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The Leland Hotel was not the first hotel in Nakusp but in 2008, it will share with the town, a 116th birthday. It is possibly the oldest wooden hotel in the province. By 1892, mining and prospecting had been going on the area for several years and the Canadian Pacific Railway was planning to build a line from Nakusp to Three Forks. The Nakusp House (later the Madden House and then the Grand hotel), built in 1892, was the first hotel in Nakusp but it burned to the ground in 1925. The Leland hotel, opened later in 1892 as the Rathwell house, however, has survived though many changes of ownership. Mr. Rathwell who built leased it to Grant Thorburn and Harry Phair, who changed its name to the Leland hotel. Rathwell, however, soon sold it for $1,000 to D. Alan and Ellen McDougald, Californians who had been lured to British Columbia by the prospecting opportunities in the Kootenays. The McDougald's soon became involved in many of the town's activities but Alan died from tuberculosis in 1895, leaving Ellen with three children and the need to make a living. She did well. On July 24,1897, the Sandon Paystreak reported, "The Leland hotel will have 50 plastered rooms when the addition, now under construction, is thrown open. Mrs. [Ellen] McDougald, the proprietor of this well known hotel, is to be congratulated for the able and energetic manner in which she has built up one of the largest hotels in all the Kootenays." The addition was a three-storey structure on the west side of the building. The Leland was fortress-like in appearance made up of three separate segments that were nevertheless quite attractive. The roofline displayed numerous inverted Vs. Dormers were added to the original building while bay windows were built in the two newer sections. A balcony in front of the dormers allowed customers to view the spectacular scenery and busy harbour.