The final chapter for a Glenboro landmark

For more than seven decades, the Glenboro Hotel stood as one of the community’s familiar landmarks.

Now, the old “blue bar” is coming down. The demolition is not only bringing an end to the hotel, but also the many chapters that followed it.

The story of the building began in 1952, when the Glenboro Hotel opened its doors for business. An advertisement in a 1952 publication described the hotel as “new and fully modern”.

For many decades, it was ingrained in Glenboro’s everyday life as a place to stay together, gather, have a meal, meet friends, have business meetings, celebrate special occasions and catch up with what was happening around town.

But after more than half a century as a hotel and many changes in ownership the building would undergo one of its biggest transformations yet and the clientele would change dramatically.
The contrast could not have been greater.

The same building that once welcomed travelers carrying overnight bags and adults gathering for an evening was now relying on babies and preschoolers as their patrons.

It was a new purpose for an old building, and another chapter in the history of the Glenboro Hotel.

For Gord and Nancy Koop, the Glenboro Hotel chapter began with a simple question.

Nancy had worked as an operations manager for an alarm company and was on a year’s medical leave when Gord asked her if she would consider looking into buying a hotel in rural Manitoba.
Although the idea had never came to her, her response was simple, “Why not.”

She had always had an adventurous nature and entrepreneurial spirit. “I was looking for a change,” Nancy recalls.

The couple came to Glenboro to check out the hotel and business opportunity. But it wasn’t just the hotel that captured their attention.

It was the community.

“I just fell in love with the town,” Nancy recalls. “Everyone was so friendly that I immediately felt at home.”

For Nancy who had moved a number of times in her life this feeling of home led to a major change for her, Gord and their family.

The sale was finalized in March of 2012 and the Koops moved to Glenboro and opened their newly acquired business the following month.

What began as a “why not” would become a new life, a new community and another important chapter for the hotel.

The purchase of the hotel soon became more than a business venture for the Koops.

Over time, a total of 15 family members would eventually join them and take part in the family business.

As the family became more involved, so did the footprint of their business interest in Glenboro.

In 2023, the Koops purchased the garage and car wash next to the hotel as well as the former Glenboro Gazette building, adding another piece to what would become an entire block of family-owned businesses and properties.

The Gazette building was rented to an individual for a couple of years, while the garage took on a new life as KDS Detailing from 2023-2026.

For the Koops there was a larger picture behind owning the entire block.

“We knew the chances of selling the outdated hotel was next to impossible as it was needing too many upgrades,” Nancy explains. “So we thought if we bought the entire block, maybe a developer may find it appealing!”.

It was a practical and smart decision and one that will ultimately shape the property’s next chapter. And it did catch the attention of local resident Lorelie Mitchell who offered to purchase the block to transform the block into affordable residential housing.

There is also an interesting irony in the long history of the hotel.

When it first opened its door in 1952, one of the challenges facing hotels in Manitoba was the province’s long history of temperance and the regulations surrounding the sale and serving of liquor.

More than seven decades later, liquor regulations would once again have a significant impact on the business.

For Glenboro, the story had come full circle.

The irony is impossible to miss.

Liquor regulations were part of the landscape when the hotel opened and they remained a factor in September of 2017 when the Koops closed its doors as a hotel and bar. But closing the hotel did not mean the end of the building.

Throughout the years the hotel had been dubbed “The Blue Bar” and when it transformed into a daycare, the name didn’t fade, it was then affectionately named “The Blue Bar Day Care.”

Transforming a bar into a daycare did require a few renovations to be approved as a licenced day care. Nancy also attained a diploma in Early Childhood education. Because it was operating as a private daycare, an ECE 3 accreditation was not required to be a director.

JnK Group Home daycare remained in operation from April of 2018 until May of 2026.

“It was so much fun, an entirely different clientele, but just as entertaining,” she laughed.

“I felt I already knew the kids as I saw many character traits that were passed down from their parents, who I knew from the hotel.”
The change from hotel to daycare may have been unexpected, but for Nancy and her daughter Amanda they knew it was something the community was in desperate need of. And it brought an entirely different connection to the community.

Even though the daycare has now been closed for a couple of months those relationships haven’t disappeared.

Nancy still has many rewarding moments when she is around town and her former clients run up to her arms wide open as they gleefully call her Nana!

When asked about her most fond memory or event when managing the hotel she spoke emotionally about how the community came together for their son Darcy prior to undergoing surgery to his leg amputation.

“We really hadn’t been here that long and the community organized an amazing fundraiser to help out with the medical expenses.”

For Nancy, the memory represented something much bigger than a fundraiser.

It solidified her reasoning in setting up her home and business in Glenboro. It was the same feeling that made her say “Yes” to Glenboro in the first place, “I felt I had found home.”

And now more than 7 decades of serving the community in one form or another, the building itself is preparing to disappear.

The hotel that opened in the 50’s belonged to a different Glenboro. The Blue Bar belonged to another era. JnK Group Home Daycare served another generation.

Now the entire block will be something new.

Affordable housing will bring new homes, new families and new neighbours to the property.

The building will be demolished but nothing can tear down the story and history; a story of changing times, changing businesses, a family willing to take a chance, and a community that welcomed them.

Now that the block has been sold there are no businesses left for the Koops to run.

But they aren’t going anywhere.

Why would they?

This is their home.

What began as a simple “why not?” in 2012 became a new life, a family business, friendships, memories and, ultimately, a place they call home.

The Glenboro Hotel was more than a business.

For 74 years, it was part of the community’s landscape and, for generations of Glenborites, part of their individual story.

The doors have closed, but memories will continue to grow and new ones will begin to take shape on the most north west block of Railway Avenue.

PHOTO CAPTION: A recent photo of the ‘Blue Bar’ in Glenboro that will soon be torn down to make way for a housing complex. PHOTO SUBMITTED