Local historian, Ellis Little, tells us that when Prohibition went into effect it caused “great disruption in the hospitality industry in Waterloo. Without the revenue from beer and liquor sales many [hotels and taverns] were closed or converted to other uses.”²² When Prohibition was repealed in 1927, it was too late for many of the hotels and taverns, and they remained permanently closed.

Former Market Hotel Building (ca.1916). Click the photo for more details.

The Market Hotel is one of the businesses that folded shortly after Prohibition was enacted in 1916. The Market Hotel building was located on the north-east corner of Albert and Dupont St., and it was purchased by Christian Letter ca.1877. The hotel was named “Market Hotel,” because it was located directly across from the local market. It was a convenient place for traveling merchants and farmers to gather after selling their wares at the market. In 1917, the Market Hotel was no longer able to make its mortgage payments, so in it was sold to the John Forsyth Company. “By the time the act was repealed in 1927, the Hotel had been closed for a decade.”²³

Westside Park Hotel advertisement in Saengerfest Souvenir Programme (1902). Click the photo for more details.

The Last Chance Hotel was located on King Street, just south of the school grounds on Central Street. It was a three-storey home, partly fitted out as a hotel, which opened ca.1854. After Waterloo Park was established in 1890, prospective visitors to the park were reminded, as they got off the street car out front, that the Last Chance Hotel was the last place to have a drink before going into the park. This is why the hotel is also referred to as the Westside Park Hotel. The hotel had large sheds behind the building and was a popular meeting place for local farmers.²⁴ After Prohibition was declared in 1916, the hotel was sold to E.M. Devitt for non-hotel uses.

Zimmerman House (Waterloo Hotel) (ca.1889-1904). Click the photo for more details.

The Waterloo Hotel fared better than the Market Hotel and the Last Chance Hotel, and it was able to survive by repurposing the building. The Waterloo Hotel was built in 1834 by Henry Bowman and was originally called the Bowman House. In 1882, it was sold to Henry Zimmerman, who consequently renamed it Zimmerman House. In 1889 a fire destroyed part of the front facing building, and when it was rebuilt an additional floor was added. The hotel was sold again in 1904 and renamed Lewis Hotel. During the Prohibition era the Royal Bank bought the hotel and used part of it as an office.²⁵ Another portion of the building was leased to the Waterloo Men’s Club. It didn’t return to the hotel business until 1935 when it was purchased by Stanley Chadder and renamed “Waterloo Hotel.”²⁶ By 1940 the hotel’s main business was again in its drinking room.

Commercial Hotel (ca.1890). Click the photo for more details.

The Commercial Hotel (32 King St. N.) took a different approach to keep its business going. The Commercial Hotel began its life as the Swan Hotel in 1854 at the intersection of King and Dupont Streets. It burnt down in 1881 and was rebuilt as the Commercial Hotel. By 1902, it had been renamed the Raisig Hotel and would later be known as the Kingsway Apartments. The Raisig Hotel was rumoured to have had a secret bar hidden behind locked doors during Prohibition. If the police came to raid the illegal bar “any drinks or bottles of liquor were tossed down a convenient trap door where they smashed to pieces on the cellar floor. When the police were admitted, no evidence remained.”²⁷

Although the Ontario Temperance Act was repealed in 1927, it wasn’t until 1934 that public drinking in taverns, restaurants and hotels became legal again. By 1929, the Raisig Hotel had become the Commercial Hotel, and they were still trying to get around Prohibition rules. In May of 1929 the Commercial Hotel was raided and “two dozen bottles of whisky were found in a false bottom of a chair.”²⁸ The Commercial Hotel wasn’t alone in selling alcohol during this period, as many hotels all over Ontario did the same, causing government inspectors to thrive on fine collecting.