lost dev i c e s david murray
left: curious device found in the demolition of the 1907 Pendennis Hotel. below, clockwise: 1904-10 Pendennis Hotel, Jasper Avenue, Edmonton Alberta The 1911 expanded Pendennis Hotel. The updated hotel displayed a large wall sign that declared that the Pendennis offered the American Plan, All Modern Conveniences, N.Bell Prop. The American Plan refers to a plan that offers a hotel rate which includes accommodation, breakfast, lunch and dinner. The Pendennis Buffet A postcard taken on the first floor balcony Da v i d M u r r ay
I would like to tell a story about eating sweet BC cherries on a July day in the early 1900s in the restaurant/buffet of the Pendennis Hotel on Jasper Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta. It is a quintessential Canadian story that illuminates our long-standing commercial relationship with the United States. The tool that we found during the interior demolition of the hotel has taken me on a journey that involves a prominent inventor in Antrim, New Hampshire, the 6th Earl of Aberdeen, the Canadian Pacific Railway, the fruit growing industry in British Columbia and an ambitious Edmonton entrepreneur. So much story for such a small, strange object. In the 1890s, Edmonton was a destination for gold panning in the North Saskatchewan River and a departure point for the Klondike gold rush via the Klondike Trail overland to the Yukon. By 1900 the gold rush was waning but Alberta was open for settlers. When Edmonton became the capital of the new province of Alberta in 1905, an influx of immigrants and visitors were accommodated in new and old hotels, including a wood-framed building on Jasper Avenue at the east end of the downtown, built in the 1890s and known as the California rooming house. By 1904 it had become the Pendennis Hotel, in 1907 Nathan Bell became the manager and by 1908 he owned it. In 1911, he bought the adjacent property and doubled the size of the hotel — a significant improvement, with a brick façade and new rooms designed by Lang, Major and Company. Instead of demolishing the 1904 hotel, it was simply incorporated into the new building behind a new Edwardian façade. Provincia l Aa rchives o f A l be rta B 4327
E A E r ne s t B r ow n C o lle c t io n
42 on site review 39: Tools
