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A long-standing Winnipeg hotel has reconnected with a piece of its history, after an Alberta-based antiques dealer stumbled upon a cash register made for the business more than a century ago.
The register, built by National Cash Register Company in 1907, is engraved with the name of the Northern Hotel and was once a critical part of the Main Street establishment’s daily operations.
“It’s kind of neat. It’s all mechanical — and the fact that it still works, a lot of it is just a testament to the craftsmanship that they did 120 years ago,” said hotel owner Keith Horn.
“It’s a piece of history.”
Horn purchased the register in late July from Franz Giesen, co-owner of Frantic4tiques — an online business based in Mannville, Alta., east of Edmonton.
Giesen said he spotted the cash register for sale on Facebook Marketplace and made the nearly 1,200-kilometre drive from Mannville to Winnipeg to collect it.
“I thought on the way in, I’m like, how cool would it be if I was able to reconnect this cash register with the owner of the Northern Hotel? So then, when I got to the city, I made the phone call,” Giesen said.
Horn said he was initially skeptical about buying the antique, but came around to the idea after learning more about it.
Giesen used a serial number stamped on the register to determine when it was built. He believes the machine, which is covered in embellishments, was cast in metal.
It weighs more than nine kilograms and still makes a satisfying ring when punching in the numbers, which range in value from five cents to $10.
“Just wondering what, back in 1907, was $10, when rooms back then [only cost] up to $2,” Horn said, smiling.
“I guess they were very hopeful.”
This particular model included specialty buttons that allowed the hotel to track how many meals or cigars it sold, and was capable of keeping a running total of the day’s earnings.
While the exact history of the cash register is murky, but it’s nearly as old as the hotel itself, which was built in 1906. Giesen learned the register wound up in the care of a former radio repair shop a short distance from the Northern Hotel sometime in the 1950s.
It was then inherited by the daughter of the radio shop owner, who kept it in her basement until he bought it from her, said Giesen.
“Everything from back then is just out of this world, right? Things were made to last, nothing was made to be tossed away. There is a reason why these things still exist,” he said.
Horn said he plans to clean the register, and then put it on display inside the Northern Hotel.
Built in 1906, the Northern Hotel has long been a gathering spot for colourful characters and weary travellers. Now, after more than a century serving up food, drinks and shelter, the local haunt has reconnected with a piece of its history: a 120-year-old cash register.
