​​What remains of the first Kaslo Hotel

Several different buildings have been called the Kaslo Hotel. The first was built probably in 1894, greatly expanded in 1896 and again in 1897, then mostly but not entirely demolished in 1946-47. The second was built in 1958, renamed the Mariner Inn sometime between 1976 and 1978, and closed in 2006. It was then completely rebuilt over the next three years and when it reopened, it was once again called the Kaslo Hotel. The third hotel has the same footprint as the second one, but with an additional storey.

I had long thought all three hotels were on the exact same spot on Front Street, but that’s not quite so. What’s more, part of the first hotel still stands. I’m indebted to Darlene Smith for helping me wrap my head around this, because it’s pretty confusing. Turns out part of the original hotel complex escaped demolition. Then, immediately to the west, a new building was constructed. Later, another building was constructed further west that now uses the same name as the original building, although it is disconnected from the remaining original part!

Bear with me as I try to explain.

Dapper gentlemen show off impressive hats and fulsome mustaches to an aspiring basketball player outside the Kaslo Hotel, circa 1890s or 1900s. (Greg Nesteroff collection)

The first Kaslo Hotel, or Hotel Kaslo, was supposed to go on a different spot entirely. The Vancouver Daily World of March 27, 1893 indicated that property had been reserved “for the erection of the new Hotel Kaslo,” while the Nanaimo Daily News added on April 13 of that year that “Eight lots have been sold in Block 19 for Hotel Kaslo.” 

Block 19 is bounded by Second and Third Streets and B and D Avenues. The prospective owners or proprietors weren’t identified. I haven’t looked into it deeply, but if the hotel was ever built, it must have ended up with a different name. It’s also possible some of these references were getting mixed up with the Hotel Slocan, which opened in April 1893 on Block 10, where the Mohawk station is today.

The original Kaslo Hotel was instead built on Front Street. Its murky origins might one day be clarified by more concentrated reading of the early Kaslo newspapers, but from what I can tell, the hotel started on Block 2, Lot 15 as a two-and-a-half storey building with a peaked roof, balcony, and second-storey awning, set back from the street.

Tax records show Lot 15 belonged to Annie Cockle (nee Kellett), who married J. William Cockle in late 1894. Between April 11 and June 27, 1895, she advertised herself as the proprietor of the Kaslo Dining Rooms on Front Street, so I presume her restaurant was in the building on her lot. I don’t know when it was constructed, but 1894 seems like a good guess.

Ad from the Kaslo Prospector, April 11, 1895

Another thing I don’t know is if this building was also a hotel from the get-go or if the restaurant was only turned into a hotel later. The earliest hotel ad I can find is from The Kootenaian of June 13, 1896, which referred to the building as The Kaslo, J.W. Cockle, proprietor. Rooms were $2 per day and an ad promised “The most comfortable rooms and the best board in the city.”

Ad from the The Kootenaian, Aug. 8, 1896

If he hadn’t already done so, Cockle soon took on W. Vidler Papworth as a partner. In August 1896, they began building a three-storey addition on Lot 14. I could find very little about its construction, which might just reflect the fact that several editions of The Kootenaian are missing. But the building was said to have cost “several thousand dollars” and was heated with hot air from a basement furnace, considered a big deal at the time. The newspaper added: “The building is well designed; it has cozy parlors, a splendid dining room, large comfortable office, waiting rooms, sample rooms, etc.”

The expanded hotel opened in November 1896 with a housewarming party that included a grand march led by the Cockles and music provided by a Sandon orchestra. With the opening of the new portion of the hotel, the old hotel portion became an annex.

Cockle and Papworth soon had further expansion plans. The Kootenaian of April 2, 1897 said the partners were “putting in the foundation for a large addition,” to measure “25x100 with grand stairway, bar room and hall, the latter 25x65 on ground.” The upper storey was to have 26 more rooms.

The second three-storey hotel section went up on Lot 13. It was a virtual twin to the first addition, except that it extended back to cover the entire lot, whereas the section on Lot 14 did not. Both buildings were wooden, but photos show brick veneer between the windows on the ground floor as well as around the windows on the second and third floors.

The single-storey saloon and billiard room was on Lot 12 and originally took up two-thirds of the lot, but was subsequently extended to the full length of the lot. The latest additions opened in early July 1897 in what the British Columbia News called “one of the pleasantest affairs in the social history of Kaslo.” Supper was served in the dining room and an orchestra played in the hotel’s new ball room until 3 a.m.

British Columbia News, Nov. 12, 1897

The Kaslo Hotel, circa 1890s, looking northeast. The original hotel is at far left, the 1896 addition is next to it, along with the 1897 additions to the right. (Kootenay Lake Historical Society 988-040-0473)

The “Kaslo House Hotel” as seen on the fire insurance map of 1908.

A curious thing about the saloon: in the first image seen below, its entrance is in the middle. But in the second image, the entrance is on the right and the building now has brick veneer on its east side, presumably as fire separation, as well as a brick veneer column on the front. So was the saloon completely rebuilt or just radically overhauled? I don’t know. But it’s this part that is still standing, as we shall soon see.

The Kaslo fire department races down Front Street with its hose reel, presumably as part of a competition. The four sections of the Kaslo Hotel are seen behind them. (Courtesy MaBel Collins)

The Kaslo Hotel as seen in the booklet Health and Wealth Kaslo, published circa 1899-1900. The previous photo was also reproduced in this booklet. (Royal BC Museum and Archives D-00615)

A sharper but damaged version of the previous photo. (Kootenay Lake Historical Society 988-040-0472)

Cockle and Papworth ran the business for many years. In early 1914, rumour had it that Owen (The Big Kid) Desmond, of the Club saloon, had an option to buy the hotel. However, The Kootenaian cryptically reported that “certain differences … must be settled between Cockle and Papworth before the place is to be turned over.”

Instead, a deal was completed in July 1915 to sell the hotel to P.H. Walsh and D.P. Haydon. Walsh was the former superintendent of the Kaslo and Slocan Railway and had previously held an interest in a bakery. Haydon was a former steward on the SS Kokanee and planned to look after the dining room. Druggist Frank T. Abey helped broker the deal, but denied suggestions that he had a financial interest in the property.

Cockle and Papworth sold the hotel’s furniture, fixings, and pool tables to the new owners, but Walsh and Haydon actually acquired the building and its license from the Dominion Permanent Loan Co., suggesting Cockle and Papworth had run into cash flow problems. By now, Papworth was no longer actively involved in the hotel’s management. He went on to become city clerk and mayor.

Haydon moved to Nova Scotia in late 1915, but Walsh continued to run the hotel at least through November 1916, while Desmond took over the bar and pool room as of September 1916. However, it appears the building reverted back to Cockle and Papworth. They then lost a lawsuit in 1918 to James Spiers, the details of which are not known, which resulted in the hotel’s contents being auctioned off at a sheriff’s sale.

Nelson Daily News, March 11, 1918

According to The Kootenaian of March 21, 1918, the highest price paid was for an English billiard table, which Desmond bought for $275. Desmond seems to have acquired more than just the table, for he was listed in the 1918 and 1919 civic directories as the hotel’s proprietor. The hotel was not listed thereafter, but from 1920-41, Desmond was identified as running a billiard hall and cigar stand, or “hotel and billiards.” Ads from 1932-33 called his business the Kaslo Billiard Hall. I can’t swear that he was operating in the hotel’s old saloon that whole time, but it seems likely.

The Kaslo Hotel, circa 1920s or ‘30s, starting to look a bit forlorn. The oldest portion, on the left, has lost its balcony. (Greg Nesteroff collection)

Owen Desmond died in September 1941, age 71, having spent several decades in Kaslo. The billiards equipment was then offered for sale again, including two pool tables, a 16 foot by five foot bevel plate glass mirror, and a solid oak bar counter. The asking price for the whole works was $500. I don’t know if these were some of the same items that had previously been auctioned off in 1918, nor I don’t know who bought them.

Vancouver Province, Nov. 10, 1941

In 1942, the BC Security Commission took a lease on the building to house interned Japanese Canadians. I don’t know how many people lived there, but Kuri Takenaka recalled she was part of the first group to arrive that May: “I had a 30-day old baby … I just went into my room at the Kaslo Hotel with my baby. It was a bunk bed. I don’t think at that time it had any mattress. Just hay.”  

Tragedy occurred that September, when one of the occupants, four-year-old Masuye Kitagawa, fell from a third storey window and died. The New Canadian of Sept. 12, 1942 said she had been “peering at workers fixing the dormitories below.” This was reportedly the second such accident in the building, but I have never found details of the first.

A Buddhist group in front of the Kaslo Hotel, 1944. (Kootenay Lake Archives 995-002-005)

Most of the hotel was torn down over the winter of 1946-47 by two former internees, Sotojiro Kitagawa — the father of the little girl who fell to her death — and a Mr. Furukawa. (Some sources incorrectly state the hotel burned down.) According to The New Canadian of May 31, 1947, an unidentified man had bought the property with plans to build a new hotel there but wasn’t able to secure the materials. So Lots 13-15 remained vacant.

In 1952, the Bank of Montreal put up a one-storey building on Lot 13, which today is Coldwell Banker real estate and Gadicke-Minichiello-Carr chartered accountants. The second Kaslo Hotel was then built in 1958, west of the original hotel, on Lots 14-16 (or maybe 14-17 — they have since been consolidated, so it’s hard to tell). 

The old saloon/pool hall from the first Kaslo Hotel on Lot 12 remained standing when the rest of the building was torn down, perhaps due to its brick veneer, or maybe because it was in better shape than the rest. In 1947, the building became the Kaslo Drug Store, G.M. Doan, proprietor. The facade was substantially altered, as seen below. Doan sold the business to G. Thompson of Victoria in 1956.

Nelson Daily News, Jan. 26, 1952

Darlene Smith recalls the building subsequently became a hardware store, where Laura LaBelle Hewat ran the cash register. In 1958, Bill Kerby established the Kaslo Community Church and turned the building into Faith Chapel, which it remained through the 1960s. According to Debra Barrett in Heritage Homes and Buildings of Kaslo, at various times the building was also a doctor’s office and a photo studio, but Barrett didn’t give any names or dates.

Smith remembers Grace Metheny operating a health food/bulk foods store there in the 1970s. It was also a flower shop at some point before being turned into Cornucopia, a health food store, in 1991 or 1992. At that point a modern brick facade and shingled awning were added. The store is now numbered 422 Front.

Inside Cornucopia, a couple of before-and-after pictures of the facade can be found.

Cornucopia has a modern brick veneer on the front. Its status as the only surviving section of the original Kaslo Hotel, not well known to begin with, is further obscured by the office building (left) that stands between it and the current hotel. Another building, the Kaslo Laundromat, was built adjacent to it in 1964.

Cornucopia still has brick veneer on its east wall, dating back to the 1890s.