Canadian Pacific hotels: Lake Louise, Quebec & Victoria

Chateau Lake Louise, Banff National Park

The Chateau Lake Louise is a “chateau style” hotel built by the Canadian Pacific Railways in the end of the 19^th century after the building of the Banff Springs Hotel and the Château Frontenac. Part of the hotel burned down in 1924 and was rebuilt. It was conceived as a vacation destination to lure moneyed travellers into taking trains and heading West. It is ideally located as all the natural areas around the hotel were incorporated into the Banff National Park (UNESCO World Heritage site). It was renamed Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise after the disvesture of the Canadian Pacific hotels business under the brand Fairmont Hotels & Resorts

Chateau Frontenac, Quebec City

Perched atop a tall cape overlooking the Saint Lawrence River, the Château Frontenac, named after Louis de Buade, Count of Frontenac, who was governor of the colony of New France in the 17^th century, is a grand hotel is the iconic building of Quebec City, the capital city of the Province of Quebec in Canada.
It opened in 1893. It was designed by American architect Bruce Price, as one of a series of “château” style hotels built for the CPR company during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The target of the Canadian Pacific Railway was to promote luxury tourism by appealing to wealthy travelers.
The Quebec Conference of 1943 (Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Mackenzie King) was held at the Château Frontenac.
The Château Frontenac is now run by the now independent CPR Hotel business, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts.

The Empress, Victoria, British Columbia

The Fairmont Empress, known as the Empress Hotel, is an early-20th-century stone hotel, constructed in the Edwardian Chateau style located in Victoria, British Columbia. Facing the Inner Harbour, the Empress is like the Château Frontenac in Quebec City, an iconic symbol of Victoria.

The Empress was designed by Francis Rattenbury for Canadian Pacific Hotels as a terminus hotel for Canadian Pacific’s steamship line, whose main terminal was just a block away. Built in 4 years, the hotel opened his doors in 1908. Famous people visited the hotel as the Prince of Wales in 1919,  Shirley Temple in the 1930’s or King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1939.

In 1965, the hotel was saved from destruction and was renovated and refurbished (operation ‘Teacup’). In 1999, Canadian Pacific spun off Canadian Pacific Hotels, along with all its properties, in a new company named Fairmont Hotels & Resorts.