The Hobbs Residence (AKA: The Flood House, the Mystery House)

The Hobbs Residence, located at 1400 College Avenue, Regina, SK, was constructed in 1912-1913.  The architect that designed this unique art nouveau Prairie School Designed house is unknown, but rumored to be connected to the Frank LLoyd Wright style.   The house was designated to be of heritage value in 1983.  After extensive restoration  by Dr. William George Reginald Hobbs, an artist, doctor, and surgeon who resided in the home for many years.  As a result of his renovations the house received  heritage awards in 1988 for both the interior and exterior restoration. 

The house features art nouveau  arabesque curls around the front windows, wide overhanging eaves with decorative ribs, a flattened horizontal presentation typical of the Prairie School Design, and decorative ornamentation and stylized chimney caps.   The verandah had porte-cochere openings and a carriage way entrance leading to stables that was later converted to a garage, then an artist’s studio loft.  The most notable exterior feature of the scrolled brackets, which were described as “Flemish design”, in the homes original heritage holding bylaw description in 1983. 

The house was originally built as wedding gift for Captain William Flood, son of a prominent family of local land speculators and multiple business owners (including, Flood Land Co., General Builders Co., Regina Grain Co, and Queen City Development Co.).   This grandiose home featured many unique elements including plaster frescos of the marital couple in the dining room and a prairie scenery surrounding the living room above the oak paneled walls.   The Flood family owned multiple residences in Regina and on the site where the General Hospital now stands the Floods had a horse race track that featured a stained glass gazebo designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  The family’s connection to that famous architect has trigger much speculation about who actually designed the Hobbs Residence. 

When a financial calamity hit William Flood’s family, he, his wife, and children absconded from the Hobbs Residence at night in 1916, leaving the house’s staff unpaid and unaware of their departure.   It was for awhile believed the family had suffered an unknown tragedy and the empty house was considered haunted by the missing family.    From this time forward the house was informally called the “Mystery House”.

As the house had been abandoned, the Province to ownership of it and eventually repurposed it as “The Military Command Headquarters for Saskatchewan’s Armed Forces”.  It is said the balcony was used to view the landings and takeoffs of the Royal Canadian Air Force training school temporarily located across the street at the Regina College Building during WWII. 

In 1951  the house was restored by the City of Regina and named as an official residence of King George VI, who never had the occasion to visit the city. In the King’s stead Princess Elizabeth and The Duke of Edinburgh did visit, but stayed at the Hotel Saskatchewan.  Until 1972 the house was considered property of HRM. 

In the 1970s the then very dilapidated house was home to a commune that ran an unlicensed restaurant, photography studio, and daycare from the house.  The daycare and photography studio continued until the 1980s just prior to its purchase by Dr. Hobbs, who found the house in a sorry state of repair with bizzarilly painted primary coloured interior walls and a locked basement room entirely filled with dirt.   

The dirt room was thought to contain the remains of the lost Flood family. When the basement room was excavated 1988 and no bones of the Flood family were discovered, research revealed that family had simply secretly relocated to Victoria, BC  to avoid their creditors in Saskatchewan.  This news significantly disappointed local ghost tour promoters who were interested in elevating the the so-called Mystery House to one of Canada’s most legendary  haunted homes.