1912 – Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Montreal, Quebec

The hotel was designed by the architectural firm Warren and Wetmore, and it was completed at a cost of C$2 million. Its doors officially opened at 11:15 pm on New Year’s Eve, 1912, marked by a gala ball attended by 350 guests. On Valentine’s Day, 1916, the first Canadian transcontinental telephone call was made from the hotel.

“The plans for the Ritz-Carlton hotel to be erected on Sherbrooke street at the head of Drummond street are well advanced and a large part of the excavation work has been done by The George A. Fuller Company, Limited, who are the contractors for the foundation work. The contract for the steel work has been awarded to The Dominion Bridge Company and this ])ortion of the structure is to be in place by the middle of November. Tenders have just been received for the general construction, but the contractors will not be announced for a couple of weeks. The architects are Messrs. Warren & Wetmore, East 33rd street, New York. The building is being erected for the Hon. Lionel G. Guest of Montreal.

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel will have a frontage of 187 feet on Sherbrooke street and 142 feet on Drummond street, and will be ten storeys high. The Sherbrooke street entrance will be covered by a large vestibule. On the left of the entrance lobby will be the office and elevator hall ; on the right the reception lobby and staircase leading to the ball room. Facing the entrance lol)by will be the palm garden 34 feet by 59 feet leading by a low flight of steps to a terrace at the entrance of the restaurant. The restaurant will be an oval shaped room devoid of all columns and will be fifty by eighty feet. It will be situated at the north end of the Drummond street front. The ceiling of this room will be oval and the treatment of the decorations will be- of the Adams period.

The palm garden will be a very attractive feature of the hotel, with tiled floors and a scheme of decoration arranged in lattice work similar to a conservatory. Two flights of stairs in the vestibule will be 46^ feet by 56 feet and will accommodate about 150 guests. It will be panelled in oak^ the general decoration being English in treatment. The kitchen will be on the basement level and situated immediately under the restaurant. The kitchen will be lighted by windows on Sherbrooke street and the lane in the rear of the building. Under the kitchen in the sub-basement will be the kitchen preparing rooms, the boiler and pump rooms, baggage rooms and the elevator and refrigerator plants. On the first floor in addition to accommodation for a large part of the hotel staff, there will be a series of dressing rooms for the use of guests arriving by morning trains and leaving again in the evening and who do not wish to take bedrooms. The barber shop and ladies’ hair dressing parlors will be on this floor. The second floor is provided with several suites of rooms and two large private dining rooms. The bedrooms are nearly all 143 feet by 18 feet. Each bedroom is provided with a private bath. Many of the bedrooms and all sitting rooms will be provided with tire places. The ball room will be on the Sherbrooke street front at the westerly end of the building and will be 58 feet by 89 feet. A moveable stage will be provided at the westerly end of the ball room which will i)e available for concerts, threatricals, banquets, balls and other large entertainments. A gallery of boxes will overlook the ball room. The floor will be of polished hardwood. A pipe organ will also be installed in connection with this room. The floors throughout the building apart from the ball room, will be of cement, only a narrow strip of wood being let in the floors for the securing of the carpets. At the end of each corridor will be a staircase leading from the top to the bottom of the house, dosed in with fireproof material. In the centre of the building will be another fireproof shaft. The whole building will be of the best fireproof construction. The arrangement of the building will be such as to provide an unusual amount of natural light ; the most modern system of ventilation will also be installed.”
Engineering and Contract Record, July 12 1911

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