COLUMN: Carillon Flashback July 7, 1976 – Steinbach Tourist Hotel disappears from Main
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One of Steinbach’s best known buildings literally vanished from sight within a week, as crews demolished and trucked away the remains of the Tourist Hotel on Main Street.
It took three days to break down the sprawling two-storey wooden structure using a large backhoe and bulldozer, with every move being watched by dozens of spectators, among them many old-timers, who had spent many a day in the men’s only beer parlour, or perhaps an evening or two in the dining room, before a meeting of town council, the chamber of commerce or the local service club.
The hotel, which finally closed its doors late last year, after more than 60 years of service, was torn down to create parking space for the new shopping centre under construction at the rear of the property, which is scheduled to open Nov. 1.
The Tourist Hotel building was owned by the Peters family since shortly after 1912, when the first portions of the building were constructed. It was operated for the longest time by brothers Jac, Pete and Cliff, as well as a sister. Featuring hotel rooms, a dining room and a men’s beer parlor, the complex was the first and only hotel Steinbach has ever had. The beer parlor equally enjoyed a monopoly, and, in fact, the town went dry when the parlor closed last September, when the new motor hotel opened just outside the community.
Jac Peters was the principal operator of the hotel and a barber shop just off the lobby for more than five decades. He said a vote held in town in 1927 passed a liquor referendum with a good majority and the beer parlor opened its doors. It enjoyed a steady flow of customers even at that time, Mr Peters recalled, and easily survived several attempts by community churches to close it down.
In 1947, a major addition and renovation project was undertaken. The hotel, which until then had been two separate buildings, connected by a walkway, was joined in the centre with the addition becoming the lounge and dining room. At the same time, the beer parlor was moved to the northwest ground-level area.
It is interesting to note that while a liquor vote passed in 1927, a referendum three years ago to bring mixed drinking to Steinbach failed, and was responsible for the new hotel having to be built outside town limits.
Before that, the hotel owners had weathered the storm of any number of liquor referendums over the years.
One of the most vigorous campaigns in opposition was in 1950, when radio pastor Gerhard Splinter of Jamestown, North Dakota, spoke at a temperance rally held in the Gospel Tabernacle in Steinbach a week before the vote. He urged the people of Steinbach to throw the beer parlor out of town.
“Throw the beer parlor out of town and then you are not responsible for what goes on outside town limits.”
His words were of no avail and the “Yes” vote again carried by a large margin. More than 25 years later, in 1973, it was a different story.
The hotel and property were sold to Alvin and Marlene Frantz in October, 1972. The new owner intended to build a new motor hotel behind the old hotel building. The results of referendum in the spring of 1973 scuttled those plans and the hotel was sold to a local consortium, which proposed to replace the landmark with a downtown shopping centre.
The building served as a rooming house from last fall until this spring.
An auction sale earlier this month of items salvaged from the old Tourist Hotel building cleared the way for demolition of the building this week.
Nearly 1,000 articles including everything from doors to dressers were sold to the highest bidder. The size of the auction crowd swelled to over 300 at times and one of the property owners estimated as many as 800 people had attended.
Meanwhile, construction on the proposed shopping centre behind the Main Street building is progressing rapidly, and with the walls completed, work on the roof started this week. The shopping centre should be completed in three months and leases for space are currently being negotiated.