The Chateau Laurier in Ottawa

Photo: Carol Tulpar, 2003

The Chateau Laurier stands near the seat of government on the edge of Parliament Hill.

Once the great Canadian portrait photographer Yousef Karsh had his office in the hotel. In 2007, his widow Estrellita donated several original photographs to hang in the suite where the couple used to live. Karsh had his first exhibition in the Chateau Laurier in 1932, and he and his wife occupied a suite in the hotel from 1973 to 1992.

In 1857, ten years before Confederation established the nation of Canada, Queen Victoria chose Ottawa as the capital of the colony, in order to settle the disputing claims of Quebec, Montreal, Kingston, Toronto and Ottawa, and work immediately began on the Parliament Buildings.

However, it was not until 1912 that the Grand Trunk Railway opened Union Station and the Chateau Laurier Hotel.