{"id":7601,"date":"2012-01-12T10:00:47","date_gmt":"2012-01-12T15:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingottawa.ca\/?p=7601"},"modified":"2013-01-21T09:27:18","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T14:27:18","slug":"forgotten-vanier-the-butler-motor-hotel-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/ottawa\/2012\/01\/12\/forgotten-vanier-the-butler-motor-hotel-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Forgotten Vanier: The Butler Motor Hotel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
Photo: Postcard of the Butler Motor Hotel, 1960s; Photographed and published by W. Schermer, Montreal, Quebec.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\n <\/p>\n

The following article by Spacing Ottawa contributor Mike Steinhauer is cross-posted from VanierNow.ca<\/a>, a new blog about the one square-mile neighbourhood called Vanier.<\/em><\/p>\n

By the mid 1950s Canada boasted over 3000 motels. The family-run establishments, located on the outskirts of cities along the main entry points, offered free parking and homemade meals at an adjacent restaurant. Ottawa, being a tourist town, had its fair share with almost all located along the Prescott Highway, Montreal Road and the Pembroke Highway.<\/p>\n

Many of the city\u2019s motels have disappeared but the ghost of Vanier\u2019s Butler Motor Hotel, complete with a stylish 1960s fa\u00e7ade, is still visible today.<\/p>\n

The business was established in 1930 and predates the modern motel \u2013 a building of connected rooms with direct access to an open parking area. The Reliance Motor Service and Tourist Camp, as it was first called, opened on Montreal Road on what was the family farm. As cars became more affordable and roads improved, motor courts, offering campsites and cabins, became a dominant element along the edges of larger centres.<\/p>\n

In \u2018<\/em>Retire and Run a Motel? Growth Boom Still Going,<\/em>\u2019 an article published by the Financial Post<\/em> in 1958, Vincent Lunny provides an account on how Fred Butler got the idea of opening a motel (by then called the Reliance Motor Court):<\/p>\n

Butler owned a farm on the outskirts of Ottawa. One night a party of gypsies camped on his land and gave him the idea. He put up tents and rented cot spaces, later progressing to roadside cabins [\u2026] No one could duplicate Butler\u2019s performance today any more than they could Henry Ford\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the business matured\u201d writes Ken Elder<\/a> in \u2018Ottawa Camps and Motor Courts\u2019, \u201cdouble and triple cabins were added and a courtyard planted with <\/em>elaborate flower beds and lawns. By 1947, 44 cabins <\/em>had been built.\u201d A decade later, the Butler family operated a modern motel of 70 units. The Butler Motor Hotel, as it was called by 1960, boasted a heated outdoor pool, air conditioned rooms (92 in total), a cocktail lounge and a very cool logo.<\/p>\n

The hotel\u2019s Coachman lounge became a popular spot for live music during the 1960s. Beverly Anne Medford, \u201ca dynamic musician with a variety of wigs and stylish outfits became a legend as the lounge\u2019s organist, able to play and sing any request.\u201d By the 1970\u2019s the lounge was called Bogey\u2019s and Dick Maloney<\/a>, a local jazz vocalist, frequently played the intimate basement venue that seated 150 people. In the late 1970s, Robin Averill<\/a> and Joe Turner played the lounge. \u201cThe two musicians filled the club with Irish-music fans every weekend,\u201d writes Claire McLaughlin, \u201chuge lines regularly formed outside the door.\u201d<\/p>\n

The following decades were less kind as travelers became more discerning and regulars were lured by newer, more centrally located, establishments. The family business was dissolved at the end of 1984 but their name graced the fa\u00e7ade until the Holiday Inn Express took over the premises in 1997.The following year the hotel became the Ottawa Inn and by 1999 it changed its name, yet again, to Howard Johnson Express Inn.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Inner courtyard of Comfort Inn. Photo: VanierNow<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\n <\/p>\n

Today, The establishment is known as the Comfort Inn Downtown<\/a>. The neutral coloured fa\u00e7ade, corporate logo and large entrance overhang look like any other highway hotel. Yet, the large inner courtyard, surrounded by the various motel structures built during the 1950s and 1960s give us a glimpse of what the Butler was like.<\/p>\n

The heated pool has long been removed and many of the large trees were cut. All that remains is a large parking lot that holds about 100 cars. The spots are rented at $70\/month to public servants working at Place Vanier \u2013 three large office towers occupied by the federal government.<\/p>\n

I only wonder where the hotel guests park their cars?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sources:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ashford, Keith, The Ottawa Citizen<\/em>. \u2018Night life, Jazz at the Butler, rock across town.\u2019 4 Nov 1975: Page 61.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Barr, Greg. The Ottawa Citizen<\/em>. \u2018The Lounge Live.\u2019 27 Jan 1989: B1.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Elder, Ken. Heritage Ottawa Newsletter<\/em>. \u2018Ottawa Cabin Camps and Motor Courts.\u2019 Volume 37, No. 2. Summer 2010.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lunny, Vince, The Financial Post.<\/em> \u2018Retire and Run a Motel? Growth Boom Still Going.\u2019 26 Apr 1958: Page 26.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

McLaughlin, Claire. The Ottawa Citizen<\/em>. `Canadians can drown the shamrock’: Celtic season: On St. Patrick’s Day Ottawans go out to hear Irish favourites by singers like Robin Averill.\u2019 13 Mar 1997: D.2.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ottawa Citizen, The<\/em>. \u2018Grant Two New Area Licences.\u2019 <\/em>2 Aug 1960: Page 4.<\/p>\n


\nOttawa Citizen, The<\/em>. \u2018Legal Notices: Reliance Motor Court Limited.\u2019 <\/em>26 Nov 1984: C14.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Ottawa Citizen, The<\/em>. \u2018Going out Guide.\u2019 1997 to 1998.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Whitney-Brown, Carolyn. The Globe and Mail<\/em>. \u2018Lives Lived: Beverly Anne Medford.\u2019 30 Dec 2009.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The following article by Spacing Ottawa contributor Mike Steinhauer is cross-posted from VanierNow.ca, a new blog about the one square-mile neighbourhood called Vanier. By the mid 1950s Canada boasted over 3000 motels. 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