The Omni King Edward Hotel
| The Omni King Edward Hotel | |
|---|---|
The Omni King Edward Hotel
|
|
| General information | |
| Location | Canada |
| Address | 37 King Street East Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Opening | 1903 |
| Owner | Omni Hotels & Resorts |
| Management | Omni Hotels & Resorts |
| Height | 190 ft (58 m) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 18 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Henry Ives Cobb E.J. Lennox & Rolph |
| Other information | |
| Number of rooms | 298 |
| Website | |
| The Omni King Edward Hotel | |
The Omni King Edward Hotel is a historic luxury hotel in the downtown business district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[1]
Location
The hotel is located at 37 King Street East, and occupies the entire block bounded by King Street on the north, Victoria Street on the east, Colborne Street on the south and Leader Lane on the west.
History
The King Edward Hotel was designed by Chicago architect Henry Ives Cobb and Toronto architect E.J. Lennox for developer George Gooderham's Toronto Hotel Company, and was granted its name by namesake King Edward VII.[2] The structure opened in 1903 with 400 rooms and 300 baths and claimed to be entirely fireproof.[3]
In 1922, an 18-storey tower with 530 additional rooms was added to the east of the original eight-storey structure. On the two top floors of the tower is the Crystal Ballroom, that until the late 1950s was the most fashionable in the city. The room was closed in the late 1950s due to stricter fire codes and was not restored during the 1979-81 renovation.[4] When the Omni Hotel chain invested in the hotel in 2013, restoring the ballroom was one of its announced goals.[5]
Throughout the years, the hotel passed through the hands of a number of owners. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company became owners in 1933 when it foreclosed on the mortgage. Between 1941 and 1950, the hotel passed between C. A. Ripley and Vernon Cardy. Cardy's Hotel chain also owned the Mount Royal Hotel in Montreal, the Royal Connaught Hotel in Hamilton, Ontario, the General Brock Hotel in Niagara Falls, the Prince Edward Hotel in Windsor, Ontario and the Alpine Inn in Sainte-Adèle, Quebec. In 1950, Sheraton purchased Cardy's hotels and assumed management of the property, renaming it The King Edward Sheraton.[6]
After a number of years of decline, new owners Trans Nation, Inc. closed the hotel September 2, 1979, for a restoration designed by Stanford Downey Architects Inc. The property reopened May 7, 1981, as part of Forte Hotels. When Forte acquired Le Méridien hotels from Air France in 1994, the King Edward was rechristened Le Royal Meridien King Edward. The Le Méridien chain was involved in several other acquisitions and mergers between 1996 and 2003 when the brand came under the ownership of Lehman Brothers Holdings.
For the hotel's 100th anniversary, the Ontario Heritage Trust unveiled a commemorative plaque on May 8, 2003.[7]
Starwood Hotels purchased the brand from Lehman in 2005 and the hotel again was renamed dropping Royal to become simply Le Meridien King Edward.[8] In 2009, a consortium purchased the structure but retained Le Meridien to manage it. The new owners announced a major restoration that included creating 140 condominiums on the third through fifth floors which have been unused for a number of years. In 2012, Skyline Hotels & Resorts, one of the owners, assumed management and marketing from Le Meridien and the hotel became The King Edward Hotel.[9] Omni Hotels assumed management on August 1, 2013, when the hotel was renamed The Omni King Edward Hotel.[10] After managing the hotel for two years, Omni Hotels bought it outright on November 24, 2015.[11]
Significance
Notable dignitaries and luminaries housed in the hotel have included Mark Twain, Rudolph Valentino, Louis Armstrong, Elvis Presley, Margaret Thatcher, Britney Spears, and Ernest Hemingway who had lived in the hotel for a period.[12] The Beatles stayed at the hotel's royal suite during their first visit to Toronto, in 1964, and caused the hotel's biggest commotion to date, when 3,000 fans packed the streets and flooded the lobby. In 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono stayed in the same royal suite a day before their bed-in for peace began. In February 1964, "moralists picketed" when Liz Taylor and Richard Burton stayed in a suite together; they were not married to one another at the time, causing a scandal.[13]
The King Edward has not only housed film stars but also film sets, from the mellow, Leonard Cohen’s 1983 musical I am a Hotel, to the melodramatic, Jamie Foxx’s film Bait, which, during a stunt mishap, caused an explosion that shook the building and shattered windows.[citation needed]
See also
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
- Official site
- The King Edward Hotel, Toronto, Canada. [Toronto : The Hotel, ca. 1903] ; (Stone Limited, Printers). 20 p. Illustrated guest book from the year the hotel opened. Accessed 4 January 2014, in PDF format.
Media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. at Wikimedia Commons
