Susanna McLeod
Special to Ontario Construction News
The view was spectacular, and a building of equal stature was necessary for Canada’s national capital. The property was on the hill overlooking the Ottawa River, Rideau Canal locks, and regal Parliament Buildings. In 1908, the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) commissioned Montreal architects Ross & McDonald to design a hotel fit for Canada’s elite. Guests were warmly welcomed to the Château Laurier Hotel in 1912, but first, operational concerns of contract termination, plagiarism, and financial settlement had to be addressed.
The first of the firm’s magnificent hotel chain was launched in 1907 by the American GTR manager Charles Melville Hays. He initially contracted renowned railroad station architect Bradford Lee Gilbert of New York to plan Ottawa’s hotel, with specific ideas. “The architecture was deliberately chosen to complement the Gothic Revival style of Canada’s legislative buildings,” said The Historical Society of Ottawa (THSO) in “Ottawa’s Castle.”
Gilbert produced plans in French chateau style, but something went wrong. Hays fired Gilbert and hired Montreal architectural firm Ross & McFarlane to create new plans. Designs submitted by George Ross and David McFarlane were strikingly similar to Gilbert’s and this did not go well. Suing the GTR in 1908, Gilbert “received $20,000 (close to $500,000 in today’s money) in an out-of-court settlement,” THSO stated. Appearing ethically sketchy, the Montreal firm suffered no loss of prestige, and proved that Canadian firms could successfully compete with American architects
Ross & McFarlane were also commissioned to draw plans for Union Station near the hotel, with the project built between 1909 and 1912. The firm’s partnership was severed at the end of 1912 on departure of McFarlane, stated Ross & Macdonald Fonds at Canadian Centre for Architecture; in January 1913, Australian/Canadian architect Robert Henry was promoted to partner from his position as senior draftsman. The firm became Ross & Macdonald, and continued the upward trend of architectural excellence.
Reminiscent of European castles, the hotel design included towers with tall, conical turrets. Intricate crocketed gables were carved with flowers, crests, and scrollwork. New copper cladding covered the steep roof. Château Laurier was “constructed using pale, Indiana limestone,” suggesting its relationship to the city’s nearby Union Station, said “Château Laurier National Historic Site of Canada” at Parks Canada’s Designations of National Historic Significance.
The design’s symmetrical front façade is “defined by two octagonal pavilions, vertically accented by a strip of oriel windows,” and features “a delicate corner tower, inset deep into the wall.” The elegant stonework entrance impressed upper-class arrivals with its dramatic open-arched loggia. The railway manager budgeted $1.5 million for the expansive Château Laurier hotel, named in honour of sitting Prime Minister, Robert Laurier.
Scheduled for Victoria Day, May 24, 1912, the hotel’s grand opening ceremony was abruptly delayed. GTR manager Charles Hays and his family were returning from England for the exciting event, sailing aboard the RMS Titanic. He also was bringing furniture and decorations, selected in London for the new hotel. Hays, his son-in-law, his secretary, and the furniture did not survive the iceberg ramming into Titanic. (His wife and daughter survived.) “Hays’s body was subsequently recovered, and was buried in the Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal,” mentioned THSO.
A week later, the introduction of Château Laurier Hotel was celebrated on June 1, 1912, along with Union Station’s grand opening enhancing the romance of rail travel. Newspaper reporters praised the hotel as “a masterpiece,” with “its lobby of Belgian marble, and its windows by Tiffany.” Main floor public rooms were decorated individually, in Flemish style, Renaissance style, with oak wainscotting augmenting the waiting room. “As well as being beautiful, the hotel had all the modern comforts of the time, with electricity, and a state-of-the art kitchen and refrigeration plant,” described THSO.
Rare for the time, “155 of the hotel’s 350 bedrooms had private baths,” while the remainder had washstands with hot and cold running water. Rates at Château Laurier Hotel started at $2 a night.
“The Château also became the watering hole of choice for MPs and senators,” said THSO, “so much so that it became known as the ‘third chamber of Parliament’—and not necessarily the least important being the location of many smoke-filled, back-room, political deals.”
An east wing addition was constructed in 1929, designed by architects John Archibald and John Schofield at a cost of $6 million. A modern kitchen, music room, ballroom and more were built, along with 240 additional guest rooms. Architect Edwin Holgate designed the hotel’s Jasper Tea Room, decorated with aboriginal art, columns transformed into Totem poles, and a dance floor with space for a dance band. (Historic Hotels Worldwide
Renovated over the decades, the glamourous Château Laurier Hotel was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1981. Now the Fairmont Château Laurier, room rates for the Canadian architectural masterwork are, well, somewhat pricier than a century ago.
Susanna McLeod is a Kingston-based writer specializing in Canadian history.
