1915 – Fairmont Hotel Macdonald, Edmonton, Canada

Designed by Ross and MacFarlene in the picturesque chateau style beloved of the Canadian railway companies for their hotels and contains eleven floors. Named for the first prime minister of Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald. Constructed by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company who also constructed the Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg by the same architects. Following Grand Trunk’s bankruptcy in 1919, Canadian National Hotels assumed management of the hotel.

The design of the steeply pitched dormered roofs topped with chimneys, finials, and turrets. The building’s entryways are placed building features diagonally on the building, flanked by perpendicular wings and turret towers. A 1950s 16-storey extension containing 292-rooms was demolished during the 1980s restoration.

“The MacDonald Hotel, at Edmonton, Alta., is to be located on a beautiful site overlooking the river and at the same time only a few steps from the business and shopping centres and convenient to the railway stations.

The hotel will be built of Canadian granite and buff limestone in the style of the old French chateaux of Normandy and Touraine — a style particularly appropriate to its location on the bluff above the river. Its height of nine storeys, surmounted by a steep, picturesque roof, will make it a landmark to be seen for miles along the river valley, as well as from all parts of the city itself.

There will be more than two hundred sleeping chambers provided, with separate private bath-rooms and telephones, and the building will be equipped with every approved modern appointment.

The hotel has its main entrance on McDougall Street, just a step away from the busy corner of Jasper Avenue, so located as to be most convenient of access, yet just away from the noise of the crowded corner.

One enters off the street into a little open courtyard and the entrance loggia and through the revolving doors into the spacious rotunda. From the rotunda one catches enticing glimpses of the lounge and the palm room and of the corridors leading to the dining room, cafe and bar, while the office, telephone and telegraph rooms and the elevators are easy of access and can be found at once. A separate entrance provided for ladies, leads first to the ladies’ reception room and then to the corridor directly in front of the ladies’ elevator and adjacent to the palm room, without passing through the rotunda.

A feature of this floor is the octagonal palm room, free from all columns, with richly decorated ceilings and lighted on all sides by great windows.

Another interesting feature is the large comfortable lounge room immediately off the rotunda, with its great fireplace and its broad elliptical bay window, affording a magnificent view of the river and surrounding country.

From the rotunda the grand staircase of marble and bronze conducts to the mezzanine gallery and foyer, from which one can watch the busy life of the rotunda without participating in it, and from which lead the drawing rooms, ladies’ gallery and banquet rooms.

Above the mezzanine floor rise tiers of sleeping rooms and private parlors, reached by means of wide, spacious staircases and elevators, each one with a magnificent outlook over the city and the river. There is not a dark or uninviting chamber in the entire building, and comfort and spaciousness have not been sacrificed to secure a maximum of accommodation. Large closets have been provided in every room.

Not the least desirable feature about this hotel is the fact that it is to be absolutely fireproof, every precaution having been taken to attain this, regardless of cost. All the structural parts are steel and concrete, and the partitions of terra cotta. The floors are of cement and marble and the staircases marble and iron.

With all these precautions fire escapes would seem to be unnecessary, yet these have not been neglected, ample provision having been made for them in several parts of the building, so as to be easily and quickly reached from every room.

The same careful attention has been given to the sanitation of the hotel. All of the bath rooms are models of cleanliness and healthfulness, with porcelain fixtures and tile floors and walls of exquisite design. The bathrooms are all well ventilated, eighty per cent, being outside rooms lighted by actual windows.
The architects are Messrs. Ross & Macdonald, of Montreal. Toronto and Winnipeg.”
Engineering and Contract Record, September 10, 1913

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