Here is something more from The Morning Guardian (Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island) for you.....
Clipping, Date Unknown
BRILLIANT RECEPTION
Given Last Night At The Lansdowne Hotel
Cape Traverse
TO SERGEANT MUNCEY LATE
OF SOUTH AFRICA
Sumptuous Banquet, Elaborate Decorations Coupled with Eloquent Addresses Make An Event Long to be Remembered
The reception at the Lansdowne Hotel given last evening in honour of the return from South Africa of Sergeant S. W. Muncey was a very brilliant affair, and a success in all respects. The spacious Hotel was filled with a company of young people who enjoyed themselves with music song and oratory.
All the settlements from Bedeque to Crapaud were represented. The decorations were most appropriate and consisted of Welcome Home under an arch composed of Union Jacks and evergreens.
A sumptuous banquet was served at which Mr. Norman Carruthers presided. At the head table sat the father of Sergeant Muncey, having at his right his son and Mr. Roy Lee. After an elaborate menu prepared in Mrs. Crosby's best style had been disposed of the following toast list was taken up:
The King – National Anthem
Our Guest – Sergeant S. W. Muncey and Private Roy Lee
This Canada of Ours – Dr. J. C. Jardine and Mr. Ephriam Bell
Our Army – Mr. E. Bell
The Press – Mr. Rubin Macdonald of The Patriot and Mr. E. Newsom of The Guardian.
The Ladies – Messrs. A. W. Doyle and John Robertson.
Our Host and Hostess.
All the speakers made reference to the South African Heroes who had fought and won, bringing credit upon Canada and especially the province. Reference was made throughout the speaking to the part taken in the campaign by the guests of the evening, also the anxiety in regard to Sergeant Muncey's condition when wounded.
After the banquet a delightful dance was indulged in by upwards of seventy couples. That all enjoyed themselves was attested by the fact that it was well on the wee small hours of the morning when the tripping of the “light fantastic” ceased. The singing of Auld Lang Syne brought the festivities to a close and the company dispersed, voting the festival one of the most enjoyable affairs held at Cape Traverse for many years.
HISTORY OF THE LANSDOWNE HOTEL
(1885-1942)
The Lansdowne Hotel was built by Alex Strang before 1889 (1885?) because he had ideas of it becoming a great Summer resort. It was situated in Cape Traverse, a quiet, small village of approximately 100 people. The beach at the Cape was excellent, and the railway station was
close by. Edgar Strang, one of Alex’s two sons, owned a yacht, the “Alimedia”, which went on cruises leaving Cape Traverse and going to Cape Tormentine and the surrounding area. The yacht left from the Wharf at Cape Traverse and took many a hotel guest for a cruise.
At the height of its life, the hotel was the first-class hotel it was built to be. The tables in the large dining room were covered by nothing but the best white linen. The silver was laid out just so. The white linen napkins, which were painstakingly washed, rinsed twice in cold water, folded, ironed, and then allowed to dry, were put in their proper places, wrapped in silver bands. There were flowers on every table and each person, had his or her own individual salt and pepper shaker. The specialty of the hotel was baked lobster. The lobster was split down the middle, the claws were opened, and the butter was put in. It was then allowed to bake and was then served in the shell. Many people came to the hotel for this one meal. Mrs. Strang’s cousin, A.F. Maclean, M.L.A. from Lot 16, used to come often and bring many government parties.
The hotel itself was a magnificent structure by the standards in those days and would be considered even more magnificent, by today’s standards. Typical of that time, all the rooms had very high ceilings and every room also had a wooden center piece in the ceiling. The wood was the best and finished in that very “heavy” type of architecture. The front stairs were said to be like those you would imagine come down from heaven. The best wood and the finish were as close to perfect as possible. The furniture in the place was fit for royalty. The whole hotel was heated by a huge floor furnace (coal) in the first floor hall and the kitchen stoves.
Something, I never really thought of, until, I found out that it not have any, was the bathroom. Imagine a big hotel, and no bathroom. Instead, they had an inside outhouse. The “toilet”, as it was called, was fixed on the back portion of the hotel and ran the two floors. The entrance to it was from the second floor and the waste material dropped from the second floor to the ground. At the back of it, at ground level, was a hatch on the side which ran the length of it. The hatch was on hinges and could be lifted up to enable it to be cleaned out. The toilet itself had no washing facilities. (these consisted of a pitcher and a basin, in each bedroom.) The toilet was a two-seater, and of course, the seats were made of the best wood, with the best finish. There was also an outside outhouse, which was not at all second-rate compared to the inside one, situated on the northwest corner of the building. A full-fledged bathroom was installed a number of years after the Clarks purchased the hotel. To do this, a section was taken off the large bedroom (at the time Mrs. Clark’s) on the southwest corner of the main section of the hotel.
All this, for $1 a day, including meals.
Along with the hotel, there were two barns or carriage houses, which housed carriages & horses, to take hotel guests on tours of the surrounding area. When the hotel started to “die”, the horses were sold and the barns moved off and sold.
The hotel was not just a summer resort, as in the winter the iceboats crossed between Cape Traverse and New Brunswick. So all the passengers and many of the iceboat crew stayed at the hotel overnight. They then moved on the next morning, the crew to the iceboats, and the passengers to the train, to whatever part of the Island, they were heading. At this time, Mr. Strang (and later, Mr. Clark) were responsible for going out and meeting the iceboats, with horse and sleigh, to take them in. You see, the iceboats did not come all the way in to shore. Mr. Strang (and Mr. Clark) took horse and sleigh out to meet them, and take both passengers and boats in. The passengers were taken to the hotel and the boats were taken to the Iceboat house at the Wharf.
The Clarks (Mr. & Mrs. Jack) bought the hotel from the family of Alex Strang, shortly after his death, around 1900. Agnes Strang married a Crosby, who was the station agent in Cape Traverse, and since she had no interest in running the hotel, and her two brothers had moved away, they decided to sell. Since a large hotel was hard to sell in a hurry, the Clarks got it for a good price. You might wonder where the Clarks got the money for such a big investment, as Mr. Clark was just a laborer or odd-job man. Well, I have an idea the money came from Mrs. Clark (Catherine), not Mr. Clark, as she is reported to have been one of the best dressmakers in the Province. It is believed that she had as many as ten girls at a time, apprentice to her.
Shortly after the tourist business started to dry up, the hotel took a big step backwards and became a high class boarding house for the iceboat passengers, crew, and railway men. Now that the tourists were almost all gone, there was no need to keep all the horses and carriages, so they were all sold and Major Ross Clark, a cousin of Jack Clark, was given the contract to go after the Iceboats.
In 1917, the Iceboats stopped running and the railway tracks were taken up and moved to Borden by German prisoners of war under the direction of Jack Howatt.
The hotel then became the center of social life for the village. Dances were held in the once grand dining room.
The huge hotel was a burden to heat and so Jack sold the back portion to Reg Dawson and Russel MacDonald. They moved it away and turned it into two houses. The age of the first class hotel was gone now for good and for sure.
Two people we have skipped over very quickly, and I think deserve more attention are Mrs. Strang and Mrs. Clark. These two women, sometimes with the help of a young girl but most times not, ran this big hotel which on many occasions was filled to capacity. Today, it would take a staff of at least 20 to handle the job. Mrs. Clark especially must have worked extremely hard because while she ran the hotel, she also kept up her sewing and her instructing. Mrs. Clark died in 1926.
Mr. Clark and a daughter(Mildred), which Jack and Catherine had adopted in 1914 stayed on, as their only true child, a daughter, (Tisy) had married John MacIsaac, a railway man, who had boarded at the Lansdowne and moved to Borden in 1919. The Clark’s adopted daughter Mildred, married Frank Howatt in 1929, and Mr. Clark moved to Borden to live with the MacIsaacs, leaving the hotel vacant. In 1930, Jack moved the bathroom fixtures, pipes, etc., to the MacIsaac house in Borden giving them the first indoor bathroom in Borden. Some of the fixtures and pipes are still present in the old MacIsaac home, now owned and occupied by Mr. Jack MacIsaac Jr.
In 1931, Jack Clark died at the MacIsaac home in Borden and the hotel was willed to Mrs. John MacIsaac.
In 1932, Mrs. MacIsaac sold the once grand hotel to Mr William Trowsdale for the meeger sum of $500.
The Trowsdales lived in the hotel until they deserted it in 1941. On May 28th 1942, the Lansdowne Hotel burned to the ground.
Mike
