The First Steak Pit in Saskatchewan: Maryfield’s Arlington Hotel

Maryfield's Arlington Hotel, September 2012. Source

In 1976, Reg and Louise Dlouhy, along with Louise’s brother Ivan Findlay, bought the Arlington Hotel in Maryfield. One year later, they opened what is reported to be the first steak pit in Saskatchewan -- some say the first in Canada. Whatever the case, the steak pit proved to be a major attraction for Maryfield, which is located between Moosomin and the Manitoba border in the southeastern part of the province.

The Dlouhys had spent many years on the road, touring with the Regina-based band, Gene Dlouhy and His Swingin’ Canadians. Click here to hear the band's song, Drinking Wine,released in 1964.Throughout the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s, Reg played saxophone with his brother Gene, who played trumpet. In 1970, the band moved to Calgary. They were in the process of moving to Las Vegas when Reg suffered a heart attack. Since Louise was from Maryfield, the couple decided to move there with their three children and get into the hotel business. 

Bartender at the Arlington Hotel, Maryfield, July 18, 1978. Regina Leader-Post.

“I think it was the travelling we did, and our association with supper clubs that gave us the necessary insight into the business,” Reg explained to the Regina Leader-Post in July 1978. “We have seen some beautiful places, and some that weren’t so nice. And we have taken the best of all of them and tried to mold it into our own district.” That same month, the Dlouhys served their 5,000^th steak in the eight months since they opened the steak pit.

Louise Dlouhy watching a customer grill his steaks. Regina Leader-Post, July 18, 1978.

The Dlouhys bought their beef from the Co-op in Brandon, Manitoba. “We never freeze the steaks – well, they aren’t around long enough to be frozen,” Reg told the newspaper. Customers could pick and cook their own steaks on a natural gas grill. The only food that came out of the kitchen was salad, a potato, and bread to accompany the steak.

History of the Arlington Hotel

The Arlington Hotel at Maryfield, c1912.  Source

Built in 1906, the three-story Arlington Hotel on the corner of Main Street and Assiniboine Avenue in Maryfield, Saskatchewan, featured an attractive front porch and second-floor balcony. The hotel had a ballroom, a dining room, and – of course – a bar.

Oluf Olson and his wife Dolly did their best to make their hotel guests comfortable. The bar in particular was very hospitable. In 1910, Olson was fined $50 plus court costs for keeping the bar open after hours. The Canada census shows that, in 1911, the hotel was a thriving business. In addition to the Olson family, the hotel had 18 registered “lodgers,” four chambermaids, two Scottish porters, two telephone operators, an Irish bartender, and a Chinese cook all residing within its walls.

When Prohibition began on July 1, 1915, Maryfield’s Arlington Hotel managed to stay open for business under the ownership of James Anderson. All the beautiful fixtures in the barroom – the gleaming brass and the long, polished wood bar, were removed and replaced by a pool room. Operating a hotel during Prohibition had its challenges. Without bars, hotel values plummeted.. In 1919, John Dodds purchased the Arlington Hotel and under his watch, the thirsty traveller was able to satisfy his wants. The town’s local history reports, “Mr. Dodds … was caught on at least two occasions by a [provincial] liquor inspector and paid the appropriate fines for his indiscretion.”

John James (J. J.) Harris and his wife Florence owned and operated the Arlington Hotel from 1922 to 1944. In 1935, when the Saskatchewan government finally permitted the sale of beer by the glass, Harris applied for a liquor license. A “local option vote” was held in Maryfield and the vote passed by a margin of only six votes – 79 to 73. The Arlington Hotel was able to serve beer once again.

Fire Destroys the Hotel 

 

One evening in late February 1945, Falmer and Louise Skallerup were preparing dinner for the Arlington’s guests. They had purchased the hotel in 1944 and were run off their feet. It was the first day of the biggest men’s curling bonspiel that Maryfield had ever hosted, and the hotel was full. At about 4:30 p.m., a fire broke out in the kitchen. Thanks to Mrs. Skallerup, all the hotel occupants were alerted and got out of the building safely – just as the fire swept up the stairwell, engulfing the entire building in flames. Firemen from Moosomin, 30 miles away, raced their pumper truck to Maryfield where townspeople had formed a bucket brigade to try and save the hotel. By the time the firemen arrived, the flames had destroyed the hotel and were threatening nearby buildings. Despite the disaster, the men’s bonspiel went ahead, with the curlers accommodated in a temporary dormitory set up at the Maryfield auditorium.

 Out of the Ashes, Into a Steak Pit

The Arlington Hotel was rebuilt a year after the fire and still stands in Maryfield today. When the Dlouys bought it, they completely remodeled the building, reducing the number of guest rooms from thirteen to nine in order to accommodate their family of five.

 

Maryfield's Arlington Hotel, 2009. Google Maps

Today, Chilly's Pub & Steak Pit in the Arlington Hotel still features cook-your-own steaks accompanied by salad, garlic bread and baked potato. Apparently, the chicken wings and ribs are also very good.

 

© Joan Champ, 2018. 

G. H. I. Hotels

Gainsborough

 

Crowd gathered outside the newly built Riverside Hotel, 1905. Source

Riverside Hotel, c. 1905. Source

 

Girvin

 

King Edward Hotel, c. 1912; built in 1907. Source

 

Glen Ewen

 

Imperial Hotel, 1908. Source

In 1907, George Reading "Tony" Wincott owned the Imperial Hotel in Glen Ewen. Born in England, Wincott came to Saskatchewan from Ontario in 1896. While working for a horse trader in Montana, it was said he looked like a Mexican to he was nicknamed Tony. While operating the Imperial Hotel, Wincott raised Saint Bernard dogs which won may prizes in shows across Canada. In December of 1908, he married Caroline Erickson who had worked in the dining room of the hotel. Their son George was born in the hotel in 1910. Their second son Alusym was born two years later.

Goodwater

 

Goodwater Hotel, c. 1910. Source

Mrs. Elizabeth (aka Betty Ann) McMickin built the hotel in Goodwater in 1910 when she was about 55 years old. (She may be one of the women shown in this photo, although they all appear to be fairly young.) Elizabeth and James McMicken, of Irish ancestry, came to Saskatchewan from Ontario, via Manitoba, in about 1905. They farmed in the Assiniboia district for several years. James and the six McMickin children moved to the United States at some point. In 1914, Elizabeth rented to hotel to Mr. and Mrs. Henry Foss and returned to the States where her husband was farming. After he died of smallpox in 1919, Elizabeth returned to Goodwater to operate the hotel again. Her son Hunter came with her. Her other two sons and three daughters remained in Montana. It was said that Mrs. McMickin was a very good cook, pastry being her specialty. Inn 1920, Hunter McMickin married Hild Bruning who worked in the hotel. In 1928, Mrs. McMickin sold the Goodwater Hotel and moved to California, where she died at the age of 95. Source

Gravelbourg

 

Hotel (probably the Cecil), c. 1920. Note the "honey wagon" at rear. Source

The Cecil Hotel was destroyed by fire in 1926. The owner, Mrs. Larochelle, had made a fire on the kitchen stove to heat some water to do some washing. She then went upstairs to clean rooms when she discovered the fire in the kitchen. She escaped the hotel with only her clothes. The hotel was reduced to ashes in about an hour's time. Source

Guernsey

 

Hotel Guernsey in background, n.d. Source

 

Gull Lake

 

The Lakeview and the Clarendon hotels, c. 1910. Source

Clarendon Hotel, 1915. Source

Lakeview Hotel, c. 1910.

The three-storey Lakeview hotel and the two-storey Clarendon Hotel were both built in 1906. The Lakeview, built by John Rushford, housed a bar, a barber shop, a dining room, and - for a short time - a branch of the Union Bank. Bert Jacobs built the Clarendon, which also had a bar. The Lakeview Hotel burned down in June of 1921 at 3:00 in the morning, half an hour after a dance had ended in the hall on the main floor of the hotel. Source

 

Hanley

 

Saskatchewan Hotel, c. 1910. Source

 

Saskatchewan Hotel, 1908, Source

The Saskatchewan Hotel in Hanley was built by John James Mitchell between 1905 and 1908. The hotel suffered from neglect during Prohibition years, but was revived under the ownership of Herbert G. Budd from 1928 to 1944. The third storey of this hotel was removed in 1970.

Hawarden

Hawarden Hotel on right, c. 1915. Source

John Van Leary built the hotel in Hawarden in 1909. It was origially called the Mary Edger Hotel. Van Leary died in 1910, and his wife Lena remarried Harry Crompton. Harry was killed overseas in 1916 while fighting with the Canadian Armed Forces during the First World War. Twice widowed, Lena continued to live in the Hawarden Hotel until 1956, when she went into a nursing home. She died in 1962 at age 92. The hotel building was sold to Mr.and Mrs. T. Riley in 1960, and burned down shortly afterwards.

Hazenmore

Vendome Hotel, c. 1912. source

Hughton

Hughton in about 1914. Source

Hughton Hotel, c 1915. Source

Imperial

Imperial Hotel, c. 1912. Source

The hotel in Imperial was built in 1910 by Harry Webster and Jack Davey. According to the Imperial local history book, the hotel was comfortable with carpet - green with pink cabbage roses - on the stairs and in the living room, and velvet curtains at the windows. There were challenges to operating the Imperial Hotel, including "boisterous and noisy railroad workers," inexperienced help, and, most troublesome, "the attractive, well-dressed ladies that seemed to appear at mealtime, climb the open stair, and draw a large male crowd in the evening." Source, p.375.

Ituna

Carlton Hotel, 1912. Source

The 40-room Carlton Hotel was built at Ituna in 1908 by either T. P. Jenner, a builder and contractor, or Frank X. Poitras, general merchant. This hotel was destroyed by fire in 1926.

©Joan Champ, 2015

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.