Unfair Play at the Windthorst Hotel

Windthorst, c. 1910. Hotel in distance on left. Source

In 1907, Albert E. Playfair from Whitewood, Saskatchewan, and John Berglund built the three-storey Windthorst Hotel. It opened in 1908. By 1911, William Williamson was the hotel keeper. He lived in the hotel with his son Finlay, and his daughters Iva and Elda. According to the 1911 Canada census, nine other people lived at the hotel as well, including the bartender, the cook and her three young daughters, two waitresses, a housekeeper, and a chambermaid. Williamson sold the hotel to Tom Henry after Saskatchewan introduced Prohibition in July 1915. 

Windthorst Hotel, c. 1910. Source: Windthorst Memories, 1980.

The 1916 Canada Census shows that owner Thomas Henry, age 58, was living at the Windthorst Hotel along with his 13-year-old daughter, Vivian. There is no mention of his wife, although he is listed as married. Other residents include hotel employees: the Chinese cook Duck Lee, a 21-year-old Polish kitchen girl, a 20-year-old waitress from Russia, a 64-year-old porter, a stableman, a chauffeur, and a Danish engineer, age 33. 

Tom Henry got into some trouble of a personal nature. Census records for 1916 show that 21-year-old Alice Ellen Playfair, daughter of Albert Playfair, the builder of the Windhorst Hotel, was working as the housekeeper at the hotel that year. Alice was living with two of her brothers in a private home in the village. Alice and Tom must have had an affair, because genealogical records show that Alice eventually became his second wife. Source Tom's first wife, Ellen or Nell (Robinson), is listed in the 1916 census as a residing, unemployed, in a separate residence from the hotel with her seven-year-old daughter, Ethel.

Tom Henry also got into some trouble with the law while operating the Windthorst Hotel. In the spring of 1919, he was convicted of perjury and sentenced to a year of hard labour in the Regina jail. This resulted from his appeal of his previous conviction for hiding liquor in with his stock of soft drinks at the hotel in Windthorst - a no-no during Prohibition. Source

In 1918, Jack Johnson and his wife Olga bought the Windthorst Hotel and ran it until 1945. According to the Windthorst history book, Jack had started out building and driving race cars in the early 1900s in Iowa. He came to Canada in 1903 and settled first in Findlater, and later in Riceton where he operated a café. "Mr. and Mrs. Johnston made their hotel business an asset to the community in many ways, opening their doors freely for public functions and making the hotel a gathering place of the district. It was a ‘home away from home’ for the young people who were employed in the village," the town history records. "Social functions which included weekly card parties, bridal showers, and wedding receptions were held at the hotel." (Source: WIndthorst Memories; A History of WIndthorst and District, 1980)

The Johnstons, who had no children of their own, opened their hearts to three children of the Lenius family, following the death of their mother in 1920. Annie, Frank and Joe Lenius were foster children of the Johnstons, who gave them a happy home while they continued their schooling.  

Jack Johnston had many interests. "His main hobby was taxidermy and he mounted birds and animals with an artist’s touch," states the Windthorst history book. "So much so that some of his specimens are in the Smithsonian Institute… and some are in the Provincial Museum in Regina." Johnston served on the Windthorst Village Council for eighteen years. After he retired from the hotel business in the mid-forties, he sold it to Joe Lenius,  He then opened a movie theatre in town called the Johnston Theatre which he operated from 1947 to 1954 when ill health necessitated his retirement. Jack Johnson died in 1957 at age 78. Source

Removing the third floor, 1966. Source: Windthorst history book

Jack's foster son, Joe Lenius and his wife Emmie ran the Windthorst Hotel from 1945 until 1950, when they sold it to Ron and Marg Morrison. The Morrisons renovated the hotel extensively between 1950 and 1976. The biggest change they made was to remove the third storey of the building in 1966. A lunch counter, and later a cafe, replaced the hotel's dining room.

The Windjacks became the owners of the Windthorst Hotel in 1979. Once again, renovations were undertaken, and a steak pit was added. A variety of entertainment was featured in the hotel bar.

Norm and Karen Jones bought the hotel in 1993 and changed its name to Norm's Place Hotel. The hotel was put up for sale by the Jones in 2009 - asking price: $235,000. The price went up to $350,000 in 2013. The real estate listing for the hotel in Windthorst stated that it had a 100-seat beverage room and steak pit; a commercial kitchen on the main floor; eight non-modern guest rooms; and an office and guest lounge on the second floor. The bar featured four VLTs, a lottery kiosk, and offered special promo nights -- wings, steaks, golf, poker, and pizza. The hotel had two full-time and six part-time employees.

Norm's Place Hotel in Windthorst, Google Street View, 2013

 © Joan Champ, 2013



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Hotel Allan: A Bear Story

Allan Hotel and Steak Pit, 2006. Joan Champ photo

Peter J. Loehndorf was growing restless. In 1920, despite his rather impressive accumulation of seven quarters of land, plus one hundred and fifty head of cattle on his homestead near Leofeld, Saskatchewan, he was ready for a change. Perhaps his restlessness was due to the fact that he and his wife Maria had ten children, including two sets of twins. Every birth had necessitated another addition to the family’s log home since he had filed for the homestead in 1903. Then, in 1917, Peter’s father, John Loehndorf arrived from Germany to make his home with them. The thought of owning a hotel with lots of bedrooms must have appealed to Peter. In the spring of 1920, he sold his farm, bought the Hotel Allan, and moved in with his large family. 

Hotel Allan had been built by Thomas Murphy in about 1910, and owned for several years thereafter by John Bitz and Tony Leier (who lost his life attempting to save a young child in the Elstow Hotel fire of 1919). In 1915, when the hotel business was no longer lucrative due to Prohibition, the Bitz family gave up the hotel and moved back to the farm. 

Hotel Allan, c 1940. From Times Past to Present (1981)

In 1936, changes in Saskatchewan’s liquor laws allowed Peter to open a beer parlour in Hotel Allan. It is quite likely that his wife, a deeply religious woman, did not approve. “Maria’s greatest comfort was the rocking chair and her faithful companion was the Rosary with which she prayed daily with sincere devotion,” the family’s history in Times Past to Present (Allan, 1981) explains. “Daily ritual required the family to recite meal prayers, morning and evening prayers.” Maria’s prayers may even have helped to save the Allan hotel from destruction by fire in 1935. “Fire ravaged building after building as it raced towards the hotel,” Allan’s history book records. “Women flocked to the church to pray. It was only through the tireless efforts of the fire brigade, and the prayers too, that the hotel came through with just one wall scorched.” 

Peter and Maria Loehndorf, n.d. From Times Past to Present (1981)

After the death of his father in 1923, Peter had been pursuing a new hobby – taxidermy. He had taught himself how to prepare, stuff and mount the skins of dead animals and birds – his sons’ hunting trophies – for display. People came from miles around to see his finished work which lined the walls of the beverage room in Hotel Allan. 

In 1941, Peter added a live animal to his menagerie. During one of his trips to northern Saskatchewan, he captured a bear cub. To the amazement of the children of Allan, Peter kept the bear in a pen beside the hotel. A year later, the bear had grown so large and strong that it was dangerous. Peter’s solution was simple. “Bear meat being a delicacy, [the bear] was butchered and his meat distributed to various families around town,” the family history recounts. “Peter made up some summer sausage … and sent some of it to his son, Paul, who was still in England serving with the Canadian Armed Forces.” There is no mention of Peter applying his taxidermist skills to the bear's hide. Peter and Maria Loehndorf, both in their mid-70s, sold the Allan Hotel in 1946. 

Allan Hotel and Steak Pit, 2006. Joan Champ photo

When I stopped by the Allan Hotel in 2006, the wooden exterior of the Allan Hotel had been covered over with stucco and two layers of insulation. Nothing remained of Loehndorf's stuffed menagerie in either the 121-seat beverage room or the 32-seat restaurant on the main floor. The Allan Hotel was "semi-modern," with ten guest rooms on the second floor - three with sinks in the room. All shared a bathroom and shower, accessible from the hallway. The owners' two-bedroom living quarters was also located on the second floor.

Architectural History Society of Saskatchewan 3D Model Saskatchewan

© Joan Champ, 2011

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