From the Financial Post, October 31, 1929:
- The Prince Edward, of the United Hotels chain, a modern and up-to-date caravansery which serves visitors to the Border Cities
This shot is taken from Park Street, looking east towards Ouellette.
Here’s the same view today.
I remember, as a child, accompanying my mother to an event in the ballroom of the Prince Edward. It was some cosmetics show, Elizabeth Arden, as I recall, and for years we both had the tiny sample lipsticks from the “goodie bags”. That was my only experience in that heady atmosphere but I was saddened when they demolished the place nonetheless. I don’t understand the tendancy to destroy old buildings when they are inevitably replaced by structures with shorter lifespans and usually much less design appeal. Why would one prefer Ho Jo’s or Holiday Inn, for example, to the Royal York? I think Windsor would hold more appeal as a “tourist destination” or convention centrre if we could still offer the Prince Edward or the Norton Palmer but I guyess that’s just me and they’d likely have become dingy SRO’s in the interval.
Was it the Prince Edward that didn’t have a private bathroom in each room, or was that The British American? Or Norton Palmer? I travel a lot for work and typically stay in a Holiday Inn Express, but last summer I went to Seattle for vacation and stayed in a very old hotel. It was quite small and cramped, but I wasn’t going there for the room, I was going for the rest of the city.
This place.
http://www.executivehotels.net/downtownseattlehotel/
This is the place. I can’t seem to find the age of the place.