Fonds

The Windsor Hotel Company of Montreal was incorporated in 1875 for the purpose of building and administering a public hotel. Businessmen Andrew Allan, A. Buntin, William E. Philipps, Horatio A. Nelson, James D. Gibb, Frederick W. Kay and Mathew H. Gault were the founding members.

The Second Empire-style hotel was designed by architect William Boyington and construction began in 1875. Its location on the corner of Windsor (Peel) and Dorchester (René-Lévesque) streets, across from Dominion (Dorchester) Square, was at the heart of a fast-growing area that was becoming the new commercial and financial centre of Montreal. Given the address of 1170 Dominion Square, the hotel opened for business on January 28, 1878. The celebrations marking the hotel's opening culminated in November of that year, with the St. Andrew's Society Ball (which became an annual event). At that time, the hotel had 278 rooms and 150 employees. It soon expanded by building other wings, first in 1906, then again in 1923.

For over a century, the Windsor Hotel was one of Montreal's preeminent hotels and an essential part of the city's public and social life. It boasted two ballrooms, a concert hall, six restaurants, and as many as 750 rooms. Numerous leading figures from the worlds of politics, finance, sports and culture stayed there, including Winston Churchill, Princess Elizabeth (the future Elizabeth II) and Prince Phillip, John F. Kennedy, Charles de Gaulle, authors Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and even actress Sarah Bernhardt. It frequently hosted political, social and entertainment events, such as the banquet honouring King George VI and Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) during the 1939 Royal Tour of Canada.

The building was partially destroyed by fire in 1957, leaving only the annex that had been built in 1906. A new three-storey annex was built shortly thereafter, in 1959. The hotel closed in October 1981 and was purchased four years later by the Laurentian Group, which converted it into an office building. To this day, the Windsor ballrooms still host a variety of special events.