National Post (National Edition)
Last vestige of Japanese internment now imperilled
Decrepit Ontario hotel used for exiles in 1940s
It’s a derelict, raccoon-infested former hotel on the side of the road in southwestern Ontario’s vast countryside.
But the building once known as the Eatonville Roadhouse is believed to be the only structure left in the province with a link to the internment of Japanese-Canadians during the Second World War — which is why some locals are hoping a benefactor, preferably one with deep pockets, will step forward to save it. And fast. It’s been almost a year since the Chatham-Kent municipal council voted to remove the building’s historic designation, paving the way for the current owners to demolish it.
“The mayor and most of the council see new buildings as progress and old buildings as decay,” said Jerry Hind, a local historian.
Surrounded by long stretches of farmland, the two-storey blue-stucco structure sits at the junction of Highway 3 and Kent Bridge Road, about three hours west of Toronto. Acquired by J.A. Eaton in 1925, the main building consisted of several rooms, a bar and a dance floor. Eaton also built a garage with gas pumps and what was believed to be Canada’s first drive-thru hotdog stand, according to a report prepared for the municipality.
In the 1930s, the property was transferred to Howard Pyne, remembered for selling bootleg liquor out of the hotel, which at the time was located in a “dry” township. Police put a stop to the practice after complaints from hoteliers in neighbouring communities.
Then in 1942, Pyne allowed the federal government to rent the property as an internment camp for 55 Japanese-Canadians who were among 20,000 uprooted from their homes in British Columbia. The exiled Japanese men, who were reportedly supervised by an RCMP officer, were sent to work at nearby Rondeau Provincial Park clearing brush and timber until 1943.
Pyne built a Japanese bath for them so that when they returned from work they could soak in it. “In the late afternoon, Dad would build a fire under (it). The guys would sit in it and then roll around in the snow,” recalls Pyne’s son, Ralph, then a young teenager. “My mother used to go to her bedroom and pull her blinds down so she didn’t have to see these naked Japanese guys.”
Ralph Pyne, now 87, says his father would drive the internees into town in his pickup truck to go see the movies or to go shopping. The young men also played against local baseball teams during the summer.
Ralph regularly played chess with one of the fellows named Harry, who once built a kite for him and gave him a belt for Christmas, which he still has.
“They were really pretty friendly,” he says.
More recently, the roadhouse was used as lodging for seasonal migrant workers employed by a prominent farming family, the DeBrouwers.
But for the past few years, it has sat empty, slowly being picked apart by vandals and creatures of the night. The DeBrouwer family approached the city in late 2015 for permission to tear it down.
The municipal heritage committee tried to persuade the council to preserve the site.
“It’s probably the last building standing in the province which has direct ties with the Japanese relocation,” John Taylor, the committee’s chair, said this week. Taylor’s grandmother once received a piece of traditional Japanese clothing as a gift from one of the young men, which she passed on to him.
But in a vote of 17-1, the Chatham-Kent council agreed to repeal the site’s historic designation, concluding that it was “beyond repair.” One council member suggested a commemorative plaque would suffice to recognize the site’s history.
Days later, representatives of the National Associations of Japanese Canadians were in town to assess the property.
“There was a dead raccoon outside and one dead one inside,” said Ken Noma, the executive director.
A report he prepared later estimated that it would cost $20,000 to $30,000 to acquire the building and another $400,000 to $700,000 to renovate it.
“In an ideal world, it’d be nice to have that building saved and restored,” he said, but it would be a huge financial undertaking.
If the building couldn’t be saved, Noma wrote in his report, other options could include building a memorial on the site or installing a permanent exhibit at the Chatham-Kent museum.
Hind says members of the community are currently exploring the idea of installing interpretive signs and maps that could guide visitors to the different spots in the region where internment camps were located.
But Taylor says he would still like to see the actual Eatonville Roadhouse preserved, maybe transformed into a bed and breakfast with a section devoted to telling the history of the site.
“To simply have an empty building sitting there with signs in front of it, isn’t worth its weight in gold,” he said.
Vince DeBrouwer, whose family owns the property, said given the concerns about the site’s historical significance, they held off taking action this past year to see if any offers came forward.
No serious offers were made, he said. And he’s not sure how much longer the family can wait, as it’s been a pain watching over the dilapidated building.
“I don’t think anybody’s interested,” he said.