D.E.F. Hotels

Davidson

 

1907. Source

Delisle

 

Source

The Empire Hotel was built on the corner of Railway and Main in 1908 by Andrew Lunn. It burned down in February 1927.

Dundurn

 

Source

 Source

The American Hotel was built in 1904. It's name was changed to the Commercial Hotel in 1910 by owner Edwin Morgan. Mr. Swan Olsen, a farmer, built the Wascana Hotel in 1909. Olsen sold the hotel to Bill Wilson, a Scotsman also known as "Whisky Bill," in 1913. Wilson and his wife Margaret ran the Wascana Hotel until 1951.

Earl Grey

 

Source

The Hotel Grey was built in 1906. It was destroyed by fire in 1924.

Elfros

1913. Source

 

Elstow

Source

Sam Vigeant built the hotel in Elstow in 1908. Sam and his wife Florence came west from Trois-Rivieres, Quebec in 1885.They operated the hotel with the help of their son, Louis, who married one of the hotel employees, Bertha Lean, in 1911. The hotel was destroyed by fire on February 12, 1917. while under the ownership of the George W. Dunn family. When the fire broke out, the proprietors' 9-month-old son Frederick Dunn was asleep on the second floor. Anthony Leier of Allan, who was in Elstow for a curling bonspiel,  attempted to rescue the baby, but was unsuccessful. The building collapsed, and both Leier and the child lost their lives." Source Source: Memories Forever: Elstow and District, 1900-1983, p.8.

 

Englefeld

 

Source

In 1909, Matthew and Gerry Herriges built the Englefeld Hotel, featuring a massive ornamental mirror in the tavern that had been shipped by train from Winnipeg. Tragedy struck in 1911 when diphtheria broke out in the hotel. Two of Matthew Herriges' children, Helen age 2 and Matthew Jr. age 11 died from the disease, as did a hotel employee, Maria Schmitz. Source: Fields of Prosperity: A History of Englefeld, 1903-1987.

 

Eyebrow

 

1913. Source

 

 

Fielding

 

Source

Built around 1910, the Fielding Hotel burned down in 1922, along with most of the buildings on the town's main street.

 

Francis

 

Francis Hotel under construction, 1907. Source

New Francis Hotel, 1907. Source

 

 

Frobisher

 

1910. Source

1911. Source

John Klaholz came to Canada from Germany in the late 1800s. He and his wife Feona moved to Frobisher in 1900 and built the Imperial Hotel in 1903. The Klaholz family operated the hotel into the 1930s.

Elfros Hotel Fire

Greg Madsen photo. Source

An early morning fire on October 9, 2014 gutted Tequilas Hotel hotel in Elfros, a small community in east-central Saskatchewan. The owner Justin Thordarson told CTV News that the fire started around 4 a.m. No one was inside the hotel at the time. The RCMP and the provincial Office of the Fire Commissioner said the fire was not considered suspicious, but they were continuing to investigate to determine a cause. Thordarson said he is not sure whether he will rebuild the hotel.

Greg Madsen photo. Source

There had been an earlier hotel, the Golden West, in the early 1900s.   

Golden West Hotel, 1913 Source

Golden West Hotel, Elfros, c. 1912. Source: From Prairie Trails to the Yellowhead, 1983.

The hotel that burned in 2014 had been a fixture in the community since 1933. In the 1930s, Choy Tin Joe applied for a liquor license for the hotel in Elfros. In 1947, George Kirtzinger from Lashburn, Saskatchewan, and his uncle, Otto Lingle, bought the Elfros Hotel. George managed the hotel while Otto was away racing horses. In the fall of 1949, George married Edith Taylor. They moved to Cudworth to farm for two years and then back to Lashburn with their family of four children.

Tequilas Hotel, c. 2012, Google street view,.

Thordarson has owned the hotel, now called Tequilas, since 2007. After the fire, he was not sure whether he would rebuild the hotel.