,” the Ceylon history book records (1980). “Before long, he was coming down the stairs carrying the bedstead with him.” At the Strasbourg Hotel, rumour had it that a fellow rode his horse in and shot up the bar.  Subsequent owners maintain that the bullets are still in the wall.  

Parkside Hotel bar, c. 1910.  From Follow the Spirit (1980)

Concern about the high rate of alcohol consumption led to the appearance of Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in Saskatchewan. Its primary objective was to combat the evils of whiskey. Pressure from the WCTU and the Banish-the-Bar movement resulted in an announcement by Premier Walter Scott in March, 1915 that all bars in Saskatchewan would be closed as of July 1, 1915.

© Joan Champ, 2011

Day-to-Day Hotel Operations

Ben and Sarah Cook on right, with Bradwell hotel staff, c. 1910.

Western Development Museum Library, 6-E-4

Running a small-town Saskatchewan hotel back in the early 1900s was hard work. The hotel staff usually consisted of at least two chambermaids and a cook who worked from morning ‘til night, cleaning the guest rooms, doing the laundry, and washing dishes. The maid's work day at the Herbert Hotel started at 6:00 a.m. and ended at 9:00 p.m. for which she was paid $10 per month, plus room and board. Charles Pratt, the porter at the Griffin Hotel, not only assisted hotel guests with their luggage; he also washed dishes, milked the two cows that supplied the milk for the hotel and did all the odd jobs. The Griffin Hotel’s upstairs maid also polished the silver and glassware and kept everything shining. 

Staff in the kitchen of the Frances Hotel at Midale, c. 1910. 

From Plowshares to Pumpjacks: R.M. of Cymri: Macoun, Midale, Halbrite (1984)

All members of the hotel owner’s family had to share in the work of running the hotel. Leo Buhler, whose parents owned the hotel in Fairlight, recalls, “One of the duties of the kids was to help with the housekeeping and at noon you had to take your turn at washing the dishes before going back to school. My sister, Irma, served as a waitress in the dining room when she was barely taller than the table tops.”  Henry, son of the owner of the Herbert Hotel, had jobs, too, “such as carrying wood and water to the hotel when needed, and carrying out ashes.  On Mondays he always had to skip school to turn the handle on the washing machine. … Henry also earned an extra dollar by teaching the Chinese cook how to speak English. ” 

The Ferrie family ran the hotel at Invermay for 28 years.  The four Ferrie boys worked shifts hauling great loads of wood to keep the hotel’s furnace running 24 hours a day during the winter months. As Ben Ferrie recalls in the Invermay local history book:  “The years in the Hotel were busy ones for all of the family. It was the boys’ job to fire the wood-burning furnace. This meant rising about three a.m. and again at six to stoke the furnace. … We were responsible for bringing in blocks of ice and snow to melt for the daily wash. … We hauled our drinking water from the town well… A familiar sight around town was our Scotch collie, Don, pulling the sleigh loaded with cans of water.”

Cutting ice on a river.  From Wikimedia Commons

Packing ice in the winter was quite an experience.  It was necessary to put up about 30 tons of ice to provide year-round cold storage for the hotel kitchen.  Hotel owners would often hire a farmer to cut the ice and haul it in with teams and a sleigh, which would take several days.   

Mrs. Rehaume, owner of the Pleasantdale Hotel,

did all the washing for the hotel using a washtub and scrub board. 

From Memories of the Past: History of Pleasantdale (1981)

Wash days – usually Mondays – were an ordeal, especially in winter. Washing bedding and clothes was often a two-day proposition. Water had to be hauled and then heated in tubs the night before. Start-up time was set for five or six a.m. and the laundry process quite often ran into the afternoon. The next day, one of the maids would run the clothes and sheets through a mangle, a machine used to wring water out of wet laundry.  Most hotels did not get running water until the 1940s or 1950s, so water had to be hauled from a well in the summer.  In the winter, hotels used melted ice and snow, or water that had been collected in rain barrels during the previous summer.

© Joan Champ, 2011