Adelphi Hotel stands for nearly 100 years

From the Merritt Herald, Nov. 1, 1912

“Andrew Hoggan has got work on his new three storey addition well under way now and it is almost assured that work will be pushed ahead until the building is completed probably some time next April.

It is proposed to erect a two storey verandah [sic.] around the main portion of two sides of the building.

The basement, which is to extend under half the building, will contain the furnace employed in heating the building by means of a hot water system, and various household offices, including an up-to-date wine cellar.

The ground floor consists of a dinning-room...a kitchen...a large writing room far from the maddening crowd, an office and baggage-room; a luxurious louge [sic.,] with panneled [sic.] walls, a beamed ceiling and a large old-fashioned open fireplace; the bar-room...will be decorated in a somewhat similar manner. It is most probable that the bar fixtures will be obtained from the well-known Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co.

Toe [sic.] first floor and second floors will be devoted entirely to the bed-rooms of which there will be thirty-one, with the exception of the bathrooms, and a large bay-windowed sitting room.

The building will be plastered throughout and lighted by electricity. A large and modern septic tank will be constructed in the rear of the building. The work is being done by the prominent Vancouver firm of Davies & Sanders.

My Thoughts and Opinions:

Andrew Hoggan was the owner of the City Hotel [located beside the Adelphi, along Quilchena Avenue;] it was built in 1911 as a boarding house. It operated as a boarding house and would have typically served the needs of the transient labourer and the frugal coal miner. At the time of construction, it would have been in competition with the original Coldwater Hotel and the original Grand Hotel. However, shortly after construction of the City Hotel both the Coldwater and the Grand were rebuilt to a much larger scale. It was in 1912, when Andrew Hoggan approached his sister in-law Christina Hoggan with the idea of building a hotel comparable to the Coldwater and the Grand hotels. It is interesting to note that Christina Hoggan and her husband owned and operated the Grand Hotel, she would therefore have realized the economic potential of a large upper-end hotel. The hotel which was planned as an expansion to Andrew Hoggan’s City Hotel resulted in the Adelphi Hotel. As the description above suggests, it was among the finer hotels in the Nicola Valley.

I found it interesting that the hotel included a writing room; however, I am reminded that the Coldwater Hotel boasted a library. Both hotels had sitting rooms. This observation reinforces the idea that the hotels were meant to accommodate upper-class visitors. It is also interesting to note the inclusion of electricity and septic system, these features would have been an image of modernity for the early 20th century travellers.

The fact that the plan promoted established craftsmanship suggests to me that Andrew and Christina Hoggan anticipated the Adelphi being an upper-class hotel. For example, the article asserts that it is “probable that the bar fixtures will be obtained from...[a] well-known” manufacturer, and that “The work is being done by...[a] prominent Vancouver firm.”

I am uncertain if the early guests at the Adelphi were the sophisticated, upper-class, cosmopolitan, well accustomed-to-travel type of clientele that Andrew and Christina had intended on hosting. However, G.B. Armstrong (one of Merritt’s most successful merchants) purchased the hotel from the Hoggan partnership in 1918 and successfully operated the Adelphi during prohibition. Armstrong sold the hotel to Major C.S. Goldman (owner of Nicola Stock Farms, British MP) in 1921, and he operated it until 1928. Both men were considered to be astute businessmen. Therefore, given Andrew and Christina Hoggan’s successors, it is likely that the Adelphi’s reputation was near to what the Hoggan’s had intended.

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