The Hopkins Family
Built by a Prairie Pioneer
Edward Nicholas Hopkins came west to Moose Jaw in 1882, when the city was little more than rail line and promise. He became the first secretary of the Moose Jaw Board of Trade, president of the Saskatchewan Grain Growers' Association, a pioneer of soil conservation on the prairies, and eventually a Member of Parliament. In 1905 he built this Classical Revival mansion — brick, bay windows, verandah and all — for his wife Minnie and their three children.
Edward N. Hopkins arrives in Moose Jaw and sets about helping build a young prairie city.
The Hopkins Residence rises at 65 Athabasca Street West — a 2½-storey Classical Revival home with a symmetrical façade, central pediment, wood-dentil cornice, grand verandah and double-storey bay windows.
The Pierce family — Wayne, Gladys and their children — purchase the house from an estate sale and begin a painstaking restoration, changing as little as possible while gathering period antiques from across North America and Europe. A stained glass window travels all the way from Georgia; the spiral staircase is rebuilt; upstairs bedrooms become dining rooms.
Hopkins Dining Parlour opens its doors. Gladys papers the walls herself — wallpaper that greets guests to this day.
The Top of the Parlour dining room opens on the upper floor, followed later by the banquet room — bringing the house to four full levels of dining.
The City of Moose Jaw formally designates the house a Municipal Heritage Property, protecting it for generations to come.
The Parlour's gentle resident ghost — Minnie Hopkins, many believe — earns national fame on an episode of Creepy Canada. Staff still set a kind place for her in their stories.
Forty years of Hopkins. A week of celebration with retro menus priced by era honours four decades of the Pierce family's hospitality.
Under owner Linda Lin, the tradition continues — same house, same warmth, same hand-carved prime rib. In 2024 the street itself was closed for a party celebrating 45 years, with Gladys Pierce and generations of staff and guests in attendance.
