Banff Springs Hotel

The Banff Springs Hotel is a luxury hotel that was built during the nineteenth century as one of Canada's grand railway hotels, being constructed in Scottish Baronial style and located in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. The hotel was opened to the public on June 1, 1888. Presently, the hotel is owned and operated by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts and is called, Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel.

The original building was designed by American architect, Bruce Price. It was built between the Spring of 1887 and that of 1888 by the Canadian Pacific Railway at the instigation of its president, William Cornelius Van Horne.

The hotel is located within a spectacular setting in the Rocky Mountains, just above the Bow Falls, close to thermal springs. The main view from the hotel is across the valley and toward Mount Rundle, which frequently is cited in geology books for its exposed and tilted ancient seabeds. The hotel is within walking distance of the resort community of Banff.

Starting in 1911, a wholly new structure was built in stages to replace the 1888 hotel. Price's Shingle style-influenced wooden structure would be replaced with a new building of concrete and faced with stone. The new building was designed by another American architect, Walter S. Painter.

Halfway up the internal staircase closest to the Bow Falls may be found a noted painting of William Davidson felling trees on the Miramichi River during colonial times. Davidson, who had grown up in Moray, close to Banff, Scotland, was the first European settler in that area of Canada. The name born by the Canadian city and the national park is derived from his native country. The painting of the pioneer is by the war artist, Cyrus Cunoe (1879-1916), who executed a series of paintings for the Canadian Pacific Railway.