Drinkin’ in Guelph before Prohibition

My hope tonight is to share with you some other interesting facets of my study into Guelph hotels and the drink trade in particular. I hope that through a short presentation I might possibly spark some further discussion about temperance, alcohol production, and retail consumption in Guelph.

The question I would like to pose at the outset is:

Was Guelph a Drinkin’ Town?

Why would I even raise this question? Well, in my studies, one of the more useful sources of information on Ontario hotels and taverns is that of Mary McBurney and Marjorie Byers. In their book, I came across this quote:

“Guelph had more taverns than any other town of its size in Upper Canada.”

I was struck by this quote at the time, and while I didn’t give it much thought at the time, the fact that I have run into the same assertion in newspaper articles and in subsequent journal articles, I felt compelled to assess its validity. As I compiled lists of hotels, saloon and groceries in Guelph I was constantly reminded that there were a profusion of places in Guelph to get a drink … if one were so inclined.

To set the stage, when I refer to pre-prohibition, this is the period from roughly from the incorporation of Guelph as a Town in 1856 to the enacting of provincial prohibition in 1916. This chart shows some important dates and indicates when Guelph was wet (in red) and people could legally drink in public and blue when it went dry.

So, there were a lot of bars, and thus the rather clear presumption that even if the citizens of Guelph didn't have a proclivity to drink to excess, they certainly had access to the means for them to do just that!

I’d like to balance this however with the fact that another historian referred noted that Guelph had multiple temperance organizations. Again more temperance groups than most places in Ontario. While the temperance groups may have organized in response to endemic debauchery and drunkenness, this charge itself has not been made. What is obvious is that Guelph has had a unique relationship with the foes of drinking as well as those that profited from the trade in alcoholic beverages. So I return to our question:

"Was Guelph a Drinkin' Town in the Late Nineteenth Century?"

To attempt to answer this question, I hope to be able to take us all back in time and attempt to appreciate the nature of drink and society during the late nineteenth century. We can then consider the various different groups at work in Guelph and the province and attempt to

deduce whether the charges leveled against the town of Guelph are fair and thus to what extent Guelph could have been considered a Drinkin' town.

Let’s take a quick tour of town, then and now to establish the geography of drink in Guelph.

Many of you will, I hope, be familiar with at least some of the hotels around town. Many of the more prominent hotels from the nineteenth century are still here … albeit filling a variety of uses. This overly detailed map…shows the physical location of licensed hotels in Guelph between 1851 and 1931. Although it gives the impression of a huge density of hotels within a very small area, it is important to note that not all these hotels existed simultaneously. This map is more representative of a particular point in time …

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In this case 1869. Why 1869? Lucky for the researcher, in that year Guelph Town council hired a new license inspector, Francis Marriot, who compiled a very detailed inventory of hotels in Guelph that year. I created this schematic of hotels that were operating in Guelph in 1869 from his records. As you can see there are still a large number. In fact, in 1869, there are 20 hotels in downtown Guelph, of which 19 were licensed to operate. Is this a significant number? Well, in 1869, the population of Guelph was 5,700 residents. Thus as far as available bar space, there was one hotel for every 285 residents. This is a significant number! Provincially, the number of licensed taverns was well in excess of one for every 350 citizens. So, there are more hotels per capita than in other towns, albeit marginally. An earlier reference from Michele Ducharme’s study of the brewing in Guelph noted that in 1843 when the population of Guelph was just over 700 people there were already 5 bars in town and three breweries. Thus the stage is set.

But, this map reveals some other very important facts. The colours on this map are significant. Orange represents public rooms such as bars or sitting rooms in the hotel or tavern. Green represents longer-term boarders, and Yellow, rooms occupied by staff or owner. The white spaces are free for the use of guests. One of the realities of the time is that many guest rooms were infrequently occupied. During market times, all rooms might be spoken for, and the hotels of Guelph served a vital function for those attending markets in Guelph, but touristic guests were harder to come by. Why all the rooms you may ask? Well, the rooms go with the license to sell alcohol. As a proprietor of a hotel, inn or tavern, if you wanted to get a liquor license you had to have at least four guest rooms, beyond those for your family. The required number rose over time. While there was clearly a cost to providing these rooms, there is question as to how lavishly they were furnished as well as what it cost to provide staff to service them. In the earlier, smaller hotels, many staffing duties were carried out by family. But in the late nineteenth, there were some very large hotels built in Guelph and this demanded a greater staff. Additionally as we will discuss later, a large proportion of the revenues of the typical hotel during this era came from the drink trade. While they may have been a loss on accommodation, letting rooms for 35 cents a night, keepers made $4 on every $1 they invested in booze.

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Thus when we look at the geography of hotels in Guelph, it is clear that there are a substantial number, they all have bars and they are concentrated in a small downtown area.

So what does this hotelscape look like from the street?

This is the view looking up Macdonnell Street around 1885. It was once popularly know as Whiskey Avenue for the profusion of bars running its length. How many hotels are in this picture?? Probably a bit tough to count in the older black and white photo, but this may help… There were a few hotels on Macdonnell. A similar count can take place over on Market Square/Carden Street a couple of years later.

Once again, with a little visual enhancement the hotels emerge…

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One begins to appreciate that, even to the casual observer; there seems to have been a substantial number of hotel bars in Guelph. I reiterate that each of these hotels had a licensed bar and as studies have shown; hotel revenues were heavily dependant on the sale of liquor and beer. In 1886 at the Western Hotel, 15% of revenue came from the rooms, and over 80% from the bar. Even in 1913 at the American, when the restaurant is starting to accounts for 26% of the revenue, 55% is still coming from the sale of liquor. But, we’ll talk more about this later.

Between these two pictures there are a total of 15 hotels within a fours square block radius. Note that these are only the licensed hotels – one could also partake of drink at groceries as well as saloons.

Many of these hotels are still here, and I’d like to highlight a few:

The Red Lion Hotel was built in 1841 and served as the district court house for a few years before beginning a long life as a hotel…and still today as an apartment block.

The Royal Hotel, known by a variety of names, was constructed largely in its present form in 1856……and it still exists today, parts of which are still used as a hotel.

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Another familiar hotel is of course the Albion built in 1856 as Stell’s Tavern...Still thrives today and improves with a recent facelift.

The Victoria, located on St. George’s Square was constructed in 1859…And went through a number of expansions and renovations over time, adding floors...And still standing today, although the victim of fire last year.

Other hotels, such as the Central and the Queen’s…

Began as hotels and made a switch to apartments around the time of prohibition in 1916 …

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The Wellington Hotel was constructed in 1876…And replaced smaller hotels in the same location.

These hotels opened as the grand hotels of the town at the time. The Western as well, opened in 1881…and was the place to stay in Guelph. Quite spectacularly, the Western for advertised that it offered stabling for over 400 horses. It became the Ambassador..And today we know it as the Diplomat. We’ll talk some more about this hotel later.

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This is the view looking down Macdonnell from the Albion. The Union Hotel was the aglomeration of a couple of older hotels and was refaced in 1886. The Commercial Hotel was constructed in 1882, and is still here today. The Union was refaced in a grander style and is also still standing, just down Macdonnell from the former Commercial. And finally of the Old Guelph hotels, the rather ‘new’ King Edward resulted from the consolidation and expansion of a number of other hotels and restaurant in 1905

And this building too remains today..

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While we cannot begin to claim that Guelph may have been the den of depravity that it was suggested to be by many temperance groups, it is clear that the hospitality trade has thrived in Guelph and left us today with a rich architectural heritage!

Now, back to considering our question…

"Was Guelph a Drinkin' Town in the Late Nineteenth Century?"

Lets consider some numbers…I hope that eyes don’t glaze over at this point. I will try to keep these lively.

Between 1851 and 1916, the laws governing the drink trade changed substantially. In Upper Canada there were very few restrictions on either the production or sale of alcohol. Taverns were widespread. According to unofficial sources there were over 20 taverns, inns or saloons in Guelph by 1851. With a population of only 1,800 residents, there was one bar for every 90 people in town. If we discount bar attendance of children under 8 (which may be surprisingly conservative of us), this ratio drops below one bar for every forty people. This would suggest that a large proportion of the population could be simultaneously served inside the physical space of Guelph’s hotels – an interesting prospect. While this 1851 estimate may include groceries and rather dubious saloons, it is clear that bars formed an important part of the ‘urban’ infrastructure. It is important to note that these establishments filled a variety of purposes beyond the drink trade. They provided (among others):

• a residence for single males and young couples,

• provided the bulk of public meeting spaces and;

• even at times served as makeshift church meeting halls.

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The number of local hotels reached its height in 1871, but began to drop thereafter. This does not of course limit access to drink as the size of bars and tavern grew, so that the number of available seats and bar space was greater, but it does not appear to keep pace with population growth.

This chart shows the trend in the number of hotels serving Guelph during the period 1851-1918. Although a maximum number of bars was reached in 1871, this is deceiving. Licensing restricted the permissible number of bars, but it did not restrict the size of those bars. As we saw in the pictures, the newer hotels tended to be larger and capable of serving a greater number of guests.

However, is this trend in serving capacity consistent with drinking demand?

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As this chart shows, the per capita consumption of alcohol actually dropped over this period, falling from close to 2 gallons per capita to about 1 and ½ gallons.

The second point worth noting is that the type of alcohol consumed changed over this period. Yearly consumption of hard liquor fell from a high of over 1.5 gallons per capita prior to 1871 to less than ½ a gallon per capita by 1900. Beer on the other hand grew in popularity and rose from under 2 ½ gallons per capita to over 5 ½ gallons per capita by the turn of the century.

36 Type of Alcohol

Thus as we can see, the preference for beer rose to nearly 50%. This shows two very important things:

one, tastes changed over this time – people began consuming much more beer than liquor (wine was not even a player in the game at this stage);

two, at the same time gross consumption of alcohol in actually decreased substantially, as the lesser alcohol content of beer did not account for the shift from hard liquor.

Although more beer is being consumed, it has far less alcohol content!

Several factors account for the change in taste for different beverages. Early on, beer did not travel well and the reliance on ale meant that local breweries were the only sources for beer.

Guelph was blessed with a number of local breweries … and certainly continues to be (as we find ourselves in a most successful one today). Historians have recounted the rather turbulent story of the Sleeman enterprise. The original Sleeman tale reached its pinnacle with the Silvercreek Brewery located at the modern junction of the Hanlon and Wellington Street across from the manor.

This was by no means Guelph’s only Brewery, as Thomas Holliday pre-dated Sleeman’s involvement in the local trade. The Guelph Brewery and Malt House however never challenged

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Sleeman’s eventual production of over 20,000 barrels annually. Additionally, distilleries were present in Guelph as well, such as,

Beer was the bigger local business. In the mid-1850s, the science of brewing did not allow beer to be stored for long period, not transported effectively over long distances. These factors also made it actually more expensive to drink than whiskey. Hard liquor could be shipped across the ocean, was distilled locally and was more widely available. Liquor could be purchased easily forconsumption and if anecdotal sources are to be believed was easily carried into the fields and into the factory for daily consumption. Wine was little consumed and consumption decreased over the later part of the nineteenth century. It was only under prohibition in 1916, when wine consumption was allowed that it began to become a more popular choice.

home

With the introduction of bottom-fermented lagers to the North American market, largely after 1860, beer began to be shipped further distances. This process was enhanced by the introduction of refrigeration and of additives such as bisulphate of soda. Additionally, beer was increasingly bottled and as branding emerged in the later part of this period, it would seem that particular tastes for one brewer’s wares over another can be discerned in buying patterns.

The existence of at least four breweries in Guelph by 1858 is clearly connected to local demand. Intriguingly, during this period, there was no restriction on brewery’s owning the bars at which their wares were sold. The Sleeman family did in fact own a number of the hotels in town, leasing them out to presumably-compliant managers for operation. The Farmer’s Arms and the Queen’s Hotel being cases in point. The leases for these hotels stipulate that all beer will be purchased from Sleeman for serving in the bar. Additionally, investors in the original Sleeman operation such as John Pipe and William Oliver were both hotel operators.

At this time, the nascent local government derived little income from licensing and at that point there was little temperance call for limits on alcohol consumption. This is not to belittle the potential impact of local government on liquor licensing. Between 1851 and 1876, local government was empowered to be the arbiter of how many outlets were licensed in each town. Although the provincial government took control of the licensing process after 1876, local appointees were still closely connected with the local government. And just how influential might local government be?

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Few towns can look proudly to their mayoral records and find such prominent brewers as George Sleeman. But in Guelph during the nineteenth century, the power of the drink trade was perhaps even more pronounced than is generally recognized. When examining the backgrounds of civic leaders, one is struck by their connections to the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages.

This is an interesting chart. I don’t mean to indicate that politicians were actually boozers themselves. It illustrates the number of councilors and mayors that were or had been involved in the manufacture or sale of beverages as owners/managers of companies, hotels, inns or taverns, or owners of premises on which these activities took place.

At times, up to half of the council had an interest in the health of the drink trade. Does this suggest that Guelph was a kept town, dedicated to the drink trade? Hardly, but it does suggest that unlike other Ontario towns of the Guelph’s size, there was a financial-political interest in drink at the highest levels. This does appear to be relatively unique to Guelph.

So, returning to the question…

"Was Guelph a Drinkin' Town in the Late Nineteenth Century?"

Hopefully this discussion shows that it is possibly less straightforward than it might seem at first. It is difficult to find records of unlicensed establishments, but judging from infraction records they clearly existed. In many locales these often outnumbered licensed

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establishments. Additionally, this does not include grocery stores at which liquor could be bought, but was legally prohibited from being consumed on premises. But again relying on infraction records we have an idea that this too did happen. So, the numbers which I am working with are a conservative minimum of the number of places at which a resident of Guelph could get a drink.

Our graph of number of hotels…

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Although there are less bars available, the population of the town and then city continued to rise. Were people drinking less?

Does anyone know what happened from 1886-1889? There’s this huge gap in the licensing records.

Perhaps this will help…

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Yes, that’s absolutely right! In 1885, the citizens of Guelph voted by a margin of 5:4 in favour of local prohibition. Thus Guelph became the first city in Canada to enact local prohibition under the Scott Act and for the next three years Guelph was officially dry.

During this period, localities could be compelled to hold a plebiscite by petition and to enact prohibition if a majority were in favour. These happened in Guelph on a regular basis. 1885 was not the first time that Guelph had voted on a call to ban the sale of drink. In 1877, Guelph rejected the temperance call for prohibition. What changed over the decade? One explanation for the success of the crusade in 1885 was that in 1877, prohibition would have prohibited the manufacture as well as the retail sale of liquor. In 1885, prohibition only restricted the retail sale of alcohol and thus producers operations were unaffected by local option. It is argued that the brewer’s opposition to prohibition went a long way towards swaying the result of the earlier vote, but less interest on the part of local brewers allowed temperance forces to triumph.

The results of prohibition however are hard to measure. When called to testify in 1892 on the effect of local option, George Sleeman cheekily claimed that in areas where local option was in effect, his sales were healthier than ever. During the late 19th Century, the effectiveness of policing prohibition was questionable. Battles between the federal and provincial governments over jurisdiction meant that local authorities seldom had the resources to police it. Brewers swore that under controlled distribution, violations were less and lesser volumes of beer were sold. But even if this were not the case, would it not be in their benefit to say it was. They would probably be the first to condemn it. Local records indicate that it was not until the final year of prohibition and the appointment of a new police chief that Guelph made a solid attempt to enforce its tenets.

However, Guelph, noted for being the first city to enact local prohibition, was also the first to repeal it. The residents of the town voted resoundingly to end prohibition in 1888. Thus local license holders could rejoice in 1889, when they were legally permitted to start serving alcoholic beverages again.

The question of whether Guelphites flocked back to the bars following prohibition begs the question of whether they had actually left. Evidence would suggest that although volumes of liquor served had dropped during the dry period, it was far from eliminated. When I examined the bar records of the Western Hotel over on Macdonnell, I have to admit being surprised to discover that during December of 1896, when prohibition was being enforced, business was going on as usual in the bar.

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As we can see there were many beers being served at the bar at the Western. These numbers come from detailed bar receipts which were cross-referenced to liquor expenses. During this month, the proprietor of the Western bought beer from both Sleeman and from Thomas Holiday, as well as acquiring rye, port, sherry and of course the accompanying cigars. While beverages containing less than 2.5% alcohol were permitted, the records examined suggest that temperance ale was a very miniscule proportion of this amount. This would certainly raise the question as to how rigidly prohibition was enforced, as well as simply coming to the conclusion that liquor convictions may well have been a cost of doing business. Clearly, some proprietors were being charged with a variety of liquor offences during this time. Thomas Ellis appeared twice in court during December for offences at the American Hotel, and in fact after the second it appears that he decided (or was forced) to lease the hotel to another manager. Was this a standard practice? Did politics have a role to play in the enforcement of liquor licensing? Perhaps prohibition was not all it appeared to be.

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As I have shown, tastes in drink changed during the later part of the century. Nonetheless, the hotel keeper had to provide quite a wide selection of beverages to satisfy demand. Examination of invoices for representative hotels in Guelph demonstrated that Whiskey, Rye, Malt, Imperial, Brandy, Bitters, Port, Gin, and the occasional claret for the wine drinkers.

• Oranges, Lemons, Valencias

• Bananas

• Coconuts!

• Salmon, Haddock, Sole, Cod

• Lobsters!

• Veal, Beef, Pork, Ham

• Oysters, Oysters, Oysters!

Incidentally, this variety also carried over to the food served in the hotel. It may surprise some that fresh fruits were fairly commonly available, despite what must have been significant transportation logistics to make them available. For example, some of the more interesting comestibles purchased in 1895, included: Lobsters, Lemons, Oranges, Valencias, Salmon, Haddock, Bananas, Coconuts, all through local retailers. Appreciate that the hotel was where one went for a meal on the town. Standalone restaurants were not yet an urban feature in Guelph.

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This diagram demonstrates the buying patterns of just one hotel. As you can imagine, keeping he hotel supplied and obtaining the variety of produce would have been a substantial supply task. As we can see, the hotel keeper, John McAteer (pictured) built a sophisticated web of

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commerce as he obtained comestibles from a variety of sources, dry goods, fruit and vegetables, and meatas well as obtaining beer from Thomas Holiday and George Sleeman. And of course, to satisfy daily nutritional requirements, over 200 gallons of oysters were purchased at the Western Hotel during 1895 along with over 5,000 cigars. Clearly the hotel was not only about drinking. But detailed study of the record books for the hotel show that despite the wonderful variety of foodstuffs and accompaniments made available, liquor still accounted for over 55% of the revenue of the hotel. Accommodation rarely accounted for more than 15% of revenues, the remainder coming from meals and the provision of stabling.

As I mentioned earlier, the hotel served many roles in the town. Additionally, community involvement was also demonstrated by the keeper’s family.

John McAteer, for example, was the father of three daughters, Genevieve, Agnes and Jane.

His daughter Genevieve (the one in the middle) gave music lessons out of the American Hotel. And his son Ben worked as a baggage handler at the GTR station, as well as managing the desk and serving as bartender at the American Hotel.

Did women and children drink?

This is a question somewhat clouded by the mists of time. The Victorian belief that women’s sphere was entirely private is blurred by the hotel. Different ethnic perceptions of the presence of women in a public drinking space tended to have greater sway than legislation. Although there were laws that lead to women’s and escorts areas of hotels after 1923, prior to that, there wasn’t even a legal drinking age and no legal restriction on women and children being in the bar space. This is not to discount social perceptions of

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respectability that may have precluded women’s presence in the bar, but these perceptions tend to differ between those of different ethnic extraction. In fact as Guelph demonstrates, many women were proprietors of bars and owned and ran drinking establishments throughout its history. Laws were in place so that husbands could legally have wives banned from drinking at local establishments as could grandparents enact the same restrictions on grandchildren. How pervasive was ‘underage’ drinking in the nineteenth century? Fodder for other investigations.

"Was Guelph a Drinkin' Town in the Late Nineteenth Century?"

The quote I mentioned at the outset that certainly raised the question in my mind about Guelph’s drinking habits bears returning to. While I have hopefully provided an interesting look at Guelph relationship with the drink trade, the reason for this inflated view might have more to do with how one counts bars as opposed to any moral quandaries.

As with any good tale, I had to save the twist for the last. I hope that you will agree that we have pretty solid evidence of not only the means to drink, but evidence that citizens of the town did actually drink. There’s a lot of drinking taking place.

When I was going through older records to try to compile my lists of Guelph hotels, I realized that some proprietors seemed to be simultaneously managing multiple hotels.. While I was ready to admit that they might be particularly active entrepreneurs, a simpler answer actually emerged. It’s also the answer to why commentators at the time estimated the number of hotels in Guelph well beyond what I was able to account for. Hotels were frequently known by the name of the owner or manager as well as the more pretentious or official designation. Thus, Thorp’s Hotel was also the British Hotel, or Anderson’s Hotel was also the Dominion. Even in the local business directory, it is quite common to find the same place referred to separately a number of times. Further study also revealed that there were a number of keepers that shifted on fairly regular basis from one hotel to another.

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This is the jaunty hotel keeper, John McAteer. He ran the Albion Hotel from 1881-1886. In 1886, we find him moving to the Western Hotel. In 1902, he was the manager of the Victoria Hotel on St. George’s Square. and finally, the older John McAteer bought the American Hotel in 1909.

Thus when compiling lists, a single establishment might have more than one manager that year as well and be names colloquially, thus in the case of temperance list keepers the same establishments could be counted as much as four times - perhaps this was not unintentional. Nonetheless, it seems that this led to some rather gross exaggeration in the case of Guelph that is best dispelled in the name of historical accuracy. This was not always the case and through close reading, one can get to a pretty safe list of hotels.

Conclusion

"Was Guelph a Drinkin' Town in the Late Nineteenth Century?"

So, in conclusion…how can we answer this question about whether Guelph was a drinkin’ town? Ultimately from a quantitative basis, Guelph didn’t consume more or less liquor than the province as a whole. Ontario was a place in which a large quantity of hard liquor was consumed during the time of settlement. Over time tastes changed and the actual amount of alcohol consumed fell over time. Guelph was a flashpoint for temperance activity. Although it

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was the first city to enact prohibition it was also the first to repeal that same legislation. Many parts of Wellington County did not. The frequent campaigns between temperance advocates and those opposed to prohibition were acrimonious and have made their way into local folklore. However, that Guelph was a particularly, or overly wet town is probably somewhat misleading. As I have shown, the number of local bars was over-counted frequently, thus leading to suspicion. Nonetheless, we can look back on the pre-prohibition times as ones in which the presence of liquor in the community dominated much local discourse, and that the revenues from production and of retail sales of provided much of the bedrock upon which Guelph was built. The legacy of which lasts up to present days.