Description of Historic Place

Alexandra Lodge is an asymmetrical two-storey wooden building located in a rural forested setting approximately 19 kilometres north of Yale on the Trans Canada Highway. It has a cross-gable roof, with a verandah and upper storey balcony facing the highway, and the front and rear halves of the building are offset by approximately a metre on the south facade.

Heritage Value

Alexandra Lodge has historic and cultural value for its location, as a surviving reminder of the changing face of travel and tourism in British Columbia in the last century, and for its relationship to nearby Alexandra Bridge.

The location of Alexandra Lodge, above the banks of the Fraser River, is an essential part of its heritage value. Historic research suggests that this site has been the location of a roadhouse or lodge since 1858, predating the opening of the adjacent Cariboo Wagon Road by four years. The current lodge is the third building to stand in this area, illustrating the ongoing need to cater to travelers passing through here for over one hundred years. It is a significant example of how the nineteenth-century roadhouse evolved to meet the automobile age of the twentieth century.

The fact that the documented 1926-27 design of Alexandra Lodge corresponds with the redevelopment and reopening of the Cariboo Wagon Road to vehicle traffic in the same year is a valuable part of its heritage. Together with the nearby Alexandra Bridge - which was an instrumental and monumental part of motor travel through the Fraser Canyon from 1926 until the early 1960s, when the road was diverted - Alexandra Lodge is an important illustration of the economic development of British Columbia to meet the needs of the modern traveler in the 1920s.

Alexandra Lodge also has an interesting historic connection with The Cariboo Hotels Ltd., which constructed a number of hotels along the historic route of the Cariboo Wagon Road in the 1920s. That Alexandra Lodge survives as a part of this early franchise endeavour in British Columbia makes it a valued part of the history of tourism in the province.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of Alexandra Lodge include:

- Its location above the Fraser River
- Its contiguous relationship to the Trans-Canada Highway
- Its relationship to the nearby 1926 Alexandra Bridge
- Surviving elements of its documented 1926-27 design
- The large sign identifying it as "Alexandra Lodge" on the upper balcony railing
- Its connection to the two earlier roadhouses which stood at this location, as seen in building materials, construction methods, and location
- Its historic association with The Cariboo Hotels Ltd