Alberta photographers document history, character of old Western Canadian hotel taverns

Small-town hotel taverns that once served as the social centres of their communities are the subject of an ongoing project by a team of Alberta photographers and historians, who are working to document the establishments before they vanish.

The Beer Parlour Project features the stories of hotel taverns told using film and digital photography, and interviews with the owners and patrons that inform online write-ups aiming to capture the businesses' ambience and character. Since 2022, Chris Doering, Connie Biggart, and Rob and Margarit Pohl have travelled around Western Canada to document 33 hotels.

Doering and Rob Pohl, who are from Calgary and Edmonton respectively, came up with the idea in 2019, while already shooting photos of historic sites in small towns. When they stopped in for lunch at a hotel bar, they recognized the history of the building around them, and envisioned an art project covering the history of these businesses.

"We think the history of these old places is important because they're disappearing," said 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 list of hotels the team has documented around Alberta already includes the Stettler Hotel, the Tofield Hotel, the Grand Hotel in Rimbey, the Greenhill Hotel in Blairmore and the Grand Union Hotel in Coleman. 

The project has also included hotels in other provinces visiting Coleville, Limerick and Unity in Saskatchewan, and Fanny Bay and Hosmer in British Columbia.

A small-town hotel was often the first thing new visitors and residents would see upon arriving to a new community, often also 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," said Doering.

Along with aiming to capture the history and old stories of the establishments they visit, Doering said they're also sometimes able to see hidden secrets from a hotel's past. He said they've found old messages written on walls, and forgotten love letters written to a hotel owner decades ago.

Pohl and Doering noted the urgency they feel from this work before more old hotels close, as these businesses are already becoming few and far between. Even some of the hotels they've already documented have since shut down in the last few years.

"That's where that history is disappearing," said 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 ahead, the team envisions building an archive of around 100 hotels in the Beer Parlour Project, and past that, potentially turning their photos and research into a gallery exhibition touring Western Canadian venues, or a coffee table book that compiles their work.

The local history of these old businesses isn't always in the forefront of people's minds, Doering said, but he hopes the project's work stirs up memories for people who've stopped in to visit or dine at an old tavern in a small town over the years.

"They were such an important part of the community," said Doering. "One by one, they're going away."