Fairmont Le Château Frontenac

Château Frontenac, a luxurious hotel now considered one of Québec city’s most historic sites, is the landmark our group has chosen to explore as part of a Communications class at McGill University. It was named to honour the Governor of New France in the 17th century; Louis de Buade de Frontenac and is located in the heart of Old Québec, overlooking the St. Lawrence River. This elegant hotel was opened to the public in 1893 and is one of the many hotels built by the Canadian Pacific Railway. The CP Railway aimed to increase profit by attracting wealthy tourists to use their trains and stay in châteauesque style hotels during their vacation. The hotel holds a rich history of pride for French-Canadians and therefore is a great symbol of Canadian identity. Château Frontenac continues to dominate Old Québec, being the home site to the largest winter carnival in the world; The Québec Winter Carnival, in addition to being used for several social gatherings, entertainment functions, and even as a vacation getaway for glamorous celebrities! 

History of the Château

Construction of the infamous Château Frontenac began in 1892, however its historical origins date back to the early nineteenth century. As an effort to restore traditional European heritage in Québec City, British Governor of Canada, Lord Dufferin wished to halt the modernization of the city, and hoped it would be restored to resemble the Victorian-era of the seventeenth century.¹ To do so, he hoped the Château Saint-Louis, home to French governors, would be reconstructed to fit his traditional vision for the city. Nonetheless, his hopes and dreams never came to fruition, as after leaving his position as governor, the City Council and the Local Board of Trade had a new aspiration for the castle on the hill, and fully embraced the idea “out with the old, in with the new.” ² In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, their mission centred around building a luxurious hotel to develop a tourist economy aimed at the wealthy. To bring this goal to life, funding was supported by the Canadian Pacific (CP) Railway Company through their partnership with Anglo-Saxon businessmen from both Montreal and Toronto.³ The CP Railway also aimed at encouraging more tourists to use the railways as their mode of travel across Canada. That said, the placement of the hotel was done strategically in hopes to gain more passengers and accommodate for more services. As referenced by Cowen, railways not only connected different cities, but as an infrastructure gave a new character to these cities.⁴ The development of the hotel allowed Québec City to become a cultural capital, and as Broudehoux states “a cosmopolitan with a French flavor." ⁵ Ultimately, although the railway gave a different structure to the hotel, the hotel itself gave a new life to the city: one that also symbolizes Canadian modernity and nationalism. 

The Château's connection to modernism

The Château’s deep connection to Québec’s rich history has tied it to modernism in every step of its historical journey. Looking at the twentieth and twenty-first centuries specifically, Château Frontenac has participated in several modern forms of media. Its inclusion in various motion pictures and hosting famous talents such as Céline Dion in 1990 inherently re-connects the castle to these pieces of media and the modern associations that come with them. While Dion herself is seen as a pop star, her trail can be traced back to and thus affiliated with the Château and its history. 

Likewise, Château Frontenac’s avid pull for tourists has allowed it to stay connected to modern day technology. By using cellphones and other means of taking photographs and videos, tourists capture the castle and post on social media, keeping it included in the modern day. Such media circulation helps keep the Château’s reputation not only as a modern, trending place, but also as one that people want to appreciate and keep alive. Ironically, the Château Frontenac’s rich history and age are what make it such a prime candidate for being kept in the modern day’s scope of interest; its history connects it to modernity throughout time. Be it through the railroad system, even once being called the “Railway Hotel,” or through cellphones in the modern day, the Château has always found a way to utilize modern technology to promote its own tourist industry.⁶ To keep up with the pressure of so many flashing cameras, the Château Frontenac has also seen various renovations throughout the years that not only keep it presentable, but have also made efforts to modernize the castle itself. A swimming pool, workout facility, and terrace have all been recently added to the Château to help it keep up with a modern tourist’s demands. In addition to modern renovations, the Château Frontenac has been recognized as the first Canadian historic hotel to be carbon neutral.⁷ In conjunction with Laval University, the team is supporting the reversal of climate change by improving the Montmorency forest and creating research scholarships. This ensures that the historic hotel can continue operations well into the future and further its legacy. Overall, Château Frontenac has become an “instrument of national identity” for Canada as it caters to the needs of modern Canadians while still connecting them to its rich history.⁸

What the Château mediates in a sociocultural context

In the Château’s earlier years, it signified dispossession and conquest for French-Canadians. The Château Frontenac was not only built on a site of great historical importance for the occupants of the city (where the founder of Québec, Samuel de Champlain, built the residence of the governors of New France), but forced the demolition of the Château Haldimand that stood there.⁹ Additionally, while the Château was described as a “French Medieval Revival” by its English creators, it was argued that the building followed a Scottish Baronial style celebrating the origins of CPR’s president–the bricks used were even imported from Scotland.¹⁰ Thus, rather than a tribute to the French founders of Québec City, for many Québecois the building symbolized British imperialism.

Resentment by French-Canadians was further fueled by the exclusionary nature of the Château. In the early 1900s it was a meeting ground for the local bourgeoisie–an Anglo-Saxon minority among the poorer Francophone community.¹¹ On top of this, English was the main language spoken inside the hotel, and employees were subject to discriminatory practices: English-Canadians and Americans held the highest positions while French-Canadians only held un-skilled and un-prestigious ones.¹² Surrounded by places such as the Dufferin terrace which once was a public space where people of all classes mingled, the private and segregating Château loomed over the Quebeckers as an imposing mass representative of subordination. A rich piece of their history had been taken from them and repurposed by a private, commercial, British-owned institution from which they were excluded, the colony’s loss in the 1759 battle seemingly following them into the 19th and 20th centuries.

However, in the later part of the 20th century, the Château Frontenac gained a different significance for Québec City residents, transforming from a foreign imposition into a symbol of identity and pride. French-Canadians viewed Québec City as a piece of Old-France, and the Château’s medieval design coincided with this “golden age” conception of their culture and identity.¹³ Sidewalk restaurants, French bakeries, and cafés emerged alongside the desire to immerse oneself in the European way of life. This image of the Château also coincided with the Nationalist Movement, as it reinforced Nationalists’ vision of a unique Québécois identity stemming from their French heritage.¹⁴ A public campaign in 1993 invited French Canadians to take pride in “their Château”; to claim the infrastructure as their own.¹⁵ Over time, the Château Frontenac became more accessible to Québec’s population and came to play a critical role in the city’s social affairs. It was a meeting ground for world leaders and where Premier Duplessis worked and resided¹⁶, and it was and still is a civic space used for social gatherings, weddings, baptismal receptions, and all other important life events.¹⁷ By 1952 the venue was popular enough for Alfred Hitchcock to direct one of his movies, I Confess, at, and for Céline Dion to perform at in 1990.¹⁸ The Château Frontenac is a nationally and even globally-recognized tourist attraction where visitors can pay for guided tours of its beautiful interior, enjoy a dining experience, and visit its surrounding boutiques and historical sites.¹⁹ Every winter the city hosts “Le Carnaval”, a festival where families can enjoy music, treats, and winter activities like tobogganing. During the summer, the “Festival d’Été de Québec”, a music festival hosting local as well as larger-scale artists, takes place on the Plains of Abraham.²⁰ The Château Frontenac significantly evolved over the decades into an important part of Quebeckers’ social lives and cultural identity. It is a globally recognized symbol that distinguishes the city from others, and especially from its tourism competitor, Montreal.²¹

1. Broudehoux, Anne-Marie. “The Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City: The Social History of an Icon.” DalSpace Home. The Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, 2004. pp. 52, https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/handle/10222/70812.
2. Broudehoux, Anne-Marie. “The Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City: The Social History of an Icon.” DalSpace Home. The Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, 2004. https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/handle/10222/70812.
3. Broudehoux, Anne-Marie. “The Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City: The Social History of an Icon.” DalSpace Home. The Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, 2004. https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/handle/10222/70812.
4. Cowen, Deborah. “Following the infrastructures of empire: notes on cities, settler colonialism, and method.” Urban Geography, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2019.1677990
5. Broudehoux, Anne-Marie. “The Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City: The Social History of an Icon.” DalSpace Home. The Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, 2004. pp. 56, https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/handle/10222/70812.
6. Liscombe, Rhodri Windsor. “Nationalism or Cultural Imperialism? The Château Style in Canada.” Architectural History 36 (1993): pp. 129.
7. Kostuch Media Ltd. “Fairmont Le Château Frontenac Achieves Carbon Neutrality."
8. Allen, Gene. Making National News : A History of Canadian Press. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013. pp. 7
9. Broudehoux, Anne-Marie. “The Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City: The Social History of an Icon.” DalSpace Home. The Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, 2004. https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/handle/10222/70812. pp. 54
10. Broudehoux, Anne-Marie. “The Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City: The Social History of an Icon.” DalSpace Home. The Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, 2004. https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/handle/10222/70812. pp. 54
11. Broudehoux, Anne-Marie. “The Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City: The Social History of an Icon.” DalSpace Home. The Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, 2004. https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/handle/10222/70812. pp. 55
12. Broudehoux, Anne-Marie. “The Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City: The Social History of an Icon.” DalSpace Home. The Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, 2004. https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/handle/10222/70812. pp. 56
13. Broudehoux, Anne-Marie. “The Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City: The Social History of an Icon.” DalSpace Home. The Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, 2004. https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/handle/10222/70812. pp. 57
14. Broudehoux, Anne-Marie. “The Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City: The Social History of an Icon.” DalSpace Home. The Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, 2004. https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/handle/10222/70812. pp. 57
15. Broudehoux, Anne-Marie. “The Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City: The Social History of an Icon.” DalSpace Home. The Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, 2004. https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/handle/10222/70812. pp. 59
16. Burshtein, Karen. “Six notable moments in the Château Frontenac's 125-year history” Canadian Geographic, February. 2018. Retrieved March, 2022 https://www.canadiangeographic.ca/article/six-notable-moments-chateau-frontenacs-125-year-history.
17. Fairmont. “Fairmont Le Château Frontenac.” 2022. Retrieved March, 2022 https://www.fairmont.com/frontenac-quebec/.
18. Burshtein, Karen. “Six notable moments in the Château Frontenac's 125-year history” Canadian Geographic, February. 2018. Retrieved March, 2022 https://www.canadiangeographic.ca/article/six-notable-moments-chateau-frontenacs-125-year-history.
19. Fairmont. “Fairmont Le Château Frontenac.” 2022. Retrieved March, 2022 https://www.fairmont.com/frontenac-quebec/.
20. Barry, Chris, Rémy Charest, Marcella De Vincenzo, Joanne Latimer, Vanessa Muri. “Montréal & Québec City” 2015 Fodor’s Travel. 2015. “Montréal & Québec City.” Fodor’s Travel. Retrieved March 17, 2022 https://ofs-1e10ed7b85eb2b98ed62d001e39ee038.read.overdrive.com/?d=eyJvdXRsZXQiOiJyZWFkIiwidG9rZW4iOiJtY2dpbGwtMjMyNDcyMCIsImFjY2VzcyI6ImYiLCJleHBpcmVzIjoxNjQ4MDk0MDg5LCJ0aGVtZSI6ImRlZmF1bHQiLCJzeW5jIjoxLCJwcGFyYW0iOiJ5RlpmazYybzBaeVNoS2JFZ2Q0a1VBIiwidGRhdGEiOnsiQ1JJRCI6ImQyNDRjZTQyLWFiYTQtNDU4YS1hYjBjLTM2NzcwM2IwODY3NSIsImZvcm1hdCI6IjYxMCJ9LCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsLCJ0aW1lIjoxNjQ2ODg0NDkyLCJidWlkIjoiMWUxMGVkN2I4NWViMmI5OGVkNjJkMDAxZTM5ZWUwMzgiLCJfYyI6IjE2NDY4ODQ0OTUyOTIifQ%3D%3D--fb62d43ec2eff2fb4dcd988a733c962e0763165b&p=yFZfk62o0ZyShKbEgd4kUA
21. Broudehoux, Anne-Marie.. “The Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City: The Social History of an lcon.” Journal of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada 29(3-4): 51-62 https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/bitstream/handle/10222/70812/vol29_3-4_51_62.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y