Viewing Object

Run by the Towle family on the east side of Glover Road on the opposite side of the street as the Fort Langley Hotel. The original location meant that the dining room was directly over the railway. Given to Billy Brown when the railway came through Fort Langley, as he was the only one with the house moving equipment to move it off of the railway right-of-way. He moved the hotel 50 yards - closer to the river and to the other side of the street (to the same side of the street as the Fort Langley Hotel) to make way for the railroad. He then built his own house behind the new hotel or possibly used the hotel as his house. The 50 move also changed the front entrance of the hotel.

The Fort Langley Hotel (originally known as just the Langley Hotel) was built by first owner James Taylor in the late 1860s, early 1870s, and appeared to incorporate part of a saloon built by Henry West, the builder of the steam mill. There were three "long term" hotel keepers: James Taylor, from when he built it until about 1889, Peter Stanley Brown, who ran it from 1891-1914, and Warren W. (Spud, or Jack) Webster, who ran it from 1914 - abt. 1938. Alexander Praisley was proprietor of the hotel in the late 1950s and 1960s. After many years and several renovations, the hotel was the oldest in B.C. by the 1970s. On December 29, 1974, the owners burned the hotel to the ground to collect the insurance money. The site is now the home of the Riverside Centre (2007).
See Also: Brown's Hotel, hotels