Photography project shooting to preserve old hotel bars before businesses go under

Patrons at the Andrew Hotel bar are documented by photographers with the Beer Parlour Project, on Aug. 15, 2025. (Connor Hogg/CTV News Edmonton)

A small team of photographers are documenting old taverns and their customers in western Canada before the establishments disappear for good.

The Beer Parlour Project team travels across Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia to preserve the history and nostalgia of small-town watering holes, with the hopes of bringing in more business.

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In an interview with CTV News Edmonton, Rob Pohl, a photographer with the Beer Parlour Project, said this project gave him the opportunity to work outside of his comfort zone.

“I’ve focused my attention on landscape (photos) and a fair bit of historic old building remnants of people,” Pohl said. “At my age, I’ve done almost everything I can think of doing and wanted to branch out and do something a little different.”

“It was a challenging project for me to do something different than what I’m accustomed to,” he added.

Pohl said that most small towns in western Canada took advantage of being close to railway stations by building taverns and hotels nearby.

He said as time passed, many of them shut down their operations due to financial instability or couldn’t survive during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s a challenging photo project to be involved in. It’s getting people to experience what’s an important subject to us and celebrate what’s left,” Pohl said.

Some of the stories told would be of infidelity, romance, typical Saturday-night antics, and even someone who rode into the bar on a horse after having a few too many.

Chris Doering, another photographer and researcher for the Beer Parlour Project, told CTV News Edmonton the stories told by patrons felt like a “vault of memories.”

“It’s an interesting bit of nostalgia you get. You hear happy stories, you hear incredibly sad stories. All in one sentence or one paragraph sometimes and a lot of emotion,” Doering said.

“They’re not seen as often or heard as often, but they’re still here,” he added.

Pohl said the stories serve as an understanding of how simple life was back then.

“Every one of the stories … collectively tells a bigger story. It all comes together about what a focal point life had in the small towns,” said Pohl.

“People worked hard in those days … when they went to town on a Saturday night, that was the focal point of their week.”

The goal of the project is to visit 100 establishments with the hopes of creating a traveling showcase of their work and to secure grant funding to release a book of all their curated stories.

Many of the hotels documented by the team shut down weeks after being documented. However, the Andrew Hotel, where Pohl and Doering had their latest shoot, confirmed it will remain open under new management.

For more information, visit the Beer Parlour Project’s website.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Connor Hogg