The Prince Edward Hotel

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IN PICTURES: Portions of the Prince Edward Hotel around the city

The Prince Edward Hotel at 100

By: Grant Hamilton

Friday, Jul. 13, 2012 at 2:51 PM | Comments: 0

Despite the fact that the Prince Edward Hotel was knocked down more than 30 years ago, there is a surprising amount of the hotel still lingering around.

Many people have mementos from the hotel — acquired legally or not — in their homes. Pieces of railway silver, room keys and souvenir postcards are stashed away in many collections. Even today, furniture from the hotel turns up regularly in classified sales or estate auctions.

Some of the wood from the hotel's oak staircase was turned into clocks and planters, which remain in Brandon homes.

Someone apparently made off with the white marble fireplace, which was notably missing during a final tour of the building.

Here are a few examples of pieces of the Prince Edward Hotel that still exist in Brandon.

Chandeliers

Above: Chandeliers from the Prince Edward Hotel hang now in the foyer of Brandon City Hall.

Above: Another, closer look at the City Hall chandeliers. At least one city employee says that more chandeliers are stashed away in storage, waiting for a place to hang.

Limestone and concrete

Above: Hundreds of truckloads of Prince Edward Hotel debris were dumped into the Assiniboine River to shore up the banks against erosion, a process called riprapping.

Above: John Stiles looks at some of the last slabs of limestone left from the old Prince Edward Hotel in this September 1999 photo. The stonemason was putting the blocks into Princess Park as part of a then-new amphitheatre being constructed in the downtown gathering place.

Above: Justin Borody works on a stone bench in Princess Park in September 1999.

Above: The fountain in Princess Park, seen in 2012, features limestone blocks from both the Prince Edward Hotel and the old City Hall. At bottom-centre is a triangular piece of limestone that appears to have come from above one of the doors to the hotel's attached train depot.

The safe

Above: Debbie Quintaine poses with the former safe from the Prince Edward Hotel, which is now used to store routine business records for P. Quintaine and Son. She found the safe rusting away in a back yard before having it fully restored.

Above: A look at the inside of the restored safe, showing some of the original paint work, which had been protected from the elements.

Above: A closeup of the safe's combination dial. Although Quintaine doesn't know the combination, she said that a locksmith could likely figure it out, and that they didn't lock it anyway, since the safe was still missing its handles.

Above: The Prince Edward Hotel's safe, seen during a city council and media tour of the decaying building in 1979.

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What pieces of the Prince Edward Hotel do you still have? Leave us a note, below, where you can even link to pictures of them.

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