The Fairmont Empress - Architecture and Restoration in The 1900's

Shown here in the early 1920s gradually donning its familiar cloak English and Boston Ivy, CP's venerable Empress Hotel has graced the head of Victoria's inner harbor for nearly a century. The original part of the hotel was completed in 1908 to the designs of F.M. Rattenbury, the English Architect responsible for a number of notable buildings in the city's downtown core, including the nearby Provincial Legislative Buildings. To keep pace with the increasing and changing demands of its guests, the Empress has undergone several enlargements and renovations during its lifetime, the most recent being the multi-million dollar restoration of both the structure and its contents completed in 1989.