“We Shape Our Buildings; Thereafter They Shape Us:” The Bessborough Hotel and its Home Community, 1927-2015

Abstract

On December 10, 1935, in the midst of the Great Depression, the Canadian National-owned Bessborough Hotel opened in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. This Chateau castle-style hotel was immediately lauded as a symbol of Saskatoon’s progress, impending economic prosperity, and future greatness. “The Bess”, as it is locally known, joined the ranks of Canada’s grand railway hotels that became important social and cultural spaces for their home communities. The Bessborough Hotel, because of its parent company, unique architecture, central location, and overall grandeur, symbolized the community’s ambitions and status as a major prairie city. Through an analysis of newspaper articles, oral interviews, and archival sources, this thesis studies the way the community used the hotel as an expression of this role and its place in the city. From its construction and opening during the Great Depression to its 1973 sale to a prominent local family to its current day status as a corporate entity, this thesis examines how this relationship developed and changed over the course of the hotel’s history. It also examines three groups, Saskatoon’s gay community, the long-haired young people of the 1970s, and the residents of Saskatoon’s west side, who were excluded from the hotel because they did not fit into the aspirations for the city and how they carved out a space for themselves against opposition. Overall, the history of the Bessborough Hotel contributes to the important discussion of how place, and the competing histories within a space, affect our historical understanding of the past.