Alberta photographers doc historical past, character of previous Western Canadian lodge taverns

Small-town lodge taverns that when served as the social centres of their communities are the topic of an ongoing undertaking by a crew of Alberta photographers and historians, who’re working to doc the institutions earlier than they vanish.

The Beer Parlour Project options the tales of lodge taverns instructed utilizing movie and digital pictures, and interviews with the homeowners and patrons that inform on-line write-ups aiming to seize the companies’ atmosphere and character. Since 2022, Chris Doering, Connie Biggart, and Rob and Margarit Pohl have travelled round Western Canada to doc 33 lodges.

Doering and Rob Pohl, who’re from Calgary and Edmonton respectively, got here up with the concept in 2019, whereas already taking pictures pictures of historic websites in small cities. When they stopped in for lunch at a lodge bar, they acknowledged the historical past of the constructing round them, and envisioned an artwork undertaking masking the historical past of those companies.

“We think the history of these old places is important because they’re disappearing,” mentioned Rob Pohl.

“For every hotel that we visit, there’s probably three in the general area that have burned down, been torn down, shut down or are for sale. And it’s just an opportunity to get in and experience what it once was, and the people that still patronize it.”

The record of lodges the crew has documented round Alberta already contains the Stettler Hotel, the Tofield Hotel, the Grand Hotel in Rimbey, the Greenhill Hotel in Blairmore and the Grand Union Hotel in Coleman. 

The undertaking has additionally included lodges in different provinces visiting Coleville, Limerick and Unity in Saskatchewan, and Fanny Bay and Hosmer in British Columbia.

A small-town lodge was typically the very first thing new guests and residents would see upon arriving to a brand new neighborhood, typically additionally serving as a social centre.

“It’s for people to get together, be very comfortable in their environment, chat with anybody who happens to be there, learn local gossip,” mentioned Doering.

Along with aiming to seize the historical past and previous tales of the institutions they go to, Doering mentioned they’re additionally generally in a position to see hidden secrets and techniques from a lodge’s previous. He mentioned they’ve discovered previous messages written on partitions, and forgotten love letters written to a lodge proprietor many years in the past.

Pohl and Doering famous the urgency they really feel from this work earlier than extra previous lodges shut, as these companies are already turning into few and much between. Even a few of the lodges they’ve already documented have since shut down in the previous couple of years.

“That’s where that history is disappearing,” mentioned Pohl. “We want to be able to talk to the older crowd that still hangs around in these places and get the stories of the time the guy rode a horse into the bar, and the ghost in room number seven upstairs.”

Looking forward, the crew envisions constructing an archive of round 100 lodges within the Beer Parlour Project, and previous that, doubtlessly turning their pictures and analysis right into a gallery exhibition touring Western Canadian venues, or a espresso desk guide that compiles their work.

The native historical past of those previous companies is not at all times within the forefront of individuals’s minds, Doering mentioned, however he hopes the undertaking’s work stirs up recollections for individuals who’ve stopped in to go to or dine at an previous tavern in a small city through the years.

“They were such an important part of the community,” mentioned Doering. “One by one, they’re going away.”