After more than 100 years as a local watering hole, the Sutherland Bar on Central Avenue is closing.

Owner Trevor Mawson says Rayner Agencies purchased the building and will be converting it to office space. The bar's last day will be Oct. 30.

Mawson said it's hard to find information about exactly when the hotel was built but he has a picture of the building from 1911.

"It's been there since before 1910 as far as I can tell…. It's always been the Sutherland Hotel, and back in the day, hotels always had a pub or a bar in them, so it's been the Sutherland Bar going back to then except for prohibition."

'I'm sad about it'

Mawson's family purchased the building in 1982. His first day on the job was in 1986. He even met his wife there.

"I'm sad about it…. You've walked into the same building for 32 years, and all of a sudden you won't be."

The crowd was more mixed in the '60s and '70s, with CP rail workers, professors, and students coming to the bar but through the '80s and beyond it became known as the place for students and younger crowds.

In the '80s, Mawson said they hosted classic bands like the Tragically Hip, Lee Aaron, Alannah Myles, Streetheart and Haywire.

Rayner Agencies has purchased the Sutherland Bar and will be converting the building to office space. (Sutherland Bar/Facebook)

A beach volleyball league started in 1988, and he said there are teams that have been there since the beginning.

Mawson is a business owner in the city, running Mawson Fitness and Mawson Properties, and he said selling the bar is a personal decision.

"The bar is a lot of work, a lot of employees. It's a 24/7 kind of thing. So it's good to get out of it."

Attitudes toward drinking have also been changing, he said, with fewer people planning their nights around going to bars. In recent years, the bar has switched to hosting more steak night fundraisers.