The Jasper House (Hub) Hotel
9688 Jasper Avenue
Constructed: 1882/84, 1907, 1910, 1940, 1950, 1958
Architects: William West (1882/84), Roland Lines (1907/10), Rule & Wynn (1940), Patrick Campbell-Hope (1950)
James Goodridge, a Vaughan, Ontario-born pioneer, hunter, and hotelier, started construction on the Jasper House Hotel in 1882, replacing an earlier wood-frame inn he opened the year prior.
Work began that spring, with bricklaying following in late-June. The cladding choice, besides being a practical construction material, served an advertising purpose. When Jasper House opened in August, it became the first brick-built building between Winnipeg and Vancouver. Goodridge played that up; one ad read “Jasper House: North side of Main Street. The only brick building in Edmonton. First class weekly and daily board at reasonable rates.” It remained Edmonton’s only all-brick structure for nine years. An addition, added in 1884, “expanded it to almost twice its original width to accommodate the expanding patronage it was receiving.”
Elected to Town Council in 1892 and 1893, James helped create Edmonton’s Police and Fire Departments, as well as the Public School Board, and was an active member of both the International Order of Odd Fellows and Edmonton Old Timers Association. Health complications took him early — he died on Tuesday, March 13th, 1900, at the age of forty-eight. The Edmonton Bulletin eulogized him as “one of the best known pioneers in the district.” His funeral procession “was one of the largest ever seen in the town.”
Ownership of the Jasper House passed onto James’ wife Susan, but their son, Leonard A. Goodridge, soon took over the day-to-day operations of the hotel. In 1907, dealing with increased demand, he commissioned another expansion, this time designed by local architect Roland Lines. A third storey, pressed-tin cornice, and refaced street-front facade gave the old building an air of dignity. Lines came back for another expansion in 1910, but Leonard sold the property, “with title for $55,000,” shortly afterwards to W.G. Girvan. He used the money to finance the construction of his own building on the lot next-door: the Goodridge Block. Girvan himself quickly resold the building to J.E. Mireauit for $100,000.
A fair share of interesting stories came from this era. The following report graced the pages of the Edmonton Journal in 1911:
“Labouring under the delusion that somebody had him marked for slaughter, and that within a short time he would be killed unless he put up a bold fight, Augustus Leque, aged 70 years, defied the attaches of Jasper House about midnight to send him to the hospital, and when the emergency ambulance from No.2 fire hall reminded to a call sent in from the hotel, the old man barricaded the door of his room in the annex of the Jasper House, with chairs and his bed, and informed the emergency ambulance drivers that if they attempted to enter his room he would kill them.
The ambulance returned to the fire hall, and the police were summoned. The old man defied everyone but the police, and emphasized his words by throwing a heavy missile at the door of his room. He was finally cajoled into opening his door, and Sergeant Haig led the old man back to the office of the Jasper House, where the ambulance was again summoned.”
Taken to hospital, Leque, in the words of the Journal, hoped “death will overtake him after being alone on his homestead for three years.”
Another incident occurred only twelve days later — Jasper House started to collapse. “A report of a crack was heard in the northeast corner of the building,” the Journal said, as “it was seen that the whole northwest half of the building was slowly but steadily falling.” The excavation of ex-owner Leonard Goodridge’s new building next door, Jasper House encroaching on his property-line, and rain the night prior were all to blame.
As workers dug earth for Goodridge’s foundation, his old hotel — the whole building — began to “dangerously totter” as its walls pulled towards the new vacuum. “The foundation at the northeast corner… spread out, a large section of the brick wall [fell] away, several big cracks [became] visible and [extended] from the the top of the building to the basement.” Inside, “the glass window in the rear of the building broke and plaster fell from the ceilings.” A crowd formed to watch the impending catastrophe. Quick thinking on the part of Leonard’s contractors saved Jasper House — heavy timbers laying around the site propped-up the slouching wall. They held and disaster was narrowly averted.
Some five new owners came-and-went in the decades following, and with each came a slew of new modifications and renovations. So altered is James’ original building, that a 1974 heritage report opined that “there is not much of the Jasper House left in the present building and the building is so far removed from the original as is to be considered a different one.” The hotel’s current appearance largely dates to a 1940 alteration designed by local firm Rule & Wynn. More changes followed in 1950 and 1958.
Although it’s a far cry from James Goodridge's small boomtown hotel, Jasper House remains a tangible link to Edmonton’s earliest days and it stands as one of Alberta’s oldest continuously-operated businesses. While not currently under threat of demolition, this century-and-a-half old hotel is worth watching. It sits in a neighbourhood that, after a half-century of neglect, is finally beginning to gentrify — one has to wonder, with continuing redevelopment pressure, if it will survive.
Photo Gallery:
Sources:
“Local” Edmonton Bulletin, July 1, 1882.
“Jasper House,” Edmonton Bulletin, August 5, 1882.
“Obituary,” Edmonton Bulletin, March 16, 1900.
“Tenders,” Edmonton Journal, June 16, 1910.
“Fearing Death, Defied Police,” Edmonton Journal, September 2, 1911.
“Jasper House Wall Totters on Excavation,” Edmonton Journal, September 15, 1911.
“Jasper House Is In Danger Of Collapse,” Edmonton Bulletin, September 15, 1911.
“$100,000 for Jasper House,” Edmonton Journal, July 23, 1913.
“Hub Hotel, Formerly Empress, Is Opened After Wide Renovations,” Edmonton Journal, April 8, 1940.
“Modernized Hub Hotel Now Offering Fully Up-To-Date Service,” Edmonton Journal, June 13, 1950.
Jac MacDonald, Revamped Facade of Oldest Inn Obscures Storied Past,” Edmonton Journal, March 21, 1986.
Jac MacDonald, Historic Edmonton: An Architectural and Pictorial Guide (Edmonton: Lone Tree Publishing, 1987), 62.
Dorothy Field, Historical Walking Tours of Downtown Edmonton: Explore Our Past…, (City of Edmonton Sustainable Development and Alberta Culture and Tourism: Edmonton, AB, 2015), 59.
