Building the Lord Elgin Hotel was a remarkable story in many ways. Today's just-in-time project managers and highly paid development consultants would be amazed. After years of start-and-stop planning, federal-municipal wrangling, and wild fluctuation in the 1927 to 1939 business cycles, it all came together rather quickly. From a gleam in the eyes of local boosters to the signed agreement, the complicated government approvals were navigated in under six months. Construction work began on September 13, 1940 and the hotel was ready for opening on July 19, 1941, despite strict wartime controls on labour and materials. It's been described as 'grand' and the Lord Elgin is sort of grand on the outside but the inside was a different story - basic accommodation, meeting the minimal requirements for the maximum number of filled beds.
Probably not. Just an interesting footnote*. Each of the Ottawa examples (built and unbuilt) used a standard type of plan - the 'H' shaped building with a peaked central core, viz. the Royal York Hotel by Ross and Macdonald Architects, 1929 and the Hotel Vancouver by Archibald and Schofield Architects, 1929-1939.
*To add a footnote to the footnote, when the Lord Elgin's future owner came to the capital to develop the hotel in 1940 he offhandedly remarked that he had been wanting to build a hotel in Ottawa since 1930 - the year that the Ambassador Hotel previously rejected for the Laurier and Elgin site was rejected.
Regarding the pre-War plans for Confederation Park, upon his return to Ottawa shortly after the end of WWII (Mackenzie King had to petition Gen. Charles de Gaulle to get him out of France) Jacques Gréber found the Lord Elgin in place and plugged it into a whole new vision for Elgin Street and the Park. Large parts of the 1937-39 scheme were discarded or substantially re-worked. (Photo: 1950 General Plan for the National Capital, Gréber, Fiset, Kitchen et. al.)
Progress in fulfilling the plan would take some time. In 1954 the hotel still towered over the western blocks of Elgin Street.
This post is a year late for the Lord Elgin's 75th Anniversary and several commemorative histories have already been published. They recount the political machinations that brought together the Civic Industrial and Publicity Committee headed by Chester E. Pickering, John C. Udd the Ford Hotel Company president, and the Dominion Government to hatch the hotel. My thanks to the creator of OttawaHH for his Lord Elgin picture gallery, the source of many of these images.
The Lord Elgin's developer, who built plain hotels for the budget-minded traveller, favoured the 'E' shaped plan in their nearly identical Ford Hotels in Toronto and Montreal (1929, architects unknown).
The Ford Hotel in Buffalo, NY (1922) was demolished by implosion in 2000. They also operated hotels in Rochester, their corporate headquarters, and Erie, PA.
I will attempt a forensic investigation of the Lord Elgin's architectural development through a sequence of clippings and not rely on my usual recourse to Mackenzie King's private diary unburdenings, which tend to be self-satisfied and a little less objective. It appears that Ford Hotels had wanted to crank out a brick-clad 'U' shaped version of their previous hotels (left). The ultimate design (right) was hammered out through a series of negotiations with the Dominion Government. The Prime Minister took a keen interest in the project.
One of the controversies surrounding the hotel was its request to the City of Ottawa for a property tax holiday based upon a reduced assessment, but Ford Hotels had missed the deadline imposed by the Board of Control because of 'conditions over which neither the hotel company nor the city had any control' this being the hotel's design and location. Their lawyer stated 'Jacques Greber, noted town planner of Paris, was to have visited Ottawa to approve of the plans. It was not known now if he would be able to come.' That probably had something to do with the Nazis. As to the location 'Plans had been drawn up for one site, but since the proposed site had changed again they have to be revised. They should be ready in another week's time. While he did not mention where the new site was, it was understood to be on the west side of the widened Elgin street, between Slater and Laurier. It had been intended to erect the hotel on the corner of Elgin and Slater.' Despite the uncertainties over the design and location the Board of Control granted the fixed assessment. (Ottawa Journal, July 3, 1940)
On the invitation of a committee of local politicians and businessmen the Ford company arrived in Ottawa in early 1940 scouting sites suitable for its third Canadian hotel. Both the location and the design would prove to be tricky. In choosing the west side of Elgin between Slater and Laurier they would need to engage with the Government of Canada and its amateur town-planner-in-chief, Prime Minister Mackenzie King. 'It was stated that Prime Minister King was much interested in the plan, that being because of his desire for the proper beautification work on the centre of the Capital. He saw the plans and subsequently they were studied in the Department of Public Works. One of the main questions is as to the exterior finish of the building. That has been settled but there has been a re-drawing of the plans by the firm of Ross and Macdonald, Montreal architects who designed the Royal York Hotel, Toronto.' (Ottawa Journal, July 19, 1940)
The matter was taken up by Cabinet on July 23, 1940 after Ford Hotels 'brought revised plans for the building which they hope will meet the objections raised to the original plans. The changes provide for a very attractive exterior to conform with the architecture of other buildings in the area contemplated under the Greber plan.' Apparently the revised plans did not fully satisfy the Government's objections because six days later 'a further change in the design of the proposed $1,00,000 hotel has been suggested and a new sketch is being submitted to the Government with a re-arrangement of the roof line.' (Ottawa Journal, July 23 and 29, 1940)
The lease between the Government of Canada and the Ford Hotel Company was signed on September 5, 1940, in advance of the hotel's final design being available, but the directions were clear. 'Architects are now finishing up their plans of the alteration to the front elevation and roof as suggested by Dominion Government authorities. These alterations consist of re-designing the roof of the building so that it will harmonize with elevations of the new Post Office and the Chateau Laurier. ...The new hotel will have accommodations for about 700 persons and will have 350 guest rooms, each one of which will have its private bath. The tower section of the building will be 11 storeys in height and the other parts nine storeys.' (Ottawa Journal, September 5, 1940)
A week after the signing the local backers, and Ford Hotel's president Jack Udd (in shirt sleeves on the left) and Mayor Stanley Lewis (in shirt sleeves on the right) turned the sod for the Lord Elgin Hotel. Digging started the next day.
The Government of Canada retained ownership of the land they had expropriated in 1939. Their 99-year lease with Ford Hotels stipulated a rent of $5,000 per annum. However the Crown wasn't able to settle all of the property expropriations in time for the start of work, including the building at the Slater Street corner, seen right up against the foundations. In front of it is the viewing platform constructed for sidewalk superintendents who wanted to watch the hotel's progress.
The building at Slater and Elgin would remain in place for some time. (Photo: LAC)
The cornerstone was laid by Mackenzie King and Mayor Stanley Lewis on February 27, 1941. To signify its importance to the Federal Government Public Works Minister Cardin, DPW Deputy Minister J.B. Hunter, and Chief Dominion Architect Charles Sutherland were in attendance. The hotel's backers, Chester Pickering and Jack Udd, were also in the official party. And the old building next door was still there, screened by a tarpaulin. Behind this was a plywood structure set up to display a model set-up of a typical hotel room. King was impressed and said it was very modern.
The stone contains an inscribed parchment prepared by Pickering that reads 'We who are living to-day have faith there'll always be an England. Democracy will always prevail.'
In a bitterly cold February 1941 while the Queenston limestone was rising to cover the steel frame the hotel's construction site was hemmed by another unsettled expropriation on the Laurier Avenue side. I don't know how they managed to build it under these conditions - and it was completed in just ten months.
Just before the Lord Elgin's steel frame was about to be erected a rumour that structural steel would not be available until the War's end was circulated around Ottawa. The Ford Hotel Co. president was forced to place ads squelching this, reminding citizens that the hotel was being built under the Government of Canada's supervision which would ensure the delivery of steel. (Ottawa Journal, December 2, 1940)
I really like the chubby columns that used to cary the porte-cochere. Six months after the Lord Elgin's opening Winston Churchill stopped in Ottawa to confer with Mackenzie King, on his way to spending Christmas of 1941 with FDR in Washington. During the Ottawa visit Churchill made his famous 'Some chicken... Some neck' speech to Parliament and had the scowling lion portrait taken by Yousuf Karsh. He didn't stay at the Lord Elgin.
The stone columns were replaced with more slender metal posts, probably to allow for additional space for cars to pass under the canopy or open their doors when they were under it.
Lord Elgin's porte-cochere columns were replaced with squared-off versions in its last renovation. Although not entirely. When the old one was deconstructed the hotel's 1941 steelwork was briefly revealed and left in place to receive the new stone cladding.
On Saturday, July 19, 1941 the Ottawa dailies published 15-page supplements to advertise 'A New Hotel in the Heart of Canada's Capital' to explain the history of its development, the perspicacity of its backers, its salient features, and the many fine building materials that went into its construction.
During its development the Lord Elgin's capacity had grown from 350 to 400 rooms by shrinking their size and squeezing them into every possible corner. The nightly rates, subject to the Wartime Prices Control Board, had been established in consultation with the Dominion Government.
The Lord Elgin Hotel was featured in the December 1941 edition of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Journal. It was newsworthy because the hotel was an anomaly in the Government's strict regulations on constructing civilian projects during WWII, an indication that building was deemed to be of strategic important to the war effort. The photos were taken by the Photographic Stores of Ottawa.
The Lord Elgin's 1941 lobby was spare and streamlined, continuing the round columns inside. The front doors are at the left. With no vestibule to check Ottawa's wintry blasts they eventually had to add another set of interior glass doors.
At some point the round columns were boxed in and fitted with display cases. The lobby was also partitioned.
A typical floor plan. Each room was approximately 10 feet wide. There were living quarters for the hotel manager on the top floor under the copper roof. The elevator bank was located on an outside wall to allow for its connection to a future wing.
Squeezing an extra 50 rooms into the hotel made them extremely compact. This is a twin-double. As for the decor this was the palette - the 'general colour scheme on the first three guest room floors is blue grey and dusty rose. The next four floors are in mauve and dusty rose, and the upper floors are in sun tan buff and ivory. Carpet covering all floors is of a unique pattern and construction. The background color is cedar rose with a leaf figure in three frame appearance in mauve.' The dressers, desks, and table were maple with tops covered in a 'stainless material', probably an early form of Formica. And, 'all beds are two inches longer than standard and are of the modern footless design. The legs are recessed for convenience and are entirely out of view, it being impossible for one to stub his toes.'
The rooms were modernized in the 1960s, with what passed for a portable TV in those days. The door to the right was a closet, and the one at the left for the bathroom.
The Lord Elgin's original bathrooms were closet-sized, not as depicted here. Most of them just had one small shower stall and no tub. For economy and speed of construction tile-setting wasn't required. The walls and ceilings described in the promotional material as 'solid baked enamel surfaces' were actually 'the modern plastic-type wallboard' - ivory coloured to match fixtures in a colour called sun-tan. They even made a virtue out of the inexpensive floors. 'In further consideration of the guest's comfort a rubber floor was installed in each bathroom to provide warmth underfoot.'
When it opened the Lord Elgin's basement level contained two taverns dictated by the liquor licencing requirements of the day. One for mixed sexes (the more refined 'ladies and escorts' type of licence) and a separate men's-only beverage room. I have been told that it was the hotel's proximity to so many military personnel, working in the Department of National Defense temporary buildings across the street on Cartier Square, that launched this room's role as social space for gay men. It blossomed during the 1950s and 1960s when the RCMP was hunting down gay civil servants there by hiding behind newspapers with cameras. When I went there ca. 1970 it was a raucous place with a great juke box. This sketch was drawn by the poet Charles Fisher as part of a gay history project.
The mores of the 1970s pushed the Lord Elgin's tacit tolerance and they took steps to stamp out public displays of affection. To protest members of the gay community staged a kiss-in in front of the hotel, but the bar's days were numbered and it was eventually closed.
After building the Lord Elgin Hotel, in 1948 the Ford Hotel's President John C. Udd achieved his greatest triumph by opening the $8 million, 23 storey, 1,100-room Laurentien Hotel in Montreal - the largest hotel built in Canada in 20 years and the biggest one built in North America since the end of WWII. Designed by architect Charles Davis Goodman the Laurentien was a behemoth partially clad in glittering aluminum sheathing. The following year Udd sold his Ford Hotel chain to Sheraton Hotels of Boston and became head of its Canadian operations including the Lord Elgin. Shortly after the sale Udd resisted an offer from Ottawa businessmen to buy it, but soon sold it. On January 20, 1950 the Lord Elgin's ownership was transferred to a group of six men headed by Controller C.E. Pickering.
On July 25, 1949, while the Lord Elgin was still a Ford Hotel and Ottawa had lost a number of conventions due to a lack of hotel rooms, John C. Udd announced 'that construction of a $1.25 million addition to the Lord Elgin Hotel will begin early this Fall. The addition to the west will contain twin bedrooms or double rooms, thus providing accommodation for an additional 400 persons.' (Ottawa Journal). The Lord Elgin's new owners took up the cause and promised that they would be starting a 200-room addition in the fall of 1953. They made the same promise again in May 1957, noting that when the Lord Elgin had been built in 1941 'heating and elevator services were anticipated for the addition which will be a factor in the cost.' On May 12, 1958 Pickering and his associates sold the Lord Elgin, and the plans for an addition were abandoned. (Ottawa Journal, June 13, 1953, May 22 and June 26, 1957)
'Sold' was a relative term because Pickering continued to have a business association with the Lord Elgin until the early 1970s. When they announced the 1957 decision to proceed with an addition designed by the Montreal architect Henry Langston, the Lord Elgin had come under the control of the National Management Company. They were the owners of the Lord Simcoe Hotel in Toronto, also designed by Langston. One wonders how he would have treated the Lord Elgin addition. The Elgin and the Simcoe were sister hotels for several years.
They took another run at expansion in 1969. The Lord Elgin Plaza was to be a separate hotel tower attached at the base to the old building. It was a contentious project and the architect, George Bemi, had to appear before the Ottawa Planning Area Board several times to defend it. By the time that the City of Ottawa dropped its opposition (too tall) the plans were revised and the proposed hotel was changed into an office building. Bemi argued that the new tower was compatible with the Lord Elgin because its precast panels were beige.
A small extension was made in 1977-79 when Murray's Restaurant wanted to build a 1,000 square foot greenhouse type cafe in the landscaped area north of the Lord Elgin. Because it was on federally owned property this brought the full force of the National Capital Commission's Design Committee into play. It delayed the project for months as the committee argued about the amount of glazing and the types of plants they'd be using inside (this was the era of the fern bar). The architect, Edward Cuhaci was required to come back to the NCC with revisions. This photo was taken before the Murray's addition. It shows the Slater Street 'plaza' of the Lord Elgin Plaza and Bemi's alignment of the office building's lower two floors (a commercial arcade) matched to horizontal banding established by the Lord Elgin Hotel.
When new north and south wings finally got added the original Queenston limestone (no longer available because the quarries were closed) was carefully salvaged from the 1941 section's end walls and reinstalled in selective features like the five-storey oriel window in the centre of this picture.
I won't comment on the design of the new wings (David McRobie Architect, 2001) except to say that's it's earnest. Would something of its 21st century time have been preferable? The debate rages as the Chateau Laurier contemplates its own addition.
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