The History of the House
Rossland has no shortage of remarkable old buildings, and ours has a story of its own.
Before it became The Wild Turkey Inn, the house at 2520 Kootenay Avenue was known as the Bank Home and, to one early family, as Breezy Bluffs. Built for Bank of Montreal managers in the early 1900s, it has been a family home, a bed and breakfast, a heritage inn and now, once again, a house full of stories.
We are still piecing those stories together through archive records, old photographs, family memories, inherited house lore and the occasional discovery inside the walls.
The Bank Home
What is now The Wild Turkey Inn was originally known as the Bank Home, built as a residence for managers of the Bank of Montreal in Rossland.
Rossland’s heritage inventory dates the house to around 1905 and identifies Jeldness as its builder or contractor. Other records place the house’s construction somewhere between 1896 and 1905, and we are still working to pin down the exact date. Its architectural style is described as High Victorian Domestic. The foundation is built from locally quarried granite, the same stone used in several prominent Rossland buildings, including the Bank of Montreal, courthouse and post office.
The Bank of Montreal in Rossland
The Bank of Montreal opened its Rossland branch in 1896 during the height of the city’s mining boom. J.S.C. Fraser soon became its first official Rossland branch manager.
By 1900, the bank had moved into its imposing new building at Columbia Avenue and Washington Street. The third floor included living quarters for the manager and bank staff. Around 1905, the separate Bank Home on Kootenay Avenue became the Fraser family residence and later housed other Bank of Montreal managers.
J.S.C. Fraser and Breezy Bluffs
J.S.C. Fraser and his family appear to have moved into the Bank Home around 1905. To them, the house was known as Breezy Bluffs.
As the first official manager of the Bank of Montreal’s Rossland branch, Fraser became a prominent figure in the young mining city. He was also the first president of the Rossland Club, founded in 1896.
One well-documented story sounds almost invented. During negotiations surrounding the sale of Fritz Heinze’s smelter and railway interests, Fraser was reportedly summoned from bed in the middle of the night to help arbitrate the deal.
The old bed-and-breakfast binder that came with the house contains several more colourful stories about Fraser. It says that financial and payroll business connected to Rossland’s mines was handled from a formal room in the house, and that a concealed safe was located behind the fireplace.
We have not yet been able to verify those details in archival records.
There is, however, a small hidden room behind the fireplace.
So we are not throwing the story out just yet.
Another inherited account says Fraser wrote a million-dollar cheque connected to the Le Roi Mine. Again, we have not yet found documentation proving it, but it remains part of the house lore we are continuing to investigate.
Fraser and his wife, Laura Martin Fiennes-Clinton Fraser, raised their young family at Breezy Bluffs before his transfer to Victoria in 1912. He died two years later at the age of 52.
More than a century later, a visit from Fraser’s granddaughter Elizabeth helped us put names to some of the faces and stories that had remained in the house. Her memories also introduced us properly to Mr. Lee Kim, the family’s cook and an important part of life at Breezy Bluffs.
The Dewdney Years
Edgar Edwin Lawrence “Ted” Dewdney first came to Rossland in 1900 as a young Bank of Montreal clerk. After several other bank postings, he returned to Rossland as branch manager from 1920 to 1927.
Ted lived in the Bank Home with his wife, Mary Helen, and their children Eve, Peter and Rose Pamela, known as Dee Dee, who was born in Rossland in 1924.
Remarkably, many Dewdney family photographs and mementos from this period remain with Ted’s descendants today. We are now hoping some of those family albums may contain an early photograph of the house itself.
Rossland Through a Bank Clerk’s Eyes
Among the historical material passed down with the house was a remarkable account written in 1956 by a former Bank of Montreal clerk recalling his arrival in Rossland around 1896. Horse races on Columbia Avenue, fights, fires, gambling, boarding houses and the rough-and-ready mining camp all make an appearance.
We’ve preserved the account, along with the historical photographs collected to illustrate it, in a separate archive.
Through the Years
After its years as a Bank of Montreal residence, the house eventually passed into private ownership. Rossland’s heritage records list a succession of owners including Cran, Hutchings, B. Coon, Marjorie and Arthur Snowball, Bob Page, Roland LeRose, Ian Thomas, Becky Gilhula and Jeremy Richards.
Several owners left their mark on the building.
J.S.C. Fraser is said to have added a suite for one of his sisters. Earlier notes identify her as “Nan” Ann Elizabeth Fraser, while newer family information has introduced us to his sister Mary Catherine, known as Aunt Kate. We are still trying to determine exactly who occupied the suite.
B. Coon is credited in the heritage inventory with restoration work during the 1950s, including removal of the house’s large original veranda. We are currently researching the Coon family’s connection to the property and hope to clarify both the identity of B. Coon and the timing of that work.
Roland LeRose and Ian Thomas continued restoring the house. According to the inherited history, original lighting fixtures, knobs, hinges and other pieces had been kept rather than discarded and were later returned to their former places.
Apparently, things were never thrown away.
They simply filled the attic.
By the late 1990s, the house had begun a new life as Mountain Comfort Bed & Breakfast, later becoming Sweet Dreams Heritage Inn.
The Wild Turkey Inn
A new chapter
In 2019, Mike Tigges and Shauna Ullman purchased Sweet Dreams Heritage Inn and renamed it The Wild Turkey Inn.
The goal was to preserve the character of the house while making it comfortable and useful for another generation.
Restoration continues
Since then, work has included restoring cedar trim and original details, renovating the guest ensuites, creating a dedicated guest kitchen and laundry, improving the building’s systems and continuing the long process of understanding what is original, what changed and what deserves to come back.
A house still in use
Today, The Wild Turkey Inn is a private three-bedroom heritage guesthouse in Rossland, BC, rented to one group at a time.
Some furnishings came with the house. Many others have been collected by us along the way.
The restoration is ongoing.
So is the research.