Hotel Saskatchewan - History

History

A prior attempt at construction of a grand railway hotel, the Chateau Qu'Appelle, failed when the Grand Trunk Railway went bankrupt. The site of the partially constructed Chateau Qu'Appelle—now the site of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum on the corner of Albert Street and College Avenue—remained derelict for some years on the corner of College Avenue and Albert Street till the CPR purchased the disused girders for use in the construction of the Hotel Saskatchewan and the large excavation was finally filled in.

The City of Regina Archives website describes the Hotel Saskatchewan in the following terms:

After the embarrassing fiasco that was the Chateau Qu'Appelle, Regina's aldermen felt that a first-class hotel was needed for the city. They began to lobby the CPR to build an appropriate establishment in order to attract more tourists to the Queen City. The CPR responded in 1927 by building the Hotel Saskatchewan, the fourteenth of the CPR's national chain of hotels. The hotel was built on the site of F.N. Darke's first residence, to the south of Victoria Park. Construction took less than a year and incorporated many of the girders that had stood for so long as the skeleton of Regina 's ill-fated first railroad hotel, the Chateau Qu'Appelle. The building itself was a Modernist Classical design that incorporated the use of Manitoba tyndall stone on the outside façade (the same material used for the façade of the Saskatchewan Legislative Building and the Royal Saskatchewan Museum), as well as brick. The building was as lavish inside as out, featuring vaulted ceilings and marble thresholds. Although construction was an epic undertaking that, at its height, involved a thousand men working shifts 24 hours a day, the results were worth it. The building, like the McCallum Hill Building on the north end of the park, generated its own power and water. The site became a favourite of royalty and political dignitaries alike, and strives to retain its grand reputation - the hotel was once Saskatchewan's only CAA Four Diamond property in international tourist guides. However in 2009, the hotel was demoted to a Three Diamond property, and has yet to regain its previous ranking.

Declared a municipal heritage site in 1993, it is first choice for any member of the Royal Family when staying in Regina, and between 1945 and 1984, was the official residence and office of Saskatchewan's Lieutenant Governor.