Château Laurier
The Château Laurier is one of the key settings in Fire on the Hill. It is:
- where we first meet German agent Count Jaggi as he is writing his reports in invisible ink,
- where we see the Count, Katherine MacNutt, and the governor general the Duke of Connaught and his wife attending a Belgium Relief fundraiser in the hotel’s ballroom. It is where the Count and Katherine start their affair.
- where the victims take refuge from the Centre Block fire, and
- where Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden and his key advisors met the night of the fire to discuss when and where they would hold the next session of Parliament.
History
Celebrating its 100-year birthday and minutes away from Parliament Hill, the Château Laurier is one of the premier hotels in Ottawa. The Château has played host to royalty, heads of state, political figures, celebrities and members of Canadav’s elite.
Named after Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the Château Laurier officially opened in April 26, 1912. It was commissioned in 1907 by American-born Charles Melville Hays, the general manager of the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. Construction began in 1909 and was completed in 1912 at a cost of $1.5 million dollars (CDN).
Unfortunately, days before the hotelv’s scheduled grand opening, the new president of the railway, returning from England, was on the ill-fated Titanic. Hays and the members of his party perished on April 14, 1912.
In 1923, the Grand Trunk Railway became part of the Canadian National Railway (CN). The Château Laurier became one of CN’s most important hotels. The hotel was operated by CN Hotels until the chain was purchased by the Canadian Pacific (CP) Hotels in 1988.
In 1999, CP Hotels was bought by the Fairmont hotel chain and is now the Fairmont Château Laurier.
Architecture
The luxury hotel was built in a French Renaissance style using granite blocks for the base, buff Indiana limestone for the walls and copper for the roof.
The hotel, in 1916, contained 350 bedrooms with two thirds having private baths, a new trend in hotel accommodation.
On the main floor there were:
- offices,
- a rotunda,
- a ladies reception room,
- a dining room,
- a café,
- a lounge, and
- a tea room.
On the mezzanine floor there was a foyer, and a ladies and general writing rooms.
On the first floor there was a banquet room and state apartments.
In the basement there was:
- a grill room,
- a bar,
- a barber shop,
- a manicuring parlour, and
- public lavatories.
The hotel was connected by an underground corridor to the Grand Trunk Railway’s Central Union Station across the street.
Sources and further reading
Web
The Fairmont Château Laurier Hotel Official website