Fort Motel Fort MacLeod Alberta

The Fort Motel in Fort MacLeod Alberta does it old school and offers road weary travellers vintage motor court style accommodations. You might view it as dated or tired, but to to us it’s a charming throwback and wonderfully kitschy. What ever your opinion, it’s a style of motel that’s fast disappearing and the Team searches them out any chance given.

We look at this business, first via an old postcard showing it sometime in the late 1950s/early 1960s and again in 2023. In some ways not much has changed even if the world is a much different place today compared to then.

Fort MacLeod is a modest sized community (population around 3000) in Southern Alberta and just west of the city of Lethbridge. It has a long and storied history that dates back to the 1870s. Known as MacLeod in the early days, it functioned as a police outpost with the town eventually growing up around it. There’s a historic downtown core with numerous sandstone buildings going back well over a century, so it’s a history buff’s dream. We’ve been regular visitors the last few years now.

The Fort Motel dates from the post Wold War Two boom period and first makes mention in the early 1950s. For a few years early on it was known as the Fort MacLeod Autel (Auto-hotel) but soon changed to the current form. It follows a pretty typical pattern for the time and has rows of stand-alone cabins with a large central parking lot. This style reflects the burgeoning car-centric culture of the era (today’s no different, really).

These businesses now tend to cater to budget minded individuals (so us and in fact it functioned as our home this night). The ranks are thinning and many of this style have closed in recent years. We stay at places similar to the Fort Motel all the time and are quite happy to do so. They’re rarely dives as might be thought and for us, they’re cheap, basic accommodations with personality.

Kitchen units seem common in these older motels, and it was more of a thing at the time to cook while out in the road. Today most people just eat out and this feature might seem out of place to them. Rooms in older motels are often smaller than modern counterparts and overall less appointed.

Let’s discuss what’s changed and what hasn’t in the comparison. The sign in the postcard is gone which is too bad since it had more character than the current example. Love that old phone booth! The cabin in front in the original photo contained two units, as evidenced by the double doors seen, but later converted to a larger single. Over all though and rather remarkably the complex looks much today as it did back then. Only the modern cars and little else mark the passage of time.

As was typical back then, the sign is lit by neon and that’s something we have a real fondness for. TVs were a luxury feature, believe it or not. The lodging was AAA (American Auto Association) approved and clearly demonstrates the level of influence our southern neighbours had on Canadian culture in general. The national flag seen is the pre-1967 version and this helps date of the old image.

The Then photo was sourced by the Team and is a scan of an old postcard. Motels used to freely distribute these, with of course the establishment featured front and centre, as a cheap form of adverting. There is no date on the card, but there’s visual clues to help us along. The car, which seems to have 1950s lines, helps us along here, but there’s more yet.

The latter part of that decade or early the next seems like a pretty good bet.

The card was made by Grant-Mann Lithographers of Vancouver BC and part of their “Traveltime” series. This firm seems to have been active from the 1950s to at least the latter part of the 1970s. Based on examples of their work found online, they were a fairly prolific producer of travel and tourism themed postcards.

The text on the back reads:

Fort Motel
Fort MacLeod, Alberta, Canada.
Box 403, Phone 273
Pleasant – Clean – Quiet
Some Twin & King Size Beds
Tubs & Showers – TV – Radios
AMA (Alberta Motor Association) – AAA

The current ten digit and earlier seven digit phone numbers were predated by ones that in rural parts or small towns used anywhere from one to four digits typically. As seen in the text snippet shared above. Sometimes they had an exchange (letter) prefix, but not always and this again helps date the image. The Fort Motel lost its three digit number about 1963 and went to seven digits afterwards. The first half of the ’60s were a transition period for the phone companies and by mid-decade the change over to seven digits became universal province wide.

In around the time of the postcard photo the proprietors were listed as Bunny & Frances. Bunny – awesome name! Since new the place appears to have had many owners but that’s common in the biz. We used old phone books as reference for this post and once in a while they lacked an entry in the listings. This suggests a change of ownership at the time but could due to other reasons too.

The Fort Motel sometime recently (the last decade or two) acquired the former Kozy Motel next door and seems to use it mostly for long term tenants. The Kozy is also from the early ’50s and similarly has cabin style rooms. The exterior of the Fort Motel is decorated with a western style theme and the property seems well kept.

Readers are encouraged to send in old photos or post cards (scans are fine) showing street scenes or old buildings like this, for inclusion in a trademark BIGDoer.com Then & Now. We dare you! We’ll revisit the location (so one condition, the subject today must still exist in some form), shoot a similarly composed image and then write about the whole experience for posting here. We can babble on and on you know.

Pictures must be yours, say coming from a family collection and the like, or be in the public domain. Most postcards fall into the latter category but check with us first if unsure.

This post is a rework of another done in 2015, but using some new photos and with more up-to-date information.

Know more: (new tab): Fort Motel Fort MacLeod Alberta.

They’re saying…

”Chris and Connie delve into the nooks & crannies of the Canadian Prairies. They detail interesting histories accompanied with revealing photos. A lot of information and work and the results are fantastic.” Naomi Kikoak.

Also in town…
Fort Museum Fort MacLeod Alberta

More like this…
Coleman Alberta (Sam’s Service Station).
Tri-Way/Kootenay Country Inn Cranbrook.
Edmonton Transit: The Lodge Hotel.

Something to say and no one to say it to? Go here: Contact Us!

Date of adventure: ca.1960 (original postcard) and October 2023 (Team BIGDoer).
Location: Fort MacLeod, Alberta.
Article references and thanks: Fort Motel, Medicine Hat & District Genealogical Society and Town of Fort MacLeod.

The Fort Motel in Fort MacLeod AB maybe 60-70 years apart.

They have old school cabin style rooms.

The former Kozy Motel is also part of the property.

The sign today differs from the one seen in the postcard.

The motel office is also accommodations for the owners.

The Fort Motel was our home this fine fall evening.