Though there is no celebration to mark the opening of the grand hotel, the effect on the fresh-faced city of Calgary (population 40,000) is marked. 

“For many years there was a perception that (the Palliser) was too good for Calgary,” says historian Harry Sanders, author of The Castle by the Tracks, an unpublished manuscript on the Palliser that’s available at the Glenbow Archives, and contributor to Castles of the North: Canada’s Grand Hotels. 

A travel writer from New York observed of the hotel in 1915, “The only thing in Calgary worth looking at or being interested in is the hotel. It is called the Palliser and its ten magnificent stories rise above the surrounding hovels and shacks and homely frontier town like a Grecian statue on a clam flat. It seems incredible that it could be there after you once step out and look at Calgary. A hotel with kerosene lamps, boiled pork and potatoes for dinner, tin washbasins, and yellow soaps would about fit Calgary. Instead they have a palace.”

Sanders confirms the image’s positive effect. “If you read the social columns in the newspapers of the day you can see what an impression it made—it was the place to be and be seen.”

During the First World War, social clubs hold fundraisers to benefit the troops, dinnertime speakers address wartime issues and ballroom dances serve as farewell parties for troops, all at the Palliser. Prohibition sees waiters graciously overlooking flasks as they serve ginger ale to patrons, and in 1924 the Palliser holds its first Cowboys’ and Old-Timers’ Ball during the Stampede, creating an instant tradition and earning the Palliser the nickname “the Paralyzer.”

“Most every major social and political event in Calgary has had some connection with the Palliser Hotel,” writes Sanders in the introduction to The Castle by the Tracks.

Built of glistening white limestone (which will slowly fade to a muted grey over the century to follow) in a classic Edwardian style, the hotel is eight stories high, with a grand lobby, a dining room which is later to be renamed the Crystal Ballroom and a cafe (later called the Rimrock Dining Room) with a massive stone fireplace. Renovation plans in the 1970s will slot the fireplace for demolition; outcry from Calgary citizens will save the impressive structure.

The hotel sits along the CP Rail tracks as they make their way toward the Rocky Mountains, and is located beside the train station. An underground tunnel connects the station to the hotel—your bags arrive at your room before you do, thanks to bellboys who carry them underground to the hotel while you make your way.

Four additional floors are added in 1929, making the Palliser the tallest building in Calgary. For 40 years after it is built no other hotel in the city will rival it in image.

Over the years, many celebrities and politicians will call the Palliser their home away from home for both short and longer stays. These include the Prince of Wales (future Duke of Windsor), Queen Elizabeth II (after whom the hotel’s Royal Suite is named), Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, John Candy, Sir Elton John, Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams, the band Santana, and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

After acquiring a majority interest in American hotel chain Fairmont Hotels and Resorts in 1999, Canadian Pacific Hotels branded its hotels with the Fairmont name in order to reflect the new international focus of the company. The Palliser has been the Fairmont Palliser ever since. 

Today, the hotel boasts 405 rooms and all the modern amenities expected of a hotel of its stature, though the original charm and grandeur remains. It recently won Gold in the Calgary Hotel category in the 2008 Calgary Herald Readers’ Choice Awards.

“When you’re looking at buildings like this in the city, residents have a real emotional attachment to it,” says David Woodward, director of sales and marketing at the Fairmont Palliser. “There is an attachment to the Palliser that can’t be rivaled here in Calgary.”

Sanders concurs. “You could write the history of the city revolving around the Palliser Hotel,” he says.