Stan & mae bendera

In 1965, the Ben-Elle Hotel was built by Stan and Mae Bandera who made a significant investment in the future of Whitehorse by creating a 22-room building on the end of Main Street. The hotel was named “Ben” from Stan’s late father’s surname and “Elle” from his mother’s name, May-Ellen,

The Ben-Elle Hotel became a Whitehorse landmark and a venue for many community events.

In the 1980s Stan and Mae undertook an exterior restoration of the historic P. Burns Co. Building. This is one of the oldest buildings remaining in the downtown area.

Pat Burns was an entrepreneur who capitalized on the Klondike Gold Rush by driving cattle to the Yukon. He used the Dalton Trail until the White Pass & Yukon Route rail line was completed in 1900 and then he set up a store on Main Street and a slaughter house by the shipyards. The Burns building is an important piece of the early Whitehorse streetscape.