Ottawa Hotel
The Ottawa Hotel in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, was built in 1845 at 50 Great St. James Street by George Hall. It is a 19th-century example of an attempt to build a skyscraper. Hall had previously owned a hotel by the same name located at the corner of McGill and St. Maurice Streets from at least 1842.
The Lovell's City Directories of 1844/45 through to 1850 lists the two Ottawa Hotels as: Ottawa Hotel McGill Street and Ottawa Hotel 50 Great St. James Street.
The 1850 Lovell's listing also has an advertisement which states:
The Lovell's Directories after 1852 list only the one Ottawa Hotel, on Great St. James Street. The 1852 Lovell's listing also has a full-page advertisement which states:
About 1855, Samuel Browning added a new wing containing 30 "spacious and well ventilated bedrooms" on the parcel behind the hotel, on what is now Notre-Dame Street West.
Different ads run in the Lovell's Directories between 1855/56 and 1857/58 also add that:
The Ottawa Hotel continued in operation until about 1881/82, after which it was converted into stores and offices. For example, the Euard & MacDonald Hardware occupied space in the Ottawa Hotel from 1882/83.
The neo-classical hotel is still home to offices and stores today and is protected with heritage status.