ABSTRACT
The Hotel Architecture of Ross &
MacFarlane/Ross & Macdonald
David A. Rose
1992
The American hotel type began in 1830 and spread to Canada
by the late nineteenth century through the work of American architects. During the first
half of the twentieth century the Montreal firm of Ross & MacFarlane (1905-12) and its
successor, Ross & Macdonald (1913-42), continued the tradition of the grand hotel in
their design of eight large Canadian hotels: three railway hotels built between 1909 and
1914 - the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, the Fort Garry in Winnipeg, and the Macdonald Hotel
in Edmonton; two commercial hotels in the early 1920s - the Mount Royal Hotel in Montreal
and the Admiral Beatty Hotel in St. John; two railway hotels in the late 1920s - the Hotel
Saskatchewan in Regina, and the Royal York in Toronto; and lastly, a 1941 post-depression
hotel - the Lord Elgin in Ottawa.
The hotel architecture of Ross & MacFarlane/Ross &
Macdonald was shaped by many elements. Essential to this study is a consideration of the
American hotel prototype, contemporary hotels in Canada and the United States, the
background and education of the architects, the fundamentals of hotel planning, the
corporate clients, and the Canadian social, political, and economic contexts in which the
buildings were erected.
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