Labine Hotel - Fort Coulonge, Québec, Canada

by Marty Guidry

With the lumber industry of Pontiac County booming at the dawn of the twentieth century, Mr. George Jewell built a grand hotel in Fort Coulonge during 1901. Begun in the late 1690's as a trading post on the Ottawa River near the mouth of Rivière Coulonge, Fort Coulonge in the late 1890's was bustling with activity as lumbermen hired in Ottawa arrived by train, spent the night in town and then set out in the morning for the nearby lumber camps.

Fort Coulonge needed lodging for these men and George Jewell recognized the need. Constructed in 1901, the three-story Jewell House operated under the capable hands of Mr. Jewell until 1922 when Raoul Labine purchased it. The name changed to the Labine Hotel and Raoul's wife, Wilda Laporte Labine, operated the hotel for the next fifty-four years. Ironically, Mrs. Labine was born the same year that the Labine Hotel was constructed - 1901.

During the 1920's the Labine Hotel operated a horse-drawn bus to transport guests to and from the train station. At about eight each evening the train with whistle blowing would arrive at Fort Coulonge. Approximately twenty guests and their luggage would clamber aboard the waiting horsedrawn bus for the mile trip to the Labine Hotel. Each passenger paid twenty-five cents for the ride. To house the horses needed for the bus, the Labine Hotel had its own stable - large enough to accommodate thirty horses.

If you brought your own horse to the hotel, the Labines would stable it for you and add the costs of hay and oats to your bill.

Mrs. Labine's father, Paul Fabien Laporte, had thirty to forty horses that he used to take the lumbermen and their supplies to the lumber camps. Toward the end of March, the men broke camp and returned south. Of course, that meant another overnight stay at the Labine Hotel in Fort Coulonge. Since the wage during this time was a dollar per day, a lumberman would make one hundred to one hundred fifty dollars during the winter season. That first night outside the lumber camp, a night spent at the Labine Hotel, often was quite exciting. Fights among the men occurred, the best man won and it was all forgotten right there.

The men provided their own music - the juice harp, the mouth organ, spoons on a pan, a comb and paper and similar simple instruments kept the men's toes tapping and voices singing. Often local singers, fiddlers and step-dancers entertained the men for free.

Mrs. Labine operated the hotel with seven to ten employees including a cook, a kitchen girl, a dining room waitress, two chamber maids, a laundress and a man to stoke the fires. In the early years the hotel was without electricity so a young girl cleaned and filled the sixty to seventy oil lamps at the hotel. Later Mrs. Labine purchased a gas generator that eliminated this day-long job.

The nearby river provided water for drinking, cooking and washing. The staff and guests daily used two drums of water brought from the river. One drum was for drinking and cooking and the other for washing.

The Labine Hotel had twenty-five rooms with a total of forty beds. When pressed, the hotel could accommodate up to one hundred beds. An agreement between the hotel and the lumber companies limited the men in transit to a maximum of fifty at any one time; however, occasionally as many as one hundred men arrived on the train. Straw mattresses were scattered about and everyone slept a little closer that night.

Hotel guests enjoyed excellent meals including boiled pork or sausage, potatoes, beans, superb soup and bread freshly-baked in the hotel ovens. Charlie Kenny's bakery down the street occasionally supplemented the supply of bread. At breakfast eggs were a special treat for the men who had not had any for the entire winter. There was no limit and some men ate as many six to eight eggs at a meal. Homemade, mouth-watering desserts as cakes and pies made with apples, prunes, raisins and dried peaches quickly disappeared from the table. Each morning at 4:30 a.m. the kitchen staff began preparing their desserts in the specially-made large baking tins.

Other guests besides lumbermen stayed at the Labine Hotel throughout the year. The Labine Hotel had an excellent reputation among its guests. From August until spring nearly all rooms were occupied each night. In the summer several guests would rent their room for several months at the rate of twenty dollars a month.

Mrs. Labine reserved one room at the hotel as a sample showroom for traveling salesmen. They would rent the room for a week and local townspeople would come to examine the merchandise on display and place their orders. Mr. Dowey Gamble of the J. M. Garland Company and Mr. Cleavens of the Jules Patry Co. often reserved the showroom.

A shrewd hotel manager, Mrs. Wilda Labine's motto was "I see nothing, I know nothing, I say nothing." She knew the value of minding one's own business and of confidentiality. She once remarked "In a hotel we know everyone's problems. People come here to have a good time and to forget. We had to try and make peace. That was number one!" She often attributed her success as a hotel manager to her faithful practice "Give a good measure, and give quality." Her clients appreciated her generosity and hospitality - returning to the Labine Hotel season after season. A few even visited every year for Mrs. Labine's entire fifty-four year tenure. ¹

In 1976 the Labine's sold the Labine Hotel to Mr. Leveillé. Shortly afterwards, on 1 September 1979 it burned down. Today the Bank of Nova Scotia occupies the site of the old Labine Hotel. ²

Sadly, on 23 October 2005 Mrs. Wilda Laporte Labine died at Sacred Heart Manor in Fort Coulonge at the age of 104 years. ³ Her husband Raoul Labine had died earlier. The grand old Labine Hotel is no more, but the memories shared by several generations of guests are vivid and long-lasting.