Mayfield Inn sells iconic pagoda to former hotel owner
After serving 25 years in Edmonton, the Mayfield Inn’s iconic pagoda is headed for retirement in a climate more akin to its Thai homeland.
The giant gazebo-like teak structure, called a sala, has been sold to the hotel’s former owner, Howard Pechet. It’s the second time he has purchased the piece — first for the hotel and now for himself.
The hotel is undergoing renovations to prepare for its rebranding as a DoubleTree by Hilton and the sala doesn’t fit in with the new decor, so it ended up in the same place that misfit toys and old mattresses go.
“We had it on Kijiji for the last month,” said Mayfield Inn and Suites general manager Grant McCurdy. The closed-bid sale ended Tuesday and the sala went to Pechet, the highest bidder.
The sala has led a celebrated existence. At the hotel, it served as the backdrop for countless weddings.
“It’s used a lot for wedding receptions,” McCurdy said. “It’s one of those things— you really like it or you really don’t like it, but a lot of people do prefer it if they’re having weddings and they’re having the ceremony in there.
“It’s obviously a beautiful piece. It’s all gold leaf and teak. It just doesn’t fit the modern look.”
The sala came to Edmonton for the 1987 Klondike Days exhibition, where it stood guard at the entrance of the Kingdom of Thailand trade show at Edmonton Northlands.
It took 12 Thai carpenters 15 weeks to build the 100-squaremetre structure, made entirely of seasoned teak. The sala was dismantled in Thailand, the pieces numbered and reassembled in Edmonton for the show. The Thai government took apart two old homes just to get enough seasoned teak to build the sala.
After the show, the cost of shipping it back home was too high, so it was put up for sale. The sala was reportedly worth $100,000, including the cost of having carpenters break it down and put it back together.
Mayfield Inn owner Howard Pechet paid $50,000 for the piece and moved it to the hotel, where he and the hotel manager covered up a swimming pool to make room for the pagoda.
“He thought it would be wonderful for weddings and brunches, and it was,” Pechet said by telephone from his California home.
But the hotel ended up losing the pool surcharges that it added to rooms surrounding the courtyard.
“Even though we did a lot more food and beverage, it really never made up for the revenue we lost on the rooms,” Pechet said with a chuckle. “It didn’t do us a heck of a lot of good at the bottom line, but we all just loved that pagoda.” He sold the hotel in about 1990. Pechet first thought about buying the pagoda for a second time when a friend told him it was listed for sale on Kijiji.
“The pagoda was a wonderful memory of the whole thing,” Pechet said.
What made up his mind was a surprise dinner in the sala — staged for him by friends — featuring a menu from the ‘70s: shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad, beef Wellington and peach Melba.
“Sitting there, I thought if this thing is for sale, I’m going to try and buy it.”
Pechet would not say exactly how much he paid the second time around, but it was close to the asking price of $12,000.
The sala is now heading to Vernon, B.C., where Pechet owns a lake cottage.
“We’re going to disassemble it and take it to Lake Okanagan and reassemble it on the beach.
“It’ll probably survive better on the beach than it ever did in the Alberta dryness.”