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About 1914, when the Pacific Great Eastern station had been located near the existing station site, Bob McLauchlan built the shell of the original section of the present Pemberton Hotel. This fair-sized shell of a building had no partitions, and only a potbellied stove to keep it warm. Later on in the 1940’s, a lean to addition which served as the men’s section of the beer parlour, and a large storage shed built in 1948. the owner’s family lived in the upper rooms of the hotel, dined in the kitchen and used the lobby as a living room. Some of the bedrooms had running water, but the only bathrooms were on the main floor, and used by the customers during open hours. The bar parlour was divided into “men only” and “ladies and escorts”. On busy nights the tables from the mixed side overflowed into the men’s section; on Friday pay night often the reverse. On weekday afternoons the place was so quiet.