|
 The
story of
Ottawa
’s most prominent luxury hotel is an odd one, in that it begins and
end with one of the ill-fated Titanic’s most illustrious passengers.
Charles Melville Hays, an ambitious Illinois-born railway man, was
fingered at the young age of 17 to be a great entrepreneur in the growth
of the North American Railway system. By 1873, he was employed by the
office of the superintendent of the Missouri Pacific Railway. By 1889,
just beyond the ripe old age of 30, he was the manager of the entire
Wabash Railway system, and with the Grand Trunk Railway funded by
British capital and plagued with problems trying to establish a
transcontinental system through
Canada
, Hays promptly filled a senior position in 1893. By the turn of the
century, citing the profitability of the Chateau Frontenac in
Quebec City
and the Banff Springs Hotel in the Canadian Rockies, Hays sought to
establish great hotels along the ailing railway route. The original
documents planned for seven of them, the largest and most presumptuous
of which was to be erected on the shores of the Rideau in the nation’s
capital, in the spring of 1912. Hays never saw his dreams come to
fruition: two weeks before the Chateau Laurier was to open, his return
boat from
England
struck an iceberg in the
North Atlantic
. In memoriam, the opening was postponed two months in honour of the
tragedy, and on opening day in June, it was the hotel’s namesake,
Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, who was the first to sign the hotel
register.
 Backing
onto the Rideau River and adjacent to Canada’s federal parliament
buildings, the Fairmont Chateau Laurier was exactly what Hays had
envisioned—a world-class hotel, on the railway line, in Canada’s
most influential city. Today, that had never been more true. What began
as a 306-room hotel that was lauded for its indoor plumbing (a rarity in
the 1910s) is today a 459-room landmark destination for visitors to the
nation’s capital. With confidence, dignity, and style, every taste and
discerning requirement is met for guests to Ottawa, and the experience
begins as one arrives at the steps of this majestic limestone structure
boasting the precise and opulent lines of an old French chateau. It was
in 1929 that an expansion to the property, making it ‘U’-shaped
rather than ‘L’-shaped, that gave the Chateau Laurier its stately
symmetry, and brought the magnificent lobby into a central context. The
original bust of Prime Minister Laurier still stands here today, and
opposing views down to the
Rideau Canal
and the open-air Byward Market are the setting for an experience that
few hotels can rival.
Rooms at
the Chateau are nothing short of palatial: ornate furnishings and
textiles fill out each cozy standard room and spacious suite. History
has seen many notable figures actually take up residence in the hotel,
and the hallways are renowned for political stargazing, as figureheads
from parliament can be regularly seen roaming the halls. The list of
famous names in the register is a testament to the hotel—Pierre
Trudeau, Queen Elizabeth, Charles de Gaulle, Winston Churchill, and the
King and Queen of Siam have all taken up residence in the hotel at one
time or another. CBC Radio has run broadcasts from
 its
seventh floor since the 1930s, and Yousuf Karsh, the world-famous
portrait photographer whose shots of the above celebrities grace the
walls of the reading lounge, resides in a sixth floor “studio” for
close to two decades. The appeal may lie in what is today the Fairmont
Gold standard, a private VIP floor offering the ultimate Chateau Laurier
experience. With oversized rooms, private check-in, and complimentary
high-speed Internet access and local calls, the Fairmont Gold standard
makes for an especially pleasing stay.
With so
much to explore downtown, guests often find themselves climbing back up
the slope to the hotel after a long and satisfying meal at one of the
Market’s great restaurants. Today, more than ever, that sojourn is a
welcome option, but far from necessary. The name Wilfrid’s is
by consensus deemed to be one of the city’s finest restaurants by food
and wine critics, and the reasons are immediately clear when one walks
through its doors. With sweeping views of the parliament buildings and
the Rideau locks, the view alone is world-class. The food, Executive
chef Marcel Mundel’s sophisticated twist on authentic regional
Canadian cuisine, is up to par, as the panels for Wine Spectator and
Ottawa City Magazine seem to perennially agree. Zoe’s,
named for Laurier’s wife, is a stylish lounge for guests to relax in
and enjoy their favourite cocktail, be it afternoon tea or a martini to
the sounds of the live nightly entertainment. Timeless, elegant, and
stylish, the Fairmont Laurier retains the same sense of class and
prestige as it has for
Canada
’s most illustrious statesmen over the decades. At the end of a long
line of world-class
Fairmont
hotels along the transcontinental railway line, the Chateau Laurier is a
triumphant welcome home.
Where
to Stay
Fairmont
Chateau Laurier - http://www.fairmont.com/laurier/
- 1 Rideau Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 8S7 - Phone (613)
241-1414 - Fax (613) 562-7030
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