Talk:Grand railway hotels of Canada

Not-so-grand railway hotels

The title of this article predicates against various important railway hotels, which were either small or no longer exist (some, like Glacier House, were pretty large). North Bend, Balfour, Sicamous and other locations in BC had really nice hotels; not "grand" but still high-quality and o architectural interest; similarly there were railway hotels/resorts on the PGE......what would be a good name for "Canada's lesser railway hotels" as an article?Skookum1 (talk) 21:42, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

That's a good question. There is already some information on them at Canadian Pacific Hotels, but that doesn't include early hotels associated with other railways. Part of me would say expand the scope of this article, but then again, it's good to have an article that focuses strictly on a type of large hotel for which Canada is known. Would "Canada's original railway hotels" work? Skeezix1000 (talk) 21:54, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

"Original" wouldn't seem to work; it would include the Banff Springs and Empress, for instance. Canada's railway hotels seems a bit bland but the "grand" ones could easily have a section with a "main" template referrign to them. Also, some like those on the PGE weren't owned by the railway, though certainly patronized by railway staff at times - a shifting definitino perhaps as those in Newport/Squamish weren't by the station as farther up the line; Cheekeye Lodge, Garibaldi Lodge, Alta Lake Hotel, Rainbow Lodge, Pemberton Hotel, Birkenhead Hotel, Anderson Lake Lodge, McGillivray Falls Lodge, Seton Portage Hotel, Bridge River Hotel (a "grand" hotel, of sorts, at Shalalth House), Shalalth Lodge, Seton House, Retaskit Lodge and Craig's Lodge (a five-star tennis resort) is about it, not sure about farther up the line (Lillooet's in-town hotels wouldn't count, even though the Reynolds was built as a result of the line's relocation through town). Rainbow Lodge, Bridge River Hotel and Craig Lodge would all warrant articles, can't really say for the others. Deos "railway hotel" have to mean owned/operated/built by a railway?Skookum1 (talk) 22:03, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Personally, I don't think they have to be owned: being built alongside railways would qualify them as railway hotels, for me anyway, in the same way that airport hotels aren't owned by airports. And the lead of such an article could make that clear. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 22:09, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Still it's a tricky definition, and railway hotels weren't always by the line (e.g. the Hotel Vancouver and Lake Louise - railway-owned is hte key wording) and a distinction has to exist between those already there adn those built because of the line and the station in question; and in bigger centres like Vancouver and Kamloops you just cant' list them, there's too many; other than those right across the street I guess, but in most towns in BC the railway is right along hte street; around both the CP Station (now Waterfront Station and CN station (Pacific Central Station) there are collections of hotels built specifically for rail travellers; I stayed in some no longer there on Cordova at Seymour/Granville, years ago, and the Ivanhoe, Cobalt and American are still adjacent to Pacific Central (but I wouldn't stay in them, except maybe the Ivanhoe - now a hostel - if I had to; the American's condemned for habitation, as a matter of fact). And so "town" hotels can't really count, wehther it's Vancouver or Mission or Revelstoke; most commercial centres along the transcontinental lines in BC and the Prairies came into existence because of the rail line; e.g. the Bellevue and Astor hotels in Mission were, like the whole town, built as part of a real sstate promotion and are right by the station; but I wouldndt' consider them railway hotels in teh same was as the Sicamous Hotel, Fraser Canyon House or the Balfour Bay Hotel. Re the resorts/hotels along the PGE line, I guess the Reynolds would ahve to qualify, since as noted it was built specifically because of the station (then a ways out of town); but the old Lillooet Hotel, like the Clinton Hotel, though right by the tracks, pre-dated the line. In a way, Harrison Hot Springs, too, is a railway hotel because it was birthed by the opening of hte CPR and was the main reason for a stop in that area right into the automotive era. The minor CPR hotels seem in a category of hteir own; unless the GTP and CNR also had some, mebbe so. So on the one hand we've got hte definition to work out, and then a good title; but its' worth doing and there's pd pics avaialble.Skookum1 (talk) 03:30, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

Glacier House and Mount Stephen House

The latter, at Field, British Columbia, may already have an article; I was searching for other things with "house" in teh title and came upon [#

1. Revelstoke Mountain Resort a slew of really nice pics] of Glacier House, which was near the foot of teh Illecillewaet Glacier in Glacier National Park. Both of these were "grand" enough to warrant inclusion here, and though timber/arts'n'crafts display clear traces of teh Chateau style. I appreciate that other smaller but somewhat grand hotels like those at North Bend (Canyon House) and Balfour maybe don't qualify and can just be on the CP hotels page, along with Sicamous and others; but these two are so grand and ostentatious, sadly both demolished now, and were part of the rail-tourism experience that hte CPR pioneered, and ranked with Lake Louise and Banff Springs on teh "grand tour" of first-class accommodations in the West....I'd say BC got "burned" when these got taken down, what a great loss to our architectural legacy; like so many things torn down in BC for economic/political reasons (the old Hotel Van, the old Ex Park buildings and more).Skookum1 (talk) 16:36, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

I've made a stub on Mount Stephen, Glacier to come. What's the feeling about adding them to this article? Neither was grand like the Ch. Lake Louise, but grand enough relative to the surrounding wilderness. The Interior (Talk) 19:34, 4 May 2013 (UTC)

As was the first Hotel Vancouver LOL....though a field of clearcut stumps ain't exactly "wilderness" I suppose....Mount Stephen House was certainly grand and ostentatious, moreso than the Prince of Wales in Waterton.....same with Glacier House. Maybe the bias is that they were wood-frame structures and not stone like the "grand" ones at Banff, Lake Louise, Jasper and the Laurier etc........I'd say they belong in the article. With Sicamous and the Balfour and the North Bend Hotel - and the old Incola in Penticton, now also vanished - I'd say they belong; it might be that the title "grand railway hotels" should just be "railway hotels in Canada".Skookum1 (talk) 05:57, 5 May 2013 (UTC)

Just read the stub...I'd thought Mt Stephen House was destroyed by fire, maybe that was Glacier House? Lots of pics on BC Archives btw, though the article is so short a second one isn't needed just yet.Skookum1 (talk) 05:59, 5 May 2013 (UTC)

No mention of fire so far in my research. It would be nice to have a pic of the pre-expansion verrsion, or of Annie Mollison, manager...The Interior (Talk) 17:44, 9 May 2013 (UTC)

There are three pics in BC Archives, the first of these is 1907, the third is 1905; the 2nd one is 1890s, undetermined precise data, seems to be pre-expansion by the look of it.Skookum1 (talk) 01:17, 10 May 2013 (UTC)

[http://search.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/sn-3BCA2CB/query/VisualRecords/find%2BField%2B%2B%2Btrue%2B This is a search for "Field" and has 377 results, obviously not all to do with Field BC but many are; there are other pictures of the hotel in there, I'm sure.Skookum1 (talk) 01:23, 10 May 2013 (UTC)

"hotels owned by railway companies" is really the meaning, of course.......otherwise the many small but grand hotels that emerged along the PGE line could/would be included; none were owned by the railway though, via a subsidiary or anything, unlike the subject matter here.Skookum1 (talk) 06:04, 5 May 2013 (UTC)

I would include it. I don't necessarily agree that the article is about any hotel owned by the railways - Canada is known for a particular class of large, architecturally-significant railway hotel, not all of which were even owned by railways. MSH would seem to qualify. As would smaller hotels that historically led to the construction of the larger hotels - that would be part of the story too, I would think. --Skeezix1000 (talk) 16:46, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

The Second Hotel Vancouver, 1916-1939 (actually not torn down until '48 or '49) was definitely a grand railway hotel; the first, not so much though it was definitely ostentatious and swank...... And, er, Skeezix, which of the grand railway hotels were not owned by railways? Not built by railway companies. The Empress in Victoria, the Frontenac, Banff, Jasper, Lake Louise, the Prince of Wales in Waterton, the Fort Garry in Winnipeg, the Laurier in Ottawa, the Royal York in Toronto, the Windsor and Bonaventure in Montreal, the Nova Scotian in Halifax? Not sure what the ones in REgina and/or Saskatoon are called. Plainly put, if it's not built/owned by a railway company, it's not a railway hotel And all the lesser ones we've mentioned, Glacier House, Canyon House, Fraser Canyon House/North Bend Hotel, the Incola, the Balfour, the Sicamous......were all built/operated by the railway(s).....the Bridge River Hotel at Shalalth and Craig Lodge at the east end of Seton Lake were first-class establishments; but they were not "railway hotels"......even though they were right on the railway and wouldn't have existed without it (both were built at the instigation of George Matheson Murray in his capacity of MLA-cum-booster going and finding private investors to build them. I can think of a dozen hotels located near VAncouver's train stations (near the old BCER one there's dozens, some were once very nice, not anywhere near that now), none are railway hotels. The Ivanhoe? The old Grandview and St Francis on Cordova opposite Waterfront Station....yes there are grand hotels in Canada that are not railway-owned.....but are very grand....the Ritz-Carleton in Montreal I'm not sure about, was it ever part of the CPR or Westin chain (as CP Hotels was rebranded).Skookum1 (talk) 17:30, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

There are lots of hotels located near railways - I totally agree. Ranging from grand hotels to fleabags. However, there has always been a recognized class of grand, landmark railway hotels that are treated as a separate group. As for whether they have to have been owned by the railways - almost all of them were, you are correct. The only exception I can think of is the Windsor Hotel in Montreal, which was always treated as one of the grand railway hotels, although I don't think (correct me if I am wrong) it ever belonged to a railway. Perhaps like Montebello it was owned by the railways later in its life, but I don't think so.--Skeezix1000 (talk) 20:29, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

It was attached to the CPR's Gare Windsor, as it's called now and was I believe built as such, not particularly "grand" despite a nice facade and five-star facilities; the older version of the Bonaventure, before the current one, was also CPR. The QE Hotel attached to Gare Centrale and Place Ville-Marie was CN, so far as I know.Skookum1 (talk) 04:34, 9 May 2013 (UTC)

The Windsor Hotel was not attached to Windsor Station - there is a whole sity block between them. Even today the underground city doesn't directly connect Windsor Station to the Tour CIBC where most of the hotel once stood. Not sure where you get the idea that the Windsor wasn't a grand hotel. The Queen Elizabeth is considered a railway hotel. --Skeezix1000 (talk) 12:42, 9 May 2013 (UTC)

I was never inside the Windsor, I remember it as being not all that imposing vs. something huge like the QE or Carleton...ornate yes. I remember it had mansard roofs with a bit of romanesque flavour....it's been many years since I took the transcontinental that left from Windsor Station in the old days (er, 1975 in fact).....it doesn't anymore of course, since VIA was created......and re not being connected to the station, the Hotel Vancouver and the Empress and others aren't connected to "their" stations either.Skookum1 (talk) 01:17, 10 May 2013 (UTC)

It depends when you visited. Most of the hotel was destroyed by fire in the 1950s - all that remained was one small wing that didn't look anything like the rest of the hotel (they operated the Windsor Hotel out of that one wing for another couple of decades, but it wasn't anything resembling what had formerly existed). And I know that not all railway hotels are connected to stations - I never said it was. In response to my comment that the Windsor was neither owned nor built by a railway, you suggested that it was connected to Windsor Station. --Skeezix1000 (talk) 19:45, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

BTW, on the Francis Rattenbury page is a listing of his works, including the Phoenix Hotel in Phoenix, British Columbia. On the Rattenbury talkpage I've linked BC ARchives photos of it; I don't know it's history but it's a very grand thing, or was for its short lifespan (burned down 1909); not sure who owned it, three railways came to that town in its heyday....could be NPR like the one in Montana's Glacier Park...not sure of its name.Skookum1 (talk) 04:38, 9 May 2013 (UTC)

List of Grand Hotels

When I arrived at this article, I expected to find a list of the grand railway hotels in Canada, rather than having to dredge through the prose to find examples. I'm wondering, first, if a list would be useful. Second, what form it should take (for example, the Canadian Pacific Hotels page lists hotels in bullet form, whereas the national historic sites of Ottawa uses a nice chart with pictures. Thirdly, is it even possible to reach consensus of what constitutes a grand railway hotel? I'm not an expert on this subject, but looking at previous discussion, it looks like it's less than definitive. --Robthepiper (talk) 04:16, 27 August 2011 (UTC)

There is a template at the bottom of the page, but your point is well taken. Obviously a chart would be better (I'm not sure that a bullet point list adds much). I think there is general consensus as to what would be included (since we have the template and category, and neither has been the subject of controversy) -- the Chisholm book can act as the source. --Skeezix1000 (talk) 11:38, 30 August 2011 (UTC)

Thank you Skeezix1000 for the reply. I didn't notice the template at the bottom of the page when I wrote the above, but I see now there's a handy list of hotels already there. I like the idea of a chart, too. I'll try to mock something up at some point in the future, but please don't hold your breath; I'm only on here periodically. --Robthepiper (talk) 05:23, 5 September 2011 (UTC)

Because of the relative nature of the term, and the small scale of some of the more famous hotels, the Prince of Wales in Waterton, it might be best to strip the title of the word "grand". In local contexts, often enough, what would be normal-sized would be "grand" in the location in question, e.g. the Hotel Incola in Penticton or Canyon House in North Bend. The Balfour and Sicamous Hotels were not large, but they were designed to look ostentatious, also. They were all significant railway hotels, especially in the early days, and had important roles in railway operations.Skookum1 (talk) 07:17, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

suggestions for which one to start towards a GA/FA?

I've been reviewing most of them today, stunned to see some with unref and advert templates on them, and that all are start class, though maybe I've missed one, rather than anything more. At least one of them should be gotten to GA, and most of the major ones should become C or B rating, at least. WP Hotels has only seven or so at GA, there are no FAs, and GA hotel articles are rather rare to start with.....these are of such iconic national significance in many cases that thte "start" rating is a bit embarrassing.....I'd say the Chateau Laurier or Empress would be a good place to start. Some didn't even have the WPCanada template until I dropped by, e.g. The Westin Nova Scotian.....which also needs a rename huh? Thinking Nova Scotian (hotel) because of the other uses of that term, including a defunct newspaper as I recall. Doesn't have to be a railway hotel that's nominated for this group effort, I'd be fine with jointly working on the Ritz-Carlton Montreal (NB its web listings omit the hyphen, probably a French-language-laws issue is why) or even a new article of the many that should be made e.g. the Chateau Whistler. I don't have the resources on hand to create Hotel Incola (the old Tudor-frame grand hotel in Penticton from steamboat days) but it definitely needs doing. Mount Stephen House has recently seem a lot of improvements, it's a possibility, and of course the Banff Springs or Lake Louise or Prince of Wales or Jasper CPR hotels are good candidates too. Elsewhere I've opined about a Canadian workgroup within WP Hotels. Takers?Skookum1 (talk) 07:24, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

• The Ritz Carlton Montreal is C class, maybe that's one that could be the subject of a GA drive?Skookum1 (talk) 07:41, 11 June 2013 (UTC)
• Amazingly to me, the Hilton Bonaventure in Place Bonaventure doesn't have its own article....the link on the hotel name in the Place Bonaventure article is a redirect to Hilton Hotels & Resorts. Wasn't it CP Hotels originally, also?Skookum1 (talk) 07:53, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

Sicamous Hotel pix

As it's mentioned on the Sicamous, British Columbia article, I left a series of BC Archives pic-links on the talkpage there. Ultimately a Sicamous Hotel article should be split off; it's where passengers bound to/from Penticton via the steamers transferred to the coach service (and later rail connection) to Okanagan Landing (Vernon). The one pic with the train might be good for this article; it may have been small, but it was top-notch and "grand" for the scale and location.Skookum1 (talk) 03:46, 27 June 2013 (UTC)

found pix of Hotel Incola, Penticton

New photos archive from the Okanagan Archives Trust Society has a whole page of pictures of the Incola, which was only torn down in relatively recent times; it was a key part of hte luxury steamboat service connecting Penticton and the Southern Mainline to Okanagan Landing (Vernon) and the service connecting to the mainline at Sicamous and the other luxury hotel there. Though frame and not stone, and Tudor not Chateau in style, the Incola in its heyday was one of the "grand" railway hotels. Some nice pics here. And even though I'm self-retired from Wikipedia, I would write an article but don't have enough sources to talk about architect, rooms etc....maybe someone will eventually find that.Skookum1 (talk) 01:39, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

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Newspaper clipping

@Slambo: I am intrigued by your apparent ability to search newspaper clippings. Can non-subscribers search and identify the clipping reference number, which can then be slotted into a citation? I have previously noticed clippings when doing general searches but did not pay much attention. Was there a reference code I overlooked? DMBanks1 (talk) 17:06, 17 May 2021 (UTC)

Sorry for the delay in replying. I had a bunch of family stuff going on over the last couple weeks (culminating in my son's wedding) that kept me from editing.

I think registered guests at Newspapers.com can search for clippings that were clipped by subscribers, but can't create clippings. I am not entirely certain, and am probably wrong on that respect. I do know that once a clipping is made, non-subscribers can view the clipping with a direct link to it, which is why the citation guidelines say to include the {{open access}} icon, and why I've been making clippings and adding those clipping links where I can. I was granted a subscription for my work here on WP, so I make use of it wherever possible for citations. If someone has already made a clipping, the outline will appear on the scanned newspaper page; when you click on that outline, the "View clipping" link will take you to the freely-accessible clipping that can then be used in a citation. If your search result already takes you to a clipping page, you're already there and can use that link. Slambo (Speak) 03:12, 24 May 2021 (UTC)

Canada's grand railway hotels

Why was the scope of this article changed with zero sources added for the new concept? The original title is the norm as was the scope [1], [2]? Moxy- 17:19, 21 February 2023 (UTC)

I strongly suspect we are flirting with WP:CITOGENESIS here - I think the pieces at canadianbucketlist.com and galeriemagazine.com are based on the Wikipedia article. I'd have to dig into the history to be sure, but I think that when this article was first created, the first editor based it on a book titled Canada's Grand Railway Hotels, so the article title was never really properly based on our naming principles. The current title is better, in my opinion. Indefatigable (talk) 18:05, 21 February 2023 (UTC)

Lets forget the guess work - these types of buildings around the world have a term used for them Grand Hotel,,it just happens in Canada they are by the railroads. Why are we not following the sources?

• Augustin, Andreas. "This Concept called 'Grand Hotel'". Famoushotels.org. Retrieved 2023-02-21.

• Denby, E. (2002). Grand Hotels: Reality and Illusion. BL - Treasures from the Bodleian Library. Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1-86189-121-1. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
• Cole, Regina (2018-12-20). "Grand Hotels: What Makes Them Grand?". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
• "Grand Hotels of the World.com". Grand Hotels of the World.com. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
• Magazine, Smithsonian; Perrottet, Tony (2015-07-17). "You Can Still Stay a Night at These Grand Hotels From the Gilded Age". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2023-02-21.

Moxy- 18:26, 21 February 2023 (UTC)

I agree with you in this case Moxy. Grand hotel seems like kind of set phrase, not a judgement of size or quality on behalf of us editors. If there are other sizes or types of railway hotels why not describe them in other articles? Dan Carkner (talk) 19:17, 21 February 2023 (UTC)

You make a good point about grand hotel, @Moxy. I'd support moving to Grand railway hotels in Canada (or "... of Canada"). The ".. in Canada" phrasing is much more the norm than "Canada's ...". Indefatigable (talk) 19:30, 21 February 2023 (UTC)

I am strongly in favour of removing the word "grand" altogether and renaming the page "Railway hotels in Canada." First, there is no set definition of a "grand" hotel. Does a hotel have to have a certain number of rooms to be "grand?" Or a certain size? And who is the authority to determine what is and isn't grand?

The purpose of this page is to talk about hotels built by Canadian railways. It is a narrow enough topic already that there is no reason to narrow it further by specifying that the page can only include a certainly type of railway hotel. Additionally, the page already includes hotels of various types, not just grand hotels. For example, there are camp/lodge hotels here (Jasper Park Lodge, Minaki Lodge, Highland Inn), station hotels (McAdam, Mount Stephen, Fraser Canyon, Viger), and resort hotels (Digby Pines, Algonquin). None of these fit the standard definition of a "grand hotel," being a large, urban hotel. If one is going to argue that only grand hotels are allowed on this page, then all of these would have to be removed. As to the suggestion that "if there are other sizes or types of railway hotels why not describe them in other articles?" the topic is already obscure enough that a single article for Canadian railway hotels should suffice. It would be messy to have separate pages called "Grand railway hotels of Canada" and "Other (?) railway hotels of Canada."

I don't see why this article should be bound to this narrow definition, given it was just a name the article creator grabbed from a book title or website. Tsc9i8 (talk) 15:26, 28 July 2023 (UTC)

Opposed as per above sources and Denby, E. (2002). Grand Hotels: Reality and Illusion. BL - Treasures from the Bodleian Library. Reaktion Books. p. 165. ISBN 978-1-86189-121-1.....lets not make up stuff. Moxy- 00:36, 29 July 2023 (UTC)