In 1913 my grandparents sold their home and property in Kansas City, Missouri, and began what would become a lifetime of moves, as my restless grandfather considered each move an opportunity to better their condition. Before calling numerous U.S. cities home that first move, the one from Kansas City, was to Victoria, B.C. This was before my mother was born, and the family at that time included my grandfather's two girls from his first marriage (wife deceased), and the three boys from his marriage to my grandmother, Nellie. The eldest boy was Jim, who 35 years later would mail this postcard to his widowed mother Nellie when he and his wife traveled to Victoria, B.C.
Note his message to her discusses that the building on the postcard (The Old Charming Inn) was known in his boyhood days as the Oak Bay Hotel, and that it was located across the street from where they lived! Nellie's handwriting is at the top of the card, noting the former hotel name and including a request to "return" it to whomever it was that she shared it with. I loved seeing her handwriting with the same ink color that she used in all her letters to my mother when I was a kid. No one else wrote in that color, and I thought that was because it was the color of her eyes and made for her alone.
I've been unable to find history indicating when the Oak Bay Hotel closed and The Old Charming Inn began operating. I have found that there is an Oak Bay Beach Hotel located off Beach Drive that has enjoyed a status reputation since 1938. It must have acquired the use of a portion of the former Oak Bay Hotel's name after the latter became The Old Charming Inn. One thing is absolute, however, as proven by this video and that is that The Old Charming Inn was demolished in 1962.
The person who submitted this video at YouTube included these notes: This is a regular 8mm movie that my Dad took of the demolition of The Old Charming Inn on Beach Drive in Oak Bay. The condo that took its place is called the Rudyard Kipling after the author, who once stayed there.
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For a real estate ad featuring a condo in the current Rudyard Kipling building found on the site where The Old Charming Inn once stood, click here. There are views of Oak Bay from inside the condo. It's interesting to see the view that guests once enjoyed while staying at The Old Charming Inn and at its predecessor in my grandparents' day, the Oak Bay Hotel.
