Arabian Chic: A History of the Century Inn, 1965-1986

By Glen A. Mofford

Logo for the “Inn at Centennial Square”

The 1960’s was a time of optimism in Victoria. The economy was booming, unemployment was low, prices were reasonable and the future looked bright. Victorians celebrated the Garden City’s 100th birthday in 1962 and the following year saw a major redevelopment of the lands surrounding City Hall called the Centennial Square Project.
It was during this time of economic growth and renewal that the new owners of the Westholme Hotel, located at 1415-1417 Government Street, southwest of Centennial Square, submitted plans to expand their hotel to fit into the spirit of the Centennial Project.
The new hotel was named the Century Inn and from its’ opening in November 1965 and for the next twenty years the ‘Inn at Centennial Square’ would provide fine dining, live entertainment and luxurious rooms all within a setting of an Arabian theme.
This article will trace the history of the Century Inn as we take a peek behind the beaded curtains of the new Arabian theme hotel and examine how changes throughout the years eventually led to the hotel’s demise in 1986.

Before the Century Inn was constructed there was the Westholme Hotel. The three story Westholme Hotel was built in 1911 and located at 1417-1419 Government Street between Johnson and Pandora Streets. The Hotel-bar was to the left of the entrance to the hotel when and the liquor license was transferred from once famous Driard Hotel.
A handsome three story brick and stone building just north of the Westholme, housed the Prince Saloon from 1907 to 1912 and occupied the Southeast corner of Government and Pandora. That building was home to a variety of businesses over the years until it was demolished in 1964 to make way for the expanding Westholme Hotel.

In September 1954 the Kings Beer parlour and the Westholme beer parlour opened on the same day, each becoming the second beer parlours to open in the city of Victoria. A few months earlier the Drake Hotel Beer Parlour opened on the corner of Store and Johnson Streets.


Westholme Brochure, ca. 1920 The Westholme Hotel in 1961

Pandora Avenue was realigned as part of the revitalization and the McPherson Playhouse Theatre with adjoining restaurant was expanded to the corner of Government and Pandora.
Across from the theatre, located on the southwest side of Pandora and Government sat the newly renovated and enlarged Westholme Hotel reopened in November 1965 as the Century Inn. The new hotel advertised itself as “The Inn on Centennial Square”


Cormorant and Pandora streets before and after the completion of the Centennial Square Project.
The grand opening of the Century Inn turned into a three day gala event from November 17, 18 and 19, 1965. The 63-room Century Inn was decorated in an Arabian theme from the decorations on the walls to the dress of the employees. Customers to the hotel were greeted by employees dressed as genies, complete with turbans. The street outside the hotel was modified to allow easy access by the driving public who would simply glide under a colourful canopy and experience “the magic carpet valet service.” Waitresses served patrons clad in mysterious and revealing Scheherazade costumes. Lawrence of Arabia would have felt right at home.


Century Inn Employee in costume Inside the lobby of the Century Inn
Inside the lobby of the new hotel was a miniature working model of the Centennial Square fountain. Fine dining was featured in the exotic Persian Room where one would dine in an atmosphere of eastern opulence. Besides the Persian Room, the hotel features included the Oasis coffee shop, the Rubaiyat Room, Ali Baba’s Cocktail Lounge and the Centurion beer parlour. A cabaret was planned to open in the near future.
At the time the Arabian theme was unique, fresh and new in the city of Victoria and was well received by a curious and appreciative public. The Century Inn was a huge success.



The Persian Room Dining within an Arabian theme.






H.R. Hutchinson, known as Moe by his friends, managed the Westholme and its’ successor the Century Inn from 1964 until his retirement in 1976. ‘Moe’ Hutchinson was a capable manager who guided the new hotel through the inevitable changes and adjustments that occurred throughout his twelve years tenure as manager resulting in sound, steady growth and substantial profits for the owners.

The Centurion Beer Parlour was an important revenue generator for the new Century Inn. The beer parlour reopened in the space where the old Westholme bar was located on Government Street. The original Westholme beer parlour was the second beer parlour to open in the city in September 1954 and those patrons now went to the new Centurion beer parlour. The restrictive and antiquated liquor regulations had been relaxed by 1965 and although separate entrances for Men and Ladies with Escorts still existed, the inclusion of food, radio, television and a larger brighter atmosphere attracted new customers.
By 1962, by a change in the Indian Act, Aboriginal persons were finally allowed to drink in local beer parlours and lounges. By 1968 separation of the sexes was no longer a legal requirement while the signs remained over the entrance way of most beverage rooms for years reminding patrons of an antiquated past.

The Centurion Beverage Room lasted from November 1965 until 1982 when Ron de Montigny purchased the hotel. De Montigny and the new hotel manager, Ted Anderson previous owner of a hotel in Okanagan Falls, renovated the pub into a country bar named the Buckin’ Bronco.
Anderson saw an opportunity to cash- in on the country music craze that was popular at the time. The Buckin’ Bronc featured live country music bands, complete with a huge barrel of shelled peanuts, hay on the floor and a mechanical bull where many an inebriated urban cowboy or cowgirl would take up the challenge to ride the bull with usually hilarious results. It wasn’t long before the owners realized the potentially serious legal problems that could arise if a patron got injured riding the bull and eventually everyone who wished to take up the challenge signed a waiver before falling off onto their head.
Like all fads, the novelty of the Buckin’ Bronc Country Pub quickly lost its’ appeal and by 1984 plans for a new and exciting replacement were in the works.

A lavish and enormous renovation of the 200 seat pub took place in the fall of 1984 by owner Ron de Montigny. A generous use of solid Oak, mahogany and brass was used in the construction of the multi level pub with no attention paid to cost or cost over-runs. A model about half the size of an original of a World War One Sopwith Camel bi-plane was suspended from the ceiling and distinctive light standards were added to give the room a Victorian feel.
This new neighbourhood-style pub was better than most in the city at the time and initially competed very well against the bars of the day.





Monty’s Pub and Restaurant Extraordinaire: Sparing no Expense

Ron de Montigny spared no expense during the massive renovation of the pub and he went on to renovate the nightclub and the rest of the hotel which were completed in November 1984.
As if having the most luxurious pub in town wasn’t enough, de Montigny began work on Monty’s Club 40, a three hundred seat nightclub was built next door to the pub designed provide patrons with a unique disco experience previously known as the popular 40 Thieves Disco then for a brief time named Decca Dance, which adjoined to Ali Baba’s Lounge. Party-goers would get to the new disco early but still ended up standing in a long line. Admission costs were reasonable but one had to adhere to a strict dress code


Advertisement for the 40 Thieves Disco from the Greater Victoria Phone Directory, 1979.

By the spring of 1985 renovations were completed and both establishments were opened. Monty’s Pub and Monty’s Club 40 initially did a roaring business. Crowds of curious customers wanted to see what the fuss was all about as word of mouth spread about the opening of these two new and exciting venues. Meanwhile the lounge and the dining room did a good business attracting a loyal clientele.

The optimism of the spring and the success of the summer business began to wane as 1985 came to a close. The first signs of financial trouble came in December 1985 when payments to contractors and the previous owners defaulted. The situation deteriorated when it became obvious that Ron de Montigny was unable to pay his debts which quickly culminated in bankruptcy in March 1986. The Hotel went into receivership and the assets reverted back to the partnership of Mark Hambrook and Gary Fisher who sold the Hotel to de Montigny back in 1982 for 2.5 million dollars.
The Century Inn closed its doors in March 1986 leaving 28 people out of work.
Hambrook and Fisher looked for a quick sale.

The demise of the Century Inn just over twenty years after its optimistic beginning can be attributed to a number of factors, the main one being that de Montigny over-extended himself and spent far more than he could afford or could hope to recover. Another, minor factor for the bankruptcy lies in the nature of the business itself, trying to keep up with an ever-changing and fickle nightclub scene where new clubs and cabarets would come and go in many cases just lasting for a few months.


The Victoria Plaza Hotel, August 2005

The hotel eventually sold and the name changed to the Century Plaza Hotel then simply to the Victoria Plaza Hotel. Monty’s Pub exists today as Monty’s Exotic Showroom Pub where strippers perform and patrons pay too much for their pint of beer. The nightclub has also survived by continually re-inventing itself and going through a number of rebirths as is the nature of that business. Any paraphernalia from the original Century Inn are lost in some dusty boxes forgotten in the basement of the hotel and in the memories of those who once enjoyed a fleeting period of time now gone.

The Strathcona Room 1954

The Strathcona Room: The First Cocktail Lounge in British Columbia

By Glen A. Mofford

With over 1200 licensed seats, offering ten distinctive venues located on five levels, the Strathcona Hotel is the most comprehensive entertainment centre on Vancouver Island. The huge success enjoyed by the hotel today is the result of innovation, reinvestment and an obdurate work ethic practised by generations of the Olson family.

H.B. ‘Barney’ Olson purchased the eastside of the 900 block Douglas Street between Broughton and Courtney Streets, which included the 100-room Strathcona Hotel, for $120,000 from Warren Martin in April 1946. Warren’s father, E.J. Martin, had built the hotel in 1912 intending to open as the Empress Block office building but plans changed midway through construction and it opened as the Strathcona Hotel in 1913. The words Empress Block can still be seen carved in stone on the front façade of the hotel.

The hotel had been completely rundown and was in dire need of renovations. Barney immediately went to work spending $50,000 improving and modernizing the rooms with new furnishings, renovating the lobby and front entrance, adding a first-class dining room and replacing the aging elevators. In 1948, construction began on a new south wing for the Hotel. Forty-four additional rooms were built and a number of street-level shops now faced onto Douglas Street, all at a cost of over $300,000. As if that wasn’t enough, a bowling alley and a pool hall with seven snooker tables were added in the basement. Barney had transformed the Strathcona Hotel into one of the most modern in the city.

Barney’s two sons, Keith and John, started working full time in the hotel in 1952. John had worked on a part time basis after school and in the summer at his fathers’ hotel since the age of 16, as an elevator operator and as a bellhop.
It was also in 1952 that events began to take place that would eventually bring enormous success to the Olson’s and greatly increase the popularity of the hotel.

Victoria had been ‘dry’ since Prohibition became law in October 1917, unlike the surrounding municipalities that voted for liquor by the glass. A majority of Victorians rejected a return to the sale of liquor by the glass in the 1921 plebiscite. This meant that within city limits one could not purchase liquor in a restaurant or hotel but only did have the option of buying alcohol in strictly controlled Government liquor stores. All that changed as the results of the Province-wide Liquor Plebiscite, held in conjunction with the 1952 Provincial Election, proved to be a victory for the right to buy and sell of liquor by the glass. It was a hard fought victory in which the Olson Family worked tirelessly for the ‘Yes’ side. A majority of 60% was required in order for the referendum to pass and the results reflected the narrowest of victory, 61.5%, for the sale of liquor by the glass. As soon as the vote became known Barney proceeded to plan and build the very first cocktail lounge in the province.

The Strathcona Room cocktail lounge took twenty-eight days to build and occupied the space of the former beauty salon, where Big Bad John’s Hillbilly bar is located today. The room was tiny with only 9 stools at the bar and 23 seats at well-spaced tables. Local newspaper and radio advertisements, and word of mouth, made for a much-anticipated début. A line of customers formed early as people were very curious about this new and novel idea called a cocktail lounge. As the hour of opening got closer the line of customers had grown until it stretched around the block. Beverage Manager John Olson and an-all male staff of three prepared themselves for a busy evening.
At 4:00 p.m. Thursday July 1, 1954, the 32-seat Strathcona Room opened its doors for business. It was the first licensed cocktail lounge in British Columbia. The first customer, Russell Horton of Victoria, ordered the first drink - a martini. The Victoria Daily Times reported the following day, “For every customer that sat down, two were turned away…the place was jammed until closing at 11:30 p.m. In all 200 persons were served.” The first day proved to be a resounding success.
For the next few months’ business continued to be brisk. The Strathcona Room had a monopoly on serving cocktail drinks in the city as it took time for other establishments to catch-up. Initially rum proved to be the drink of choice as many of the early customers were from the Esquimalt military base. Men usually occupied the seats at the bar while women and couples gravitated to the tables
The owners and their customers had to follow strict regulations. A sign posted by the bar read, ‘It is unlawful to drink while standing.’ The Strathcona Room, being the only lounge in existence in the province and the fact that there was no-where else for liquor licensing personnel to inspect, provided for some interesting results. John Olson, recalls one particular visit from an over zealous inspector that he describes as a “pompous Englishman.” The lounge had only been in operation for three weeks when, on a Friday afternoon, the inspector approached John at the bar and asked why he had exposed liquor bottles on the shelves behind the bar. John explained that they were used to pour the drinks for the customers. The inspector retorted, “If they aren’t out of sight in 30 seconds I’m going to take your license.” With the help of his bartender, Joe Sparks, John removed all the liquor bottles off the shelves and put them on the floor behind the bar. The inspector “stuck around for awhile” as John and Joe worked the night tripping over liquor bottles. According to the inspector, liquor labels were illegal advertising. John spent the next day covering the labels with paper and writing their contents in pen placing them back on the shelves.
Another time John had to remove a table that was out of sight from the bar. The table reappeared the next day once he installed a concave mirror in the corner. John proudly notes that they always kept their license.
From the tiny Strathcona Room in 1954, to the mega-entertainment giant it is today, the Strathcona Hotel has survived, prospered and adapted to the changing times.



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The Ingraham Beer Parlour, 1960-2003

The Ingraham Beer Parlour, 1960-2003

By Glen A. Mofford

At one time it housed the biggest beer parlour in British Columbia and flowing from its taps through the years poured hundreds of thousands of draught beers attaining the unique distinction as the largest selling Labatt’s House in the world. But after forty-three years in business the Ingraham Hotel closed its’ doors and reopened as a Hotel 8.

In 1957 Victor Ingraham, a colourful and dynamic entrepreneur, hired Farmer Construction to build his new hotel at 2915 Douglas Street near Topaz. Victor had previously owned the Yellowknife Hotel and the Arbutus Hotel in Courtenay before moving to Victoria. The 50-room Ingraham Hotel opened June 28, 1960 at the cost of one million dollars, “aimed mainly to provide top-class accommodation for commercial travelers.”[1] The hotel featured two banquet rooms, a dining room, coffee shop, lounge and a huge 500-seat beer parlour.
The three-story building front facing Douglas Street was painted in a checkerboard of lemon yellow and robin-egg blue, and boasted a most distinctive hotel sign best described as something out of a Jetson’s cartoon. The base, painted bright yellow, was in the shape of a rocket ship, which rose several feet off the ground into an oval shape with the word Ingraham written in black on a white background and topped with two intersecting circles.
The beer parlour and parking lot were located in the rear of the hotel where, in 1935, the Victoria Cycle Racing Club built the first “cycledrome.” The wooden structure lasted five years before vandalism and the elements forced its demolition in 1940.

From 1927 to 1964 beer parlours in British Columbia were required by law to provide a separate entrance for men and another for ladies with escorts. Inside the Ingraham an artificial wall divided the beverage room in half, separating the sexes and thereby avoiding the potential volatile mix of men, women and beer. The owners of the Ingraham beer parlour used an ingenious retractable wall that was set on wheels. Its purpose became clear when one side of the beer parlour filled with thirsty customers, two waiters would wheel the wall to the emptier side allowing for more space for patrons while complying with liquor regulations.

When customers walked through the swinging doors, they would first notice neatly uniformed rows of tables covered in fire-red terry-cloth used to soak up spilled beer. Lavish red leather chairs from the T. Eaton Company provided patrons with comfort while they sat and enjoyed their ten-cent glass of draft or a twenty-five cent bottle of domestic beer. The chairs proved to be so popular that they began to mysteriously disappear and eventually had to be replaced with less expensive seating.

The early beer parlours of Victoria and Vancouver were, by law, very basic and simple beverage rooms. The new Ingraham beer parlour was no exception as there were no television sets, no games, no food and no drink selection other than draught or bottled domestic beer. Liquor regulations prohibited customers to stand or walk with a beer.
If a customer wished to move to another table a waiter was summoned to move the beer on his tray.

In spite of these restrictions, the beer parlour became an instant success. The majority of customers were mostly male, blue-collar workers who filled up the men’s side after work and on weekends. Most patrons ignored the spartan-like atmosphere of the early beverage rooms and treated it as their own social club. It was a place where they could relax, swap stories and enjoy the companionship of their friends and co-workers while consuming cheap beer.

Service in the Ingraham, like many beer parlours in the 1960’s was excellent. Albert, a waiter in the Ingraham from 1962 to 1965, recalled that management demanded first-class service from the staff. Any waiter who kept a thirsty customer waiting for more than five minutes would be pulled aside after his shift and given a stern warning.
Waiters, (there were no waitresses until the late1970’s) were well dressed in a white collar shirt with black bowtie, black slacks and shining black shoes. Waiters did not carry moneychangers in those days but carried one and two dollar bills in their fingers, larger denominations in their top shirt pocket and coins in their trouser pockets. A good waiter could make a comfortable living off his tips so naturally the tables that tipped the most received special attention.
Waiters were kept very busy in the Ingraham, especially on Friday and Saturday nights when the place would often fill to capacity. The standard full beer tray held twenty, eight-ounce glasses of draft beer which weighed approximately 22 pounds. In an hour a waiter might carry as much as 300 pounds of beer.[2]

Victor Ingraham died from heart failure at Saint Paul’s hospital in Vancouver, BC on November 14, 1961. Ownership of the hotel went to his 31 year old son, Len.
Like Victor, Len loved and promoted sports and it was during his tenure that the beer parlour became a favourite watering hole for all kinds of sports teams. “Len has an affinity for sponsoring sports teams and organizations. The list is lengthy and includes: stock cars, super stocks, baseball, lacrosse, bowling, curling, basketball, and hockey teams.”[3]
Len Ingraham was heavily involved in the community. He was a member of 28 organizations which included the Shriners and his many associations and sponsorship of sports teams earned him the nickname of Mr. Hospitality.

By the late 1960’s and into the1970’s liquor regulations became less restrictive. In 1970 the legal drinking age was lowered from 21 to 19 years of age. As laws concerning drinking relaxed the beer parlour went through a metamorphosis from a paltry drinking room to a much more congenial and therefore enjoyable place for customers to gather. The new changes in the liquor law allowed for the selling of BC cider, wine; spirits and imported beer giving patrons a choice of products other than draught beer. The décor at the Ingy, as it was affectionately called by the regular customers, changed for the better with the addition of four pool tables, two shuffleboard tables, a cigarette machine, a few television sets, a jukebox and food service.
The food service was located near the centre of the pub. A copy of the Ingraham Hotel “grub menu” from 1971 contained its own bucolic charm as customers were encouraged to “try our horrible golden bilingual French Fries,” or to order “hot corned beef on rye samwich, not in the bottle.”
The retractable wall and the separate entrances were no longer required but the entry signs remained above the outside doorways, now regarded as curious relics of an antiquated past.

Len managed the Ingraham Hotel until April 2, 1972, when he sold the hotel to Ian Duncanson and Neal Patterson. Neal had owned the Empress Hotel in Chilliwack. During the 1970’s and 1980’s the pub continued to do a good business. Shuffleboard, pool, trap shoot and other games were popular with customers as was the addition of more television sets. Sports teams would meet at the Ingy after the game and a steady stream of regulars loyally drank at their favourite tables in the pub.

But by the mid to late 1990’s the age of the “beer barn” was in decline and business at the Ingy began to wane. Prices for beer increased while attitudes towards drinking were changing. The economics of the city was shifting from resource-based to ‘high-tech’ and tourism. The British Columbia Forest Products sawmill on Gorge Road closed and small industry continued to shrink as the new global economy began encroaching on traditional types of employment. In addition people were staying home more and went to the pub less. An attempt to lure customers back and generate revenue by providing live music on Friday and Saturday nights was not enough to attract customers on a regular basis or to fill the large 500 seat pub.

The Large Family, owners of a Vancouver Island grocery chain, purchased the hotel in May 2002. By August, the Liquor Board amended its regulations to allow private liquor stores to compete with Government owned stores and the Ingraham received one of the first licenses under the new Act. It was a shrewd move as the new owners of the Ingraham hotel purchased their license before the City of Victoria zoning by-law restricting the size of a private liquor store became law. This move effectively sealed the fate of the Ingy Pub as the new owners intended to replace it with a privately owned liquor store.
At closing time Saturday August 8, 2003, after forty-three years, the taps went dry for good and the Ingraham Pub closed.

A Hotel 8 has replaced the once familiar Ingraham Hotel and a Liquor Plus private liquor store now operates where the beer parlour once stood. The diminutive Sports Time Pub now operates where the Big I cabaret used to be deep inside the basement of the hotel. To remind the public of the changes the owners coined the slogan, “It’s not the Ingraham anymore.” To past customers and staff who have fond memories of their time spent in the Ingraham beer parlour and lament its passing, there is little reason to celebrate.
Similar to the fate of the cycledrome that preceded it, the Ingraham beer parlour succumbed to an ever-changing world.











[1] “New Hotel to Cater to Business Public,” Victoria Daily Times, June 28, 1960.
[2] Robert A Campbell, Sit Down and Drink Your Beer, University of Toronto Press, 2001, p. 31.
[3] John McKeachie, “Passing of an Era – The Ingy Has Been Sold,” The Victorian, March 29, 1972, p. 4.