Ottawa's railway gift that keeps on giving: the Chateau

This post is the second in a rail history series I intend to extend through 2017 as we celebrate Canada's 150th birthday.

I was thinking about my attempt to chronicle the history of railways in the Ottawa Valley this year as part of my Canada 150 project when it occurred to me that I was missing perhaps the most obvious piece of railway history in Ottawa: The Chateau Laurier Hotel.

Anyone who has visited Ottawa knows about this iconic hotel. It was built by the Grand Trunk Railway across Rideau Street from Ottawa's Union Station. The Chateau was meant to rival the hotels built by GTR rival Canadian Pacific. It was also meant to be the official hotel of government leaders and visiting dignitaries. Today, it remains the city's most prestigious hotel and continues to host tourists from all over the world and any number of world leaders.

To read about Ottawa's Union Station click here.
To read about my first Canada 150 post, click here.

I thought I'd share a few interesting tidbits about this hotel, which truly does epitomize the golden age of passenger rail in Canada. Let's begin with this shot, which is one of the photographs that is posted in the main lobby of the hotel.

Note the passenger train passing beneath Rideau Street and the boats on the Rideau Canal in this photo

The Chateau, seen here shortly after opening, was meant to serve that railway axiom "If we can't export the scenery, we'll import the tourists." That was a quote from William Van Horne of the Canadian Pacific, but you get the idea. The hotel wasn't nearly as big as it is now but it was an impressive structure in rough-and-tumble Ottawa in the early 1900s. It was the first hotel of this quality in the capital.

The hotel is still connected beneath Rideau Street by a tunnel. The tunnel is now off limits, although I would imagine it may still be used by delegates attending conferences at the Government Conference Centre, as Union Station has been known for years.

You can see the triple tracks on the edge of the hotel in this shot. The rails are long gone, but a service road is still in place, which uses part of the old right-of-way

Here's another fun fact. The hotel is one of the few that has been owned by all three of Canada's transcontinental railways. The hotel was originally built by the Grand Trunk, but was then brought under the control of the Canadian National when the CNR absorbed the Grand Trunk in 1923. The railway at one point had the CN wet noodle logo on its entrance lettering. In 1988, the hotel was sold to the Canadian Pacific hotel subsidiary. When CP began to divest itself of everything but its railway operations, the hotel became part of the Fairmont chain.

The construction of the hotel wasn't immune to politics, as is the case with just about everything in Ottawa. There was some serious opposition to a hotel being built on a piece of Majors Hill Park, but the hotel was nonetheless built, thanks to the help of Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier. It likely didn't hurt that the government had already subsidized the Grand Trunk's Pacific extension, so a little further help in getting this hotel build doesn't seem like much of a stretch.

Even before the hotel was opened, there was a question about what it would be called. Charles Melville Hays, the head of the Grand Trunk, wanted to call the hotel the Chateau Laurier, after the Prime Minister, although Mr. Laurier was reluctant to have the hotel bear his name. There was a suggestion that the hotel be called Majors Hill Hotel, after the park that it backs onto, but the Chateau Laurier name was eventually picked. You can read the letter that Hays wrote to Prime Minister Laurier in the lobby of the hotel. I'm not sure how comfortable Mr. Laurier would have been to have received such an honour, especially since he was still alive. It seems like an honour one would bestow on the deceased.

This is a shot of the beginning of construction from 1909

When the hotel and railway station were officially opened in June 1912, there was very little fanfare. The reason for the subdued affair was because Mr. Hays, who had led efforts to build the hotel, died on his way back to Ottawa aboard RMS Titanic.

The tragedy of his death still resonates in the city, since it is widely known that Mr. Hays still roams the halls of the hotel. Numerous guests and hotel employees have reported meeting the spirit of Mr. Hays, who is often described as a friendly spirit.

The chateau-style construction is similar to the style that was employed for many other railway hotels, including the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City and the Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, to name but a few.

This Canadian style of construction has become Canada's calling card throughout the world in many respects. For example, visit the Canada pavilion at Disney World's Epcot theme park in Florida and you will see a scaled down recreation of the Chateau Laurier.

Please excuse the reflection of my hands in some of the shots. I snapped a few quick shots of the historic photos on the walls of the hotel earlier this week. The lighting was not terribly easy to work with, considering I was armed only with an iPhone.

I like this last photo more than any other in the hotel. It looks like those ladies are having a great time at the end of that train!

A sneak peak inside Ottawa's old Union Station

It's called the Government Conference Centre and as the ridiculously boring name suggests, it hosts federal government conferences. The building is off limits to the public for all but two days a year, which is a shame considering what an enduring beauty this building is. Those who know Ottawa's history know the Government Conference Centre as the old Union Station, once Ottawa's showpiece train station. The old building is unmistakable right in the heart of the capital, beside the Rideau Canal, just east of the National War Memorial, steps from Parliament Hill and across the street from its from its former railway colleague, the Château Laurier.

                          The former Ottawa Union Station still looks the part on its west side,
                          although its former rooftop dome and eastern facade have been ruined by 
                          poor renovation decisions made in the 1960s.

The history of the old station dates back to the early 1900s, when the Grand Trunk began construction of the building after the railway received a charter from the city to build a unified station for each railway. It was intended to be a passenger depot for all railways serving Ottawa, including the Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, the Grand Trunk and the New York Central, although not all railways used the station at first. The station opened for business in 1912 on the same day that its railway counterpart, the Château Laurier, opened across the street. Both buildings opened with little fanfare, since the Grand Trunk's president, Charles Melville Hays, died aboard the Titantic a few months before the buildings were complete. Hays was the visionary behind the buildings. As I mentioned in a previous post, it is widely speculated in Ottawa that the spirit of Mr. Hays haunts the Chateau Laurier.

The station saw its last train in July of 1966 when the city removed the last of its rail network from the central portion of the city, as part of an urban renewal plan. The station was in danger of being torn down until heritage activists fought to preserve it. The building then became an exhibition hall for Canada's centennial before sitting vacant for year until it became the conference centre.

A number of plans have been floated about to bring the building back into public use, including an attempt to locate Canada's Sports Hall of Fame there and another attempt to convert it into a political museum.

Nothing has happened and it continues to be off limits to the public with the exception of the two days a year when it is opened for Doors Open Ottawa.

This is the best part of the station (below) the so-called Waiting Room, which was inspired by the ancient Roman Baths of Caracalla.

This is the window facing east. You will notice at the bottom of the photo some ominous looking windows. These are translation booths that are used for government meetings. The Waiting Room has a few of these booths, which serve as an odd juxtaposition to the classical architecture. Imagine waiting for your train here when this place was actually a station.

The old station clock (left) no longer works. If you walked under the clock out of the Waiting Room, you would have been headed to the old freight sheds, as they were called. These sheds were on the south side of the station, lined against the Rideau Canal. When the tracks were all pulled up, including the main track that once lined the east side of the canal, a scenic parkway, Colonel By Drive, was created.

Underneath Rideau Street, a beautiful tunnel was constructed to allow passengers to walk to the Château Laurier Hotel (see below). The tunnel wasn't opened for the event, sadly.

 The tunnel has been beautifully preserved, complete with wooden benches that would have fit right in with the aesthetics of the original station in 1912. At the end of this portion of the tunnel, where you see those brown double doors, there is a brass nameplate that reads Château Laurier.

If you go to the Laurier, you will see a copy of a letter from Charles Melville Hays to Laurier, assuring him that the hotel that bears his name will be a proper tribute to the former prime minister.

Those who know Ottawa's history know that Laurier was more than a little uneasy about plans to name a hotel after him. However, he allowed it to happen and the rest is history.


Looking across the street from the station, you can see a gravel pathway (bottom right of photo) that was the former right-of-way that led to the Alexandria Bridge that carried trains over the Ottawa River to Hull and then on to Montreal. You can also see the train shed that is now part of the Chateau Laurier's parking lot on the bottom right as well. Those locks are the Bytown Locks, the beginning of the Rideau Canal.

When you first enter the railway station, this is what you see, looking up. The concrete above the entrance used to read Union Station.

There are plenty of reminders of the old station's history inside, including this banner at the front staircase that leads down to the Waiting Room.

There is also this interesting series of paintings (below) that chronicles the railway's influence across the country. I thought this was a classy touch.

Here's a look at the back of the station in busier times (below). You can make out Parliament Hill on the left and the Château Laurier directly behind the arched windows of the station in the centre of the image.

There were talks that the city's light rail commuter network, which will one day operate beneath the downtown in two parallel tunnels, should use the old station as the main downtown commuter stop. Sadly, this idea was shot down, which will leave the chronically underused building off limits to the public.

One wonders how Ottawa might be different today if trackage was left in place along the east side of the canal and the old station continued to operate. Ask people living along Colonel By Drive now if they would prefer a busy parkway with steady traffic throughout the day or a rail line with the occasional passenger train. I know which option I would choose.