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.

The Viability of Saskatchewan's Rural Hotels

Snowmobilers stop for a brew at the Pioneer Hotel in Wiseton (pop. 96), 2006. Joan Champ photo

While hotels are one of the oldest and most common forms of business enterprise in small-town Saskatchewan, today, in most cases, they are hotels in name only. They do not rely on room rental for revenue. The rural hotel business is all about the beverage room. The sale of alcohol – mainly beer – is the primary source of annual operating revenues – or at least it was until the introduction of video lottery terminals (VLTs) in 1993.

VLTs at the end of the bar, Delisle Hotel, May 2011. Joan Champ photo

Since the 1970s, beverage rooms have been continuously renovated. Steak pits and other amenities have been added, and a wide variety of entertainment – shuffleboard tables, pool tables, karaoke machines and live bands – have been featured in bars across the province. In 1993, the VLT program was introduced, providing an additional source of entertainment – and revenue – for liquor-permitted hotels in rural communities.

Typical rural hotel room

Up until recently, small-town hotels needed to have a minimum number of guest rooms in order to qualify for a liquor license. In 1987, according to Sean Kenny’s report on the viability of rural hotels for the Saskatchewan Liquor Board, licensed hotels in communities with less than 200 taxpayers had to have a minimum of seven rooms. Even at that, the hotels in these small towns had an occupancy rate of only 10 percent. Kenny estimated that only about two (2) percent of total rural hotel revenue came from the provision of accommodation. (Sean Kenny, “Viability Study of the Rural Hotel Industry in Saskatchewan; Project Report.” Regina: Saskatchewan Liquor Board, August 31, 1987, p.10)  

"Please go to bar next door for room rentals, thank you!" Sign in the lobby of the Delisle Hotel, May 2011. Joan Champ photo

 

On June 22, 1988, Graham Taylor, Saskatchewan’s Minister of Tourism and Small Business, told the Saskatchewan Legislature that he did not think it was necessary for rural hotels to have rooms. “The day of the rooms in the rural hotel, I think, in many cases has somewhat passed,” Taylor said, “and therefore it may be an advantage to hoteliers to not have it [the liquor license] tied entirely to rooms.” (Hansard, Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly, June 22, 1988) 

Room at the Delisle Hotel, May 2011. Joan Champ photo

As recently as 2009. the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority’s “Commercial Liquor Permittee Policy Manual” stated that, to qualify for a beverage room license, a hotel in a rural community had to have a minimum of six guest rooms.  

On November 20, 2012, the Saskatchewan Party government unveiled sweeping changes to the provincial liquor laws and regulations that put rural hotels at risk. The list of 70 changes that came into effect in the spring of 2013 included the elimination of a minimum guest room requirement. In the words of Murray Mandryk, columnist for the Regina Leader-Post, “We're finally dispensing with the quaint prairie notion that only rural hotels with rooms (regardless of how dilapidated) should be allowed to sell off-sale.” (November 12, 2012) 

One of the 70 changes included “allowing strip-tease performances and wet clothing contests in adult-only liquor-permitted premises.” The first venue in the province to feature strip-tease entertainment was the bar in the hotel at Codette, a village 260 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon. After the first stripper show was held at the Codette Hotel and Bar on January 2, 2014, owner Bryan Baraniski told the Saskatoon StarPhoenix it was a success. “We had a full house. Everyone had a good time,” he said. “It’s just a different sort of entertainment. We used to bring in bands and now we’re bringing strippers instead of bands.”

Codette Hotel’s stripper shows were short-lived. On March 25, 2015, Brad Wall, Premier of Saskatchewan, announced that the government had made a mistake when it allowed licensed strip clubs in the province and reversed that decision. “If by this decision we have inadvertently allowed for even a marginal increase in the chance for human trafficking, it’s the wrong decision,” Wall told the Regina Leader-Post. 

Of greatest concern for rural hoteliers, however, was and is the new regulation that allows businesses other than hotels to obtain a license to operate off-sale liquor outlets. Of all the changes, this one has the most potential to cause the demise of small-town Saskatchewan hotels – businesses critical to many rural communities. Sustained largely by beverage room revenues including VLT income, most of Saskatchewan’s small-town hotels are now just a shadow of their former glory days.

Budget Rooms - Daily, Weekly, Monthly - at Melville's Waverley Hotel, June 2006. Joan Champ photo

 

© Joan Champ 2019