THE GRACE SCHMIDT ROOM, KPL (LEFT), AND MATT SMITH (RIGHT)

Rebuilt WR: Where King and Princess Meet

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The space at the corner of King and Princess has held a number of identities – and like most things in this city, those identities usually surrounded beer. From a Crown brewery to one owned by David Kuntz to the host of Lion Brewery beers, the massive brick building, clad with iconic snaking steel steps, eventually became the Ewald Hotel in 1924, and with an ownership switch, the Hotel Kent in 1934. Its current persona, The Huether Hotel (which is now a tri-bar labyrinth rather than an actual hotel), came to be in the late 1980s. Despite the Waterloo fixture’s nearly unchanged appearance, it holds a different meaning to the many generations who’ve walked through the doors.