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Te Royal Alexandra: Winnipeg's forgotten luxury rail hotel


The Royal Alexandra Hotel. by Derek Gagnon


northeast corner of Higgins and Main in Winnipeg, you are actually travelling past the former site of the first true luxury hotel built in Winnipeg. Te Royal Alexandra Hotel was built on


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the spot in 1905, with a 1915 expansion. Before the Fort Garry Hotel was built on Broadway, the ‘Royal Alex’ served as the premiere hotel for the railway hub that


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t’s not much to look at now, and it’s hard to imagine ti ever was. But if you drive past the empty lot on the


The Boudoir of the Vice Regal Suite of the Royal Alexandra Hotel.


Winnipeg had become in its early years. It was the jewel of the crown of the Cana- dian Pacific Railway’s hotels, with ornate fixtures and high ceilings it became a social gathering place, and attracted visi- tors including King George VI in 1939 and Princess Elizabeth in 1951. She visited again as Queen Elizabeth II in 1959. Though it’s been 110 years since the


hotel was built, the area it was in has not changed all that much. Te building of the hotel and railway station was hoped to kick-start the surrounding area, with small businesses and hotels lining the streets. Te seven-storey hotel was cer-


tainly not an eye sore. Built in the Beaux- Arts architecture style made familiar to Winnipeggers by Union Station and the Manitoba Legislative Building, and completed with limestone and red brick. Te Royal Alexandra, or ‘Royal Alex’, saw a decline in business as time went by. Passenger rail travel slowly was replaced by air transport, and the need for a major hotel next to a rail line diminished. Tat factor, couple with the fact that


generation of the area had not come along as was once hoped, resulted in CP shut- ting the doors of the hotel in 1967, with some of the furnishings sent to other CP


hotels, and other items sold to the public. Unlike some of the other architectural relics of the city that sat empty for ages, the Royal Alex was demolished in 1971. Te site remained owned by CP until the late 80s, with the next door station ceasing passenger service for their trains in 1978. Te site, along with the building next door, is now the Aboriginal Centre of Winnipeg. Some surviving parts of the building


itself are lion’s heads made of granite, some of which are located in the English Gardens at Assiniboine Park as well as at the end of Bannatyne Avenue in the Ex- change District east of Main Street.


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