The Olympia Hotel

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Type: Queer Historic Place
Address: 331 Smith Street, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
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Established in 1914, the Olympia Hotel (now known as the Marlborough), had a beer parlour that was one of the first known Winnipeg meeting places for gay men throughout the 1920’s.

If you would like to know more about queer representation & public opinion, and more specifically, homosexuality on film in the early 20th century, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=638ggjOwcnI&ab_channel=InfrequentMusings

Here is a video about being queer during war time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUyaJ8dUjB8&ab_channel=AreTheyGayAreTheyGayVerified

Sources:
* https://umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/archives/digital/gay_lesbian/places.html
* http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/sites/marlboroughhotel.shtml
* http://www.themarlborough.ca/

Fun Facts

Four Sicilian immigrants (Leonardo Emma, Giuseppe Panaro, Agostino Badali, and Giuseppe Badali) who were running the Olympia Café on the ground floor of the Kensington building on Portage Avenue and Smith Street, purchased the property at the current location in 1910 . Three years later they began building the first three floors of a planned nine storey building to be called the Olympia Hotel. By May 1915 the hotel had closed temporarily due to poor economic conditions. During the First World War, the building was used by the Federal government to house soldiers.

The building is a municipally designated historic site.

Source: http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/sites/marlboroughhotel.shtml

Location

331 Smith Street, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
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Gallery

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