The Fort Garry Hotel is the sole surviving remnant in Winnipeg from the era of grand railway hotels. Designed by Montreal architects George A. Ross and David H. MacFarlane, constructed between 1911 and 1913, and opened at a grand ball on 10 December 1913, the hotel is Manitoba’s only example of the Château architectural style. Located a block west of Union Station, the landmark hotel has magnificently well-preserved banquet halls and rooms reminiscent of the opulent pampering of the past. In 1980, a commemorative plaque was unveiled by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. It became a provincially-designated historic site (1990) and a municipally-designated historic site. The building was recognized with a Heritage Winnipeg Conservation Award in 2001.
Fort Garry Hotel (August 1924) by Lewis Foote
Source: Archives of Manitoba, Foote 1536, N2567.
Fort Garry Hotel (no date)
Source: Toronto Postcard Club, 2016-0073
Fort Garry Hotel behind the former gate of Upper Fort Garry (no date)
Source: Fort Garry Hotel
Fort Garry Hotel (December 2013)
Source: George Penner
Fort Garry Hotel (September 2019)
Source: George PennerSite Coordinates (lat/long): N49.88818, W97.13685
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Canadian National Railway Power House (8 Forks Market Road, Winnipeg)
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Manitoba Plaques for Persons, Events and Sites of National Historic Significance
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Provincially Designated Historic Sites
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Municipally Designated Historic Sites
Visionaries and Risk-Takers: The First Hundred Years of the Fort Garry Hotel by Giles Bugailiskis
Manitoba History, Volume 73, Fall 2013Fort Garry Hotel (official hotel website)
“Opening ball at the Fort Garry function of great brilliancy,” Manitoba Free Press, 11 December 1913, page 9.
Hotel Fort Garry, Manitoba Historic Resources Branch.
Information for this page was provided by The City of Winnipeg’s Planning, Property and Development Department, which acknowledges the contribution of the Government of Manitoba through its Heritage Grants Program.
We thank Jason Vanderhill (Vancouver Postcard Club), Toronto Postcard Club, and George Penner for providing images of the Fort Garry Hotel.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 30 September 2022
Historic Sites of Manitoba
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