Cuba Company Hotel([After 1902])
Antilla, Cuba
Commercial, Hotel [basement, 3flors, 40 bedrooms]; roughcast; glazed tile; wall bearing

Client: Cuba Company
Architect: E. & W.S. Maxwell

Description: Sir William Van Horne (210) was president of Canadian Pacific Railway from 1888 to 1899. After his retirement, he got involved in railway construction in Cuba, with the Cuba Railroad Company. This project was for a hotel at Antilla, a small city on the north-east coast on Bahia de Nipe. Three other related designs for the Cuba Company (houses, train station, offices and stores) were a by-product of the railway development, the same way hotels and resorts were built along the lines in Canada for the CPR. Edward and William S. Maxwell were called on once again as architects. The Hotel was sited on a sloping lot. The dining room was in the basement; the main entrance, bar, reading room, ladies’ room and office were on the ground floor. The hotel comprised 40 guest bedrooms, eight on the ground floor and the rest on the first and second floors. An octagonal skylight topped the wrought iron central staircase. A Tuscan colonnade supported the first floor verandah surrounding the building on three sides. Beautiful wrought iron railings and grills adorned the façades while the hip roof was covered with glazed tiles. The hotel was a fine example of Spanish colonial architecture. The stores and office building was a beautiful two-storey structure with a triangular plan and a round bell tower. It included a post office and three large office/store suites open to the street level. Thirteen smaller offices were upstairs, serviced by a verandah or an inner corridor. A variety of house plans were also developed, some attached, some larger with an upper storey including a manager’s house with servants’ bedrooms, all in the Spanish Colonial style. Two train station schemes were also designed. It is unclear if any of the buildings were in fact erected, or if they still stand today. When Van Horne died in 1915, Cuba President Mario Menocal decreed a national funeral day, and mentioned that ''he did more for us in a single year than the Spanish in four centuries''.

Holdings: Hotel; roughcast; wall bearing
14 Drawings: 9 ink on linen; 4 pencil on paper; 1 watercolour on paper
1 Sketch drawing: exterior perspective
4 Development drawings: floor plans, elevations
9 Working drawings: floor plans, elevations, section