Luseland: Ryans Reign at the Royal George Hotel

Royal George Hotel in Luseland, 1946. Bertrand G. Brown photograph, Western Development Museum

Sixty-two years -- must be a record for hotel ownership!

After a difficult delivery, the Royal George Hotel in Luseland has had a long and successful life. When it was first built in 1911, it immediately burned down. The owners, Smith and Gardner, sold their holdings in the hotel to William Engelbrecht. According to the first issue [1911] of the Luseland Despatch, “the townspeople were much relieved when the final arrangements were made public as the need of a good hotel at this point is most urgent, the only public-sleeping quarters being bunkhouses. A full force of men will be put to work at lathing the building Monday. As soon as the first floor is completed the plasterers will follow and then the finishers and, should no unlooked-for delay occur, the hotel will open February 1^st [1912].” 

Dennis and Margaret Ryan, 1910

In 1915, Dennis Ryan and his wife Margaret began what would turn out to be a 62-year-long run of Ryan family management of the Royal George Hotel. Born in Ontario, Dennis worked for a time in the hotel at Scott, Saskatchewan, where he met and married Margaret in 1910. The couple homesteaded for a few years before they and their two little daughters moved to Luseland and bought the Royal George Hotel. “The hotel was a haven for many bachelors,” the Luseland history book recounts. “Maggie tried to cater to them as much as possible whether it be a stack of pancakes, a crisp dandelion salad or fresh doughnuts for the priests that stayed there because there was no Roman Catholic church or rectory in town. The first masses were held in a room upstairs.” Three Ryan children were born in the hotel – Laurence in 1917, Albert in 1918, and Leo in 1923. 

Operating the hotel in those days was a 24-hour-a-day, 365-days-a-year job. The ‘Dirty Thirties’ were especially difficult at the Royal George. “The dust blew so hard that it was necessary to spread wet cloths on the window sill to try to keep it out," Kay Ryan Heffner recalls. "It was also a chore to keep all the lamp globes clean and the wicks trimmed to provide light for all the rooms. In the winter it was a full time job to keep all the stoves going to keep all three floors even moderately warm. When the coal stoker was installed and the boiler provided steam heat to all the floors, conditions were much more comfortable.” Dennis Ryan passed away in 1936, and his widow Margaret continued to run the hotel. All the Ryan boys went off to war in the 1940s, leaving one of their sisters to help their mother look after the hotel operations. When Leo returned from his stint in the Navy, he worked for his mother until 1950 when he and his wife Kay took over the Luseland hotel. 

Leo and Kay Ryan, 1949. Luseland Hub and Spokes (1983)

The 1950s brought new prosperity to the Ryans and the Royal George Hotel. The Saskatchewan oil boom and pipeline operations were in full swing. Unfortunately, it was not until 1955 that flush toilets, sinks, showers and bathrooms were installed in the hotel. Before that, each room was provided with a basin, a pitcher, and “a slop jar.” In 1952, the Ryans purchased the first clothes dryer in Luseland which made drying the hotel sheets a lot easier. The average cost of a single room at the Royal George Hotel was $2. “ This was not very profitable when, say on July 1 a ‘cowboy’ would rent a room for $2, invite two dozen more friends to join him and make a big mess,” Leo Ryan’s wife recalls. “Needless to say the yearly stampede was not looked on with joy.”  Hunting season was also a busy time for the hotel – every room would be full. 

In 1960 the hotel industry in Saskatchewan underwent a big change. Women were allowed to enter hotel beverage rooms “making the atmosphere much more pleasant for both guests and workers,” in Kay’s opinion. At this time women started working in the beverage room and Kay was able to help there, too. Leo Ryan passed away in 1977, and the Luseland hotel was bought by Hopfner Holdings. Thus ended the Ryan family reign at the Royal George Hotel. In 1995, Luseland’s old hotel had to be shut down for five months to repair damage done by a fire. Today,the hotel still operates with eight semi-modern rooms available on a daily or monthly basis for $18 per night.

Royal George Hotel, Luseland, 2010.  Courtesy of Gregory Melle

Watch video showing the town of Luseland, misspelled "Luceland," August 2009, including the hotel (20 seconds in): YouTube link

© Joan Champ, 2011

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Preeceville's Golden West Hotel

Preeceville, c. 1912. Source

The hotel shortly after it was built in 1912. Source

One of the most unique old hotels I have visited is the one in Preeceville. The town is located in the rolling hills of east-central Saskatchewan, approximately 100 kilometres north of Yorkton at the junction of Highways 49, 47, and 9. 

The Preeceville hotel is unique because it is the only one I know of that had porches and verandahs added rather than removed during its lifetime. In addition, while there have been several serious fires on Preeceville’s Main Street over the years, this large wooden structure has managed to escape the flames, mainly because of the wide spaces between the hotel and neighbouring buildings.

The three-storey Golden West Hotel was built in 1912 by Scott Rattray. According to Preeceville’s history book, Lines of the Past (1982), the basement excavation had to be abandoned the previous fall, “due to frost that even defied an attempt to blast with stumping powder.” Before the hotel opened, Rattray sold it to Rudy Ramsland, followed by Jack Lynch. 

In 1911, Swan Carlson and his wife Emma moved to Preeceville and bought the Temperance Hotel where they set up a soda fountain and restaurant. After their business was destroyed by fire in December 1914, the Carlsons bought the Golden West Hotel which they operated until 1917. They then built a general store in town which they operated until 1938 when they moved to San Diego, California.

Swan and Emma Carlson, n.d.  Lines of the Past (1982)

In 1929, the Mattison family bought the Golden West Hotel for $5000. Oscar and Clara Mattison, born in Norway, had come to Preeceville from Minnesota in 1913. Family members recall in the town’s history book that only one room in the hotel had linoleum flooring. “The lobby had an oiled board floor. The kitchen and dining-room floors were not painted and had to be scrubbed weekly,” the Mattisons write. Water works were not installed until the 1940s, so water was drawn from a cistern in the hotel’s kitchen. “Every day pails of water were carried upstairs to fill the large pitchers. Each bedroom was equipped with a wash basin and water pitcher. … The toilet facilities consisted of a commode. It had to be emptied two or three times daily, thoroughly rinsed and sterilized. A septic tank was installed in the backyard.” The only bathtub in the hotel was in the upstairs linen closet for family use only. The water was heated on the kitchen stove and carried upstairs.

For about a year and half, the Mattisons managed to meet the payments on the hotel. Then the Depression of the 1930s took its toll, and for many years the owners were only able to pay the interest and taxes. To help make ends meet, Mrs. Mattison made all the bread for the hotel. She also kept a couple of cows for milk until about 1938. The Mattison family continued to operate the Golden West Hotel until 1968 after 39 years of ownership.   
 

Golden West Hotel c1940 source

Sign in the bar of the hotel. Joan Champ photo

Subsequent owners of the Golden West Hotel have been Joe and Lucy Kruk (1968-1971), Peter and Monty Sharber (1971-1973), Albert and Erika Hanke (1973-1976), Marvin and Norma Abrahamson (1976-1987), Darton Holdings Ltd. (1987-1996), Reid Junek (1996-1998), and Brock Junek (1998-2001). Roger and Shannon Prestie became the owners of the Preeceville hotel in 2001.

The Golden West Hotel continues to operate on the corner of Main Street and Highway 49 in Preeceville. The hotel features six guest rooms and two light housekeeping suites. There is full food service in 150-seat bar with daily specials. The hotel was listed for sale by Shannon Prestie in 2018.

Golden West Hotel, 2013. Joan Champ photo

Preeceville hotel, 2006.  Courtesy of Ruth Bitner

© Joan Champ, 2011

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Prohibition: Hotel Bars Close Their Doors

From July 1, 1915 to 1924, Saskatchewan was dry. With the closure of 406 bars, 38 liquor dealers, and 12 clubs, it was estimated that liquor consumption in the province dropped by ninety percent. The number of convictions for drunkenness dropped from 2,970 cases in 1913 to 434 in 1918. When the bars closed down, however, so did many small-town hotels. “The hotelmen knew that without beverage revenue they could hardly hope to make ends meet,” writes H. G. Bowley in his 1957 history of the Hotels Association of Saskatchewan. “One of the cornerstones of the art of hospitality was to be removed, and they knew the whole structure of their industry would inevitably totter, and perhaps crash.” Indeed, hotels values in the province plummeted. Many hotel businesses never fully recovered from the blow of 1915. It may not be a coincidence that so many hotels burned down during the Prohibition years. 

The Lafrenieres. Footsteps in Time: Meota  (1980)

The last days of June 1915 before Prohibition came into effect were hectic ones for small-town Saskatchewan hotels. Prior to the closing of the bars on the July 1^st deadline, hotel owners were faced with the necessity of disposing of their stocks. There was a great rush to purchase liquor. At the Clarendon Hotel in Gull Lake, “more than one kerosene can, brought to town to be filled with coal oil, found its way home filled with liquid other than coal oil,” the town history (1989) reports. “Rye whiskey sold that afternoon of June 30^th at $1.00 per gallon and some sizeable stocks were laid in against the drought.”  That same day at the King Edward Hotel in Meota, Edward and Ferris Ann Lafreniere recalled that, prior to closing, “Anxious buyers filled the bar pushing and shoving. Money was thrown and bottles snatched in return. The doors finally closed and Ed and Ferris Ann literally swept the money from the floor with broom and dust pan. The following day the law moved in and destroyed the remaining stocks.” 

Closure and arson weren’t the only coping strategies used by Saskatchewan hotel owners when Prohibition hit. Charles Hitts sold the hotel at Griffin. “When the liquor licenses were rescinded it was hard to keep the commercial travelers over the weekends in the small places,” Griffin historian Mable Charlton writes (1967). “Although the menus were as good they went on to bigger places where there was more amusement.” The owner of the Imperial Hotel at Frobisher, John Klaholz, approached the town council in 1920 requesting that the sales of soft drinks, cigars and cigarettes be confined to the hotel to help make it pay – otherwise, he said, he would have to close it. Some hotel owners applied for government grants for the maintenance of public restrooms and reading rooms in their establishments. Unable to operate profitably, the Last Mountain Hotel at Strasbourg established a movie theatre on the second floor. Ice cream parlours often took the place of hotel bars. In 1916, F. A. Wright got a license to operate five pool tables in the Commercial Hotel in Herbert. Two years later, the Commercial Hotel was destroyed by fire.

Bootleg operations flourished in small-town Saskatchewan hotels during Prohibition. The thirsty traveler staying at the Arlington Hotel at Maryfield was usually able to satisfy his wants through the good graces of John Dodds, the proprietor. Dodds was caught on at least two occasions by a provincial liquor inspector, and paid the appropriate fines for his indiscretion. 

The Wilkie local history book provides the following account of a suspected bootlegging case at the Empire Hotel. On August 17, 1915, the Royal North West Mounted raided the hotel between 10 a.m. and noon. “In room No. 6, which was occupied by the hotel proprietor [W.H. Smith] and his wife, after a vigorous search was made, 28 bottles of liquor of various descriptions were found, the contents of two of which had been partially consumed. Upon being asked how this exceptionally large ‘private’ stock came to be on the premises, the defendant, during the hearing before Mr. T. A. Dinsley, J. P., stated that she had taken this liquor from the hotel cellars prior to the date upon which intoxicants had to be removed from the premises, July 1^st, and had secreted the bottles, unknown to her husband, in her trunk in which they were found. ... The room in which the liquor was found had been occupied exclusively as a private living room during the entire period that her husband had been proprietor of the house and that it had never been used as a guest chamber. … When the police commenced to search the trunk she told them that it only contained linen. When asked why she made this statement, she could give no reason. When asked why she had kept her husband in ignorance of the fact that she had a private stock she stated that had he known he would probably not have allowed her to retain it.” Verdict: Not guilty.

© Joan Champ, 2011

Hotel Hygiene

Room with a sink still conveniently located beside the bed, Borden Hotel, 2010.  Joan Champ photo

Sink in the room, toilet and bath down the hall.  Still, some small-town Saskatchewan hotels have come a long way from the “thunder mug” under the bed.  In the days before indoor plumbing, hotel rooms were equipped with chamber pots, wide-mouthed vessels used by the room’s occupants as a toilet during the middle of the night. The container was then covered with a lid or cloth and slid under the bed until the chambermaid retrieved it in the morning. People used to joke that these were traditional baseball hotels - "pitcher" on the dresser, "catcher" under the bed.

Tony Thibaudeau explained how the sanitation system worked at the Macklin Hotel in Prairie views from Eye Hill (1992):  “In those days the hotels provided a large wash bowl and a jug of water in each room and a matching chamber pot under the bed, and on each floor there was a sanitary toilet.  The chamber maid would change the beds, clean up the rooms, empty her scrub water and the contents of the aforementioned containers into a metal chute that was attached to the fire escape at the back of the hotel with an opening on each floor and had a barrel at the bottom to catch the flow, the contents of the barrel were bailed out with a pail and disposed of in a covered pool down the lane. I was fortunate enough to have this job for 35 cents a week.”  

The Golden West Hotel in Preeceville, operated in the 1930s by the Oscar Mattison family, did not get water works installed until the 1940s. “We had a pump in the kitchen to draw water from a cistern. A pail sat under the sink to catch the waste water. Every day pails of water were carried upstairs to fill the large pitchers.  Each bedroom was equipped with a wash basin and water pitcher. … The toilet facilities consisted of a commode.  It had to be emptied two or three times daily, thoroughly rinsed and sterilized. A septic tank was installed in the back yard. There was a bathtub in the upstairs linen closet for family use only. The water was heated on the kitchen wood stove and carried upstairs.”   

During the 1930s at Nipawin, the Avenue Hotel was owned by the Puterbaughs.  It had 16 guest rooms, a dining room, kitchen, laundry room, electricity, a wood furnace – and no running water. Instead, there was a cistern pump in the kitchen. Guests were given a pitcher of hot water with their wake-up call (a loud knock on the door) which they then used to fill a porcelain wash bowl sitting on a wash stand.  Guests were also supplied with soap, towels and a pitcher filled with cold water.   

A circa 1950s guest room at the Imperial Hotel, Sturgis, 2008.

These primitive conditions continued well into the 1940s and into the 1950s at some small-town Saskatchewan hotels. “It is not so many years ago (1940s),” the Wilkie local history book (1988) states, “that you might catch the hotel housekeeper emptying ‘pots’ over the fire escape on the second floor.”  In 1948, Mr. and Mrs. Sydney Roitman completely renovated the interior of the Wilkie Hotel. The most modern touches of all were newly installed bathrooms, hot and cold running water, and a septic tank.  In his book, To Get the Lights; A Memoir about Rural Electrification in Saskatchewan (2006), Dave Anderson recalls that life on the road in the early 1950s without running water in hotel rooms was more than inconvenient.  “It was a hardship,” he writes. “Most municipal roads I travelled on were gravel …so choking dust in our vehicles was routine. … At day’s end it was impossible to get refreshed with a washcloth in the wash basin with a quart of two of cold water from a pitcher in which often floated a dead fly, moth or wayward ant. So the communal tub at the end of the hall, if there was one, shared with 20 or so other guests, was reluctantly used.”

© Joan Champ, 2011

Melville's King George Hotel: Royal Heritage

King George Hotel, c. 1940. Source

Originally named the Windsor Hotel, the King George Hotel in Melville was built in 1909 by J. N. (Joseph Napoleon) Pomerleau. It was one of three hotels in the community. The 1916 Canada Census shows that Joseph Pomerleau, age 22, and Antoinette Pomerleau, age 20, (both single) were managing the hotel on Main Street. Twenty-four other people were living at the hotel that year, including the cook Won Yee, two waitresses, and two servants. Most of the hotel guests at the time of the 1916 census-taking were railway workers.

The hotel's name was changed to the King George in 1919. By 1921, proprietor J. E. Benwell had redecorated the hotel from top to bottom.

Regina Leader-Post, May 21, 1921.

 

Royal Visit of 1939

The hotel's name must have resonated during the Royal Visit of 1939. On June 3rd of that year, over 60,000 people thronged to Melville, population 3,000, to catch a glimpse of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. The visit was to be a ten-minute whistle-stop, but in view of the magnitude of the crowd, organizers agreed to stop for half an hour. Melville pulled out all the stops for the Royal Visit celebration. According to the Regina Leader-Post (June 5, 1939), the town staged one of its biggest sports days in history. "Concessionaires made money and the streets throbbed with loudspeaker advertising until after midnight," the newspaper stated. "Hotels and cafes were packed for hours, and at meal times hundreds jammed their way into them, demanding meals. Beer parlours had one of the biggest days of business since beer parlours came to Saskatchewan, one being reported as taking in $800 for the day."

Crowd waiting for the Royal Couple, CN station, Melville, 1939.

http://www.melvilleadvance.com/CN_Station_Restoration/CN_Station_Restoration.html

"Duke' Dutkowski of Hockey Fame

The hotel was sold by Jim Benwell in 1940 to a company headed by A. Borget. In 1941, guest rooms at the King George Hotel were renovated, with plumbing and new woodwork installed in each suite. On January 13, 1942, the Leader-Post reported that there had been a small fire in suite No. 9 in the northeast corner of the hotel. The fire department saved the building from destruction, and hotel manager "Duke" Dutkowski had carpenters on the job repairing the damage within a few hours.

"Duke" Dutkowski, player with Saskatoon Sheiks, 1922. Source

Laudus J. "Duke" Dutkowski had been a professional hockey player for more than a decade before becoming a hotel manager in August of 1940. He was profiled by the Leader-Post on May 16, 1945 while still operating the King George. Born in Regina in 1900, he started playing with the Saskatoon Crescents in 1921; then the Regina Captials until 1925; the Rosebuds in Portland, Oregon, and the Chicago Blackhawks throughout the 1920s; ending his career in 1934 with the New York Americans - the Big Apple's first professional hockey team. Dutkowski coached senior hockey in Regina before taking over management of the King George Hotel for Borget's company.

Concern for Comfort

George Zylich was the manager of the King George on July 19, 1948 when he was interviewed by the Leader-Post. Zylich had spent 13 years as a commercial traveller for the Scott Fruit Company, so he was particularly aware of the needs of the travelling salesmen who patronized his hotel. He said he spent most of his Sundays in his hotel's lobby getting better acquainted with the salesmen stopping over for the weekend. He made a point of familiarizing himself with their product lines, and when new men came into the territory, he was able to connect them with contacts. New to the hotel business, Zylich told the newspaper that he felt a hotel "must keep a new face." Things had to change around every so often to keep the place looking fresh and "homey." His firm had followed this principle, giving each guest room a different motif. He said people had dropped into the hotel between trains just to see the rooms which they had heard about.

A Modern-Day Hotel

By 2006, the three-storey hotel on Main Street had been through many upgrades and renovations. Stucco had been applied over the brick exterior. The 212-seat Windsor Tavern on the hotel’s main floor was open seven days a week. It had six video lottery terminals (VLTs), a dance floor, a DJ booth, a big screen TV and a Bose sound system valued at over $20,000. The tavern featured occasional live entertainment, and weekly specials such as “Sunday nine-ball tournaments, Wednesday Night Slow-Pitch BBQ in the beer patio, Friday Night "wing night" with tricycle races and more!” Ten guest rooms on the second floor, two of which were suites, had been modernized with full bathrooms, new windows and air conditioning. The hotel’s third floor had not been renovated in 2006.

The King George Hotel, Melville, 2006.  Joan Champ photo

The kitchen of the King George Hotel, Melville, 2006.

 

Destroyed by an Arsonist

On February 17, 2010, Melville's historic King George Hotel was destroyed by a suspicious fire that started in the kitchen. Several hundred people gathered to watch the firefighters battle the blaze. Hotel owner Sam Pervez, told the Leader-Post that, prior to the blaze, the updated bar had only been open for about three weeks and the restaurant was just days away from reopening. A resident of the landmark hotel, 63-year-old Roland St. Amand, pleaded guilty to setting the fire and was sentenced to three and a half years behind bars.

One of the on-lookers shot this video:  

Watch more video of Melville's main street before the hotel fire, August 2008: YouTube link     © Joan Champ, 2011

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