Laurentian Hotel
The Laurentian Hotel was a 1000-room hotel on Dorchester Street, now René Lévesque Boulevard, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The hotel was built in 1948 and demolished in 1978.
History
The hotel's location had been the site of the Dominion-Square Methodist Church from 1865 until 1912. The building was designed by Charles Davis Goodman, who was the architect of a number of prominent Streamline Moderne structures in the city, including the Bens De Luxe Delicatessen & Restaurant and Jewish General Hospital. The building had 21 stories with 1,100 rooms.The hotel opened on March 20, 1848. Approximately 400 guests attended the hotel's grand opening, including mayor Camillien Houde and Archbishop Joseph Charbonneau. Houde said that the building, which was made by Anglophone builders who left the sign with the French spelling of "Laurentien", symbolized good relations between the Francophone and Anglophone communities of Montreal.
The Canadian Pacific proposed a new development for the site of the hotel in the late 1970s, and it was subsequently demolished in 1977. At the time, it was the largest hotel ever demolished in Canada. The La Laurentienne Building now stands on the site of the former hotel.