Canadian Pacific hotels
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The Canadian Pacific hotels are a series of hotels across Canada that were originally built by the Canadian Pacific Railway. Today operated under the Fairmont name they remain some of Canada's most exclusive hotels.
The hotels were built next to the cities main train station and were intended to be locations for the elite passengers of CPR trains to stay. The hotels were different in appearance, but granite walls with copper roofs are common elements. Many of them are built to look like European castles. One of the most unique looking is the Chateau Montebello which was for many years the world's largest log building. The Tudor style Algonquin in St. Andrews, New Brunswick also stands out.
The idea for the hotels was introduced by legendary CPR head William Cornelius Van Horne. The original hotels were built in the Rocky Mountains to attract tourists from eastern Canada to the scenery. Soon after hotels were also built in the major metropolitan areas as places for both tourists and business travelers.
The rival Canadian National Railway also built hotels such as the Jasper Park Lodge in Jasper, Alberta and the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa. In 1988 CPR purchased the CN hotels, becoming Canada's largest hotel owner. In the 1990s the CP hotels began to expand into the United States. In 1998, Delta Hotels became a wholly owned subsidiary of CP Hotels. In 1999 the company greatly expanded its international holdings when it purchased the Fairmont Hotel chain and gained control of such famed hotels as The Plaza in New York City. This eventually led to the formation of an independent hotel operations company Fairmont Hotels and Resorts.
A number of the original hotels have been torn down. The CP hotels of Montreal, Vancouver, and St. John's have been torn down. The surviving hotels remain in operation. Many have even become tourist attractions in their own right. The Château Frontenac, in Quebec City, has become the leading symbol of that city.
List of CP hotels
- The Algonquin, St. Andrews, New Brunswick
- Château Frontenac, Quebec City, Quebec, opened 1893
- Chateau Montebello, Montebello, Quebec
- The Queen Elizabeth, Montreal, Quebec, opened 1958
- Royal York, Toronto, Ontario
- Hotel Saskatchewan, Regina, Saskatchewan
- Palliser Hotel, Calgary, Alberta, opened in 1914
- Hotel Macdonald, Edmonton, Alberta, opened in 1915
- Chateau Lake Louise, Lake Louise, Alberta, opened in 1890
- Banff Springs Hotel, Banff, Alberta, opened in 1888
- Mount Stephen House, opened in 1886
- Hotel Vancouver, Vancouver, British Columbia, opened in 1939
- Empress Hotel, Victoria, 1908de:Canadian Pacific Hotels