The Royal, in particular, is fortunate to stand today having escaped a major fire in 1905 which levelled several adjacent buildings. Today the hotel has been so extensively renovated and remodeled that it bears little resemblance to its former self.
The "Then" photo here was taken during the 1905 fire which levelled the entire block on which the hotel stands, leaving only the hotel standing. Apparently the fire was just getting underway when the photo was taken. It, and the contemporary photo, were taken from the corner of 50th Street and 50th Avenue, looking northwest.
Royal Hotel
The Royal Hotel has heritage value for its historic associations as one of the town's three early hotels with the services it provided mirroring the social and economic evolution of the town through the 20th Century. The prominent location of the Royal Hotel, its historic associations and continuing function as hotel and tavern has given it a cherished landmark status in Ponoka as one of the earliest extant buildings in town.
The earliest hotel was Ponoka House, and then, in December 1900, the imposing Royal Hotel, facing Railway Street, opened, followed by the adjacent Leland Hotel which opened in October 1901 on Chipman Avenue.
Almost immediately the two main hotels required expansion. The completion of an addition to the Leyland Hotel, constructed in late summer 1904 was marked by the holding of a dinner by the Ladies Guild of the Church of England. The Royal Hotel, which had already changed hands once, was also having improvements done that summer. In 1905 the Royal Hotel underwent a major transformation from a gable roofed wood siding clad building into a larger structure with an additional story and a brick veneer cladding with an addition to include a billiard room. The Royal Hotel, and its competitor the Leland, were multi-function pubic buildings, providing important social meeting space, meals and accommodation, serving a transient migrating population as well the citizens of the town. The Royal Hotel had sample rooms for exhibits from commercial travelers where the town's merchants could select goods that could be ordered and arrive by rail to stock their stores.
From the Ponoka Municipal Heritage Inventory