The town of Unity dates to 1904, but did not really take off until the coming of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway around 1908.

After 1920, Canadian National Railways took over and this was a direct result of the bankruptcy of the Grand Trunk Pacific. The Government of Canada acquired it along with the assets of several other struggling railways. Today this is CN’s east/west mainline and it is a busy stretch of track. You can even catch a VIA passenger train here, although not many people do.

Unity is a two railway town and in 1910 the Canadian Pacific ran a secondary line through the area. This track runs from Wetaskiwin on the Alberta side, to Saskatoon. The Canadian National, being the first, runs right on the south edge of town, and the downtown core grew adjacent to the tracks. The Canadian Pacific is just slightly north of town.

Both railways are busy and move a significant quantity of grain and other products. This includes oil, gas, and industrial alcohol, manufactured just east of town. Like most of the communities visited by the Beer Parlour Project, the railway was the main reason the place exists as it does. Railways were the catalyst for much settlement and growth.

In the 1920s the population of Unity stood at about 600. Growth was slow and steady for the next couple of decades, with a brief decline during the depression years of the 1930s.

Things took off during the period of the late 1940s to the 1960s, and the population ballooned to over 2000. This was mostly due to the development of natural resources in the area. Growth has slowed somewhat since, but still is trending upward for the most part.

“I was retired for a few years and then we’ve been traveling lots of countries. After, for three years, we got so tired. So, my wife wanted to do something…can’t be staying home all the time doing nothing. So, we ended up we’re looking for some kind of business…then we bought this place and fixed it up and started. It was closed (when they bought it).” – Ben on becoming a small town hotel owner.

Many locals work in the agricultural industry, or for the Sifto mine to the southeast of town. They extract all sorts of industrial and agricultural minerals from underground.

Unity was the site of the very first potash mine in the province of Saskatchewan and this happened back in the early 1950s. This mine spurred the production of agricultural fertilizer in the province and it has become a huge industry.

Unity has a downtown core that is several blocks square and pretty much all services are available. The community is not named for a specific person, but rather for the concept of Unity. “Unity: a condition of harmony or the quality or state of being made one.” – Merriam-Webster.

The Unity Hotel dates to 1955 and the history book notes that in 1974 a large addition was put in. It is not exactly said what that was, but it would appear that a section was added in the back. The rear portion is constructed at 90 degrees to the rest and just looks different. This addition more than doubled the number of rooms at the time. On our visit there were 20 available, and all are renovated to modern standards.

The 1955 date suggests that the hotel was built to capitalize on the economic boom the town was experiencing at the time.

The older part of the the building was once flat-roofed, but one with a shallow peak was put in at some point. Otherwise, the building looks much as it did back in the old days, from the street side anyway.

“Okay, so we started October 2019. Just before COVID. Yeah, we’re in here and it’s not easy.” – Ben, on opening up mere months before the pandemic.

It is not clear what stood on the property prior to the hotel, but it appears there was once a fire station on this lot. Various photographs from the early days of the 1910s and into 1940s show a distinctive building with a bell tower and what appears to be large bay doors on the front.

We found reference to a Unity Hotel in the period of the 1920s to 1930s, but it is not clear if that business was in any way connected to the current hotel. Nor is it clear what happened to it.

An old photograph from 1918 shows a very hotel-looking building across from what we are assuming was the firehall. There was also a Union Hotel in town in the 1920s, but we do not know much about it.

The Unity Hotel, currently known as Muse on Main, was once called the Selkirk Hotel. Research suggests that name remained into the 1970s. Some old advertisements refer to it as the Selkirk Motel and Motor Hotel.

It appears that a café or restaurant was always part of the hotel, and remains to this day.

What looks to be a blanked off door exists adjacent to the current entrance and was likely the second beer parlour entrance for “Ladies and Escorts”. The Unity Hotel/Selkirk/Muse in Main was constructed during the heyday of the Beer Parlour era when specific rules about gender access to drinking establishments were in force. Men could enter via one door, and escorted ladies via another one so marked and into a special area set aside for them.

“I work seven seven days a week, you know…I don’t do that do that no more, not seven days a week. No more. No, just five days now. I work for nothing most days. So if a busy we make a little bit money, but and then all of the small towns bars and restaurants are like that.” – Ben, on the harsh realities of the business.

Older hotels were forced to add these doors after the fact, but with new builds constructed during this time, they were usually designed with the extra door included. Evidence of these second entries are often still visible or sometimes both are still used.

In more recent times, shortly before current owner Ben took over, the establishment was known as the Unity Sunshine Hotel. A single level addition off the north side of the building houses a now closed convenience store, but previous to that it was a liquor store.

Like many of the hotels we have visited, the Unity Hotel/Muse on Main is for sale. It is a tough and demanding job and that is sometimes not evident right away to those getting into the business. The real estate listing mentions extensive renovations, with an asking price of $950k.

The Wall of Shame is a list of names of those who ran up a tab and left without paying.

Unity, Saskatchewan: population about 2500 and it is located in the Rural Municipality of Round Valley, 200km west of Saskatoon.