For thousands of years, First Nations people lived on the Gorge Waterway and used the area for food-gathering and spiritual purposes. Shellfish, seaweed, herring and salmon were harvested from the sea; birds, wildlife such as deer, elk and bear, were hunted and plants for food and medicine were gathered from the surrounding forests. The sheltered waterway provided a safe refuge in storms. After the establishment of Fort Victoria in 1843, the Gorge Waterway soon became a recreation destination for local residents, with numerous boating regattas, canoe races, swimming and diving competitions and sightseeing trips to the famous reversing tidal falls at the Gorge Narrows. Each year in May thousands of people gathered on the Gorge to celebrate Victoria Day, and prior to World War II heading up the Gorge for a canoe paddle or to camp in the wilds of Portage Inlet was a favourite pastime.
The Gorge Pointe Yacht Club is on the Gorge Waterway, on the site of where a dock was first established by the Gorge Hotel, in 1874.
Long before the Gorge Pointe Pub was conceived and before the well-known California Missionary style Gorge Hotel in 1924 and the beer parlour added in 1938, there was the modest Gorge Hotel. Edward Watson and business partner John Detrick Johnson built the first Gorge Hotel near the Victoria Arm of the Gorge waterway. The “new and handsome hotel” opened on Wednesday January 7, 1874, with two nice parlours for the accommodation of the ladies, a ballroom and a dining room attached. There was also the bar, an essential addition to any fine hotel, complete with a billiard table "for the lovers of this game."
The location for the new Gorge Hotel could not have been better nestled between the Gorge waterway, a popular recreational area where Victorians spent much of their leisure time boating and swimming, and the acres of woods and grassy patches. The hotel quickly became a destination spot during these outings on the water where couples and families made a day of it bringing their picnic baskets which they spread out on the grass overlooking the scenic Gorge in the shadow of the new hotel. But this idyllic setting turned into a nightmare for one swimmer which almost ended in tragedy. It happened on a warm July afternoon when Mr. Alfred Wilkie, "a man who possessed a clear tenor voice," and who certainly got to use it as he got into trouble while swimming in the Gorge. Wilkie got caught in the strong currents which made him panic. His screams for help were quickly answered by his fellow swimmers who swiftly came to his aid. One of the rescuers grabbed Wilkie by the hair as he was submerging into the foamy waters and pulled him up and safely out of the currents towards one of the nearby boats. A writer for the local newspaper caught the drama unfolding and remarked, "We shudder to think what might have been the consequences had he {Mr. Wilkie] had worn a wig." It wouldn't be the last time that people would get in trouble in the Gorge waters.
The partnership of Watson and Johnson was short-lived as Mr. Edward Watson died quite suddenly on August 29, 1874 from consumption. The long time resident of Victoria and former jeweler was put to rest and J.D. Johnson became the sole proprietor of the Gorge Hotel.
Special events took place there such as the annual regatta and various organizations held picnics complete with games and entertainment. People sought the joy and fulfilled their souls from the beauty found in the many local parks surrounding Greater Victoria. The Gorge Hotel sponsored many of these events.
By 1878 Johnson found himself in financial trouble and he was forced to endure the auction of the hotel's goods in a sheriffs sale. The sale included everything on the four acre property which included the hotel and all its contents, a large bar, two wharves by the Gorge water and a number of outhouses scatter throughout the property. It appears that nobody purchased the hotel, for if they did, they did not reopen it. A visitor to Victoria wrote of her experiences while vacationing near the Gorge Hotel, "Our mornings we spent rowing on the Victoria Arm, once going up the Gorge where the stream narrows and falls some four feet, the constant changing currents sending the water boiling over the rocks. The scenery here is wonderful and so beautiful and the old Gorge Hotel, nestled among the shrubbery away upon the bank above the bridge, is all grown over with vines until what might be shabby, looks picturesque. "
But the following month, June 1883, it was announced that the Gorge Hotel and property had been sold to Mr.William Marshall for $3550. Marshall, with his wife Elizabeth, reopened the hotel and cleaned up the property and applied for a liquor license. Grading of the road and lessening of the bank outside the Gorge Hotel allowed easier access to the reopened hotel. The Marshall's had only owned the hotel for less than six years when William Marshall died during a trip to San Francisco. Mrs. Eliza [nicknamed "Aunty"] Marshall became the sole proprietor of the Gorge Hotel which she would operate for the next thirty years.
Each May 24th Victorians would celebrate the long-reigning monarch Queen Victoria on this day, her birthday. Mrs Marshall made arrangements for a special first class lunch for her guests and the general public culminating in a "social hop" in the spacious dance hall, renamed the William Marshall hall in memory of her late husband. The orchestra played on past midnight as the sweet sounds of strings glided along the water and followed the silver moon lite shores.
On September 4, 1915, long-time owner Mrs. Eliza "Aunty" Marshall died. Remarks during her eulogy mentioned that Eliza was a shrewd business woman that possessed a big heart who was always thinking of those in need as opposed to her own needs. She rarely took time off over the past thirty years while she ran the Gorge Hotel and died at the age of 53. The Gorge Hotel was sold to the Ganner Brothers.
Raymond and C. Ganner operated the hotel from 1915 and into the prohibition years 1917 to 1921. By 1923 well known hotel-man George "Joker" H. Paton purchased and operated the Gorge Hotel. Paton would go on to operate a number of beer parlours including the Halfway House and the "Joker's Club" in downtown Victoria. The first Gorge Hotel met its fate, like many great old hotels, in a fiery end – it was destroyed by fire.
For forty-nine years the original Gorge Hotel and Marshall Dance Hall was a fixture in the Gorge-Craigflower-Tillicum area of Greater Victoria, "When Esquimalt was an Imperial Naval Station and crews of the visiting warships celebrated May 24th on the Gorge water, the Marshall Inn (Gorge Hotel) was the centre of activity...bar service was famous."
It wasn't long before the second Gorge Hotel would be built near the original and the saga of that establishment would last for the next seventy years. But that's another story. .
Read the full history from the source for the above, here:https://raincoasthistory.blogspot.com/2016/11/history-of-gorge-hotels-part-i-first.html.
