March 1911: a momentous month in Patrick history

Three almost simultaneous events made March 1911 an especially auspicious month for the Patrick family generally and Lester Patrick specifically: the Patrick Lumber Co. was sold for a reported $1 million, plans were announced to start the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (although not under that name), and Lester got married.

Lester wed Grace Victoria Lynn (or Linn) in Victoria on March 7, 1911, at the home of the bride’s mother, 739 Queens Avenue (there’s now a big box store on the site). Lester’s brother Frank was best man and Grace’s half sister Irvine Pool was bridesmaid.

The couple reportedly met at a hockey game in Nelson. Another of Grace’s half-sisters was married to Dr. G.A.B. Hall, who lived in Nelson and was well acquainted with the Patricks. He was part of the company that built the city’s new arena in 1908-09 and later served on the board of the Patrick rink in Victoria.

Lester Patrick, his future wife Grace Linn (centre), and Grace’s sister Christina (Teenie) Hall (left) at the Japanese tea garden in Gorge Park in Esquimalt, near Victoria, September 1910.

How long were Lester and Grace engaged? Unclear. But the Victoria Daily Times account of their wedding noted they would be going on a honeymoon “by way of Seattle, New York, and Boston” and the Calgary Herald added they would “tour to Chicago and Detroit.” Those destinations were a hint of something big that had not yet been made public.

That came two days later, March 9. Frank Patrick announced plans to build artificial ice rinks in Vancouver and Victoria plus natural ice rinks in Calgary and Edmonton for a new professional hockey league. While much remained to be done, it was clear a great deal of energy had already been invested in the plan. How long had it been in the works?

According to the Vancouver Province, “As far back as last November, Mr. Patrick conceived the idea of putting up an artificial ice rink in Vancouver, but he could not see how the proposition could be made to pay a legitimate interest on the capital invested until the idea of a four-club league cropped up. Then it was too late to do anything for the present season …” James McKinnon, who was part of efforts to place a team in Edmonton, suggested: “For the last six months the project has been underway, although the promoters have kept everything quiet …”

Indeed, they kept a lid on rumours, because I haven’t found any other sign of the Patricks’ plan before it became official. Five days later, March 14, it was revealed how the league would be financed: the British Canadian Lumber Co. would buy the Patrick Lumber Co.’s mill and timber limits in the Slocan Valley for $1 million. Although the sale wasn’t immediately linked in the press to the new hockey league, it in fact paid for the construction of the Vancouver and Victoria rinks.

But what was the sequence behind the scenes? Was the company sold specifically to bankroll the arenas and the league? Or would the sale have happened anyway, and it was more a matter of deciding how to spend the money? And did it all hasten Lester’s wedding?  

According to Eric Whitehead’s The Patricks: Hockey’s Royal Family, which must be taken with fistfuls of salt, the company’s sale was already a done deal in January 1911. And while the brothers’ idea of starting their own league “had been simmering for a long time,” only now did it look like a real possibility.

“Frank and I often discussed our isolation from hockey, and the exciting prospect of developing new ideas for the growth of the game,” Whitehead quoted Lester as saying. “[I]mmediately after the sale, my father, Frank, and I sat down and discussed the family’s future.”

Whitehead has the discussion taking place at the family home at 917 Edgewood Avenue in Nelson. Frank reportedly proposed the idea of building new rinks and starting a professional league in BC. It was put to a vote, which carried 2-1, with only Lester against.

Once the decision was made, Lester’s honeymoon turned into a fact-finding mission. Whitehead claims that one of the wedding gifts was a round-trip to Boston. The trip also included a stop in New York, where Lester met old teammates playing in a series between the defending Stanley Cup champion Ottawa Senators and the Montreal Wanderers. 

For good measure, Frank suggested adding Detroit, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh to the itinerary, “a trio of more or less exotic honeymoon spas that also featured three of the world’s first artificial ice rinks. That suggestion elicited the new bride’s first family veto, but to no avail.” Whitehead added that the trip “may have been a little short on romance, but it turned out to be long on ice-plant data.”