Rennie Hall must be turning over in his grave. Over and over and over and over.
Why? Because ever since the Town named a downtown corner after him, people have been misspelling his first name. It started at least as far back as the Arctic Winter Games in 1994, when Games volunteers repeatedly reported the location of medal presentation ceremonies and other events at ‘Rene Hall Plaza’.
On numerous occasions since, poor Mr. Hall has been called ‘Rene’ on posters, and in brochures, faxes, e-mails and even (horrors!) in newspaper articles. In fact just a couple of weeks ago it appeared that way in a Spotlight story in this very publication.
It’s not that the correct spelling is unavailable. A fine plaque at Rennie Hall Plaza bears the name ‘Thomas Rennie Hall’ along with a bit of information about who he was and why the plaza is dedicated to him.
The Hall family also has close to three pages in the local history book – ‘Pioneers of the Lakeland,’ which is available in the municipal library. It tells the story of Englishman Joseph Hall, who homesteaded near Sawridge in 1910. His fine log house was still standing in the field across Hwy. 2 from the Sawridge Hotel only a few years ago.
Joseph’s wife Elizabeth and their children Rennie, Elizabeth, Herb and Joe arrived from England in 1912. Two years later Mrs. Hall died. Rennie and Elizabeth stayed on the farm helping their father until his death in 1937. The brother and sister continued farming the homestead until 1973.
The Halls were known for keeping a fabulous garden, as well as raising cattle and other crops. In addition to farming, Rennie worked on telegraph line construction, surveying and supplying wood to steamboats on the lake.
Rennie Hall died in 1980 at age 87, having spent 68 years living in Slave Lake.
In 1989, when the Town did a makeover of the downtown area, it established a plaza at the northwest corner of the intersection of Main St. and 3rd Ave., adjacent to the IGA store. Council named it after Rennie Hall, in recognition of land that he had donated to the town for a park. Ever since, people have been mistakenly calling it ‘Rene’ Hall Plaza.

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