Fonds glen-315 - Braemar Lodge Hotel fonds

The Braemar Lodge Hotel in Calgary, Alberta was built in 1892 at 215-4th Avenue SW by D.W. Marsh and sold to the Anglican Church. It served as the official residence of Bishop Cyprian Pinkham and his family until about 1904, and was known as Bishop's Court. After the Pinkhams moved elsewhere an extra wing was added to the building to make a total of 68 rooms, and Mrs. Moore took it over as an exclusive boarding house. Until the Palliser Hotel was built in 1914 the three-storey Braemar was considered virtually the finest in the city. From as early as 1906 Miss A.S. Mollison owned and operated the Braemar as a travellers' and residential hotel until her death in 1929. The hotel was sold to Ethel Diamond in 1934 and renovated. Herbert A. McCallum was the proprietor from 1946 to 1954, followed by Mr. and Mrs. W. Howard Hepburn who renovated again to include a lunch counter. In 1959 the hotel was bought by Farmers and Merchants Trust which planned to convert it to an "old English style" tavern, but by 1965 it had been sold and was in the process of demolition when it was destroyed by fire. For further information see "Annie and Jean Mollison and Braemar Lodge" in Eye on the Future : Business People in Calgary and the Bow Valley, 1870-1900 / Henry C. Klassen. -- Calgary : University of Calgary Press, 2002, p. 324-328.