Ritz-Carlton Montreal

Montreal had developed a positive reputation for its top hotels at least since 1820, when John Bigsby observed that the city's hotels were "as remarkable for their palatial exteriors as they are for their excellent accommodation within."[4] Donegana's Hotel became the largest in the British Colonies in the 1840s,[5] and the Windsor had been Montreal's pre-eminent hotel since the 1870s.

By 1909, some of the city's wealthiest citizens wanted a modern "first class residential hotel". Led by Charles Hosmer (a personal friend of César Ritz), Sir Herbert Holt, Sir Montagu Allan and Sir Charles Gordon met with the Hon. Lionel Guest (a first cousin of Winston Churchill) and Harry Higgins (Chairman of the Ritz Hotel London) to found the Carlton Hotel Company of Montreal. The land on which the hotel was built was purchased from Charles Meredith, who became the fifth principal shareholder and had a significant influence on the hotel's image and future.[6] The hotel was designed by the architectural firm of Warren and Wetmore,[2] and it was completed at a cost of $2 million. Its doors were officially opened at 11:15 pm on New Year's Eve, 1912, marked by a gala ball attended by 350 guests.

As the founders had hoped, two-thirds of the guests at the Ritz-Carlton took suites comprising several rooms and lived there permanently for $29 a month.[7] The First World War made standards difficult to keep, and in 1922, in direct rivalry to the Ritz-Carlton, the Mount Royal Hotel was erected as the largest hotel in the British Empire. The Ritz-Carlton and the Mount Royal Club (not to be confused with the similarly named hotel) were the most fashionable meeting places for the city's wealthy within the area later known as the Golden Square Mile. On Valentine's Day, 1916, the first transcontinental telephone call was made from the hotel. An audience of two hundred businessmen were said to have listened breathlessly as the Chairman of the Bell Telephone Company enquired: "Hello. Is this Vancouver?" The clear reply - "Yes" - was met with a roar of approval and toasted with champagne.[8]

In the years before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the hotel enjoyed a period of great prosperity. In 1918, Lord Birkenhead described it as "very luxurious and comfortable"[9] and the American Bankers Association held their annual meetings there. In 1919, the Prince of Wales made the first Royal visit, staying in the seventeen-room Royal Suite. On successive trips to Montreal he stayed in private houses, but always met friends for drinks there. Queen Marie of Romania, Prince Felix of Luxembourg and Prince George, Duke of Kent were also guests in the 1920s. Lillie Langtry stayed, as did movie idols such as Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks.[10] Former US President William Howard Taft and his wife "entertained lavishly" in the Presidential Suite for all of 1921.[11]

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 was followed by the Great Depression and then World War II. The Swiss General Manager, Émile Charles des Baillets, had been with the hotel since 1924. In 1929, he lamented that before guests had come to stay for several weeks accompanied by trains of luggage, but during this time, when they did come, they came for a night or two with only a single bag.[12]

Fortunately for the hotel, many of its in-house residents were not as badly affected as their American counterparts following 1929, and they stayed loyal to the hotel through its dark days. From the 1930s, when the widows and residents of the Golden Square Mile began to downsize from their mansions, a great many took rooms in the hotel, such as Lady Shaughnessy and founder Charles Hosmer's son, Elwood, who between him and sister had inherited $20 million from their father in 1927.[10] The hotel's international reputation remained untarnished with guests such as Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Marlene Dietrich, Liberace, Tyrone Power and Maurice Chevalier; but as the last of the loyal Square Milers (who had been so pivotal to its early success) were dying off, the hotel began to fall into debt.

Wartime shortages made it difficult to maintain the graceful living standards set by the original founders.[12] The General Manager, des Baillets, was succeeded by Albert Frossard in 1940, another native of Switzerland. Unhappily, and not without a fight, Frossard had to bow to the directors' commands to relax the custom of formal dress, of either White tie or Black tie, to suits in order to allow more people to dine at the hotel. Not that the founders would have approved, but the change worked and the hotel realized larger profits.[12]

In 1947, the hotel was sold to François Dupré, forming a new board of directors and naming himself president. Already the owner of two prestigious hotels in Paris - Hotel George V, Paris and the Plaza Athénée - Dupré had money, talent and experience, bringing with him some of the flair of César Ritz. He opened le Bar Maritime in 1948 and in the early 1950s added the Ritz Garden, where patrons could dine around a flower-fringed pond, home to twenty four ducklings. On one unseasonably cold summer night, a kind-hearted waiter took the ducks inside. The following day, during lunch, another waiter opened a tureen, and to his surprise, all the ducks waddled out. Amused guests helped staff round them up and returned them to the garden.[12]

In 1957, a new wing consisting of sixty-seven rooms and suites was added, and care was taken to maintain the original Ritz-influenced Louis XVI and Carlton-influenced Regency styles and ambience. When the renovation was complete, Howard Hughes was the first person to check in, booking out over half of the eighth floor. Between 1959 and 1969 the image of the hotel was more like that of a Gentlemen's club. It catered to Montreal's old money and kept a low key, understated profile.[13] However, publicity it could not escape was the wedding of Elizabeth Taylor to Richard Burton that took place there in 1964.[14]

By 1970, it was felt an overhaul was long overdue. Shedding its formal image, it was updated to one of historical importance yet with modern styles, luxury and services.[3] A year after Richard Nixon stayed, in 1972 The Rolling Stones booked out the entire sixth floor, but were refused service in the main dining room for not being suitably attired – they returned in jackets. In 1976, the hotel received two famous guests Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip as well as the most renowned award for a hotel: the AAA Five diamond distinction. In 1977, champagne corks popped at the Oval Room party at which 600 guests bade farewell to esteemed General Manager Fred Laubi and welcomed his successor. At the age of 36 Fernand Roberge was the first French-Canadian Ritz-Carlton's General Manager. Under his command terrycloth bathrobes, French toiletries, bathroom scales, large umbrellas were placed in every room. By 1979, the lobby and reception areas were enlarged and 100 rooms and suites had been redecorated. In 1984, Brian Mulroney was using the hotel like a second home and Pierre Elliott Trudeau was also becoming a familiar sight since having taken up residence at Maison Cormier in the same year. In 1988, year of its 75th Anniversary, the Ritz-Carlton Montreal, welcomed the Queen Mother. The same year, in order to celebrated the Dames and Messieurs of the Ritz-Carlton, all the employees and their spouses were invited to dine at the Café de Paris. Many leading figures of the 20th century have stayed at the Ritz-Carlton Montreal, including Queen Elizabeth II, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Richard Nixon, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Brian Mulroney, George Bush Sr, the Rolling Stones and Céline Dion. The Ritz-Carlton Montreal closed in 2008 for renovation and reopened after a $200 million restoration.

Today, the hotel is part of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC., owned by Marriott International. Unlike other Ritz-Carlton hotels, the hotel is still using its iconic lion emblem.

The hotel has 96 rooms and 33 suites, including the Royal Suite with 4700 square feet and 3 bedrooms. When the hotel completed its renovations in 2012, it said the Royal Suite was the largest hotel room in Canada, renting for $7,000 to $10,000 per night.[15]

Since 2012, the hotel's main restaurant is Maison Boulud, named for the celebrity chef Daniel Boulud.[16] The hotel also offers afternoon tea in the refurbished Palm Court.[17]

In 2015 the hotel added a spa for the first time, as the Spa St. James moved into the hotel from its prior location in a historic building on Crescent Street.[18]

• 2016 CAA/AAA Five Diamond Award
• TripAdvisor 2016 Traveller's Choice Award, January 2016 – named the Top Luxury Hotel in Canada
• U.S. News & World Report, "Best Hotels in Canada 2016,"January 2016 – named the Best Hotel in Canada
• Condé Nast Traveler 2016 Gold List, "Our Favourite Hotels in the World," December 2015
• Condé Nast Traveler Readers Choice Awards, "Best Hotels in Canada 2015," October 2015 – named one of the best hotels in Canada
• Travel + Leisure, "2015 World's Best Award," July 2015 – named top city hotel in Canada
• Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star Hotels, February 2015
• Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star Restaurants, February 2015 – awarded to Maison Boulud, one of only two restaurants to be recognized in Montreal
• 2015 AAA Five Diamond Award®, January 2015 – the only hotel in Quebec to receive the Five Diamond Rating and one of just six in Canada
• U.S. News & World Report, "Best Hotels in Canada 2015,"January 2015 – named the Best Hotel in Canada
• Travel + Leisure, "World's Best Hotels for Families," November 2014 – named one of the best in Canada
• Travel + Leisure, "2014 World's Best Awards," August 2014 – named one of the top City Hotels in Canada
• U.S. News & World Report, "Best Hotels in Canada 2014,"January 2014 – named the Best Hotel in Canada
• 2014 AAA Five Diamond Award®, January 2014 – the only hotel in Quebec to receive the Five Diamond Rating and one of just five in Canada
• Condé Nast Traveler 2014 Gold List, "The World's Best Hotels,"January 2014 – recognized as the highest scoring hotel in Quebec with an overall score of 92.7
• 2013 Fodor's 100 Hotel Award, "Enduring Classics" winner, October 2013 – one of just three in Canada to make the list
• U.S. News & World Report, "Best Luxury Hotels in Canada," July 2013
• Robb Report's "Top 100 Hotels in the World," May 2013
• Condé Nast Traveler 2013 Hot List, "Best New Hotels in the World" winner, April 2013
• 2013 AAA Five Diamond Award®, October 2012 – the only hotel in Quebec to receive the Five Diamond Rating and one of just four in Canada

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ritz-Carlton, Montreal.

• Official website
• Biography of François Dupré
• Photograph:Ritz Carleton Hotel, 1915 - McCord Museum
• Photograph:Ritz Carleton Hotel, 1924 - McCord Museum
• Photograph:Ritz Carleton Hotel, about 1938 - McCord Museum