Château Laurier Hotel

The Château Laurier Hotel is a landmark hotel with 429 guest rooms in Downtown Ottawa, Ontario located near the intersection of Rideau Street and Sussex Drive designed in the French Gothic Châteauesque style to compliment the adjacent Parliament buildings.

Château Laurier was commissioned by Grand Trunk Railway president Charles Melville Hays, and was constructed between 1909 and 1912 in tandem with Ottawa's downtown Union Station (now the Government Conference Centre) across the street. The hotel features original Tiffany stained glass windows and hand-moulded plaster decorations dating back to 1912.

The plans for the hotel initially generated some controversy as the Château was to be constructed on what was then a portion of Major's Hill Park. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, then the Prime Minister of Canada, helped secure the important site for the construction, and the hotel was eventually named in his honour. Laurier's government was also subsidizing the Grand Trunk Railway's Pacific Line. Further conflict ensued when the original architect, Bradford Gilbert, from New York was dismissed due to disagreements with Grand Trunk executives, and the Montreal firm of Ross and Macfarlane was hired to complete the design.

Photo 49, May 2012

Château Laurier Hotel

Photo 140, May 2012