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For more than a century, Québec City's
Fairmont Le Château Frontenac has been the true-life castle of many
people's dreams. Everyone from the young to the old, music to film
stars, sports personalities to political figures, enjoys discovering
the hotel and delights in returning again and again.
In the late 19th century, William
Van Horne, General Manager of Canadian Pacific (CP) Railway, began
building the hotel as the ideal stopover for CP travelers. Van Horne
retained the services of New York architect Bruce Price (father of
Emily Post), who had already designed Montreal's Windsor Station.
Drawing on the architectural styles of the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance, Price immortalized the history of the two great powers
that had occupied Quebec City's highest promontory.
The years leading up to 1993 saw
many expansion projects to fashion the hotel into what it is today,
including the Citadelle construction in 1899, Mont-Carmel
construction in 1908, and the Saint-Louis and Tour Centrale in 1920
and 1924. A new expansion phase was completed in June 1993 with the
inauguration of the Claude-Pratte Wing, which offers guests a superb
indoor pool, a physical fitness center and a magnificent outdoor
terrace. |
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Fairmont Le Château Frontenac owes its
name to a flamboyant French governor called Louis de Buade, Count of
Frontenac, who guided the destiny of New France from 1672 to 1698.
Frontenac's coat-of-arms can be seen on the outside wall of the
entry arch and many other areas within the hotel. History casts a
long architectural line: a 300-year-old stone bearing the Cross of
Malta emblem is among the interior stones of the hotel's vaulted
lobby. Countless
personalities have graced Fairmont Le Château Frontenac with their
presence, including King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, Princess
Grace of Monaco, Chiang-Kai-Shek, Charles de Gaulle, Ronald Reagan,
François Mitterrand, Prince Andrew, Lady Sarah Ferguson, Charles
Lindberg, Alfred Hitchcock and Montgomery Clift. In 1944, Fairmont
Le Château Frontenac became the action center of the Quebec
Conferences of World War II, which involved U.S. President Franklin
D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Canadian
Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.
Today, Fairmont Le Château
Frontenac stands even taller over Cap Diamant, ready as always to
welcome friends from around the world to its elegant and pleasant
surroundings. |
