Historic hotel burns in Canada
CP/Moose Jaw Times Herald photos – Landon Ullrich
Excerpts from a Canadian Press article on a fire Tuesday in Assiniboia, Saskatchewan:
Almost a century of good times and gossip came to a fiery end Tuesday when a landmark hotel that dominated a prairie town’s main street burned to the ground.
“The Franklin (Hotel) is Assiniboia,” said Terrie Topola, curator of the Saskatchewan town’s museum. “It is pretty sad, actually.”
Guests and neighbours were forced to flee the stubborn blaze that began about 2 a.m., the RCMP said. Flames from the three-storey wooden building were intense enough to threaten surrounding businesses and the fire eventually destroyed a neighbouring auto parts store.
Oil rig crews and long-term residents all escaped safely. But it was the end of an institution that stemmed back to the birth of Assiniboia, a town of about 3,000.
“Everybody around town, they’d come for coffee,” said Penny Dlouhy, who owned the Franklin with her husband, Tim, for a decade until they sold it last December.
“It was full every 10 o’clock with coffee-time people. There’d be birthday celebrations, customers coming in for supper. It was a busy little place.
The Franklin included a 16-room hotel, a bar, a restaurant and a fast-food outlet.
“It’s the corner where all the gossip and news was learned, where people met,” said RCMP Cpl. Mike Bacquet. “It was a point of convergence for visitors and old residents coming back to visit.”
“It was said to be inhabited by ghosts.”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO-TmeC1d90&hl=en&fs=1]
