The Glencoe Lodge opened at the corner of West Georgia and Burrard Streets in 1906. Sugar baron, Benjamin Tingley Rogers had bought two houses, raised them, added two storeys and turned the building into a boutique hotel, operated by the fabulous Miss Jean Mollison.
Story from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History
The Mollison Sisters:
Jean’s older sister Annie came to Canada from Scotland in 1888, armed with an introduction to the head of the CPR. Still in her early twenties, Annie became the first manager of the railway’s new Banff Springs Hotel. Jean became her assistant. It wasn’t long before Jean was sent to manage the Fraser Canyon Hotel at North Bend and later Lake Louise, while Annie opened CPR hotels at Field, Emerald Lake, Yoho, and Glacier.
Under Jean’s management, the CPR’s hotel at Lake Louise grew from a small chalet to a hotel with 200 rooms. She told a Province reporter: “The last two years I was there they would sometimes wire me from Calgary that there would be 1,500 people coming for lunch, many of them to stay the night and we had to rig up many curtains behind which the overflow could sleep.”
Named after home town:
BT Rogers wanted Jean Mollison to run his hotel. To sweeten the deal, he threw in three months of free rent and $20,000 to furnish it. Jean named the hotel after the village she came from in Scotland. She often arranged and sang at concerts for the guests—many who lived there while their houses were being built and others who made it their permanent residence.
Tom Roberts tells me that his grandmother Agnes Strain arrived in Vancouver from Scotland in 1912 and worked as a housekeeper at the Glencoe. Her daughter Margaret, Tom’s aunt, who at age 11, was known as the “wonder child,” often accompanied Jean on her flute at recitals, when the little girl wasn’t on the vaudeville circuit. Tom says his grandmother told him that Miss Mollison treated her like family and often gave her things. The family, he says, still has a set of cups and saucers with the Glencoe Lodge insignia.
The Belfred Hotel:
By 1931, the Depression was in full swing and Miss Mollison lost the lease. The Glencoe became the Belfred Hotel, but failed to rally under its new management, and the building was demolished that year.
The site stood empty for a couple of years until Standard Oil Company took up the lease, and remained until 1969 when it was demolished to make way for the Royal Centre.
As for Jean Mollison, she promptly opened the New Glencoe Lodge at 2020 Barclay Street. It also struggled during the Depression, and she moved to smaller digs on Davie Street and started the Glencoe Coffee and Novelty Shop, where she specialized in her famous Glencoe ginger cake and scotch short bread. She died in 1951 aged 82.
BC’s Mount Mollison is named for Jean and Annie
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21 comments on “Miss Mollison and the Glencoe Lodge”
Absolutely fascinating story; I really enjoy stories like this, where no one is murdered. * smile * I love the history you dig up. I’d never heard this story before or knew about the Glencoe Lodge. Thanks.
Glad you liked the story. I’m working on season 4 of my Cold Case Canada podcast, so these then and now history posts, are a nice break for me (and probably most of my readers!)
What an interesting story! I had not heard any of it before. Those sisters must have been very talented to get ahead in what must have been a man’s world then.
Thanks Teresa, yes blows me away what these young women accomplished, yet I’d never heard of them until a couple of years ago
The Royal Centre was originally going to link with Pacific Centre, for some reason it didn’t, and the shops underneath became a lost world with no centre and no direction, which still plagues it today.
Thank you for continuing to explore our unknown past. Another fascinating glimpse into what made Vancouver. Like many, I hadn’t heard of the Glencoe Lodge. If only those walls could have spoken!
You’re welcome! Such fun to write these
I love these historical moments. Very interesting. As a former Vancouverite I always look for your note.
It is sad to me that there is or was no appreciation for the heritage of Vancouver or Toronto where I live now. Let’s build another tower!
Sure feels that way. Happy that you’re enjoying my posts
I’m fascinated by these sisters now too!
Great read. It’s great to hear about our history. Thank you.
Thanks Eve! My own grandparents emigrated from Scotland around 1910. Glencoe is such a iconic name, and I have visited the area a few times as an adult. I’m very interested in the two capable Scottish sisters who were entrusted with operating such historical properties.
My pleasure!
Another fascinating and historical story,”love them”
Happy that you’re enjoying my posts!
That’s amazing!
Thank you for all the history you find and share with others about Vancouver and it’s people.
My pleasure. I’m so happy you’re enjoying my posts!
All your stories are great. Vancouver Has so many stories to tell
Thanks, I did not know about her nor her sister. I especially enjoy hearing local stories of the notable women of our past. I was also intrigued when you mentioned Margaret the “wonder child” and the vaudeville circuit she was a part of. I have never heard of her before.
Glad you enjoyed the post!
The Province, 23 May 1911, p. 5 describes a ‘musicale and dance’ at Glencoe Lodge arranged by Miss Mollison, with a list of guests that includes most members of Vancouver’s elite.