Clive Alberta sprang to life around 1906 and that is a year or so after the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The town is along a branchline that once ran all the way from Lacombe to Coronation and later beyond into Saskatchewan.

The track through Clive is still in use and sees trains several times a week, but presently it ends at nearby Stettler to the east. The Beer Parlour Project team has visited hotels in several towns along this same line in recent months (Clive, Alix and Stettler)

“Dale and Susan owned it before, they posted it on Facebook that they wanted to sell it, and I have no idea, but I was just like, I want to do that. We came and looked at it, and yeah, we bought it that day. (bought it) March 1st.” – Erin, on taking the plunge (with a partner) just over a year ago.

“The tables were just little tables, little round tables. With a terry cloth top, which when you think about it now, they had to be absolutely disgusting. The greeblies that lived in those, I cannot imagine. The only food was a big jar of pickled eggs and the big jar of pickled sausage. And I figured that I should be able to love these, but they were horrible. I couldn’t do it…I couldn’t eat them.” -Ward, speaking of the old style Beer Parlour tables every old hotel used to have (some still do) and the cuisine offered in the old days.

Known as Valley City briefly, Clive became a village in January of 1912. It was named after Robert Clive, a founder of British Rule in India in the 1700s and it seems rather puzzling. Why is this small Alberta town named after someone from long ago and so far away? What is the connection?

Our research has yet to establish a reason, but it must be interesting.

When village status was reached, Clive had a population of about 200 and that nearly doubled by the 1920s. Further growth occurred into the 1960s, but there was a bit of a downward trend afterwards. Through the 1990s and on to the present, there has been renewed growth.

In the early days Clive boasted a vibrant downtown and historic photographs show many business blocks on the main street . There were all the usual players including two general stores; the infamous “Big Store”, and “Pioneer Store”, right across the street. They seemed in heavy competition with each other and both had prominent signage.

“And we didn’t know anything about making a menu or any of that, really. So we just kind of learned how to do it. I’ve noticed just now, with the year mark, that it’s now getting busier, and we’re getting more comfortable running it. So I’m putting in long hours.” – Erin.

“I’m in big trouble. I said, my dad is in there. He said, how long has that been going on? And I said, stupidly what are you talking about? Well, I think I was only 15…paid the price that day” – Reg, on sneaking in and getting caught.

There was also a hardware store, lumber yard, meat market, real estate office, farm equipment dealership, a creamery, doctor’s office, drug store, garage, restaurants, barber shop and grain elevators. Today things are a little quieter, but there is still a little business activity including two bars, the hotel cafe, a store and a handful of others.

In 1920 flames swept through downtown Clive and destroyed much of the business district. This hotel building was constructed after the fire – exact date unknown, but it shows up in early post-fire photos. It was built on the lot of the aforementioned Big Store, which was lost to the fire.

This building was not a hotel to begin with but a Union Bank. It was about half the size it is today and if viewed from the side, the seam showing the later addition is fairly obvious.

“Everyone said we were crazy, they couldn’t believe it. Then we started renovating up here, and that took us until the end of July.” – Erin.

“(The age limit) was 21 before that, but it had just dropped to 18. So a lot of people that were, you know, a little under 18 would sneak in. So we’d come in here and usually come in on the weekend and get a case of beer and just get out of here. But once in a while we’d try sitting down and, you know, we got away with it!” – Reg, on sneaking in underage (a rite of passage in small towns).

Union Bank had branches all over the prairies and we found examples of buildings belonging to them in other towns very similar appearance to this one, including one in Bruderheim Alberta. The Beer Parlour Project visited the Victoria Hotel in Bruderheim.

Union Bank failed in the mid-1920s and many branches were then taken over by competitor Royal Bank. This appears to be the case in Clive, but this other firm did not remain active for long. They are last mentioned in the late 1920s and what happened with the building in the next few years is unknown.

It appears it became a hotel in the late 1930s and old photos from soon after show the building looking much as it did when it was a bank. The rear addition came later, around the 1940s, but the exact year was not stated. The coffee shop/cafe came on the scene about this time.

There is a masonry structure in the bar area that now serves as the beer cooler, and it is said this was the location of the bank vault. This puts it in about the right spot (back wall of the original bank building), so it is certainly plausible.

“Clive has always had a reputation for having baseball teams. Men’s baseball teams and back in the day fastball teams and stuff like that. This being the only place to drink and we always went after practices, after games and when we had tournaments. Since I was 18..ish.” – Ward, speaking of knowing the hotel a long time.

“I like the fact that we could have a cafe up here and have members of the community come in, and just be a community gathering place…” – Erin.

The balcony out front was added by the previous owners only a few years ago. They also added a sloped addition to the original flat roof.

These changes aside, the Clive Hotel looks much the same today as it did in the past. A 1950s dated photo from the Molson archive demonstrates this and help support the timeline for the rear addition too. It was in place then.

From 1910 to the 1930s there was a King Edward Hotel in Clive. It seems to have survived the big fire in 1920, but over a decade later it too burned down. This roughly corresponds with the time that the current hotel opened, so perhaps there is some kind of connection. The history books is silent on this matter. It was almost opposite the current Clive Hotel.

One passage suggests a second hotel operated in town in the early days, but we could not confirm a name or timeline.

No telephone directories for Clive were found until the early 1920s and this suggests this service did not arrive until around that time. Interestingly Clive had more rural phone subscribers than in town in the beginning. This, if anything, demonstrates just how many folks lived on farms in the early days.

“Well, I don’t know if Ken and Florence owned it…then there was a guy by the name of Ali Omar. And then there was a Pete Norris, him and his wife owned it. Doris, I think her name was. They owned it for quite a while. And then they sold it to the Gillette’s, Don and Phyllis. And then they sold it to Huckle’s, Fred and Bonnie. And then they sold it to Dale and Susan and then Aaron bought it from them. So, yeah, it’s been a lot of owners.” – Reg, recalling some previous owners.

“We had to update the electrical. That was probably the biggest expense, updating that. But we did all that, and there actually wasn’t too many surprises. If you look at everything, it looks quite square. So structurally, it seems like it’s very solid. Yeah, we got a building inspection, and they said it might last another hundred years.” – Erin.

We found telephone listings for the earlier King Edward Hotel, but not one for the Clive Hotel until 1970. None at all and we even checked if it operated under a different name (and research says it did not).

How could a hotel possibly function without a phone? While possible, it seems like a strange way to run a business where connections are important. Perhaps it was unlisted, but that makes no sense either.

If the Clive Hotel had any other names over the years, we have yet to find evidence of this.

Like most small town hotels, this one has had many owners over the years. We have been able to confirm at least ten, but their may be others. At various times it is said that the owners lived upstairs.

The last reference to the hotel renting rooms was around the millennium and at the time there were seven suites ups there. They no longer do this, and there is an apartment up there now, with the rest for storage.

“And they have lots of stories of things falling off the shelves randomly. So, yeah, if you go on YouTube, they were here. The ghost people were here one time, I guess.” – Erin, most old hotels claim to have a resident spirit and Clive is no exception.

“You’d wait outside until you thought somebody, yeah, somebody you knew is coming in. You’d go, hey, want to get me a case of beer, please? And it was so sad that you didn’t even know what you’re asking for, just beer, whatever you got me.” – Ward, on the lengths you’ll go to get beer when underage.

Several locals suggested the Clive Hotel was the last bar in Alberta to be a “Men Only” and the late 1970s usually mentioned. Earlier in the Beer Parlour era, bars allowed conditional entry of women with an escort. So a husband, relative or any guy for that matter. Men only bars were not unheard of at the time, but were not the norm.

Our researched can not confirm this possibility just yet, but the search is ongoing.

According to the Alberta Liquor and Gaming Commission records, the last bar to do this on file was at the Palliser in Calgary and that happened in 1970. That was an upscale oilpatch boy’s-club establishment, and showed little resemblance to a small town beer parlour.

For the last of the holdouts. we are not sure if government regulators forced this or if societal pressures were in play.

As an FYI, the last “Men Only” bar in Saskatchewan was in 1972, and there is a similar timeline in BC, so what is said about Clive is certainly possible.

Clive, Alberta: Population about 800. It is located in Lacombe County, 45km northeast of Red Deer, and straight east of Lacombe.