It is the same place

The place that is popular

Good as the best

Better than the rest

If you come once

You will come again

So reads a 1911 advertisement for the Cosmopolitan Hotel, not exactly sterling prose but enough to draw a line in the sand for the sake of the reader.

Indeed, by 1911, the line between “high class” and “somewhat lower” was apparent in both the residential and business sections of Cranbrook.

High-class housing meant Baker Hill: less smoke, less dust, better drainage and a nicer view. High-class lodgings meant the Cranbrook Hotel: classy rooms, fancy lobby, bellhops, and an orchestra in the spacious dining room.

The Royal (Byng), the Canadian (York) and the Wentworth (Allan) Hotel were certainly respectable, as were many of the boarding houses in the residential district.

Some establishments, on the other hand, had already gained reputations as places of questionable character. The Cosmopolitan appears to have placed somewhere in the middle of the pack as far as local status went. It wasn't that it wasn't quite a proper hotel, but rather that it wasn't quite a hotel proper.

When construction of the building began in 1898, the original concept called for a large two-story wooden structure with space for two retail outlets on the ground floor and miscellaneous rooms above, a common design for a business block of the day. Somewhere before completion, owner Nils Hanson (of the Wasa Hotel, the second Hanson Block on the corner of Baker St. and 10th ave. and the Hanson Garage) decided that the building might better serve as a hotel. Therefore, the Hanson Block on the corner of 9th Ave. and Baker St. became, in part, the Cosmopolitan Hotel. Had the entire building been dedicated to the venture it may well have numbered amongst the very finest hotels in the city. As it was, it lacked a proper lobby, meeting rooms, and, at times, a dining room. Still, the barroom on the first floor did much to attract guests and the rooms were decent enough. A stable and laundry room at the rear of the building also aided the cause.

There was, however, at least one level...hold up! Make that “two levels,” at which the Cosmopolitan Hotel could compete with its larger rivals for, you see, the building featured its very own two-story outhouse. Now, at first blush the thought of a split-level commode may well appear somewhat alarming but let us consider a description supplied many years ago by well-known Courier newspaper editor L.P. “Sully” Sullivan.

Mr. Sullivan states, “When I first went to Cranbrook in 1905 and stopped at the Cosmopolitan Hotel, then operated by Eneas Small, that hotel boasted a sort of deluxe privy. I recall the construction of the two-decker, four-holer, quite well. The second, or upper section, was built about three feet back of the lower section in order that there would be a clean drop and no interference with the party occupying the section below. A four-foot landing, with a guardrail on either side, made it quite safe for the people occupying the rooms on the second floor to proceed about their business with comfort and assurance that everything was all right.”

So there you have it, some hotels have dining rooms while others do not, some hotels have orchestras while others feature sing-alongs.

The hotel went through numerous owners over the years under names such as, Campbell, Cameron & Sang, Armour, Grandage, Bowness, Lynch, Steward, and Hogarth.

George Anton ran the popular Victoria Café on the ground floor from 1923 - 1932, and it was here (or rather, out front) that runaway elephant Cranbrook Ed enjoyed his last meal in town following his capture and detainment during the Great Elephant Hunt of 1926. In later years, the firm of Cameron & Sang ran a tobacco shop in the same location.

The double john is long gone of course, as is the stable and laundry house. So too, is the other half of the building, replaced by a single-story non-descript Stedman's Store in 1964.

In later years, someone revved up their creative engine and renamed “The Cosmopolitan” simply, “The Kos,” thus doing away with the “mopolitan” tag and likely saving money on signage. Where the “K” came from is anybody's guess. More recently the name “Shenanigan's,” has inexplicably attached itself to the enterprise

The Cosmopolitan Hotel has remained a fixture of Baker Street for one-hundred and twelve years. For all its changes, it remains a reminder of the ways and miens of yesteryear...with the benefit of hindsight, of course.