10 January 2008
Victoria's Grand Empress Celebrates 100th Year
Ex-Canadian Pacific Railway hotel the
Empress.
Victoria Vancouver Island British Columbia - For some
people, the criteria for choosing a place to stay on vacation or business are simple: good price and a nice
big-screen TV.
But for others, it's not what you pay or how many channels you can watch in HD. It's visiting the past and its old-world
charm - attributes embodied by Victoria's Empress Hotel.
For almost a century, the Empress (now the Fairmont Empress) has survived economic depressions, fads, labour disputes,
ever-increasing competition, and several renovations. It has played host to celebrities, royalty, national, and world
leaders. As its centennial approaches, it appears to be more firmly entrenched than ever.
"It's an icon," said Roger Soane, now in his second stint as general manager of the hotel. "If people came to Victoria
and stayed at another hotel, they'd say they went to Victoria. If they stayed here, they'd say they went to the Empress."
A veteran of 20 hotels, Mr. Soane said he's yet to see another building have such an effect on a city. "I've never worked in a
destination where there's such a passion for the establishment," he said. "Here, we not only entertain guests, but we have
many of the major fundraisers and charitable events... it's really key to the city."
"It's an edifice - for sure, and that's what hooks people," said Paul Jeffery, facilities operation manager. "You talk
to people all over Europe, all over the world, and they know about the Empress."
Mr. Jeffery has held 11 different positions during his 28-year tenure. He's overseen banquets, weddings, Queen Elizabeth's
Golden Jubilee visit, a first ministers conference (at which former Ontario premier Bill Davis fled the hotel after a brief kitchen
fire and insisted on staying somewhere else), and the last major renovation of the hotel during the late 1980s. He said people marvel
at the Edwardian design of the hotel, which he playfully labelled "hotel chateau Gothic."
He laughed about the hotel's reputation for English customs and traditions, but did agree that its most prominent British tradition
continues to lure people into its famed sitting salon. "Yes, it's true. The world stops here for tea."
The Tea Room, and the rest of the hotel, actually sits on reclaimed land. The Empress was the brainchild of famed architect Francis
Rattenbury. When ships of the Canadian Pacific Railway's Empress line started sailing to Victoria in 1891, calls surfaced for a hotel
fitting the city's enhanced reputation as a destination or port-of-call.
In 1901, the CPR acquired the Canadian Pacific Navigation Company and promised to pay more attention to improving the
Victoria-Vancouver route. Mr. Rattenbury dreamed of creating a landmark to distinguish the city from all others.
A complicated deal between the city's board of trade and the CPR's president was worked out. The CPR got the land, along with
tax-exempt status and free water for 20 years. In exchange, it would build a hotel on the reclaimed mudflats of James Bay,
the epicentre of the city's inner harbour. That itself was an architectural feat.
To hold back the tide, the city's engineer built a cofferdam - two rows of piles driven deep into the mud, lined with heavy planks and
then filled with more mud. Some 800 wooden pilings went down to form the foundation of the retaining wall. More than 100,000 tonnes of
fill was used to level the bridge.
In late 1903, part of the retaining wall at the causeway started to give way. Dozens of pilings were hammered into the retaining wall's
weakest points; a concrete buttress was built, seven metres thick and nine metres high. Work slowed to a snail's pace, but Rattenbury
ad libbed. More land was expropriated and the design and layout were rejigged.
Then, work started on the base of the hotel. More than 6,000 cubic metres of dirt were excavated for the foundation area. Nearly 3,000
13-metre pilings were driven down through the mud into the blue clay. The caps of the pilings were encased in concrete
piers. The foundation and surrounding perimeter were filled with thousands of tonnes of crushed rock, sand, and cement.
The work took 14 months and, at its peak, required 100 men, working 24 hours a day. The foundation was completed in 1905, but it would
be another three years before the construction was done. The doors officially swung open 20 Jan 1908 - the same doors that
still swing open 100 years later.
Deirdre Campbell spent nearly seven years at the hotel, handling public relations. She saw no shortage of stars, including Peter
Ustinov, Barbra Streisand, and John Travolta.
"Indeed, there's a certain celebrity status to staying there," said Ms. Campbell after she listed other notable visitors,
such as John Wayne, Shirley Temple, and Peter Lawford.
Not only did Ms. Campbell work at the Empress, she also lived there for six months. She said she felt like the last of the
"dowagers," a bygone era that disappeared well before her arrival. The dowagers were older, independent women, who lived
full-time there and felt as though they ruled the hotel.
"They used to sit in the tea lobby as if they were on guard, protecting the place."
Also part of the hotel's folklore, Ms. Campbell said, are tales of ghosts, purportedly floating around the 477 rooms. One, dating back
to the 1930s, surrounds the maid of one of the dowagers. The maid used to take cigarette breaks or have a prayer session on a
sixth-floor fire escape. Legend has it, Ms. Campbell said, that while repairs were being done, construction crews
neglected to block it off. The maid fell to her death and an apparition still haunts the hotel.
"I guess that's part of the charm, part of the history of the hotel," Ms. Campbell said. "It's what makes it
unique."
Renovations to its famed Tea Room, which still boasts the original flooring, begin this month. They'll be heavily scrutinized, which
gives the owners pause for thought as to how they'll progress.
"It's the focal point of the city. There's such strong ownership here that if you tried to change it, there would be an
uproar."
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