Canadian Pacific hotels

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Banff Springs Hotel, October, 1929
Banff Springs Hotel, October, 1929

Canadian Pacific Hotels was a division of Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) that operated a series of hotels across Canada. Most of these resort hotels were originally built and operated by the railway's Hotel Department, while a few were acquired from Canadian National Hotels. Today they are operated under the Fairmont name, they remain some of Canada's most exclusive hotels.

CPR built two types of hotels:

  • Urban hotels, which were located near a city's major passenger station and were intended for use by elite passengers of CPR trains. These hotels served businesspeople and visitors to the respective city, as well as passengers requiring overnight accommodation between connecting trains.
  • Rural resorts, which were located in areas served by CPR which had unique scenery, allowing these properties to be marketed as destinations for passenger train travellers.

The hotels were architecturally different in appearance, but materials such as granite walls and copper roofs were common elements. Many of these structures were constructed to look somewhat similar to European castles. One of the unique CPR hotels is the Chateau Montebello which was for many years the world's largest log building. The Tudor style Algonquin in St. Andrews, New Brunswick also stands out as it was one of the few CP hotels which was not constructed by CPR itself.

The original hotels were built in the Rocky Mountains to attract tourists from eastern Canada, incorporating local attractions such as exceptional scenery and therapeutic mineral hot springs.

Contents

[edit] History

The CPR had constructed smaller hotels in 1886 to accommodate travellers, including: Glacier House in Glacier in the Rogers Pass, Mount Stephen Hotel in Field, B.C. in the Kicking Horse Pass, as well as at North Bend and in Revelstoke. These four pioneer hostelries were designed primarily to provide meal service for passengers in the Rocky Mountains where railway grades were too severe to justify the operation of Dining cars (see the Big Hill). All four establishments operated successfully for a number of years, but were abandoned as hotels, when through dining car service made their maintenance unprofitable. Glacier House, attracted considerable alpine patronage till diversion of the railway left it considerably removed from the beaten track, and this resort too ceased to operate.

CPR's Hotel Department for the operation of tourist accommodation began with the opening of the Hotel Vancouver on May 16, 1888, this was the first of three railway owned hotels by that name in Vancouver. Two weeks later, the Banff Springs Hotel was officially opened on June 1, 1888. Newly appointed CPR president William Cornelius Van Horne had personally chosen the site in the Rocky Mountains for the new hotel, and he envisioned a string of grand hotels across Canada that would draw visitors from abroad to his railway.

The original Banff Springs Hotel though much smaller than the present hotel, became such an immediate hit among tourists of the 1880s, the CPR encouraged the federal government to establish Canada's first national park in the territory surrounding it; eventually leading to a network of national parks across the nation. Hotels in major metropolitan areas served by CPR soon followed and these were intended for use by both tourists and business travellers.

The Chateau Lake Louise opened in 1890 as a single story building of log construction, was also popular for tourists. Subsequent additions were made to it in 1893, 1900, 1906, 1911, 1913, 1924 and reconstruction in 1925. Additions to the Banff Springs Hotel were completed in 1911, 1914, 1926 and 1928, necessitated by the growing volume of tourist traffic.

In addition to hotels, the CPR also operated five Bungalow Camps across the country as well, it owned operated or leased a number of camps, tea houses and chalets in remote sections of the Rockies served by Canadian Pacific lines. These include Emerald Lake Chalet and Yoho Valley Lodge, Field; Lake O'Hara and Lake Wapta Lodges at Hector and Moraine Lake Lodge at Lake Louise. Tea Houses were located at Twin Falls, Plain of the Six Glaciers, and Lake Agnes, near Lake Louise. The Balfour Hotel in Balfour on Kootenay Lake was also apparently owned by CPR.

Château Frontenac in Québec
Château Frontenac in Québec

First of the Company's eastern hotels, the Château Frontenac was opened at Quebec City on December 11, 1893, while subsequent additions in 1904, 1906, 1916 and 1923, which included the great central tower, made it one of the finest hotels in eastern Canada. It was further improved in 1926.

The turreted Place Viger Hotel, now one of Montreal's familiar landmarks, was the city's leading hostelry for many years. Erected in 1898, the hotel and its adjacent terminals catered to a large section of the travelling public till 1935 when the hotel ceased to operate.

For the next Canadian Pacific hotel development the spotlight shifts westward again, when the small hotel at Sicamous, British Columbia was opened in 1900. Ovelooking Shuswap Lake, the Hotel Sicamous was a great favorite with the visiting tourist. Once owned and operated by the CPR, operation in its later years, was under lease. The hotel was demolished in 1964.

In 1901 the McAdam Hotel one of the CPR's smaller hotels was opened at McAdam, New Brunswick, gateway to St. Andrews-by-the-Sea and other popular vacation resorts. The following year saw the opening of the Emerald Lake Chalet, near Field, British Columbia. Its proximity to Banff and Lake Louise further enhanced its popularity in the Rocky Mountain vacation Picture. In 1903 The Algonquin hotel at St. Andrews was taken over by the CPR.

Next link on the CPR hotel chain appeared in Winnipeg, when the Royal Alexandra Hotel was completed in 1906. Substantial additions were made in 1914 on this popular prairie hostelry, the largest CPR hotel between Toronto and Calgary. The hotel was connected directly to the railway station, and enjoyed a lavish career for many years. However, by the mid 1960's with the increasing dominance of the airlines, and the hotel's physical location, the number of guests had decreased significantly. The Royal Alexandra closed in December 1967, and was demolished in 1971.

The Empress Hotel, the CPR's world-famous hostelry at Victoria, British Columbia, was erected two years later and officially opened on January 20, 1908. Additional wings have since been added, the latest in 1929. Like the Royal Alexandra, the Empress was also a candidate for demolition in the mid 1960's, however, this well known Canadian landmark was instead renovated and refurbished and has since undergone further restoration to its original, pre-war elegance.

The Hotel Palliser at Calgary joined the CPR hotel family in 1914 when it was opened to the public. This handsome and well-appointed hostelry near the Rocky Mountain Foothills, was enlarged in 1929. In 1927, in the neighboring province of Saskatchewan, the company opened its Hotel Saskatchewan at Regina, which soon became a favorite stopping-place for visitors to the Queen City of the West.

The Royal York Hotel, once billed as the largest hotel in the British Empire and one of the finest on the continent, opened its doors on June 11, 1929. A well known landmark on the Toronto skyline, one of its attractions was said to be its spectacular view overlooking the vast expanse of Lake Ontario, seems to have been lost to the recent condominium development of Harbourfront.

The year 1930 saw the opening of the Cornwallis Inn at Kentville, Nova Scotia, in the Annapolis Valley, and the following year the rebuilding of the new Pines Hotel at Digby. The attractive Lakeside Inn at Yarmouth on Nova Scotia's southern tip, opened in June, 1931.

[edit] Final Expansion

CPR's rival Grand Trunk Railway and later Canadian National Railway copied Van Horne's approach by building hotels such as the Jasper Park Lodge in Jasper, Alberta and the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa. CPR purchased CN's hotel chain in 1988, making Canadian Pacific Hotels and Resorts (CP Hotels) the nation's largest hotel owner. In the 1990s, CP Hotels began to expand into the United States, purchasing Delta Hotels in 1998, which became a wholly owned subsidiary of CP Hotels. The following year in 1999 the company underwent a significant expansion in its international holdings when it purchased the San Francisco-based Fairmont Hotel chain, gaining control of famed hotels as The Plaza in New York City.

In 2001, parent Canadian Pacific Limited underwent a reorganization and renamed its Canadian Pacific Hotels and Resorts subsidiary as Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, borrowing the name of the company it had purchased in 1999. The newly organized Fairmont company shuffled several properties to its Delta subsidiary, while maintaining many original "signature" resorts and hotels from Fairmont and CP Hotels under the new Fairmont banner. Later that year in October 2001, Canadian Pacific Limited spun off all of its subsidiary companies into separately traded "independent" companies, including Canadian Pacific Railway and Fairmont Hotels and Resorts.

A number of original urban hotels that had been built by CPR have been torn down in recent decades as the structures have outlived their usefulness. CPR's hotels in Montreal, Vancouver, and St. John's have been demolished and replaced by more modern Delta and/or Fairmont properties, however all remaining urban hotels and rural resorts remain in operation Many have even become tourist attractions in their own right. The Château Frontenac, in Quebec City, has become the leading symbol of that city and the Banff Springs Hotel remains the focal point for the town and national park it spawned.

On 30 January 2006, Fairmont agreed to be acquired by a venture of Kingdom Hotels International and Colony Capital, which will combine it with the Raffles and Swissotel chains.

[edit] List of CP hotels

[edit] Former CN hotels purchased in 1988

[edit] External links

[edit] Sources

  • Canadian Pacific Facts and Figures, published 1946 by Canadian Pacific Railway Company
v • d • e
Canada's grand railway hotels
City hotels The Empress • Hotel Vancouver • Hotel Macdonald • Palliser Hotel • Hotel Bessborough • Hotel Saskatchewan • Fort Garry Hotel • Royal York • Château Laurier • Queen Elizabeth Hotel • Windsor Hotel • Place Viger • Château Frontenac • Hotel Nova Scotian • Lord Nelson Hotel • Hotel Charlottetown • Hotel Newfoundland
Resort hotels Jasper Park Lodge • Château Lake Louise • Banff Springs Hotel • Prince of Wales Hotel • Château Montebello • The Algonquin
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