Tag: Christiana Inn

The End of the Alta Lake InnThe End of the Alta Lake Inn

July 16, 2024 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 2 Comments

When the Christiana Inn was opened by Sandy and Puddy Martin in 1967 it included lodging, a heated outdoor swimming pool, a beauty salon, gift shop, lounge area, and dining room. By the time they sold the property in the mid-1970s, they had added a second dining room, a tennis court, and poolside dining and dancing. The decor and menus changed over time, though the physical structure appears to have stayed more or less the same until the 1980s. The name did not change until the early 1980s, when the Christiana Inn became known as the Alta Lake Inn.

The Christiana Inn with the lagoon behind. George Benjamin Collection

In May 1985, a Vancouver-based company called 6380 Developments purchased the Alta Lake Inn for $357,000 (adjusted for inflation, that would be just over $900,000 today). The inn had been closed since the previous summer and the former owners had been foreclosed upon by the Morguard Trust. The owners had protested the sale and in early May were still assuring the operators of Whistler Windsurfing that they would be able to base their rentals and lessons at the Alta Lake Inn, but their protests were overruled by the Supreme Court of BC and Whistler Windsurfing was left to find a new home.

Windsurfers on Alta Lake pass in front of the Christiana Inn. George Benjamin Collection

The new owners shared their plans for the site with the Whistler Question in June 1985. According to Bob Skinner, president of Combined Equities Ltd., who were involved in the development, they were planning too demolish the existing buildings and build a 24-until lodge. He told the Question, “It’s going to be designed as a lodge, and it is a lodge” and denied the rumours that there were plans to build condominiums on the site.

Not everyone waited for the permit before making changes to the site. After hearing that the old Christiana Inn would be demolished and thanks in part to a rumour that the fire department was going to burn it down for fire practice, individuals removed parts of the building such as the sliding glass doors, kitchen appliances, and furniture before the municipal building inspector Dave MacPhail posted a stop work order on the site.

The building was demolished in July but construction did not start right away. Over the next few months, there were many debates and protests about the plans for the site. Some centred on the way the property had been created by filling in part of Alta Lake in the 1960s while others looked at the access to the property as at one point the developers proposed covering the long, steep driveway with a roof. In August, the municipality issued a building permit with the requirements that the developer install heat tracing along the driveway and “acquire legal title from the Crown to the landfill dumped 20 years ago by the original developer.”

The pool of the Christiana Inn was about as close to Alta Lake as it could get. Whistler Question Collection, 1978

In the fall of 1985, the property again made headlines when the developers proposed extending Lakeside Road across the lagoon to the property, cutting off access to Alta Lake from the lagoon. The plans for Alta Vista created when the subdivision was first surveyed did not show the lagoon but did include a road right-of-way, leading to a debate as to whether the lagoon was a lagoon or not. The developers claimed that residents had created the lagoon by excavating a channel to Alta Lake while residents claimed that lagoon had always been there and building this road would destroy it. According to Rolly Horsey, who had owned a property on the lagoon for almost twenty years, the surveyors had not personally visited the site before registering their plans. The claims of the residents were backed up by Sandy Martin, who wrote a letter saying that “the area was never properly surveyed” and that the lagoon was certainly there when he built the Christiana Inn.

The developers did not receive permission to extend Lakeside Road, which still ends at the lagoon today. It is unclear to what extent this decision changed the plans of the developers, but a 24-unit lodge was not built on the property. In June 1986, 26 brand new one and two bedroom condominiums with “live-in management and rental pool income” were advertised for sale, beginning at $85,000 (about $210,000 today) and the former Christiana/Alta Lake Inn site became known as Whistler on the Lake.

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Whistler’s Most Unpredictable RaceWhistler’s Most Unpredictable Race

June 1, 2021 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

The Great Snow Earth Water Race was one of the many events that took place over the Victoria Day long weekend in Whistler during the 1970s and 1980s. The event contributed to the influx of tourists that arrived every May to participate in the festivities. The race was created by Bryan Walhovd in 1975 as a community event aimed at attracting all skill levels.

The event took different shapes depending on the year, and was far from predictable. In some years, the race had a cross country skiing portion that required more team members, and in other years the race switched between Whistler and Blackcomb. The state of the course varied from year to year as well. In his interview with the museum, Bryan said that in the years he or other volunteers were unable to clear out the River of Golden Dreams prior to the race, it was like an obstacle course for the competitors. Similarly, he said that some years competitors complained about the unruly state of the trails for the running segment.

When the first race took place in 1975, there were over twenty teams competing. Every team had to include both men and women. While the race was never known for its regulations, in its first year there were remarkably few. The first year, the only requirement was that competitors reach the bottom of the ski hill with all of their ski equipment, but once the snow ended, how they got down the mountain was entirely up to them. The lack of regulations led to all kinds of opportunistic tactics. A few enterprising teams even used things like trucks and motorbikes to get the skiers to the exchange point. Needless to say, after the first year a rule was added that competitors had to get down the mountain on their own two feet.

Skiing segment of the Great Earth Snow Water Race. Whistler Question Collection, 1978.

In only a few years the number of teams competing had nearly tripled; by 1978 over sixty teams competed in the race (only fifty-eight completed it), and from there the race continued to grow and attract larger and further reaching audiences. The races were full of mishaps and complications. Due to lack of government involvement, navigating traffic during the cycling portion could be quite complicated, and one year the Whistler Question referred to this endeavour as “an interesting experience.”

Competitors in the cycling segment of the Great Snow Earth Water Race. Whistler Question Collection, 1981.

As the race became more notorious, by necessity it also became more organized. By the 1990s, matters of logistics and insurance made the race increasingly difficult to execute, and it came to an end.

The Great Snow Earth Water Race took place at the same time as Mayday Madness, a series of events organized by the Chamber of Commerce for community members and tourists. Local sentiment toward the festivities of the long weekend was similar to what we see today: some looked forward to the fun-filled weekend, while others braced for what they saw as inevitable chaos. The events were geared toward different age groups, and some were more family friendly than others. They included everything from wind-surfing to belly flop contests to mini-marathons and family sports.

Belly flop competition at the Christiana Inn. Whistler Question Collection, 1978.

If you are interested in learning more about the race, the Whistler Museum recently hosted a virtual speaker series with some of the original competitors and organizers, and a recording of the event can be found here.

Keely Collins is one of two summer students working at the Whistler Museum this year through the Young Canada Works Program.  She will be returning to the University of Victoria in the fall.

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The Inn on the LakeThe Inn on the Lake

April 6, 2021 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 2 Comments

At the Whistler Museum we often hear stories about the lodges that used to be plentiful around Alta Lake (as well as Nita Lake) from people who worked, stayed, partied or even lived at one sometime between the 1930s and 1980s. Some of the lodges, like the Mount Whistler Lodge, began as summer resorts before skiing was really thought of in the area, while others, such as the Christiana Inn, were part of the increase in development that started with the building of lifts on Whistler Mountain.

Sandy and Puddy Martin, who developed much of the Alta Vista neighbourhood, opened the Christiana Inn on the eastern shore of Alta Lake in 1967. They reportedly named their new venture after a similarly named lodge in Sun Valley, ID. The Christiana facilities included a heated outdoor swimming pool, a beauty salon, gift shop, lounge area, and dining room. Located only five minutes from the lifts on Whistler Mountain and offering many activities around the lake, the Christiana catered to both winter and summer guests.

Though it says the Christiana Inn is closed to the public, this is one of the few images in our collections that shows the building from the front. Whistler Question Collection, 1979.

In the late 1960s, the Martins added on to the Christiana with a tennis court, a poolside dining and dancing area, and even a second dining room. The Christiana hosted fashion shows, dances, public meetings, apres ski entertainment, and films, and even offered a free bus service for guests in the ski season. Over time, the pool was covered with a fiberglass roof in the winter and was opened to guests not staying at the Christiana for a nominal fee (in 1973, this fee was $1 for adults and 50 cents for children).

Sandy and Puddy sold the Christiana Inn in the mid 1970s. In 1979 the management of the lodge was taken over by brothers Ole and Per Christiansen, who hoped to “gradually alter the Inn to a Bavarian atmosphere” and began offering traditional German fare in the restaurant (prepared by Swiss chef Pascal Tiphine) and advertising the Christiana alongside the “newly decorated” Side Door Disco.

Bartender Rosarie Gauthier and manager Per Christiansen behind the bar in the Christiana’s remodelled Bavarian Lounge. Whistler Question Collection, 1979.

It would seem that it was during the mid-to-late 1970s that the Christiana Inn pool began to be known for belly flop and wet t-shirt contests. In May 1978 Brad Cooper wrote in The Whistler Question that “May 22 at the Christiana Inn will be well-remembered as the day over 20 people attempted to splash the most water out of a pool and live to tell about it.” He described hundreds of spectators crowding the pool area and watching from the roof and gave credit to the Christiana and organizers for a “wild but harmless event.”

The belly flop contest of 1978. Whistler Question Collection, 1978.

Others did not find these contests quite as entertaining. In a letter to the editor of the Question in June 1979, T. Wood described the awards ceremony of the Great Snow Earth Water Race as “a fiasco at sleazy Christiana with wet T-shirts and belly flops, which require no talent.” They claimed one contestant from the race was even “pushed into the filthy Christiana pool.”

The pool at the Christiana also hosted other events, such as log rolling. Photo courtesy of David Lalik.

In March 1980 rumours claimed that the Christiana Inn had unexpectedly ceased operations, causing the Whistler Rotary Club to lunch at the Filling Station instead. The then-owners of the Christiana, Travelscope Hotels Ltd., reported that the lodge was still operating but that the management company that had been in charge was no longer operating the hotel (it appears that the management had left town while still owing money to their employees). The hotel and bar were still open, though the kitchen was temporarily closed due to a fire in the deep fryer.

The Christiana Inn also hosted the Freakers’ Ball after the first couple of years at the Mount Whistler Lodge. Bramfield Collection.

In May 1980 the Christiana reopened for the summer as the Alta Lake Inn, well-remembered for their restaurant which offered Chinese food and take-out. Later in the 1980s, the Alta Lake Inn closed as a resort and the property was converted into private condos, known today as Whistler on the Lake. Stories of the Christiana Inn, however, continue to be told throughout Whistler. If you have stories you would like to add to our records, let us know at the Whistler Museum.

The staff of the restaurant at the Alta Lake Inn, including Edmond Wong, Law, Tse, Kwang, Gilbert, Peni, Edmon, and Jeannie. Whistler Question Collection, 1981.
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Saunas of WhistlerSaunas of Whistler

November 17, 2018 Whistler MuseumWhistler Museum 0 Comments

Looking through Whistler publications from the 1970s, it’s easy to see that building and design in Whistler has changed a lot over the decades.  It’s rare today to see a newly constructed A-frame, Gothic arch cabin or a condo advertised using wall-to-wall shag carpeting as a selling point.  Like the shag carpeting and A-frames, saunas also seem to be disappearing from town.

Not all saunas built in Whistler necessarily met the criteria of H.J. Viherjurri, one of the founding members of the Suomen Saunaseura (Finnish Sauna Society), to be considered a true sauna.  He and other members defined a sauna as a room or hut built of wood and containing stones heated by some kind of stones.  These stones heat the air to upwards of 160°F and water can be thrown on the stones to produce steam, called löyly.  Viherjuuri explains that, unlike steam rooms, the air in a sauna remains dry as the moisture is instantly absorbed by the wooden walls of the room.

It’s not clear whether the products in this 1980 California Pool & Spa ad from the Whistler Answer would meet the requirements of a sauna.  Whistler Answer, December 1980.

Also important to be considered a true sauna is the multi-round process of alternately heating and cooling, whether by a cold shower, jumping in a lake or even rolling in snow.  The process often also includes light beating with leafy birch branches to clean the skin.  Without known how saunas built in Whistler were used in the 1970s it is impossible to assume they met the requirements of this definition.  The term sauna was, however, used to attract buyers and visitors to various properties.

In advertisements placed in Garibaldi’s Whistler News the Christiana Inn, Highland Lodge, Cheakamus Inn, Ski Boot Lodge and Whistler Inn all featured the word sauna among their various assets.  The Whistler Inn, described as “an ultra modern, yet rustic lodge” listed their sauna first among their attractions “available for your added enjoyment and comfort”.

Many of the condominiums built around Whistler at the time also included saunas, whether private or shared, for the use of guests and residents.  Blackcomb Condominiums, Telemark Townhouses and Alpenforst condos all had saunas available and the “very deluxe units” of Adventures West included “dishawashers, saunas, washing machines and dryers”.

This living room was used to sell Tamarisk units in 1973; see the massive fireplace and wall-to-wall shag. Garibaldi’s Whistler News, Fall 1973.

Perhaps best known is the example of Tamarisk.  The first phase of Tamarisk, built in 1973, included 146 units, each featuring a sunken living area, a “massive stone fireplace”, shag carpet and a private sauna.

Saunas remained a popular part of aprés-ski culture into the 1980s.  For those who didn’t already have their own sauna Wedge Mountain Construction advertised in The Whistler Answer in December 1980 that they could build one for you.  You could also purchase a freestanding sauna kit from California Pool & Spa for $900.

For a price Wedge Mountain Construction would build a sauna for you. Whistler Answer, December 1980.

Though houses may still contain saunas, many of these rooms are now used for purposes other than bathing.  Growing up in a 1980s house built with one of these wooden rooms, some small children thought sauna was just another word for storeroom.  Rather than attract buyers with the promise of their own private sauna, house listings today are more likely to advertise a Tamarisk unit with a converted sauna.

While saunas may not be nearly as prevalent as during their 1970s ’80s heyday, they can still be found in Whistler at Meadow Park Sports Centre, various hotels, the Scandinave Spa and even some private residences.

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