Originally named the Windsor Hotel, the King George Hotel in Melville was built in 1909 by J. N. Pomerleau. It was one of three hotels in the community. The 1916 Canada Census shows that Joseph Pomerleau, age 22, and Antoinette Pomerleau, age 20, (both single) were managing the hotel on Main Street. Twenty-four other people were living at the hotel that year, including the hotel staff. Most of the hotel guests at that time were railway workers. The hotel鈥檚 name was changed by proprietor J. E. Benwell to the King George in 1919.
The hotel鈥檚 name must have resonated during the Royal Visit of 1939. On June 3 of that year, over 60,000 people thronged to Melville, population 3,000, to catch a glimpse of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth. The visit was to be a 10-minute whistle-stop, but in view of the magnitude of the crowd, organizers agreed to stop for half an hour. Melville pulled out all the stops for the Royal Visit celebration. According to the Regina Leader-Post (June 5, 1939), the town staged one of its biggest sports days in history. 鈥淗otels and cafes were packed for hours, and at meal times hundreds jammed their way into them, demanding meals,鈥� the newspaper stated. 鈥淏eer parlours had one of the biggest days of business since beer parlours came to Saskatchewan, one being reported as taking in $800 for the day.鈥�
The King George Hotel was sold by Jim Benwell in 1940 to a company headed by A. Borget. In 1941, guest rooms at the hotel were renovated, with plumbing and new woodwork installed in each suite. Borget hired hockey legend Laudus J. 鈥淒uke鈥� Dutkowski as the hotel鈥檚 manager in August of 1940. Dutkowski had been a professional hockey player for more than a decade. He was profiled by the Leader-Post on May 16, 1945 while still managing the King George. Born in Regina in 1900, he started playing with the Saskatoon Crescents in 1921, then the Regina Capitals until 1925, the Rosebuds in Portland, Oregon, and the Chicago Blackhawks throughout the 1920s, ending his career in 1934 with the New York Americans 鈥� the Big Apple鈥檚 first professional hockey team. Dutkowski coached senior hockey in Regina before taking over management of the King George Hotel for Borget鈥檚 company.
By 2006, the three-storey hotel on Main Street had been through many upgrades and renovations. Stucco had been applied over the brick exterior. The 212-seat Windsor Tavern on the hotel鈥檚 main floor was open seven days a week. It had six VLTs, a dance floor, a DJ booth, a big screen TV and a Bose sound system valued at over $20,000. The tavern featured occasional live entertainment and weekly specials such as the Wednesday Night Slo-Pitch BBQ on the beer patio. Ten guest rooms on the second floor, two of which were suites, had been modernized with full bathrooms, new windows and air conditioning.
On Feb. 17, 2010, Melville鈥檚 historic King George Hotel was destroyed by a suspicious fire that started in the kitchen. Several hundred people gathered to watch the firefighters battle the blaze. Hotel owner Sam Pervez told the Leader-Post that, prior to the blaze, the updated bar had only been open for about three weeks and the restaurant was just days away from reopening. A resident of the landmark hotel, 63-year-old Roland St. Amand, pleaded guilty to setting the fire and was sentenced to three and a half years behind bars on May 13, 2010.
听
