Drinkin’ in Guelph before Prohibition My hope tonight is to share with you some other interesting facets of my study into Guelph hotels and the drink trade in particular. I hope that through a short presentation I might possibly spark some further discussion about temperance, alcohol production, and retail consumption in Guelph. The question I would like to pose at the outset is: Was Guelph a Drinkin’ Town? Why would I even raise this question? Well, in my studies, one of the more useful sources of information on Ontario hotels and taverns is that of Mary McBurney and Marjorie Byers. In their book, I came across this quote:
“Guelph had more taverns than any other town of its size in Upper Canada.”
I was struck by this quote at the time, and while I didn’t give it much thought at the time, the fact that I have run into the same assertion in newspaper articles and in subsequent journal articles, I felt compelled to assess its validity. As I compiled lists of hotels, saloon and groceries in Guelph I was constantly reminded that there were a profusion of places in Guelph to get a drink … if one were so inclined. To set the stage, when I refer to pre-prohibition, this is the period from roughly from the incorporation of Guelph as a Town in 1856 to the enacting of provincial prohibition in 1916. This chart shows some important dates and indicates when Guelph was wet (in red) and people could legally drink in public and blue when it went dry. So, there were a lot of bars, and thus the rather clear presumption that even if the citizens of Guelph didn't have a proclivity to drink to excess, they certainly had access to the means for them to do just that! I’d like to balance this however with the fact that another historian referred noted that Guelph had multiple temperance organizations. Again more temperance groups than most places in Ontario. While the temperance groups may have organized in response to endemic debauchery and drunkenness, this charge itself has not been made. What is obvious is that Guelph has had a unique relationship with the foes of drinking as well as those that profited from the trade in alcoholic beverages. So I return to our question:
"Was Guelph a Drinkin' Town in the Late Nineteenth Century?"
To attempt to answer this question, I hope to be able to take us all back in time and attempt to appreciate the nature of drink and society during the late nineteenth century. We can then consider the various different groups at work in Guelph and the province and attempt to deduce whether the charges leveled against the town of Guelph are fair and thus to what extent Guelph could have been considered a Drinkin' town. Let’s take a quick tour of town, then and now to establish the geography of drink in Guelph.
Many of you will, I hope, be familiar with at least some of the hotels around town. Many of the more prominent hotels from the nineteenth century are still here … albeit filling a variety of uses. This overly detailed map…shows the physical location of licensed hotels in Guelph between 1851 and 1931. Although it gives the impression of a huge density of hotels within a very small area, it is important to note that not all these hotels existed simultaneously. This map is more representative of a particular point in time …
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In this case 1869. Why 1869? Lucky for the researcher, in that year Guelph Town council hired a new license inspector, Francis Marriot, who compiled a very detailed inventory of hotels in Guelph that year. I created this schematic of hotels that were operating in Guelph in 1869 from his records. As you can see there are still a large number. In fact, in 1869, there are 20 hotels in downtown Guelph, of which 19 were licensed to operate. Is this a significant number? Well, in 1869, the population of Guelph was 5,700 residents. Thus as far as available bar space, there was one hotel for every 285 residents. This is a significant number! Provincially, the number of licensed taverns was well in excess of one for every 350 citizens. So, there are more hotels per capita than in other towns, albeit marginally. An earlier reference from Michele Ducharme’s study of the brewing in Guelph noted that in 1843 when the population of Guelph was just over 700 people there were already 5 bars in town and three breweries. Thus the stage is set. But, this map reveals some other very important facts. The colours on this map are significant. Orange represents public rooms such as bars or sitting rooms in the hotel or tavern. Green represents longer-term boarders, and Yellow, rooms occupied by staff or owner. The white spaces are free for the use of guests. One of the realities of the time is that many guest rooms were infrequently occupied. During market times, all rooms might be spoken for, and the hotels of Guelph served a vital function for those attending markets in Guelph, but touristic guests were harder to come by. Why all the rooms you may ask? Well, the rooms go with the license to sell alcohol. As a proprietor of a hotel, inn or tavern, if you wanted to get a liquor license you had to have at least four guest rooms, beyond those for your family. The required number rose over time. While there was clearly a cost to providing these rooms, there is question as to how lavishly they were furnished as well as what it cost to provide staff to service them. In the earlier, smaller hotels, many staffing duties were carried out by family. But in the late nineteenth, there were some very large hotels built in Guelph and this demanded a greater staff. Additionally as we will discuss later, a large proportion of the revenues of the typical hotel during this era came from the drink trade. While they may have been a loss on accommodation, letting rooms for 35 cents a night, keepers made $4 on every $1 they invested in booze.
-3 - Thus when we look at the geography of hotels in Guelph, it is clear that there are a substantial number, they all have bars and they are concentrated in a small downtown area. So what does this hotelscape look like from the street?
This is the view looking up Macdonnell Street around 1885. It was once popularly know as Whiskey Avenue for the profusion of bars running its length. How many hotels are in this picture?? Probably a bit tough to count in the older black and white photo, but this may help… There were a few hotels on Macdonnell. A similar count can take place over on Market Square/Carden Street a couple of years later.
Once again, with a little visual enhancement the hotels emerge…
-4 - One begins to appreciate that, even to the casual observer; there seems to have been a substantial number of hotel bars in Guelph. I reiterate that each of these hotels had a licensed bar and as studies have shown; hotel revenues were heavily dependant on the sale of liquor and beer. In 1886 at the Western Hotel, 15% of revenue came from the rooms, and over 80% from the bar. Even in 1913 at the American, when the restaurant is starting to accounts for 26% of the revenue, 55% is still coming from the sale of liquor. But, we’ll talk more about this later. Between these two pictures there are a total of 15 hotels within a fours square block radius. Note that these are only the licensed hotels – one could also partake of drink at groceries as well as saloons. Many of these hotels are still here, and I’d like to highlight a few: The Red Lion Hotel was built in 1841 and served as the district court house for a few years before beginning a long life as a hotel…and still today as an apartment block.
The Royal Hotel, known by a variety of names, was constructed largely in its present form in 1856……and it still exists today, parts of which are still used as a hotel.
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Another familiar hotel is of course the Albion built in 1856 as Stell’s Tavern...Still thrives today and improves with a recent facelift.
The Victoria, located on St. George’s Square was constructed in 1859…And went through a number of expansions and renovations over time, adding floors...And still standing today, although the victim of fire last year. Other hotels, such as the Central and the Queen’s…
Began as hotels and made a switch to apartments around the time of prohibition in 1916 …
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The Wellington Hotel was constructed in 1876…And replaced smaller hotels in the same location.
These hotels opened as the grand hotels of the town at the time. The Western as well, opened in 1881…and was the place to stay in Guelph. Quite spectacularly, the Western for advertised that it offered stabling for over 400 horses. It became the Ambassador..And today we know it as the Diplomat. We’ll talk some more about this hotel later.
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This is the view looking down Macdonnell from the Albion. The Union Hotel was the aglomeration of a couple of older hotels and was refaced in 1886. The Commercial Hotel was constructed in 1882, and is still here today. The Union was refaced in a grander style and is also still standing, just down Macdonnell from the former Commercial. And finally of the Old Guelph hotels, the rather ‘new’ King Edward resulted from the consolidation and expansion of a number of other hotels and restaurant in 1905
And this building too remains today..
-8 - While we cannot begin to claim that Guelph may have been the den of depravity that it was suggested to be by many temperance groups, it is clear that the hospitality trade has thrived in Guelph and left us today with a rich architectural heritage! Now, back to considering our question…
"Was Guelph a Drinkin' Town in the Late Nineteenth Century?"
Lets consider some numbers…I hope that eyes don’t glaze over at this point. I will try to keep these lively.
Between 1851 and 1916, the laws governing the drink trade changed substantially. In Upper Canada there were very few restrictions on either the production or sale of alcohol. Taverns were widespread. According to unofficial sources there were over 20 taverns, inns or saloons in Guelph by 1851. With a population of only 1,800 residents, there was one bar for every 90 people in town. If we discount bar attendance of children under 8 (which may be surprisingly conservative of us), this ratio drops below one bar for every forty people. This would suggest that a large proportion of the population could be simultaneously served inside the physical space of Guelph’s hotels – an interesting prospect. While this 1851 estimate may include groceries and rather dubious saloons, it is clear that bars formed an important part of the ‘urban’ infrastructure. It is important to note that these establishments filled a variety of purposes beyond the drink trade. They provided (among others): • a residence for single males and young couples, • provided the bulk of public meeting spaces and; • even at times served as makeshift church meeting halls.
-9 - 50 20000 Number of Hotels 45 18000 Population 40 16000
35 14000
30 12000
25 10000
20 8000 Number of Hotels 15 6000 Population of Guelph
10 4000
5 2000
0 0 1851 1858 1861 1867 1871 1873 1881 1883 1891 1896 1901 1905 1911 1916 1918
The number of local hotels reached its height in 1871, but began to drop thereafter. This does not of course limit access to drink as the size of bars and tavern grew, so that the number of available seats and bar space was greater, but it does not appear to keep pace with population growth. This chart shows the trend in the number of hotels serving Guelph during the period 1851-1918. Although a maximum number of bars was reached in 1871, this is deceiving. Licensing restricted the permissible number of bars, but it did not restrict the size of those bars. As we saw in the pictures, the newer hotels tended to be larger and capable of serving a greater number of guests. However, is this trend in serving capacity consistent with drinking demand?
6 perCapitaLiquor perCapitaBeer 5 perCapitaAlcoholByContent
4
3
Gallons 2
1
0
9 3 3 71 75 7 81 8 85 89 9 8 8 8 1 1873 18 1877 18 1 18 1 1887 18 1891 18
- 10 - As this chart shows, the per capita consumption of alcohol actually dropped over this period, falling from close to 2 gallons per capita to about 1 and ½ gallons. The second point worth noting is that the type of alcohol consumed changed over this period. Yearly consumption of hard liquor fell from a high of over 1.5 gallons per capita prior to 1871 to less than ½ a gallon per capita by 1900. Beer on the other hand grew in popularity and rose from under 2 ½ gallons per capita to over 5 ½ gallons per capita by the turn of the century.