What now for the old hotel?

The story of the often-controversial owner of the Mersey House is yet to be told. People either defend or disparage Loveridge. Defenders point to the way he has rescued the old hotel and given it new life, and to the way he has brought musical acts to the community of Liverpool.

The editor of this newspaper, Mark Roberts wrote an article almost a year ago on the opening of a little theatre in the Mersey House, one that sat 100 people and included changing rooms for artists. The story said there were also plans for an art gallery and an internet café, to go along with a pub and fish and chip shop in the old hotel.

No one could accuse Michael Loveridge of thinking small. His plans for a bus service in and around Liverpool were detailed week by week in the Queens County Times, but, according to the Chronicle Herald, its license was revoked for non-payment of registration fees. He dreamed that the Mersey House would be the centre of a circuit of musicians touring Nova Scotia, and was at last report working to establish a database service for musicians to enable them to combine for touring.

There also were moves towards a recording studio in the Mersey House, and connected with that was a planned music download site. The Mersey House business was run by Heather MacIsaac, Michael Loveridge's estranged wife, who recently issued a statement that the business was ceasing operations and that there would be other statements as to the future of the business.

Much of that may be interrupted by the fact that Michael Loveridge is now embroiled in a number of legal difficulties. Apart from the human interest side of the story, however, one of the things of concern is the fate of the building itself.

In its earliest days, it was called the Mersey Hotel. It was built in 1904 and opened on New Year's Day, 1905. The Boehner Brothers firm from LaHave built the hotel, a firm that originated in Liverpool with George W. Boehner, who built the Liverpool court house in 1854.

The hotel occupied a site that had turned out to be unlucky for two previous hotels. The first was the Trilby Hotel. After it burned, the Thorndyke Hotel was built in its space, but the Thorndyke also burned, in 1902, after being in operation for just over 15 years. The Mersey opened two years later.

For a time, the Mersey was one of the busiest hotels on the South Shore. It had opened just as the railway was coming to Liverpool, ensuring that its rooms would be full. Its dining room seated 75; it had 19 bedrooms, a special apartment, and was lit with electricity. It also had telephones in every room. The hotel had offices, shops, a kitchen, pantry, laundry, plus a parlour and waiting room, which opened onto the verandah.

The railway which brought this prosperity was the Halifax and South-Western Railway, which published a brochure listing hotels along its route. The proprietor of the Mersey Hotel was P. F. Butler, and the brochure listed the daily rate as two dollars, the same as the Fairview in Bridgewater, but twice as much as Bridgewater's popular Eureka Hotel.

In 1910, cooking duties at the Mersey Hotel were taken over by W. L. Doran, an Englishman who had originally moved to Halifax, where he operated a restaurant and then was chef at the Halifax Club. He and his wife, Annie O'Brien were popular in Liverpool, and townspeople regretted it when Doran decided in 1915 to take over Bridgewater's Eureka Hotel on the death of its owner, Mrs. Janet Foshay. Doran ran that hotel successfully until his death in 1932.

In its heyday, the Mersey Hotel was the choice of people ranging from novelist Zane Grey – who stayed there in the summer of 1924 while fishing for tuna and swordfish off Liverpool – to the whole Bridgewater fire department, which chose the hotel for its annual excursion in 1906. In later years the hotel business declined and the Mersey was given over to apartments.

It was bought by Michael Loveridge and his then wife, Ingrid Jahn, in October 2004. In the years since then, Loveridge put a lot into the old hotel. Since it is such a prominent part of the Liverpool landscape, we remain hopeful that the business and its 14 apartments will find a way to keep operating.

Tom Sheppard can be reached at twsheppard@gmail.com