culture Important, Romantic, and Notorious

A look back at the history of the Royal York Hotel, which is now up for sale.

SHOW CAPTION  ✉ Share on:  319561 <b>Queen’s Hotel, October 21, 1915. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1231, Item 1108a.</b><br><br /> Prior to the Royal York, the site had housed accommodations since the opening of Sword’s Hotel in 1856. It changed its name to <a href=”http://torontoist.com/2008/11/historicist_royal_accomodations/”>Queen’s Hotel</a> in 1862 and served as one of the city’s most fashionable places to stay for more than half a century. Royalty booked rooms there, and Sir John A. Macdonald made it one of his favourite local drinking establishments. <br /> 20140604_01queenshotel https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_01queenshotel-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_01queenshotel.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_01queenshotel.jpg 1000 701 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_01queenshotel/ 20140604_01queenshotel 0 0 319562 <b>Queen’s Hotel garden and east wall, 1927. Toronto Public Library.</b><br><br /> After considering several sites (including the corner of Queen and University and a plot adjacent to its North Toronto station—now the Summerhill LCBO), the CPR announced on February 2, 1927, that it had purchased the Queen’s Hotel. The building would be demolished and replaced by a grand structure. “Toronto can do with a really modern additional hotel,” noted CPR president <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Wentworth_Beatty”>E.W. Beatty</a>. “We have not decided on the type of building yet. We have to choose our architect and it is our desire to make this hotel particularly Toronto’s.” <br /> 20140604_02queens1927 https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_02queens1927-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_02queens1927.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_02queens1927.jpg 1000 789 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_02queens1927/ 20140604_02queens1927 0 0 319563 <b>Map of site to be occupied by the Royal York Hotel, the <i>Toronto Star</i>, July 8, 1927.</b><br><br /> Roughly $3 million was spent over the next few months acquiring the Queen’s Hotel and surrounding properties. For a while, there was a plan to build a new street running north from the east side of the new hotel, and a stump of this proposed street exists off Piper Street. The new structure was soon named the Royal York, in honour of both the city’s past and Prince Albert, Duke of York (later King George VI). <br /> 20140604_03map1927 https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_03map1927-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_03map1927.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_03map1927.jpg 640 776 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_03map1927/ 20140604_03map1927 0 0 319538 <b>Royal York Hotel approaching completion, 1929. Toronto Public Library.</b><br><br /> Twenty-eight floors. 1,048 rooms equipped with radios and private bathrooms. 10 elevators. A 12,000 -title library. A 12-bed onsite hospital. A tunnel to Union Station. As the largest building in the British Empire, the Royal York would be anything but modest. <br /> 20140604_06construction https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_06construction-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_06construction.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_06construction.jpg 1000 1248 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_06construction/ 20140604_06construction 0 0 319565 <b>Royal York Golf Club clubhouse, circa 1929. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244, Item 2386.</b><br><br /> Concurrent with the hotel’s construction was the development of a golf course, also dubbed Royal York, located north of Dundas Street in Etobicoke Township. The course soon lent its name to the road running along its east side. Opened in 1929, it was renamed <a href=”http://www.stgeorges.org/welcome”>St. George’s Golf and Country Club</a> in 1946 and continues to operate. <br /> 20140604_05golfcourse https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_05golfcourse-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_05golfcourse.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_05golfcourse.jpg 1000 697 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_05golfcourse/ 20140604_05golfcourse 0 0 319564 <b>Source: the <i>Globe</i>, September 18, 1928</b><br><br /> Though construction of the Royal York began in July 1927, the last guests at the Queen’s Hotel didn’t check out until September, because it was necessary to ensure there'd be sufficient rooms in the city to accommodate visitors to the Canadian National Exhibition. The project was scheduled for completion by May 1928, but the Royal York ran into delays, including a strike by structural steel workers. The skeleton of the hotel had welcomed at least one guest by its original target date: a pigeon. “She is most comfortably settled,” the <i>Globe</i> reported, “and has laid three eggs, and, despite the racket of the continual riveting surrounding her, refuses to vacate the apartment.” <br /> 20140604_04bustlingbuilding1928 https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_04bustlingbuilding1928-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_04bustlingbuilding1928.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_04bustlingbuilding1928.jpg 1000 827 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_04bustlingbuilding1928/ 20140604_04bustlingbuilding1928 0 0 319539 <b>Source: the <i>Toronto Star</i>, June 12, 1929.</b><br><br /> Though the hotel opened for business at 8 a.m. on June 11, 1929, its first official guest didn’t sign in until lunchtime. The first entry in the register read “Willingdon, Government House, Ottawa.” Besides Governor-General <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Freeman-Thomas,_1st_Marquess_of_Willingdon”>Viscount Willingdon</a>, the first signatories included Beatty and Chief Justice of Ontario (and all-around attender of significant events in Toronto) <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Mulock”>Sir William Mulock</a>. <br /> 20140604_07_willingdonsigns https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_07_willingdonsigns-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_07_willingdonsigns.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_07_willingdonsigns.jpg 700 511 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_07_willingdonsigns/ 20140604_07_willingdonsigns 0 0

319540 <b>Royal York Hotel main lobby, 1930. Toronto Public Library.</b><br><br /> It was estimated that up to 1,800 people attended the ceremonial luncheon banquet, which was emceed by Board of Trade president John Tory (great-grandfather of the current mayoral candidate). Willingdon noted that the CPR was “a great and beneficent octopus helping in the development and progress of the country.” Beatty reflected that the Royal York was "a very large, expensive, convenient and handsomely decorated and furnished hotel. It will, we think, be a distinct asset and source of revenue to ourselves and to the city.” <br /> 20140604_08lobby https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_08lobby-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_08lobby.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_08lobby.jpg 1000 607 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_08lobby/ 20140604_08lobby 0 0 319541 The highlight of day one was a grand evening ball. Over 2,300 partiers spread out across four ballrooms, dancing until 3 a.m. to music provided by orchestras run by New York City–based bandleader <a href=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAExrFCVVT0”>Ben Bernie</a>. By the end of the night, Bernie was pooped. “I am so fatigued,” he told the <i>Star</i>. “I can’t think of anything but feather pillows, nine blankets and an automatic cigar holder.” Overall, <i>Star</i> music critic Augustus Bridle compared opening day to a “two-act super-grand opera.” 20140604_09ballsketch https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_09ballsketch-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_09ballsketch.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_09ballsketch.jpg 1000 856 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_09ballsketch/ 20140604_09ballsketch 0 0 319542 <b>Chinese suite, Royal York Hotel, circa 1930. Toronto Public Library.</b><br><br /> “It was a bit of fairyland—quite a good-sized bit, for the floors are many and the rooms legion,” the <i>Globe</i> observed about opening day. “Visitors, realizing this, dropped all their mortal worries and cares as soon as they turned onto Front Street. For above the familiar haunts of that thoroughfare’s miles of train tracks, the Royal York seemed to hang suspended over a commonplace and sordid world. It was just a curious trick of lighting the upper floors—but it was fairyland just the same—for the moment.”<br /> 20140604_10chinesesuite https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_10chinesesuite-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_10chinesesuite.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_10chinesesuite.jpg 1000 602 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_10chinesesuite/ 20140604_10chinesesuite 0 0 319543 <b>Advertisement, the <i>Star</i>, June 10, 1929.</b><br><br /> “Your first sensation,” observed the <i>Star</i>, “as you pace into the English style of courtyard and walk up a broad stair into the main foyer is that of being suddenly abroad. In a few strides off prosaic Front Street, you have put the Toronto you know a mythical continent and a wide ocean between.”<br /> 20140604_11simpsonsad1929 https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_11simpsonsad1929-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_11simpsonsad1929.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_11simpsonsad1929.jpg 800 1292 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_11simpsonsad1929/ 20140604_11simpsonsad1929 0 0 319544 <b>Royal York Hotel, Front Street, circa 1930. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 100, Item 109.</b><br><br /> A <i>Star</i> editorial observed that the Royal York’s opening “may be said to mark the opening of the period in which Toronto is seen in metropolitan proportions and in which small-town politics should no longer be in evidence,” —and that “it signified to the world that Canada is on the move again.” For a time, the hotel looked like a shaky proposition: thanks to the effects of the Great Depression, it wasn’t until the mid-1930s that occupancy was regularly over 50 percent.<br /> 20140604_12exterior1930 https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_12exterior1930-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_12exterior1930.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_12exterior1930.jpg 1000 653 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_12exterior1930/ 20140604_12exterior1930 0 0 319545 <b>Public health exhibit booth during the meeting of the Canadian Public Health Association, Royal York Hotel, May 27, 1932. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 32, Item 848.</b><br><br /> From the start, the Royal York was a major venue for annual meetings and conventions, even if some of the attendees were made of plastic and wood. Among the topics discussed at the Canadian Public Health Association’s 1932 gathering were the alarming rise in cancer and the belief that cures would be discovered within the next 50 years for both cancer and tuberculosis.<br /> 20140604_13publichealth https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_13publichealth-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_13publichealth.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_13publichealth.jpg 1000 664 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_13publichealth/ 20140604_13publichealth 0 0 319546 <b>Anna Neagle, Herbert Wilcox and group outside Royal York Hotel, 1939. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1257, Series 1057, Item 3880. </b><br><br /> The hotel has long hosted dignitaries ranging from world leaders to film stars. Here, British actress <a href=”http://torontoist.com/2009/01/historicist_starstruck_at_city_hall/”>Anna Neagle</a> poses during a promotional visit to Toronto with her frequent director (and future husband) Herbert Wilcox. <br /> 20140604_14neagle https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_14neagle-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_14neagle.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_14neagle.jpg 1000 787 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_14neagle/ 20140604_14neagle 0 0

319548 <b>Subway construction along Front Street, 1950. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 16, Series 574, File 12, Item 49310.</b><br><br /> Construction in front of the Royal York hasn’t been a constant presence since 1950—it only feels that way.<br /> 20140604_16subwayconstruction https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_16subwayconstruction-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_16subwayconstruction.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_16subwayconstruction.jpg 1000 790 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_16subwayconstruction/ 20140604_16subwayconstruction 0 0 319547 <b>Subway cake on display at the Royal York Hotel during the opening day of the Yonge subway line, March 30, 1954. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1128, Series 381, File 298, Item 11847-64.</b><br><br /> The Royal York hosted the official luncheon for <a href=”http://torontoist.com/2014/03/happy-60th-birthday-yonge-line/“>the launch of the Yonge subway line in March 1954</a>. Among the delicacies on offer was a scale-model cake bakers had spent a month creating. According to the <i>Globe and Mail</i>, the cake contained over 25 pounds of confectionery sugar and was covered with “a special icing finished with an edible lacquer.”<br /> 20140604_15subwaycake https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_15subwaycake-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_15subwaycake.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_15subwaycake.jpg 950 740 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_15subwaycake/ 20140604_15subwaycake 0 0 319549 <b>Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent addressing audience at Royal York Hotel, March 9, 1953. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1257, Series 1057, Item 4198.</b><br><br /> Organizations like the Canadian Club and Empire Club have long presented speakers at the Royal York. The clubs joined together on March 9, 1953, to present a speech by Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent. He told the overflow crowd of 1,200 that Canada must show it “means business” when it came to promoting global trade and combating Communist aggression.<br /> 20140604_17stlaurent https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_17stlaurent-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_17stlaurent.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_17stlaurent.jpg 1000 792 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_17stlaurent/ 20140604_17stlaurent 0 0 319550 <b>Bartenders at Royal York Hotel, 1940s. City of Toronto Archives, Fornds 1257, Series 1057, Item 4198.</b><br><br /> “When I sit in the lobby,” easy-listening orchestra leader <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Kostelanetz”>Andre Kostelanetz</a> once observed, "it reminds me of the Ritz of Paris, or <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepheard's_Hotel”>Shepheard’s of Cairo</a>. Here I get a glimpse of every famous person in the world.” And drink with them, to boot. <br /> 20140604_18bartenders https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_18bartenders-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_18bartenders.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_18bartenders.jpg 1000 754 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_18bartenders/ 20140604_18bartenders 0 0 319551 <b>Grey Cup crowds at Royal York Hotel, November 24, 1956. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1653, Series 975, File 2346. Item 33504-37.</b><br><br /> The Royal York was a site for Grey Cup celebrations whenever the championship game was held in the city. Sometimes things got a little out of hand: in 1954, a fan rode a horse into the hotel. In 1956, as a precaution, all furniture was removed from the lobby, while CPR police augmented hotel security. A nine-man guard was hired to protect the Montreal Alouettes.<br /> 20140604_19greycup https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_19greycup-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_19greycup.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_19greycup.jpg 1000 772 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_19greycup/ 20140604_19greycup 0 0 319552 <b>Grey Cup crowds at Royal York Hotel, November 24, 1956. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1653, Series 975, File 2346. Item 33504-42.</b><br><br /> Rowdy football fans, 1956 style. “Celebrants went to the Grey Cup party” the <i>Star</i> reported, “in the hotel lobbies to sing and dance, to hotel corridors to keep awake any who dared attempt to sleep, into private rooms and suites and to any place where football fans gathered to celebrate.”<br /> 20140604_20greycupfans https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_20greycupfans-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_20greycupfans.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_20greycupfans.jpg 1000 780 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_20greycupfans/ 20140604_20greycupfans 0 0 319553 <b>Advertisement, the Globe and Mail, February 21, 1959</b><br><br /> On February 21, 1959, Ontario premier Leslie Frost officially opened a 400-room, $14-million eastern expansion. Amenities included escalators, expanded retail space (including a larger Holt Renfrew fur shop), new eateries and meeting rooms, and a 65-foot-long wine cellar. <br /> 20140604_21addition1959 https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_21addition1959-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_21addition1959.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_21addition1959.jpg 800 1057 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_21addition1959/ 20140604_21addition1959 0 0

319554 <b>Canadian Institute of Sewage and Sanitation awards dinner at Royal York Hotel, September 1959. City of Toronto Archives, Fond 220, Series 65, File 7, Item 31.</b><br><br /> The expanded facilities included 10 meeting rooms themed by province—the British Columbia room featured carved totem poles, and so on. This group of gentleman is in the Alberta room for a meeting of the Canadian Institute of Sewage and Sanitation, demonstrating there’s an association for anything. <br /> 20140604_22albertaroom https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_22albertaroom-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_22albertaroom.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_22albertaroom.jpg 1000 771 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_22albertaroom/ 20140604_22albertaroom 0 0 319555 <b>Advertisement, the <i>Toronto Star</i>, December 2, 1971.</b><br><br /> For years, the Imperial Room was one of the city’s top nightclubs. Originally, it was home to the house orchestra, led from 1948 by Moxie Whitney, who played swinging music while patrons danced. By the late 1960s, under Whitney’s guidance, it booked top lounge and jazz acts, including Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald. Without Whitney’s knowledge, management decided in fall 1971 to replace headliners, who consistently sold out the room despite high cover charges, with a revue featuring chorus girls and exotic dancers. Among the last singers booked under the old policy was Tony Bennett, who credited the Imperial Room with helping launch his career during an early 1950s gig with Lena Horne. Of the engagement advertised here, <i>Globe and Mail</i> critic Blaik Kirby said Bennett’s whispered rendition of “It Had to Be You” "held the audience so tightly you could have heard someone breathe.”<br /> 20140604_23bennett1971 https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_23bennett1971-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_23bennett1971.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_23bennett1971.jpg 800 907 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_23bennett1971/ 20140604_23bennett1971 0 0 319556 <b>Advertisement, <i>Toronto Life</i>, April 1974</b><br><br /> The revue flopped, and in summer 1972, the Imperial Room went back to a headliner policy that continued until 1988. This ad showcases other amenities the Royal York offered during the mid-1970s. <br /> 20140604_24_ad1974 https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_24_ad1974-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_24_ad1974.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_24_ad1974.jpg 800 1098 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_24_ad1974/ 20140604_24_ad1974 0 0 319557 <b>Advertisement, <i>Toronto Life</i>, August 1973</b><br><br /> Benihana of Toyko served its first round of teppanyaki cooking to diners in 1973. Three years later, Joanne Kates wrote a less-than-enthusiastic review in the <i>Globe and Mail</i>: “Benihana’s phenomenal success across North America is proof positive of the North American diner’s willingness to be treated like a child with ulcers. In Benihana’s never-a-dull-moment ambience there is no room for relaxation. One is bombarded with stimuli lest one become bored with one’s own company or conversation or that of the new friends met round the communal teppanyaki table.”<br /> 20140604_25benihana https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_25benihana-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_25benihana.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_25benihana.jpg 800 1144 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_25benihana/ 20140604_25benihana 0 0 319558 <b>Source: the <i>Globe and Mail</i>, October 23, 1976</b><br><br /> To mark the 90th anniversary of Canadian Pacific’s hotels, a special menu with 1886 prices was served on October 25, 1976. Royal York officials were amazed at the response: 4,500 diners for lunch and 5,000 for dinner enjoyed a full-course meal for 89 cents. The Ontario government spoiled the fun by ruling that, unlike at CP’s properties out west, diners couldn’t enjoy 28-cent beers or 40-cent shots of rye. <br /> 20140604_26menu1886prices https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_26menu1886prices-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_26menu1886prices.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_26menu1886prices.jpg 600 909 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_26menu1886prices/ 20140604_26menu1886prices 0 0 319559 <b>Royal York Hotel as part of the Toronto skyline, before 1966. Photo by Ellis Wiley. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 124, File 1, Item 2.</b><br><br /> This photo captures a sense of how the Royal York dominated Toronto’s skyline before downtown skyscraper construction began in earnest during the 1960s and 1970s. <br /> 20140604_27wiley https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_27wiley-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_27wiley.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_27wiley.jpg 1000 657 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_27wiley/ 20140604_27wiley 0 0 319560 <b>View of Royal York Hotel, 1986. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 1465, File 401, Item 7.</b><br><br /> The hotel has undergone many changes since this photo was taken. A multimillion dollar series of renovations overseen by architect Eb Zeidler was undertaken in the late 1980s and early 1990s to restore features such as marble pillars in the lobby, which were covered up during the 1970s. Labour relations have been tense at times. The rooftop garden <a href=”http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2008/06/05/royal_york_rooftop_garden_a_hive_for_bees.html”>added beehives</a>. As the 21st century began, the breakup of Canadian Pacific led to the hotel’s rebranding as the Fairmont Royal York. Ownership changes in the mid-2000s led to the involvement of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. 20140604_28view1986 https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_28view1986-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_28view1986.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140604_28view1986.jpg 1000 663 https://torontoist.com/2014/06/important-romantic-and-notorious/slide/20140604_28view1986/ 20140604_28view1986 0 0



In the 1950s, or so the story goes, a writer meeting a friend in the lobby of the Royal York Hotel was heard to comment, “I can’t afford to eat here. I just wanted to catch the flavour of confidence and assurance, so I decided to come in and absorb some atmosphere. I just like to sit here and think that everyone I see is either important, romantic, or notorious.” In saying this, the unnamed writer managed to sum up the image and character the hotel has been crafting since it opened on June 11, 1929.

Less than two weeks before the Royal York’s 85th anniversary, news broke that the building is up for sale. Although it’s obviously too early to say what changes the new ownership will bring, this provides us with an opportunity to review the changes the hotel has undergone throughout its long and storied past. Please don your snappiest formal wear before heading into the gallery.

Additional material from the February 3, 1927, May 12, 1928, August 22, 1928, June 12, 1929, and May 27, 1932 editions of the Globe; the March 10, 1953, April 1, 1954, June 11, 1954, November 21, 1956, February 21, 1959, December 3, 1971, and April 26, 1971 editions of the Globe and Mail; and the July 8, 1927, June 8, 1929, June 11, 1929, June 12, 1929, November 24, 1956, March 6, 1971, September 25, 1971, and March 3, 1989 editions of the Toronto Star.