Canadian Pacific Hotels - History

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 in the Fraser Canyon, Sicamous on Shuswap Lake and in Revelstoke. Some of the lesser 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), although Glacier House and the Sicamous Hotel were destination hotels in their own right. All 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's main passenger service to the Southern Mainline left it considerably removed from the beaten track, and this resort too ceased to operate. Other smaller hotels were operated in the Kootenays region south of the mainline, notably at Balfour where Balfour House was a lodging for ferry passengers connecting across Kootenay Lake, which was an integral part of service on the Southern Mainline.

In 1886 Van Horne built Fraser Canyon House in North Bend (part of Boston Bar), and locally called in its day the CPR Hotel. Later renamed the North Bend Hotel, the original burned down in 1927, with a second hotel built in 1929 but no longer extant.

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-storey 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.

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 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 favourite 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 1960s 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 1960s, however, this well-known Canadian landmark was instead renovated and refurbished and has since undergone further restoration to its original, pre-war elegance.

The Palliser Hotel 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 neighbouring province of Saskatchewan, the company opened its Hotel Saskatchewan at Regina, which soon became a favourite 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 tourism success of the CPR's subsidiary in Nova Scotia, the Dominion Atlantic Railway, led the CPR to invest in a series of Nova Scotian Hotels. The CPR was the lead investor in the Lord Nelson Hotel built in Halifax in 1927 to rival Canadian National's Hotel Nova Scotian. Next came the construction in 1929 of the new, baronial style Cornwallis Inn at Kentville, Nova Scotia in the Annapolis Valley and the rebuilding of the Digby Pines Hotel at Digby. The Nova Scotian chain was completed in June 1931 with the new rustic Lakeside Inn resort at Yarmouth.