By: Kristy von Moos
Ingenium - Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation
The Canadian Railway Hotels
4 m
Apr 19, 2018
Categories
Media
Photo Credit
Postcard of the Banff Springs Hotel, featuring the Canadian Rockies, Canadian Pacific Railway Co.
This text has been adapted from the Picturing the Past website, developed by the Canada Science and Technology Museum in 2006.
In addition to building the rail system across the country, Canada’s two national railway companies (Canadian National Railways and the Canadian Pacific Railway) built a string of grand hotels in the major cities and resort areas of the nation.
Photo Credit
Ingenium Archives, CN Collection, X-39539
Jasper Lodge Lounge, Alberta, 1954.
Many of these are still operating today, and their styles reflect the ideal of grandiose elegance marketed to potential travelers. In their time, they were among the leading hotels in the world, and set the standards for what a grand hotel “should be” in the eyes of visitors.
Photo Credit
The Chateau Frontenac, Quebec City, 1957
Some of these structures have defined cities—try to imagine the skyline of Quebec City without the remarkable outline of the Chateau Frontenac. In many areas, the hotel was the predominant building in terms of its architectural grandeur, overall size and central location. In resort areas, such as Banff and Jasper in the Rockies, Minaki in northern Ontario and Montebello in western Quebec, the hotel became the center of all subsequent local development and the raison d’etre for the community. The railways and their hotel systems were key to the establishment of the tourism industry and its contribution to the modern Canadian economy.
Photo Credit
Ingenium Archives, CN Collection, CN006840
Roundhouse at the railway yard with the Royal York Hotel in the background, as seen from the waterfront. Toronto, ON, 1933
The centrepiece of the whole system was Toronto’s Royal York Hotel. Canadian Pacific Railway starting building it in 1927 and, when it opened in 1929, it was the tallest building in the Commonwealth. The Royal York became known as a city within a city. It stood twenty-eight floors high, and this architectural achievement was outfitted with mechanical genius and opulence never before seen in Toronto. It boasted 1048 rooms—each with a radio, private shower and bathtub.
Royal York also included a twelve-bed hospital, a 12,000-book library and ten ornate passenger elevators. The Concert Hall featured a full stage and a mammoth pipe organ that weighed 45,000 kg (and incorporated 480 km of copper wire), which surpassed anything else in Canada. There was a glass-enclosed roof garden, the largest hotel kitchen in Canada (the bakery could produce more than 15,000 French rolls a day), a twenty-meter-long switchboard staffed by thirty-five telephone operators, a bank, and a golf course (now known as St George Golf & Country).
Other grand hotels built by the railways are featured in the slideshow below. All of these are still operating today and most have been painstakingly restored to reflect their original elegance.
The hotels are documented in a number of Ingenium's archival holdings, including the Canadian National Railway and Mattingly photo collections. Visit our new Digital Archives portal for more photographs.
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The Nova Scotian Hotel, Halifax, NS, 1953
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Entrance to the Nova Scotian Hotel, Halifax, NS, 1937
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Rose Garden at the Nova Scotian Hotel, Halifax, NS, 1937
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Chef at Nova Scotian Hotel, Eddie Gebistorf, preparing a lobster dish. Halifax, NS, 1953
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Charlottetown Hotel (exterior shot), on July 15, 1960
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View on the veranda, Hotel Charlottetown, PEI, 1941
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Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh at the Charlottetown Hotel during their coast-to-cost tour of Canada. Charlottetown, PEI, 1950
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Exterior of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal, QQ, July 24, 1959
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"Les Voyageurs" Bar at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal, QC, around 1960
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Chateau Laurier, Ottawa, ON, 1953
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Chateau Laurier bakery, Ottawa, ON, 1945
Photo Credit
Ingenium Archives, CN Collection, X-45414
Swimming pool - Chateau Laurier Hotel. Ottawa, ON, around 1960
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Fort Garry Hotel, Winnipeg, MB, no date
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Cocktail lounge at the Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg, MB, 1957
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Exterior view of the Bessborough Hotel, Saskatoon, SK, no date
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Prairie Room cocktail bar, Bessborough Hotel, Saskatoon, SK, June 20, 1966
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Macdonald Hotel, Edmonton, AB, 1940
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View of Edmonton from the Crown Suite at the Macdonald Hotel, Edmonton, AB, 1953
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Guests on Beauvert Avenue at Jasper Park Lodge, Jasper, AB, 1947
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Bathing party at the swimming pool, Jasper Park Lodge, Jasper, AB, 1940
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Golfing at Jasper, with onlooker, Jasper, AB, 1952
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Hotel Vancouver, Vancouver, BC, 1946
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A double bedded studio room with screen, Hotel Vancouver, Vancouver, BC, October 1965
Kristy von Moos
Kristy von Moos is the Digital Content Officer at Ingenium. Kristy has a BA in History and Philosophy from St. Thomas University, and an MA in Public History from Carleton University. She has worked with cultural media, research, and virtual exhibit companies, and enjoys bringing history, education, and technology together.
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