When it comes to Ottawa travel, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more central lodging location than the Lord Elgin Hotel. It is located right at the intersection of Elgin and Laurier streets, just steps from Parliament Hill, War Memorial, Chateau Laurier, Government Conference Center and National Arts Centre. Confederation Park, one of Winterlude’s main locations, is right across the street.

We couldn’t have found a better place for our Ottawa Winterlude getaway this past weekend. My room on the fourth floor was very comfortable and had a perfect view of Elgin Street, looking out at Chateau Laurier and the War Memorial on one side, and looking out over Confederation Park and the Rideau Canal on the other. We literally left our car parked for the entire 2 days and were able to get to everywhere we wanted on foot.

The Lord Elgin was a perfect starting point for our Rideau Canal adventures and our excursions to ByWard Market and Sparks Street. Further south on Elgin Street is another major entertainment area located within an established neighborhood of upscale homes and condominiums.

Ann Meelker from the Lord Elgin Hotel was kind enough to give me an idea of ​​the grounds and point out local landmarks. She also explained to me that the National Conference Center actually used to be a railroad station many years ago, when the railroad tracks ran right next to the Rideau Canal.

My great interest in this hotel was its history, as it was built over 60 years ago. So I did some digging to dig into the background of this historic building.

In 1940, as World War II brought more and more official visitors to the city, Ottawa found itself desperately short of hotel accommodation. A local businessman and city councilman named Chester Pickering, president of Dustbane, Modern Building Cleaning, and Michael’s Industrial Equipment, was given the job of bringing a fine hotel to town. He connected with Jack Udd, a wealthy businessman from Rochester, New York, president of the Ford hotel chain.

They were looking for a suitable site for the hotel and finally found one in an abandoned lot at the corner of Elgin and Laurier. However, obtaining the land was complicated by the fact that it was owned by the federal government.

It seemed highly unlikely that this land could be obtained from the government, but through personal connections and various mischief, Chester Pickering was able to obtain the property. Chester Pickering knew that then-Prime Minister Mackenzie King wanted to make Ottawa the most attractive capital in the world, so he was sure the idea of ​​cleaning up this blighted area would appeal to the Prime Minister.

And Pickering not only got the land, but also got a low-cost tax assessment on it, given that the government hadn’t been receiving any taxes on this federal property before. With all the conditions met, Jack Udd began building the hotel and Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King even laid the first stone. The Lord Elgin was completed in 1941 in a classic French chateau style at a cost of around C$1,500,000.

Throughout, Prime Minister Mackenzie King took a great interest in the hotel and virtually designed the pillars in front of the hotel himself. He also insisted that the hotel be built of stone, not brick. Jack Udd agreed to a compromise and used stone at both ends and the front, but would lay brick at the rear.

The hotel is named for James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine (1811 to 1863), who became Governor General of Canada in 1847. He became the first Governor General to retire from the business of the legislature , which led to the essentially symbolic role held today by the Governor General of Canada.

Ann also allowed me a glimpse of the correspondence between Prime Minister Mackenzie King and the grandson of the original Lord Elgin, who donated two marble busts of his grandparents, Lord and Lady Elgin. The correspondence goes back to 1940 and talks about the shipment of busts on warships during World War II from Scotland to Canada.

Ann also mentioned that during the summer you can view a portion of the Changing of the Guard ceremony directly outside the hotel. And the start line of the Ottawa International Marathon is located right in front of the Lord Elgin Hotel.

Being the nosy person that I am, I wanted to know the details of this property and Randy Battcock, Guest Services Manager at Lord Elgin, agreed to take me on a tour of the property. Randy is an interesting person, he is from Newfoundland and worked for a local airline for 21 years. After running a guest house in Ottawa for 8 years, he applied for the Guest Manager position and got the job the next day. It’s obvious that Randy loves what he does.

During our tour of the building, Randy explained that the original building was shaped like an H and that the back was filled in many years ago to make the rooms bigger. In some of the boardrooms on the upper levels, the old street façade can still be seen on the west side, now forming an inner wall.

Two 8-story towers were added on the north and south side and added an additional 55 rooms, an inground pool, and a restaurant. Another little-known fact is that there is a 3-bedroom apartment on the 12th floor that to this day is the residence of the former hotel manager who spent 50 years managing the hotel and raised his children there. The apartment has the only patio in the building with a perfect view to the east towards the Rideau Canal.

Randy also informed me that of the four guest elevators, two are original and date from 1941. The fourth elevator used to be a fireplace for the oven in the basement, but was gradually dismantled to allow for construction. of an additional elevator. The building still has an original working mail chute where you can drop your letters from any floor and gravity will pull them into the mail room from where they will be mailed.

Although the Lord Elgin Hotel is one of Ottawa’s most renowned and venerable institutions, it has a welcoming atmosphere. During my stay, it hosted hundreds of people who were attending Winterlude, so I would see all these families with children dressed in heavy winter clothing walking the halls. I had several friendly chats with members of staff and in particular a young bellboy who was part of Lord Elgin’s team at the 26th annual Bedzz race at Dow Lake.

The place in front of the fireplace in the lobby was always occupied by people relaxing, reading a newspaper or chatting while warming up after a cold day. We found that the atmosphere was always relaxed and down to earth, never snobbish, as you would expect from a hotel of this stature. For us it was the perfect place for a weekend of exploration in the capital of Canada.