Banff Springs Hotel
Encyclopedia
The Fairmont Banff Springs or simply the Banff Springs Hotel is a former railway hotel
Canada's grand railway hotels
Canada’s railway hotels are a series of grand hotels across the country, each a local and national landmark, and most of which are icons of Canadian history and architecture. Each hotel was originally built by the Canadian railway companies, or the railways acted as a catalyst for the hotel’s...
constructed in Scottish Baronial style located in Banff National Park
Banff National Park
Banff National Park is Canada's oldest national park, established in 1885 in the Rocky Mountains. The park, located 110–180 kilometres west of Calgary in the province of Alberta, encompasses of mountainous terrain, with numerous glaciers and ice fields, dense coniferous forest, and alpine...
, Alberta, Canada. The original hotel, designed by American architect Bruce Price
Bruce Price
Bruce Price was the American architect of many of the Canadian Pacific Railway's Château-type stations and hotels...
, was built between spring of 1887 and 1888 by the Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
, at the instigation of its President, William Cornelius Van Horne
William Cornelius Van Horne
Sir William Cornelius Van Horne, KCMG was a pioneering Canadian railway executive.-Life and career:Born in 1843 in rural Illinois, he moved with his family to Joliet, Illinois when he was eight years old...
. The hotel was publicly opened on June 1, 1888. Starting in 1911, a wholly new hotel was built in stages to replace the 1888 structure. The new hotel was designed by another American architect, Walter S. Painter
Walter S. Painter
Walter S. Painter was an American architect who is chiefly noted for his work with the Canadian Pacific Railway as its chief architect. Painter's most significant works include the redesigned Banff Springs Hotel, the Cave and Basin Hot Springs bathhouse in Banff, Alberta and a series of railroad...
. Compared with Price's Shingle style-influenced wooden structure, Painter's new hotel was built of concrete and faced with stone.
History
By 1906, plans were advanced for a complete overhaul of the Banff Springs, replacing much of the original structure. Walter Painter, chief architect for the Canadian Pacific, designed an eleven-storey central tower in concrete and stone, flanked by two wings. The so-called "Painter Tower", this time correctly oriented to the view, was completed in 1914 at a cost of $2 million with 300 guest rooms, was for a time the tallest building in Canada. Construction of the new wings was delayed by World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and the surviving Price wings continued in service. Two new wings, this time designed by architect J.W. Orrock, opened in 1928. Orrock, using the style originated by Painter, greatly expanded the Painter Tower, altering its roofline, and adding his own massive additions. In 1926, while work was proceeding on the new wings, a fire destroyed the remainder of the original Price hotel.
The hotel is presently owned and operated by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts
Fairmont Hotels and Resorts
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is a Canadian-based operator of luxury hotels and resorts. Currently, Fairmont operates properties in 18 countries including Canada, the United States, Mexico, Bermuda, Barbados, United Kingdom, Monaco, Germany, Switzerland, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, the...
. The hotel is within a spectacular setting in the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
, just above the Bow Falls
Bow Falls
Bow Falls is a major waterfall on the Bow River, Alberta just before the junction of it and the Spray River. The falls are located near the Banff Springs Hotel and golf course on the left-hand side of River Road....
, close to thermal springs
Hot spring
A hot spring is a spring that is produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater from the Earth's crust. There are geothermal hot springs in many locations all over the crust of the earth.-Definitions:...
. It is within walking distance of the resort community of Banff
Banff, Alberta
Banff is a town within Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. It is located in Alberta's Rockies along the Trans-Canada Highway, approximately west of Calgary and east of Lake Louise....
. The main view from the hotel is across the valley and towards Mount Rundle
Mount Rundle
Mount Rundle is a mountain in Banff National Park overlooking the towns of Banff and Canmore, Alberta. The mountain was named by John Palliser in 1858 after Reverend Robert Rundle, who had visited the Banff area during the 1840s....
, frequently cited in geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
books for its exposed and tilted ancient seabeds.
In 1968, the hotel was winterised
Winterization
Winterization refers to the process of preparing something for an upcoming winter.The term is most commonly used in respect to aquatic play features, fountains, and the like, which must be drained and sealed up so that water inside does not freeze, causing breakage of the pipes in the fountain, or...
and has been open year-round since.
Halfway up the internal staircase closest to the Bow Falls
Bow Falls
Bow Falls is a major waterfall on the Bow River, Alberta just before the junction of it and the Spray River. The falls are located near the Banff Springs Hotel and golf course on the left-hand side of River Road....
may be found a noted painting of William Davidson
William Davidson (lumberman)
William Davidson was a Scottish-Canadian lumber merchant, shipbuilder and politician. He was the first permanent European settler on the Miramichi River in the Canadian Province of New Brunswick.- Arrival in the New World :...
felling trees on the Miramichi River
Miramichi River
The Miramichi River is a Canadian river located in the east-central part of New Brunswick. The river drains into Miramichi Bay in the Gulf of St. Lawrence...
in colonial times. Davidson was the first European settler in that area, and grew up in Moray, close to Banff
Banff, Aberdeenshire
Banff is a town in the Banff and Buchan area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Banff is situated on Banff Bay and faces the town of Macduff across the estuary of the River Deveron...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. The painting is by the war artist Cyrus Cunoe ( 1879-1916), who executed a series of paintings for the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Further reading
- Banff Springs: The Story of a Hotel (2007; Summerthought Publishing http://www.summerthought.com)
- Rails & Rooms: A Timeless Canadian Journey (by Dave Preston; Whitecap Books)