“When the school burned, that’s when the town started to die, because when you have a school, parents come in.” – Mabel (on the town’s population decline)

The Warspite Hotel is located on the corner of 50th Street and South Railway Avenue. From the local history book: “WM. Andrusiak built and operated a pool hall, which around 1925 was converted into a hotel.” It is stated the building was only about a year old when this happened.

Like many hotels of the era it was strategically located right across from the railway. It was good business to be close to the trains, considering everyone and everything came and went by that conveyance at one point.

The Warspite Hotel has had at least a dozen owners over the time its operated. An addition was built on the south side of the building sometime before 1941, so it has changed a bit over time.

There was a serious fire at the hotel on May 19th 1941, but it was not a total loss.

“Hi, I’m Donna, and we’re at the Worst Bite Hotel. I do believe that it’s going to be 100 years old this year.” – Donna (& a funny transcribe error).

“We decided that we wanted to get into a business like this…we kept searching…but we decided to buy the Warspite Hotel.” – Sunny (speaking of his and partner Milan’s search to be hoteliers.

“So, at 1:30 we did the last call….all had like two or three drinks ordered together…so, you have to close by three…I had to tell them guys to please, please leave. People brought their own chairs.” – Sunny (on the long, hectic first night and a resultant seating shortage).

In the 1950s the hotel had the only payphone in the area and given most people did not have such a “luxury” meant it could get very busy at times. It was available 24hrs a day and was the only connection to the outside world after the local exchange closed up each night.

In the early 1960s the hotel offered eight rooms at $3 and up per night. None are offered today nor has that been the case for some time. The licensed beer parlour is mentioned many times in old phone book ads from that same period. Beer was profitable.

“…almost everyone down here has a ski (suffix) in their name. It’s very Ukrainian town. Very, very Ukrainian.” – Donna

“Yakamec had a son who was 21 or 22, and I was teaching here in the school, and he wanted his grade 12, so he came to school in the daytime with the young kids, and then he worked here in the bar at night.” – former school teacher Mabel (the Yakamecs were owners of the hotel back when she taught class).

“In our home province (in India), you cannot buy liquor. You cannot sell liquor. So neither him (Milan), me or my wife drinks at all…and we still own a bar.” – Sunny, in Canada since 2010, sharing a humorous story.

The hotel closed for a spell starting in 2022 and this lasted about a year. It was then sold and re-opened by the current owners. Locals remain grateful and supportive.

The owners investigated other hotels in the area and some have been visited by the Beer Parlour Project. Tofield and Egremont for example.

Warspite was founded in 1914, as Smoky Lake Centre and the name changed two years later. At around this same time the fledgling town was moved a short distance to its present location, next to the railway. It is named in honour of the HMS Warspite, a new and revolutionary (at the time) design of battleship which saw action in World War One.

Most of the towns visited by the Beer Parlour Project are a shell of their former selves and have seen their populations decline over time. Warspite seems to be bucking that trend and the present population is greater than ever.

“It was expensive to run the little village. If we need the roads graded, we had to hire a grader. If we wanted gravel, we had to buy it. Then we had to spread it. I said, maybe we should dissolve this place and join the county. And when we did that, taxes in town dropped by two thirds.” – former mayor Randy.

“These are standard issue Alberta liquor control board tables from the 1940s and 50s.” – Chris, speaking to Sunny about the old tables still used at the bar.

Numerous businesses once operated in Warspite including four grain elevators, this hotel, four general stores, two hardware stores, two garages, two barber shops, a pool hall, coffee shop, butcher, feed mill and three oil wholesalers.

Today only the hotel remains and it is the last business in what was downtown Warspite.

Warspite, Alberta: Population about 70, located in Smoky Lake County, NE of Edmonton.