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In May when we meet in Nelson we will be little more than a block away from the former Queen's hotel (605 Baker Street), or at least its successor, for the original wooden structure was destroyed by fire many years ago. The hotel was described by Charles St. Barbe in 1897 as one of Nelson's newest first-class hotels, a fine three storey structure with twenty-four large outside guest rooms, lighted by electricity, central heating, wide halls, sample rooms, dining room and bar. It had been built by Richardson and Perdue.1
The regular reader may have noted that in past articles we have not written about any women. There are several reasons for this. Firstly one hundred years ago British Columbia was still a pioneer country and there were many more men than women. In the Nelson Riding women represented only 26.1% of the population.2 Secondly, married women were expected to stay at home. Some professions such as teaching and nursing were available although when a woman married she retired. And we might note that the women in the oldest profession tended not to leave much trace. Of course there were some women in respectable businesses and one legitimate field of work that attracted quite a few women was the operation of hotels and boarding houses.
Mrs. Elizabeth C. Clarke3 came to Nelson in 1896 from Calgary. There she had been associated with the Royal Hotel which she had operated for ten years.4 Since she mentioned it regularly in her advertisements, Mrs. Clarke must have been quite proud of the Royal Hotel's reputation. Before Calgary she was in Winnipeg as her three children were born there.5 In Nelson Mrs. Clarke ran the Clarke Hotel for two years until May 1898 when she took on the lease of the Queen's Hotel. In 1897 Charles St. Barbe called Mrs. Clarke "a womanly woman of education and culture."6
Licensing regulations of the day were stringent and drafted with a Victorian period mindset. A woman who was living with her husband could not hold a liquor licence. In that case the licence had to be in her husband's name. But if she were single, widowed or living apart from her husband...