86 Commercial

Photo by Morley S Acorn Courtesy Pictures of the Past by beards.

The Seaview Hotel (c.1915)

The central building was originally a store built by William Stems. The building on the east was known as The Annex. It contained additional hotel rooms and Tra- vellers’ Sample Rooms. The Ferguson House to the west also provided additional hotel rooms. There was a tennis court at the rear of the property and a large bathing house for the guests at Souris Beach.

In summer, tourists came from many parts of Canada and the United States to enjoy the good food and hospitality of this Hotel.

Sterns’ death in 1897, Bannerman Cox, then baggage master on the rail- way, converted the building to a hotel. In later years, it was taken over by his son Cliff, who also worked on the railway, as conductor.

In the early 1900s, the same families came year after year to spend the summer usually on Souris beach where the Hotel had a very large bathing house or playing tennis on the hotel courts. One family that came for many years was Frank MacKinnon, his mother and grandmother.71

The Stone Hotel, where the Heartz family sometimes stayed, was at the west end across the street from Stems, Son & Co. It was built on a grand scale by Peter Aylward in 1881 for William Stone. It contained eighteen bedrooms on the third floor, three bedrooms with parlors attached on the second floor and commercial space on the ground floor. The owner died in 1883 at age 44 and sometime later the building was managed by John MacDonald known as “Shelburne J ack”. During World War I, the building was used as barracks for a part of Company D of the 105th.72

The Lennox Hotel, was across the street from the present day Stedmans. It was torn down to make room for the new Post Office building. The Lennox was a familiar sight to Souris residents during the 27 years it was managed