One of my favourite parts about writing this blog is getting comments from people that add to the story, and often take it in a whole new and unexpected direction. I get really excited when someone sends me a 100-year-old postcard or a photo of Vancouver that’s never been seen outside the family album.
Maria Brunskog saw my story on the Wigwam Inn at Indian Arm and sent me this postcard.
“The Wigwam Inn also relates to one of my ancestors who visited and worked as a forest manager in Canada between 1903 and the 1920s. He and his wife and daughter sent a postcard from the Inn to one of his sisters in Sweden dated December 1, 1911,” she writes. “I just wanted to share this information with you since you contributed to my family history.”
Hugo Claughton-Wallin was born in Sweden in 1879 and worked in Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver. He wrote several letters to the family telling them of the physically challenging work, hard-earned money and the cold, says Maria.
Marika, who signed the postcard, was Hugo’s wife Marika Topffer, also from Sweden and also born in 1879. The couple had two children who were born in Vancouver in 1910 and 1911—Rigmor Marta and Gilbert Hugo.
Alvo von Alvensleben:
Hugo and Marika and their two little children would have been at the Wigwam Inn at the same time as Alvo von Alvensleben who owned the Inn until 1914. The son of a German count, he came to Vancouver in 1904 with $4 in his pocket and dreams of finding gold in the Wild West. He was about 10 years too late and ended up fishing for salmon until he made enough money to speculate in property.
Alvo’s story is in At Home with History: The Secrets of Greater Vancouver’s Heritage Homes
He was wildly successful. Before WW1 he brought millions of dollars of German investment into BC. His family home is now part of the Crofton Girl’s School in Kerrisdale. As well as developing the Wigwam Inn into a luxury resort, he financed the Dominion Building on Hastings Street, and he owned huge tracts of land all over BC, including Pitt Meadows.
Like many land speculators Alvo went broke in 1913. While he was out of the country the following year, war broke, rumours abounded that he was a spy and he couldn’t return to Canada. The federal government confiscated everything he owned, including of course, the Wigwam Inn.
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Related:
- The Wigwam Inn at Indian Arm
- The Garden Family
- Fritz Autzen and the Hippocampus
- An Accidental Postcard
- Vancouver’s Missing Buildings
7 comments on “A postcard from the Wigwam Inn”
Cool.
So I’m wondering what happened to the Wigwam Inn eventually after the government took it over? I’d think being right by the water, time would have done much wear and tear. Very interesting story. Thank you.
Thanks Jeanette, glad you enjoyed the story! It’s now owned by the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club and looks great – here’s some background on it https://evelazarus.com/the-wigwam-inn-at-indian-arm/
When I was a wee lad of thirteen, I took a trip in heavy rain to the Wigwam Inn with my family as guests of people my dad knew at Island Tug and Barge (before it was Seaspan). I remember it as being a spooky kind of place, right out of a Miss Marple Mystery. Curious older people in wing back chairs reading odd books from their library.
Lunch was roast beef which gave us all tummy ‘issues’ but for me, as I had prawns! I remember the lights were flickering as they were running on DC current back in the day. Later, the place was raided owing to ‘illegal activities’, as noted. I suppose I was fortunate to be there as a thirteen year old, soaking up the ‘atmosphere’. Sorry, no pictures taken that day! Cheers/bruce
my father Tony Casano brought it hoping to bring it back to the beautiful place it once was he managed to built new wharfs and had quite a few boaters using it but the job was too much for one person we as a family spent allot of time up there in the summer months the grandkids loved it its nice to see the Vancouver yacht club now has it which is lovely the sad part is if you do not belong you can not go on the beautiful grounds
took a boat with family up to the inn in the early 60’s with my irish grandfa t her. Have to hunt for the photo. That’s all I remember of the trip
JOHN
Please send it along John if you find it!