| I M A G E S: Drawings Photographs Postcards | |
Royal Alexandra Hotel and Train Station for the Canadian Pacific Railways([1899-1906]) Hotel: 181 Higgins Avenue; Station: Higgins and Fonseca Avenues, corner of Main Street, Winnipeg, MB, Canada Commercial, Transportation, Hotel and station [hotel: basement, 7 floors, mezzanine; express/office building: 3 floors; station: ground floor, mezzanine]; brick and stone; composite Client: Canadian Pacific Railway Company Description: This major undertaking ''a large hotel and an imposing station'' signals a stylistic shift for the Maxwells and the Canadian Pacific, from Château style to Beaux-Arts classicism. It coincides with the arrival of William Maxwell as principal partner within the firm as of 1902 and marks the time when Sir William Van Horne (210) was replaced as president of CPR by Sir Thomas Shaughnessy (199). Winnipeg was at the time an important transportation hub, with a CPR terminal, two upcoming transcontinental lines and branches to the United States. An early scheme by Edward Maxwell in 1899 (in keeping with current picturesque CPR manner) was not retained and by the time the land needed was secured in 1904, tastes in architecture had changed. A more fashionable classicism seemed appropriate.
The new station replaced a modest two-story brick structure erected in 1882. A monumental central portico (55 feet wide and 40 feet high) with its colossal order of paired columns in antis, signaled the entrance, topped by a heavy cornice, large sculpted heads and a massive clock adorned with garlands and horns of plenty. Three doors lead to the Great Hall and the waiting room. The rich green walls, the dark-stained woodwork and golden-toned glazes on capitals and friezes in this monumental room are no longer visible, due to structural alterations (1915) and to the subsequent redecoration. Two wings housed more public space and offices. The brick walls are adorned with limestone trim and the rear façade facing the tracks was similar save the monumental colonnade. Other stations in the classical style would soon follow in Ottawa, Vancouver and Toronto. A modest three-storey annex (express/office building) connected the Station to the Royal Alexandra Hotel to the west. The new hotel façade composition celebrated its corner location; the main entrance was placed at the junction of the two main elevations (with the central part slightly recessed form extremities) that gently meet into a curve at the corner. The same powerful yet balanced mix of materials (brick for the upper five stories, stone for the first two stories and ornament, pilasters and cornices) and French-inspired architectonic elements adorned the hotel and the station. Two splendid watercolours depict the proposed buildings in relation to one another.
Ironically, while the Royal Alexandria Beaux-Arts classicism symbolized a new stylistic direction for CPR, the competition, namely the Grand Trunk Railways (GTR), continued the Château style that made the Canadian Pacific so distinctive in Winnipeg, erecting the Fort Garry Hotel (Ross and Macfarlane, 1911-1913). For more than 50 years one of the classiest locations in Winnipeg, the hotel lost most of its clientele in the 1970s and was finally destroyed in 1971. As for the train station, Via Rail opted in 1978 to centralize its Winnipeg activities to rival GTR Union Station (Warren and Wetmore, 1891, architects of Grand Central Terminal in New York and Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montreal). Transport operations were phased out in the 1980s. In December 1992 it was sold to ACWI (Aboriginal Centre of Winnipeg). ACWI has extensively renovated the building and uses it as its headquarters, providing diversified services to the First Nations. Holdings: Hotel and station (hotel: basement, 7 floors, mezzanine; express/office building: 3 floors; station: ground floor, mezzanine); brick and stone; composite | |
| I M A G E S: Drawings Photographs Postcards | |
| B A C K T O R E S U L T S N E W S E A R C H | |