Mount Stephen House: The Early Years/Les premières années

Mount Stephen House, completed in 1886 for $20,000, was the first of the Canadian Pacific Railway’s “Grand Hotels,” built to help recoup the cost of the railway by attracting wealthy tourists to travel by rail. Designed in a Swiss chalet style, it featured gas lights, heavy brocades, a pump organ, and caged canaries. That same year, a small 26 km2 park reserve was set aside around Mount Stephen. In the 1880s, with every major peak in Europe already climbed, mountaineers flocked to the “Canadian Alps,” many staying at Mount Stephen House, while the Canadian Pacific Railway even brought in Swiss guides to make mountaineering safer for guests; thrill-seeking travelers also included Lady Agnes Macdonald, wife of Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, who strapped themselves onto the cowcatcher of a moving train.

British Columbia · Canada