Hotels

Tomorrow will be the first Brown Bag History talk for the Fall season. I will be talking about some of Revelstoke's hotels, starting with the Columbia House, the first hotel in Revelstoke. Columbia House was at the north end of Front Street, on the right hand corner closest to the river bank when you are coming across from Big Eddy on the old bridge. By the end of 1885, there were several hotels on Front Street, some of them little more than tents. The Stockholm House, that later became the Oriental, started out as a frame building with a large bar downstairs and a "ram pasture" upstairs. A ram pasture was nothing more than a large room with a bare floor and bedrolls. The men would find a spot on the floor and roll out their blankets. You wouldn't find any women or refined gentlemen staying there!

After a few years, four main hotels dominated Front Street: The Columbia House, Victoria, Central and Oriental. They were large hotels and after a while they developed their kitchens as well and served fine meals. Some guests were regular residents, especially the miners, who would spend most of the winter months living in one of the hotels. One of the main reasons to run a hotel was to acquire a liquor licence, and that was also a major aspect of hotel operations.

By the early 1890s, with the shift of the downtown to the area close to the CPR station, hotels were being built in that part of town. The first was the Union Hotel, where Home Hardware is now. One of the most well-remembered old hotels was the King Edward, which stood on Second Street behind City Hall until it burned down in 1995. The original hotel was built at that site in 1897, and it was renovated several times until 1910, when it was faced with brick and cement block, and a turret was added to it. The switchboard from the King Edward Hotel is now on display in the museum.

Join us for the talk tomorrow to hear more about Revelstoke's hotels and some of the interesting stories associated with them, including arson, murder, tarantulas and monkeys!