Audio Transcript

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On your right, you’ll see Calgary’s oldest remaining hotel building! This is the Alberta Hotel, and it was built all the way back in 1890!

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Even in the early days of its existence, the hotel was a meeting place for people from all walks of life! Aside from hotel rooms, it featured many different lavish features.

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These included a billiards room, a fancy dining room, a barbershop, and a beverage room which featured the longest bar from Vancouver to Winnipeg!

The Alberta Hotel has long been an important landmark in downtown Calgary due to its commanding and central location, long-time presence, distinctive architecture and its integral role in Calgary’s history and social life. Historically, Calgarians knew the building as a favorite meeting location, calling it the ‘Alberta corner’.

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This is where women would stand to meet friends downtown, and where business men would wait to meet associates for appointments. In the early part of the twentieth century it was said that if you were trying to find someone, that by waiting at the Alberta, they would eventually show up or pass by.

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Now let's take a look across the street from the Alberta Hotel. Just look for the imposing building with four columns at the entrance that says 'Bank of Montreal'.

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This was actually one of the first financial institutions in Calgary, with this building being built in 1889. In its early years, the Bank of Montreal helped finance a number of different projects from singular entrepreneurs to even the City of Calgary itself!

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Today it remains one of the most significant banks in the city’s history!