The Traveller’s Hotel opened in Ladysmith in 1913. The swastikas on the facade meant good luck in Sanskrit
I was over on Vancouver Island this week doing some biking and stopped in at Ladysmith. It’s the first time I’ve been there and it was great to walk down a main drag that still has many of its heritage buildings. Most were in good shape—the one glaring exception was the Traveller’s Hotel which sits on a hill on First Avenue.
Swastikas:
The three-storey Edwardian building is in rough shape, but what struck me was the line of brick swastikas along the façade of the building. I was surprised to learn that swastikas were not a Nazi invention but rather something they co-opted from Asian culture in the 1920s.
According to Wikipedia, Swastika (from Sanskrit Svastika) is an ancient religious symbol that means good luck and dates back at least 11,000 years.
The Traveller’s Hotel was built in 1913, years before the Nazi party turned luck into something evil.
History:
Aside from several grave markers in a Japanese cemetery in Cumberland, it may just be the only structure still standing in Canada that has retained these symbols and their true history.
It’s been a couple of decades since the Traveller’s Hotel was an actual hotel. A biker ran wet T-Shirt contests there at one point and for many years it was overrun by squatters.
Other plans that have fallen through over the years include condos and retail, condos and a restaurant, a chocolate manufacturer and a boutique hotel.
Plans:
Realtor Wes Smith says more recently the Traveller’s Hotel almost sold to an investor who planned to renovate the building and turn it into a dispensary and vape lounge, as he did quite successfully with the Globe Hotel in Nanaimo. The deal fell through when the City of Ladysmith introduced a by-law to kick marijuana out of town.
Bridget from the Ladysmith and District Historical Society tells me that when she moved to the town in 1966 the hotel was a “jumping, hopping place” and stayed that way through the 1970s and ‘80s.
“It was the place to go on Saturday nights,” she said. “You couldn’t get a parking place on First Avenue for all the different hotels in the evening and on the weekend.”
I didn’t spend much time in Ladysmith, but there didn’t seem to be a huge amount of night life left.
That may change now that a father and son team (the son is a chef) have bought the building and plan to renovate and revitalize it and open an upscale restaurant on the ground floor and a hotel upstairs. Wes says the plan is to have the restaurant open in the fall.
I’m happy the hotel will survive, I hope the Swastika’s do as well—it’s important not to erase our history.
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