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Hello From Ottawa - Part 9 - The Lord Elgin Hotel - A Historic Landmark In The Heart Of Ottawa

As far as travel to Ottawa is concerned, in the back.
you'd be hard pressed to find a more The hotel is named after James Bruce, 8th
central lodging location than the Lord Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine
Elgin Hotel. It is located right at the (1811 to 1863) who became Governor
Intersection of Elgin and Laurier General of Canada in 1847. He became the
Streets, just steps away from Parliament first Governor General to remove himself
Hill, the War Memorial, the Chateau from the affairs of the legislature,
Laurier, the Government Conference Centre which led to the essentially symbolic
and the National Arts Centre. role that the Governor-General of Canada
Confederation Park, one of the main has today.
locations for Winterlude, is located Ann also allowed me to have a look at
right across the street. some correspondence between Prime
We could not have found a better spot for Minister Mackenzie King and the grandson
our Ottawa Winterlude getaway last of the original Lord Elgin, who donated
weekend. My room on the 4th floor was two marble busts of his grandparents,
very comfortable and I had a perfect view Lord and Lady Elgin. The correspondence
out over Elgin Street, looking at the dates back to 1940 and talks about
Chateau Laurier and the War Memorial on shipping the busts on warships during
one side, and facing Confederation Park World War II from Scotland to Canada.
and the Rideau Canal on the other. We Ann also mentioned that during the summer
literally left our car parked for the a portion of the Changing of the Guards
whole 2 days and were able to get ceremony can be seen directly outside the
everywhere we wanted on foot. hotel. And the starting line for the
The Lord Elgin was a perfect starting Ottawa International Marathon is located
point for our adventures on the Rideau immediately in front of the Lord Elgin
Canal, and our excursions to the ByWard Hotel.
Market and Sparks Street. Further south Being the nosy person that I am I wanted
on Elgin Street is another major to get the real low-down on this property
entertainment area nestled inside an and Randy Battcock, Guest Services
established neighbourhood with exclusive Manager at the Lord Elgin, agreed to take
homes and condominiums. me on a tour through the property. Randy
Ann Meelker from the Lord Elgin Hotel was is an interesting individual himself, he
kind enough to give me a lay of the land hails from Newfoundland and worked for a
and pointed out the local landmarks. She local airline for 21 years. After running
also explained to me that the National a guest house in Ottawa for 8 years he
Conference Centre actually used to be a applied for the Guest Manager's position
railroad station many years ago, when and got the job the next day. It is
train tracks were routed right next to obvious that Randy loves what he does.
the Rideau Canal. During our tour through the building,
My big interest in this hotel was its Randy explained that the original
history as it was constructed more than building was H-shaped and that the back
60 years ago. So I did some reserach to was filled in many years ago to enlarge
dig into the background of this historic the rooms. In some of the boardrooms on
building. the higher levels you can still see the
In 1940, as the Second World War brought former street façade on the west side,
more and more official visitors into now forming an inside wall.
town, Ottawa found itself desperately Two 8-storey towers were added on the
short of hotel accommodation. A local north and south side and they added 55
entrepreneur and city alderman by the additional bedrooms, an inground pool and
name of Chester Pickering, President of a restaurant. Another little known fact
Dustbane, Modern Building Cleaning, and is that there is a 3 bedroom apartment on
Michael's Industrial Equipment, was the 12th floor which to this day is the
entrusted with the job of bringing a good residence of the former manager of the
hotel to the City. He connected with Jack hotel who spent 50 years managing the
Udd, a wealthy businessman from hotel and raised his children there. The
Rochester, New York, the president of the apartment has the only patio in the
Ford Hotel Chain. building with a perfect view east towards
They were looking for a suitable site for the Rideau Canal.
the hotel and finally found one in an Randy also enlightened me that of the
abandoned lot at the corner of Elgin and four guest elevators, two are original
Laurier. However, obtaining the land was and date all the way back to 1941. The
complicated by the fact that it was owned fourth elevator used to be a smokestack
by the federal government. for the furnace in the basement, but it
It seemed highly unlikely that this land was dismantled bit by bit to allow for
could be obtained from the government, the construction of an additional
but through personal connections and elevator. The building still has an
various outright shenanigans Chester original functioning mail chute where you
Pickering was able to get the property. can drop your letters from any floor and
Chester Pickering knew that then Prime gravity will take them to the mailroom
Minister Mackenzie King longed to make from where they will be sent out.
Ottawa the most attractive capital in the Although the Lord Elgin Hotel is one of
world, so he was sure that the idea of the most renowned and venerable
cleaning up this run-down area would institutions in Ottawa, it has a cozy
appeal to the Prime Minister. feel to it. During my stay it was hosting
And not only did Pickering get the land, hundreds of people who were attending
he also got a low-cost tax assessment on Winterlude, so you saw all these families
it, in light of the fact that government with children dressed up in heavy winter
had not been receiving any taxes on this garb walking through the hallways. I had
federally owned property at all before. several friendly chats with staff
With all the conditions met, Jack Udd members, and in particular with one young
started building the hotel and Prime bellman who was part of the Lord Elgin
Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King even team in the 26th Annual Bedzz Race on Dow
laid the cornerstone. The Lord Elgin was Lake.
completed in 1941 in a classical French The spot in front of the fireplace in the
chateau style at a cost of about lobby was always taken by people
C$1,500,000. relaxing, reading a paper, or conversing
All throughout Prime Minister Mackenzie while warming up after a cold day. We
King took a strong interest in the hotel noticed that the atmosphere was always
and virtually designed the pillars in relaxed and down-to-earth, never
front of the hotel himself. He also snobbish, as you might expect of a hotel
insisted that the hotel be built of of this stature. For us it was the
stone, not brick. Jack Udd agreed on a perfect location for a weekend of
compromise and used stone at both ends exploration in Canada's capital.
and in the front, but he would put brick




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