Opening July 5, 1915 Architect Ross and Macdonald | Floor count 11 | |
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Location 10065 100th Street
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Owner Fairmont Hotels and Resorts Management Fairmont Hotels and Resorts | ||
The Fairmont Hotel Macdonald (generally known as the Hotel Macdonald or The Mac) is a hotel in Edmonton, Alberta. It was built by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, and has been successively owned by Canadian National Railway, Canadian Pacific Hotels, and Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. Construction began in 1911, and was completed in 1915, allowing the hotel to open in July of that year.
The hotel is an Edmonton landmark, and overlooks the North Saskatchewan River Valley, the largest urban parkway in North America. It is one of Canada's chateau-style hotels built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
History
Prior to the construction of the Hotel Macdonald, the site was home to a squatters' camp. The squatters often lived in tents or in small caves dug into the side of the river valley wall, which remain to this day. Local residents nicknamed the site the "Galician Hotel" due to the fact that many of the squatters were Ukrainian-speaking immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia.
Ross and Macdonald, the same architectural firm that designed many of Canada's landmark hotels, designed the hotel in the château-style that characterized Canada's large railway hotels. Construction was completed on July 5, 1915, and the structure was named after Canada's first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald.
The original seven-story Grand Trunk Pacific hotel was built in a distinctive chateau style adapted from 16th century French castles. The building is faced with Indiana limestone and roofed with copper. Construction and furnishings cost about $2,250,000 (more than $53 million in 2015).
Along with the Palliser Hotel in Calgary, it was one of the first two establishments to be reissued a liquor license by the Alberta Liquor Control Board when the province repealed Prohibition in 1924.
In 1953, the owners constructed a 300-bedroom, 16-story addition to keep up with the rising demand for hotel accommodations in the city. Together, the hotel and the addition were dubbed "The Mac and the box it came in."
The Hotel MacDonald fell into disrepair and closed in 1983, and there was talk of demolition. The City of Edmonton designated the building as a Municipal Heritage Resource. Five areas were included in the designation: the building exterior, the Confederation Lounge, the lobby, the Wedgewood Room, and the Empire Ballroom. The 1953 addition was demolished in 1986.
Canadian Pacific (CP) Hotels purchased the hotel in 1988, and began a restoration campaign. The hotel reopened in 1991 after work totaling $28 million. The renovation added several suites in what had been storage space, some of which are named for prominent guests of the hotel, including: Charles Melville Hays Suite, Lois Hole Suite, King George VI Suite, Sir Winston Churchill Suite, Edward Prince of Wales Suite, the Aberhart, Manning, and Lougheed suites, and the Queen Elizabeth II Suite (also known as the Royal Suite), which covers 2,400 square feet (220 m2) over two floors, with two bedrooms and a dining room for eight. With the addition of the 18 suites, the hotel now has 199 rooms on 11 floors, and stands a total of 51 metres (167 ft) high.
In 1999, CP Hotels merged with Fairmont Hotels, and began operating the hotel (and all its other hotels) under the Fairmont banner. The chain was later sold, and Fairmont Hotels and Resorts is now owned by Kingdom Holding Company (present / 1 quarter / shared with the government of Qatar and the American company Colony Capital) (Canada).