Fairmont Palliser Hotel, building in Alberta, Canada
The Fairmont Palliser Hotel is a sandstone building in downtown Calgary, with nine floors arranged in an E-shaped floor plan. This layout means that every guest room faces the outside and receives natural light directly from the street or the inner courts.
The hotel opened in 1914 to welcome wealthy travelers arriving by train during a period of rapid growth for the city. Three floors and a penthouse were added in the 1920s, and for a time the building was the tallest in Calgary.
The hotel takes its name from Captain John Palliser, a British explorer who traveled through the region in the mid-1800s. The grand lobby and tea lounge are still places where locals meet for afternoon tea, a tradition that has continued without interruption since the early days.
The hotel is on 9th Avenue SW in the city center, within walking distance of the Calgary Tower and main shopping streets. A CTrain station nearby makes it easy to move around the downtown area without a car.
During Prohibition, guests reportedly hid bottles in the ballrooms while staff quietly looked the other way. These stories are still passed on by hotel employees and give the building a layer of history that goes beyond its sandstone walls.
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