ATHABASCA — For many Albertans, July 23, 2025 will be just another Wednesday. But for Athabascans, mid-week will also mark the first anniversary of the second burning of the Grand Union Hotel.
On Tuesday, July 23, 2024, volunteer firefighters were up early with the morning sun to respond to a 5:41 a.m. report of smoke emanating from the hotel. The blaze evolved throughout the morning and into the afternoon, and a growing mass of spectators watched as flames pierced the roof, parts of the ceiling collapsed, and first responders demolished the charred remains to contain the hazard.
The day marked the second time in 110 years local townsfolk held their breath and banded together to fight a fire that razed the first iteration of the iconic hotel to the ground, and a large portion of the Athabasca core with it.
Origins
The Grand Union Hotel stood on the same lot, at the corner of 50th Ave and 50th Street, for 122 years, but before the first two-storey wooden structure occupied the one-and-a-half lot property, a French easterner with a knack for business recognized the location’s potential.
Isaie Gagnon emigrated west from Quebec in 1891, 250 years after his ancestors left France to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Isaie’s first stop was reportedly around the Vancouver and Coquitlam areas before backtracking east to Alberta.
He established roots in both St. Albert and Athabasca by 1892, opening the first butcher shop in St. Albert along with a sawmill which later moved north. Seeing the great need for lodgings and accommodations by those traversing and working on the Athabasca River, Isaie, better known as “Ike,” opened a small boarding room with only two beds and a table.
His small operation grew to six beds, and then 10. In 1902, he opened the first iteration of the Grand Union Hotel, across from the growing Hudson’s Bay Company presence at the river.
In addition to the Grand Union, Isaie built another two of the town’s first hotels, a livery and stable. And beyond a businessowner and gentleman, as he was described on land titles at the time, Isaie made a name for himself in the property development business, too.
He and a brother opened their own building supplies store near the mill, now in Athabasca, and in early 1913, months before the Great Fire, Gagnon Block opened, a two-storey commercial space east of the Grand Union, which housed Dueck’s hardware store, Brault and Viens General Store, and Gaskell’s lunch counter.
Isaie wasn’t quiet about his intent to ride the wave of economic boom in Athabasca following the turn of the century, specifically by providing workers and locals accommodations, even if it meant buying and shipping a whole train of lumber from the United States.
“Mr. Gagnon’s faith in the future of Athabasca Landing is not, as will be noted, of a timid, speculative, vacillating nature,” reads a newspaper excerpt from Jan. 20, 1912.
“Mr. Gagnon has grown wealthy right in Athabasca Landing, and he is putting all his available cash back into Athabasca Landing propositions."
Little more than a year after his promise was printed, Isaie’s amass of wealth and property took a significant hit. On Aug. 5, 1913, a fire swept through the downtown core, resulting in up to $500,000 in losses — equal to over $16 million today.
Isaie suffered the greatest single losses in the destruction, estimated at around $200,000, without considering the furnishings and contents of the buildings. The Grand Union was listed as the highest valued building lost, at $50,000, but by then Isaie had sold the hotel to an Edmonton firm.
Despite suffering significant losses, Isaie was determined to reinvest in the community, and work to rebuild his commercial properties and other hotels began in the same year as the fire.
According to René Marrinier’s written submission to the Athabasca Archives, he was quoted in the local paper on Aug. 6, 1913, as saying:
“I came here on $15 a week and I got what I have now. I’ll build it up again, right away; this thing does not make me feel bad, it will not stop me.”
But a downturn in the local economy — thanks in part to the construction of the railway and a shortage of viable land in the surrounding areas — meant building back to his enterprises' former state wasn’t as easy as initially anticipated.
In the following years, Isaie liquidated his assets in town, and he, wife Clara, and their three children moved to a farm in the Prosperity area, near the Athabasca-Lac La Biche trail. Although he was out of the official hospitality business, he built extra rooms into his large house for travellers and trail regulars.
The Gagnons operated the Donatville post office in their years out of town, and passed away in the 1920s; Clara first in 1921 and Ike later in 1926, according to the George Marrinier’s — Isaie’s grandson — in his contribution to the Athabasca: 100 Years — In Our Own Words centennial book.
Isaie is also remembered for serving on the first board of the Athabasca School District, and undertook three years on the council of Athabaska Landing Village. He is also credited for being involved with the creation of the first hospital, and construction of the town’s first school and later the Brick School, which opened the same year as the Great Fire.
Living legacy
Dolores Martynek is 86 years old, and although she never met Isaie, her Great Uncle through marriage, she is well aware of the legacy left by the Gagnon name. Isaie’s eldest son, Charles, married her father’s sister when she was 18, and the couple went on to have three daughters of their own.
“Their names were Clara, Alice, and Alma, and there’s one surviving, she’s 93 or 94 and she lives in the States,” said Martynek. “I’ve kept contact with my cousins from family, and they’re all doing well, but none of them knew their Great Uncle at all.”
Martynek remembers her uncle Charles as a “very kind, loving man,” with a big smile, but what stick out most to her are memories of the grand house in Prosperity, built by Isaie.
“We used to go there like once every week, sometimes every two weeks,” said Martynek, recalling Isaie’s brother also lived on the farm with his nephew Charlie.
“I’ll never forget him, because he used to show us his teeth and we would just freak right out, my sister and I. He had dentures, and he’d pop those things out at us,” she said with a laugh.
She described the house, complete with beautiful woodwork and features, with big pillars on each side of a large stairway, and as one of the only houses in the area with a washing machine.
“We just lived in a little shack compared to what the Gagnons had.”
In her later years, when she got married and had kids of her own, Martynek said the Grand Union Hotel was always a top spot to grab a bite, catch good country music, or attend a wedding.
“We used to have breakfast there lots of times, my husband and I, and from the time our children were small we would take them with us. When we went shopping for groceries, we would stop and eat there.”
Although Isaie Gagnon was not officially involved with the Grand Union in the years leading up to the fire and the second version of the hotel, erected in 1914, Martynek said she was still disappointed, like many locals, to learn of its demise.
“I was very said, I’m still sad when I drive by that. I’ll be glad when they put something else up there,” she said. “I hope they build a museum there with it. They could have a Grand Union Museum.
“It would be so nice, and there would be a lot of people donating archive stuff to that.”
Partial wreckage from the fire one year ago remains on the former site of the Grand Union, untouched since the beginning of 2025 despite the issuing of a court-ordered clean-up. The one-and-a-half lot is set to go up for tax auction Aug. 25.
But regardless of what happens with the site that housed the iconic Grand Union Hotel for 110 years, Martynek hopes the legacy of Isaie Gagnon and his family will be honoured in one way or another.
“They were the ones that started it all, they were the beginning of it.”
