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The Ritz-Carlton Montréal is a hotel that is found at 1228 Sherbrooke Street West, on the corner of Drummond Street, in Montréal, Quebec. Opened in 1912, it was the first hotel in North America to bear the "Ritz Carlton" name.〔Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company〕 The Ritz-Carlton hotel located in the luxurious Golden Square Mile is only partially branded by the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, as it is otherwise independently owned. The original builders called themselves the Carlton Hotel Company of Montreal with the concept of naming it after London's celebrated Carlton Hotel. However, one of the investors, Charles Hosmer, was a personal friend of César Ritz and he successfully persuaded his colleagues to incorporate the 'Ritz' name, owing to the success of the Hôtel Ritz Paris, opened in 1898. For a fee of $25,000, Ritz agreed to lend his name, but stipulated that in accordance with the 'Ritz standards', every room was to have its own bathroom; there was to be a kitchen on every floor so room-service meals could be served course by course; and a round-the-clock valet and concierge service was to be made available to the guests for, amongst other duties, tracking lost luggage or ordering theatre tickets etc.〔 Finally, the lobby was to be small and intimate yet with a curved grand staircase for the ladies to show off their ball gowns on their descent.〔''The Suite Life: The Magic and Mystery of Hotel Living''. By Christopher Heard〕 ==Early years== Montreal had long held a reputation for its sumptuous hospitality, going back to at least 1820 when John Bigsby observed that the city's hotels were "as remarkable for their palatial exteriors as they are for their excellent accommodation within."〔(The Shoe and Canoe; or pictures of travel in the Canadas (published 1850) by John Bigsby )〕 In the 1840s, Donegana's Hotel, the largest in the British Colonies, had a reputation equal to, if not exceeding, that of New York's Astor House.〔The Canadian Guide Book, with a map of the Province — Edward Stavely, 1849〕 From the 1870s, the Windsor had been Montreal's pre-eminent hotel, but by 1909 certain of Montreal's wealthiest citizens felt that the increasingly influential city now needed a modern "first class residential hotel" to bring it into the Edwardian era. Led by Charles Hosmer (a personal friend of César Ritz); Sir Herbert Holt, Sir Montague Allan and Sir Charles Gordon, met with Hon. Lionel Guest (a first cousin of Winston Churchill) and Harry Higgins (Chairman of the Ritz Hotel London) to found the Carlton Hotel Company of Montreal. The land on which the hotel was built was purchased from Charles Meredith, who became the fifth principal shareholder and had a significant influence on the hotel's image and future.〔Staying Connected — How the MacDougall Family Built a Business over 160 Years (2009) - James Ferrabee & Michael Harrison〕 The hotel was designed by the architectural firm of Warren and Wetmore and was completed at a cost of $2 million. Its doors were officially opened at 11:15 pm on New Year's Eve, 1912, marked by a gala ball attended by 350 guests. As the founders had hoped, two-thirds of the guests at the Ritz-Carlton took suites comprising several rooms and lived there permanently for $29 a month.〔J.W. McConnell: Financier, Philanthropist, Patriot (2008), by William Fong〕 The First World War had made standards difficult to keep and in 1922, in direct rivalry to the Ritz-Carlton, the largest hotel in the British Empire was built on its doorstep with 1,100 rooms – the Mount Royal Hotel (not connected to the club of the same name). Helped by its more central location within what would later be termed as the Golden Square Mile, since opening its doors the Ritz-Carlton had joined the Mount Royal Club (whose co-founders included Allan and Meredith) as one of the two most fashionable meeting places for moneyed Montreal. On Valentine's Day, 1916, the first transcontinental telephone call was made at the hotel. An audience of two hundred businessmen were said to have listened breathlessly as the Chairman of the Bell Telephone Company enquired: "Hello. Is this Vancouver?" The clear reply - "Yes" - was met with a roar of approval and toasted with champagne. In the years before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the hotel enjoyed a period of great prosperity. In 1918, Lord Birkenhead described it as "very luxurious and comfortable"〔(My American Visit - Frederick Edwin Smith Earl of Birkenhead - Google Books )〕 and the American Bankers Association held their annual meetings there. In 1919, the Prince of Wales made the first Royal visit, staying in the seventeen-room ''Royal Suite''. On successive trips to Montreal he stayed in private houses, but always met friends for drinks there. Queen Marie of Romania, Prince Felix of Luxembourg and Prince George, Duke of Kent were also guests in the 1920s. Lillie Langtry stayed, and movie idols such as Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks drew swarming crowds of fans.〔The Square Mile, Merchant Princes of Montreal (1987) by Donald MacKay〕 It was the favourite hotel of ex-US President William Howard Taft and his wife, and they "entertained lavishly" in the ''Presidential Suite'' for all of 1921.〔An American family: the Tafts, 1678 to 1964 (1964), by Ishbel Ross〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ritz-Carlton Montreal」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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