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P01608 – The original Haney Hotel on River Road. This view is east down River Road.

P07937 – Haney Hotel in its present location. Note the neon sign on the roof, and the separate Mens and Ladies entrances.

Haney Hotel

First called the “Fraser Hotel”, the original Haney Hotel was located on River Road at 7th Ave (now Fraser Street) and was operated by a number of different families since its construction in the early 1900’s. When a fire caused $10,000 worth of damage to the boarding facility in 1936, that was the end of what early settlers knew as the Haney Hotel.

A trio of men, Solomon Mussallem, Rowe Holland and George McMartin, held a grand opening of the existing Haney Hotel, located at 222nd Street and Lougheed Highway in May of 1949. The new hotel, promoted as luxurious by the standards at the time, actually has no ties to the original boarding house, other than the name.

While the original Port Haney Hotel resembled a giant home and operated much more like a boarding house, the new hotel took on more of an institutional appearance, and was one of the first large structures in the downtown core. The hotel was promoted as first-class, and opened with 20 rooms, a 75-seat dining room and coffee bar, as well as a beer parlour that was divided into separate men’s and women’s sections. While men were permitted to enter the women’s drinking area as an escort, women were not permitted past the partition into the men’s parlour (nicknamed by the staff as “The Bullpen”). The women’s section was apparently designed with tea parties and bridge games in mind, boasting a more subdued and gentile decor.

When the new Haney Hotel originally opened, management of the day bragged about the arborite furniture, rich green carpets, and three electrical outlets found in each of the hotel rooms; nine that included bathrooms and the rest equipped with personal wash basins.

Throughout the years, the Hotel has gone through many changes, transformations and new owners. Today the restaurant has been shut down, most of the 38 rooms are rented by the month and the mainstay of the operation is the Caddyshack show lounge and Tommy’s nightclub (named after Thomas Haney) that draws a younger crowd.

Information taken from Roxanne Hooper’s article in the Maple Ridge News, July 12, 1998.

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