Room at the Inn: Historic Hotels of British Columbia’s Southern Interior

By Glen A. Mofford and Greg Nesteroff

A fully illustrated social history profiling forty historic hotels spread over five regions of the southern interior of British Columbia, covering the time period of the 1890s to 1950s.

Room at the Inn reveals the long-forgotten histories of British Columbia’s early hospitality industry, through the riveting stories of the men and women who built, ran, and frequented hotels, hostelries, resorts, and roadhouses in the southern Interior. From the Similkameen town of Keremeos to Spences Bridge at the confluence of the Thompson and Nicola Rivers, east to the Alberta border along the Trans-Canada Highway, and south to the Canada–US border, the history of these hotels mirrors the history of BC’s mining towns and boom-bust economy of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as waves of prospectors, settlers, and eventually tourists shaped the culture of the province that we know today.

Of the forty historic hotels profiled in this book, all contributed to their communities in various ways. They provided more than just a roof over the heads of weary travellers; they were often the sites of live entertainment, places where community members could meet and socialize. Some even doubled as makeshift hospitals during wildfires and floods. Through colourful anecdotes, meticulous research, and fascinating archival photography, Room at the Inn transports readers to a bygone era and pays tribute to the pioneers, entrepreneurs, and hard-work men and women who built and operated these historic accommodations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Heritage House
• Release date: May 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9781772034240

Glen A. Mofford

Glen A. Mofford is a historian and a writer with a passion for sharing the social history of British Columbia. He holds a degree in history from Simon Fraser University, is the author of two previous books on BC’s historical hotels and their drinking establishments: Along the E&N and Aqua Vitae. For more information, visit raincoasthistory.blogspot.com.

Book preview

Cover: Room at the Inn: Historic Hotels of British Columbia’s Southern Interior by Glen A. Mofford, Foreword by Greg Nesteroff

Room

at the

Inn

Historic Hotels of

British Columbia’s

Southern Interior

Glen A. Mofford

Foreword by Greg Nesteroff

Logo: Heritage House Publishing Company Ltd.

This book is dedicated to my brother, David

Mofford, and my sister-in-law, Evelyn Mofford.

And to my lifelong friend, Selene Higgins

Contents

Publisher’s Note

Foreword

Chapter One

Similkameen, Nicola, Thompson, and Shuswap

Chapter Two

The Okanagan

Chapter Three

Boundary Country

Chapter Four

West Kootenay Part One

Chapter Five

West Kootenay Part Two

Chapter Six

East Kootenay

Afterword

Endnotes

Selected Bibliography

Publisher’s Note

It is important to acknowledge the hotels described in this book operated on the unceded traditional and ancestral territories of a number of Indigenous Peoples, including the Ktunaxa, Nlaka'pamux, Secwépemc, Sinixt, St'át'imc, and Syilx Peoples, who have lived on and been stewards of the land for millennia. Many of the trails and transport routes that connect the different towns and cities mentioned in this book were, and still are, used by Indigenous Peoples as seasonal travel and trade routes. As many of the hotels described were built and operated during times of colonial expansion across the British Columbia, Indigenous Peoples were frequently squeezed into shrinking territories or pushed out entirely to instead provide land for white settlers and homesteaders, mining claims, new towns, and the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Until around the First World War, it was common for many social institutions and businesses to openly adopt policies to only serve white patrons. Even though many of them employed Indigenous, Black, and Asian people among their staff, some hotels and pubs remained inaccessible by people of colour for years, even after the 1920s, until attitudes and social policies changed and became more open and equitable.

Foreword

Communities in bc are sometimes measured in hotels. A long-standing habit in popular history is to evaluate a town’s importance by the number and quality of its hostelries. A fledgling city that boasted many places to stay, dine, and drink must have been very prosperous and significant indeed, or so we are invited to conclude.

They may not have all been palatial, but pioneer hotels were and are a beloved part of our province’s heritage. Aside from their architectural, economic, and historic significance, they contributed to our well being.

They were a welcome respite for weary or thirsty travellers looking to spend the night, particularly in the days when travel was much more difficult and time-consuming. They were local landmarks. They served as community centres before the concept existed. Some may have been very modest, no more than glorified log cabins, while others were lavish, built by owners who spared no expense.

Some survived to the present and continue to function much as they originally did. Many more, however, live on only in memory.

It’s the good times we associate with them, I believe, that makes their histories so compelling.

Glen Mofford, the pre-eminent authority on bc’s frontier hotels and pubs, having written two earlier books about them, chose forty such establishments from the southern interior to profile in these pages. They’re a mix of well-known and obscure. He could have easily picked forty different ones, yet in some ways the overall story would be the same.

Many hotels followed a similar trajectory, beginning with their construction around the turn of the twentieth century by someone hoping to cash in on a mining or railway boom (or enjoying success from that boom).

For a while, the hotel reverberates with dances, banquets, and parties. But it falls on hard times with the outbreak of the First World War and enactment of Prohibition. The long-time proprietor decides to sell.

Business rebounds during the beer parlour era, but a series of additions and modernizations robs the hotel of much of its original charm. During the mid-twentieth century, a dizzying number of owners and managers come and go, each leaving their mark, though not always for the better.

Then one day, perhaps to no one’s surprise, fire claims the building. There may have been numerous close calls leading up to the final big blaze. Overnight, all that community capital goes up in smoke.

A distressing number of pioneer hotels met this fate—a result of a combination of wooden construction, lack of fire codes and standards, and ever-present lit cigarettes—and each year it seems like we lose another.

Some were rebuilt, but many more were not, leaving gaping holes in their towns, physically and psychically. Today they are remembered fondly and wistfully.

Of course, many variations exist on this basic outline, and many stories can be told from within their walls

In addition to the stories of the buildings are the stories of the people who built and ran them. While the proprietors were usually men, you’ll find a few notable exceptions, including a Chinese Canadian woman who ran a hotel in Ashcroft.

Many of these stories have never been told, which is sometimes surprising given how important the hotels were and are to their communities.

This book is a tribute to them. It’s also a tribute to Glen Mofford himself, who died suddenly in February 2022 at the age of sixty-eight, only a few days after completing the manuscript.

It came as a horrible shock to his family and all who knew him. But I’m certain he would have been very pleased to see the book come to fruition.

We’re all better for the efforts he invested in chronicling bc’s historic hotels and pubs. The next time you spend the night or raise a glass in one, you can thank him.

greg nesteroff

January 2023

Chapter One

Similkameen,

Nicola, Thompson,

and Shuswap

Keremeos Hotel

(1907–60)

Keremeos, bc

In 1892, George and Ada Frances Kirby, with their daughters in tow (Violet, aged two, and infant Louise May), emigrated from England to Victoria, British Columbia. Shortly after arriving, they decided to move to Vancouver, into a house they rented on Granville Street. George Kirby had a difficult time finding suitable employment, and after three months of fruitless searches, he accepted the advice of his brother Stanley and moved the family to Okanagan Mission, a small town just south of Kelowna. The Kirbys lived there from 1893 to 1896, adding two more girls to their brood: Marguerite (Rita), born in 1893, and Mildred, in 1895. The following year, George Kirby landed a well-paying job as a bookkeeper for the Stemwinder Mine Company in the bustling Okanagan mining community of Fairview, today a ghost town located just west of Oliver.¹

In 1899, the Kirbys pre-empted land west of Fairview at Shuttle-worth Creek in what was later called Upper Keremeos, signifying that the community was located at a higher elevation compared to subsequent settlements that sprang up nearby. The Kirbys built their home there, and, nearby, George planted an apricot tree in 1901. They also built a general store that contained the post office.² Over the next few years a community grew up around Kirby’s store, including new businesses such as a livery stable, butcher shop, real estate office, blacksmith’s shop, and bakery. The growing town’s future seemed assured until fate stepped in and dealt a blow to the fledgling community and to the Kirby family personally.

Keremeos Hotel, ca. 1930.

image e-03831 courtesy of the royal bc museum

The newest member of the Kirby family was a healthy boy they named George Donavan (Donny). When he was two years old, curious little Donny found some matches and crawled under the front stairs of the Kirby store and began playing with them, starting a fire that soon burned down the family business—but not before little Donny safely escaped. The loss was financially devastating for the Kirbys; as luck would have it, their business insurance had lapsed only a week earlier.³ With the loss of the store and all their merchandise, the Kirbys’ finances were in a desperate state, so they quickly came up with a plan to rebound. They decided to go into the hotel business and scrambled to add a second storey to their home that would operate as a hotel.⁴

George Kirby, an astute businessman and now the postmaster of Upper Keremeos, caught news that the Victoria, Vancouver and Eastern Railway (vv&e), an arm of the Great Northern Railroad, was planning to build a line through from Oroville, Washington, to Hedley, bc, and that the line would pass on the level ground close to the Similkameen River. Kirby wisely purchased a lot at the newest townsite near the railway right-of-way and built the Keremeos Hotel. In 1905, the Kirbys moved to the new location, named Keremeos Centre, only two miles away from Upper Keremeos. Both towns were constructed on the arid flats to the northeast of present-day Keremeos. Keremeos Centre quickly became a mining supply depot and stagecoach stop.⁵ In 1906, the town shifted for the last time by about a half mile to where it is situated today. The vv&e Railway promised a stable future for the town’s inhabitants from the flow of commerce and travellers passing through. As long as the mines continued to produce, there was optimism that the years ahead would be prosperous. By 1906, Upper Keremeos was totally abandoned as the population had moved closer to the railway station. George Kirby was pleased and thankful that his new hotel was located across the street from the new train station and that the struggles of the past few years were over. In fact, business at the hotel over the next seven years would prove excellent as Keremeos came into its own.

The Keremeos Hotel became one of a handful of social centres in town where clubs and businesses held their meetings and where dances and other social functions took place. On one occasion, the Ladies Guild of Keremeos put on a dinner and charity dance at the hotel. A highlight of the evening was when the participants were treated to a comic song sung by their gracious host, George Kirby. Fifty dollars was raised that evening that went to deserving cases.⁶ These were the days before the social safety net protected people, before Old Age pensions, employment insurance, and social assistance. People had to rely on help from charities, trade unions, and organizations like the Salvation Army. George Kirby was very active in community affairs, becoming president of the Keremeos Board of Trade and sitting on the public school board.⁷

In March 1910, a fire broke out in the nearby Alcazar Hotel. The flames travelled down the stovepipe into the bar below, where the fire spread quickly throughout the wood structure and gave only the briefest of time for the staff and guests to grab what they could and flee. By the time the Alcazar was fully engulfed in flames, a water-bucket line had been formed as citizens frantically fought to stop the flames that threatened nearby buildings such as the Innis Brothers stables.⁸

The threat of fire was one thing, but the loss of a child was the worst fear that a parent could endure. On September 12, 1910, the Kirbys’ nineteen-year-old daughter, Louise (Lulu) May, died from diabetes. She left behind her husband, Henry (Mannie) Barcelo, and two sons, aged two years and three months.⁹ Ada Kirby kept busy, trying to keep her mind off the tragic loss of her daughter. She began taking a more active role in the management of the Keremeos Hotel. When George Kirby went away on business, Ada ran the hotel. In the fall of 1912, George Kirby applied to have the hotel licence transferred from his name to Ada’s.

There is some discrepancy as to what happened to George Kirby after that. In May 1913, George and Ada spent about a week at beautiful Banff on a well-deserved holiday. On their return to Keremeos on May 8, they were interviewed by the Hedley newspaper. As George had not been seen in town in weeks, rumour had it he was in the Okanagan drumming up business. The newspaper reporter commented that Mr. George Kirby was, looking fine and as young as ever.¹⁰ Some contemporary articles written about the history of the Keremeos Hotel mention that George Kirby died on May 18, 1913, in Vancouver, bc. But I found this was not the case. The George Kirby who died in Vancouver and the George Kirby that opened and operated the Keremeos Hotel were two different people. Our George Kirby lived a long life and died at his home in Spokane, Washington, in August 1960, at the ripe old age of ninety-three.¹¹ I had wondered why I couldn’t find anything about George Kirby after 1913 and speculated that he and his wife Ada had a falling-out and separated. This is supported by the fact that George left for Oroville, Washington, in 1917 and never returned. Ada Kirby became the sole owner of the Keremeos Hotel. Keremeos resident and former mayor Francis Peck recalls having tea at the Keremeos Hotel: I remember Mrs. Kirby, walking down the street in high boots and old fashioned clothing, with her dogs. My mother and I had many teas with Mrs. Kirby. Peck’s recollections are from the era when the hotel’s main entrance was at the corner of Seventh Street and Veterans Avenue.¹² Ada continued as proprietress of the Keremeos Hotel for the next thirty years. After George had left, around 1917, Ada advertised for a woman to assist in the general duties at the Keremeos Hotel.¹³

In the summer of 1926, a fire destroyed a handful of buildings in Keremeos, including the liquor store. A new location, either in a new building or another existing structure, was needed to house the replacement. Ada suggested that the liquor board lease her spacious pool room in the hotel, and on February 28, 1928, the new liquor outlet in Keremeos opened inside the Keremeos Hotel, to the delight of local and American customers.¹⁴ After the prohibition of alcohol had been repealed in British Columbia in 1920 and the first liquor outlets opened in Victoria and Vancouver in June 1921, service expanded throughout the province. The situation was quite different in the us, where Prohibition was in effect from January 1, 1920, until it was repealed in 1933. But Prohibition didn’t stop the Americans living just across the border from Keremeos from purchasing their fill at the new liquor store.

Having a liquor store inside the hotel was helpful for the bottom line, and with the café and beer parlour (beverage room), business at the Keremeos Hotel was very good. Ada ran simple but effective advertisements on a regular basis in newspapers from the Similkameen to the bc coast that read, Hotel Keremeos—well furnished, comfortable.¹⁵

On the eve of the Second World War in 1939, Ada was in her mid-seventies and, having successfully run the Keremeos Hotel for thirty-two mostly wonderful years, she decided to retire. She put the hotel up for lease, retaining ownership of the only business and home she had known since she and her family had moved from Upper Keremeos in 1906. A parade of proprietors followed from 1940 to 1945: Mr. and Mrs. W.A. Phillips, Mrs. K. Matthews, Mrs. P. Matvonko, and J. Morra.

Ada Frances Kirby passed away in the Penticton Hospital in early September 1944.¹⁶ Her will divided her assets between her three surviving daughters and her son. The Keremeos Hotel was owned by the family until Marguerite Kirby-Coleman sold it in 1946.¹⁷

In February 1946, the town of Keremeos finally received twenty-four-hour telephone service, which was first set up in the lobby of the Keremeos Hotel.¹⁸ Also that month, the hotel had a new owner, Mr. Albert Neilson of Vancouver. It was during Neilson’s tenure that the exterior of the hotel was stuccoed over, giving the hotel a considerably different look.¹⁹ Stucco was very popular from the 1940s to the 1960s. This was the first of many changes that the old hostelry was to go through from 1947 through to the mid-1960s; its facade changed many times. The Keremeos Hotel Ltd. renovated the old hotel in 1951 and put it on the market as a new, modern twenty-nine-room hotel, complete with a large beer parlour with seating for 240 thirsty patrons, a banquet room, dining room, and lunch counter.²⁰ If Ada Kirby were to visit, she wouldn’t recognize the place. Gone was the distinctive tower, and with the clapboard siding stuccoed over back in 1946, the appearance of the hotel was totally changed.

The Keremeos Hotel was no longer a railway hotel but, rather, catered to the car-driving public, a difference that would soon be reflected in the name change to the Keremeos Motor Inn. The business would continue to change over time in both appearance and name until 2014, when a fire put an end to its long and remarkable journey.

Princeton Hotel

(1896–1911, 1912–2006)

Princeton, bc

From Keremeos, we head northwest past the mining town of Hedley, following the Similkameen River west until it meets with the Tulameen River at Princeton. Today it is about a thirty-minute drive between the two communities along bc Highway 3. On the banks of the Tulameen is an outcropping of red ochre, prized by the local Smelqmix People for face paint, which prompted the early white settlement to be called Vermillion Forks.²¹ It was also known as Allison, named for J.F. Allison, who owned a large ranch a mile out of town. Forbes George Vernon reserved an area of land, about a square mile below the forks of the river, on the trail that is now Old Hedley Road, and called it Princeton.²²

Prospector and all-around colourful character James (Jim) Wallace had visited Princeton regularly from his modest saloon at Granite Creek (also known as Granite City), a new community approximately eighteen kilometres west along the Tulameen River from Princeton, near present-day Coalmont, that saw a gold rush take place in 1885. Wallace was one of the first to build a makeshift saloon at Granite Creek during the madness of that gold rush. Gold was first discovered on Granite Creek by prospector Johnny Chance, who stumbled across placer gold nuggets on the bedrock of the Tulameen. As word got out of the find, a stampede of men poured into the valley with dreams of striking it big.²³ By the spring of 1886, five hundred men, a mix of European and Chinese ethnicities, turned the once-quiet creek into a hive of activity. A gold-mining town was erected that included nine general stores and fourteen hotels, along with other businesses.²⁴ Jim Wallace decided to open a hotel at Princeton that would be close to his saloon at Granite Creek and was looking for contractors to build it. The structure was to be 30 × 60 feet of modern build and first-class finish. Wallace had the liquor licence approved before shovels went into the ground.²⁵ Born in Wesley, Ontario, on August 10, 1850, Wallace eventually came west, settling for a time in San Francisco before moving to Victoria, bc. He had the means to follow his dreams and spent much of his time prospecting for gold, which took him on adventures to the Yale district, the Cariboo, and Nicola before settling at Granite Creek in time for their gold rush.²⁶

The Princeton Hotel cost $10,000 to build and was the first hotel in the growing town during the summer of 1896.²⁷ Wallace was an affable proprietor who enjoyed hosting Saturday night dances at his new hotel. Everyone was welcome to drop in and dance to live music, gorge down delicious and plentiful dinners, and consume the wide variety of spirits and other beverages on offer at very reasonable prices. Brave souls usually well into their cups were invited to partake in consuming a concoction named Wallace’s Best, which came with a warning to not overindulge. Imbibing the smallest amount of Wallace’s elixir miraculously gave those who would normally never dance the ability to dance like a damn fool and did wonders for their confidence. Drinkers of this intoxicating beverage woke the following day with a big head but mercifully had no recollection of the tomfoolery they displayed in front of family and friends the night before. Saturday night dances became very popular as folks could blow off a little steam and enjoy a good time.²⁸ Wallace advertised his hotel in the weekly local newspaper, the Similkameen Star, mentioning his First Class Dining Room and Bar, and adding, No trouble to talk to guests. The Boer War and Fighting Joe’s campaign discussed every night. He would make each ad unique by including a different parting line—for example, Come and hear the phonograph, or, regarding the latest international news, Mongolian sympathisers excluded.²⁹

It was a shock to the citizens of Princeton when they woke on that fateful day in March 1911 to learn that the Princeton Hotel had been destroyed by an early-morning fire. There hadn’t been a fire this big and destructive in town since the Tulameen Hotel and adjoining buildings were destroyed in March 1904. The Prince-ton Hotel fire began very early on a Sunday morning and wasn’t discovered until much later, when thick black smoke came billowing out of the structure. It was with difficulty that guests of the house were aroused, some escaping with only a suit of clothes. Others did not have that luxury as they ran for their lives in their night clothes. Some guests found themselves unable to use the staircase as the flames beat them to it, so they resorted to any means of escape; witnesses saw a few guests climbing down the posts of the verandah. One person, Yoza (Joe) Djekovic, visiting from Horvatsko, Austria, died in the fire.³⁰ It was later determined that the fire most likely started when some candles may not have been extinguished properly and ignited the wooden cupboard in which they were kept, causing a fire that spread throughout the hotel. The fire initially burned the top floor of the structure, which gave citizens, staff, and some guests time to remove as much furniture from the burning building as possible before the whole hotel was consumed. The spreading flames damaged other businesses, including the Great Northern Hotel.

Wallace only had partial insurance, and in spite of saving most of his first-floor furnishings, he decided not to rebuild but to join in a partnership with the proprietors of the Similkameen Hotel. The site where fire had destroyed the Princeton Hotel was soon put to good use when a much needed short-order café opened in October.³¹ Princeton had two main hotels left, the Similkameen and the Tulameen, the latter rebuilt in the summer of 1906 by the McCoskery Brothers.³²

It wasn’t long before plans were made to replace the Prince-ton Hotel. The damaged Great Northern Hotel (named for the Great Northern Railway) on Bridge Street was dismantled and the site cleared to rebuild that hotel, but this time it would be constructed in brick, would take up the whole block, and include other businesses that would lease space on the ground floor. By June 1912, the foundations of the new hotel were close to completion. The bricks were supplied by the Idaho Brick & Lime Company in Spokane, and the lumber sourced locally by the Similkameen Lumber Company, whose manager was W.C. McDougall. The two-storey structure measured 100 feet by 100 feet, and the walls were constructed to withstand the pressure of a four-storey building if, in the future, additional storeys were to be added. Plate glass fronted Bridge Street and Harold Avenue, and a marble vestibule and tile floor gave the new hotel a striking appearance. The costs of building and furnishings were estimated at $55,000, and opening day was planned for October 1.³³

When it came to new construction especially, 1912 was a boom year for Princeton. The two other major hotels in town were experiencing additions and improvements while the Great Northern Hotel was being built. The Wilson Brothers added an annex building to the Similkameen Hotel, while at the Tulameen, proprietors Kirkpatrick and Malone had completed the foundation work for a large addition to their hotel that would double its capacity. Meanwhile, contractor Charles Stanley was nearly finished erecting the fine brick walls of the new Great Northern Hotel for proprietors Peter Swanson and Alex D. Broomfield (incorrectly written as Bloomfield on occasion).³⁴

You may be asking whatever happened to the rebuilding of the Princeton Hotel. Sometime between late June and early October 1912, the name of the as yet unfinished and promising Great Northern Hotel was changed to the Princeton Hotel. By early November, the local newspaper announced that a small army of employees are getting things in shape for the grand opening, which was promised to be in a week to ten days.³⁵

Finally the day came and the wait was over. The brand-new, handsome Princeton Hotel opened on December 6, 1912, with a dinner party given by the contractor, Charles Stanley. The new hotel was a marvellous two-storey brick structure and the first brick building to open in Princeton. It was designed by architects Emanuel J. Bresemann and Morien E. Durfee, who had offices in Victoria and Vancouver. The partners had designed other substantial hotels, including the St. James Hotel on Johnson Street in Victoria and the Commercial Hotel, for co-proprietor of the Princeton Hotel Peter Swanson, in Nanaimo.³⁶ Businesses in town would vie for a spot in the new Princeton Hotel block, and the first to open there was the Bank of Montreal. The corner of Bridge (later Main) Street and Harold Avenue became a vital addition to the continued growth of Princeton from a pioneer town into the major urban centre for the Similkameen.

Princeton Hotel on Bridge Street, 1915.

courtesy of princeton museum

Proprietors Peter Swanson and Alex D. Broomfield took charge of the most modern and elegant hotel in Princeton. The red brick gave the hostelry a look of permanence and grandeur. Within two years, Swanson had stepped away from the Princeton Hotel, leaving Broomfield as sole proprietor. By August 1914, Swanson had died in Seattle although no details of the nature of his passing were forthcoming.³⁷

The new Princeton Hotel didn’t have any trouble attracting clientele, including one famous guest, billionaire John D. Rockefeller, who had business in the region.³⁸ Mr. Broomfield was well connected to the local businessmen of Princeton who operated the large coal mines located on the shelf above the town. The Prince-ton Coal & Land Company employed several hundred residents. Another major employer was the Canada Copper Corporation, whose mine at Copper Mountain, about twelve miles (twenty kilometres) south of Princeton along the wagon road, was a major producer. Mr. Broomfield would often host out-of-town guests connected with the large coal and copper companies.³⁹

In November 1922, a significant luncheon took place in the dining room of the Princeton Hotel. The Princeton Board of Trade invited the Honorable W.H. Sutherland, the minister responsible for bc highways, to speak about an exciting new project, the Hope–Princeton Highway, which would connect the southern Interior of bc to Vancouver and the coast. It was still the age of the railways, but times were changing and commercial and recreational vehicles were becoming the wave of the future. Highway construction was an essential key for moving goods and linking communities. Minister Sutherland confirmed that the government was committed to the project and work was underway to determine the best route to use before shovels went into the ground.⁴⁰

Alex Broomfield of the Princeton Hotel and his wife proved to be popular hosts and were involved in a variety of clubs and charities in town. In May 1925, their thirteen-year-old daughter, Truda, was chosen as Princeton’s first May Queen.⁴¹ The Broomfields enjoyed their job serving guests at their fancy hotel and would continue to do so for another twenty years, making their tenure the longest of any owner—thirty-three years in total—when they sold it in 1945.

In March 1928, news was received that Jim Wallace, who built and operated the first Princeton Hotel, had passed away