Our Winnipeg Canada Hotel History
100 Years of Service
The Marlborough Hotel in Winnipeg, Canada, opened its doors on November 14, 1914, on the eve of the First World War. Originally named The Olympia and described as "The Miniature Hotel Deluxe of Canada", it was located, as it is today, at the very centre of Winnipeg.
In the early 20th century when Winnipeg was a flourishing city at the heart of the prairies, four Italian immigrants were hard at work building successful businesses. Giuseppe Panaro and Leonardi Emma ran a fruit and confectionery shop on Main Street while brothers Augustine and Joseph Badali had a similar shop at the corner of Portage Avenue and Smith Street. The Badali Brothers eventually decided to expand their business to include a restaurant, something Panaro and Emma had already undertaken. Perhaps to draw on experience, the Badali Brothers partnered with Panaro and Emma in their new venture, opening the Olympia Cafe on the main floor of the Kensington Building at 275 Portage Avenue.
​By 1912 the blacksmith shop located behind the Kensington Building on Smith Street was lost to a fire, opening up the property for redevelopment. The four owners of the Olympia Cafe seized this opportunity, purchasing it and other properties on the block until they had amassed enough land to embark on building a grand hotel. James Chisholm and Son were hired as the architects, with experience designing schools, hotel, churches warehouse and more. Plans were drawn for a luxurious nine storey hotel with mezzanine, and spirits were high as they broke ground in 1913.
​For their inspiration, the architect and designers had looked to the Gothic school of Medieval England, with just enough Renaissance influence to provide the elegance common to the luxury hotels of the era. The result was, and is, one of Winnipeg's most important heritage buildings. An elaborate Late Gothic Revival-style exterior façade in terra cotta and brick with a polished granite base also features a massive ornate cast iron marquee sheltering the street level Main Entrance. The interior Lobby Level restaurant and bar features some of the most beautiful Gothic and Renaissance-influenced interiors in Canada. Soaring 24' ceilings, imported English stained glass, hand-wrought iron light fixtures by Tiffany of New York, ornate plaster friezes, carved heavy oaken beams and walnut wainscoting created delightful settings. Constructed in concrete and steel, The Olympia was considered Canada's first 'fireproof' hotel, and was one of the first buildings in the nation with a fire sprinkler system.
​The original 4-storey Winnipeg hotel had been designed ready to support an increase in rooms, and by 1920 demand exceeded the supply. So in 1923, a $400,000 five-story addition was completed. Historic Marlborough Hall, the stately ballroom with a dramatic 8th floor perspective on Winnipeg's famous Portage & Main intersection, sits atop this addition.

In 1924 the now nine-storey structure was purchased by a group of Winnipeg businessmen and, in an era when Canada was still a proud part of the British Empire, the hotel was re-christened The Marlborough, after England's great 18th century military leader, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough.
In 1956, hotel owner Nathan Rothstein began construction on an eight-storey addition on the north side. It would take four years to raise sufficient funds to complete the project. When it was opened officially in February 1960, the addition included an eighth-floor ballroom with an impressive view of the Winnipeg skyline, 200 rooms, a cocktail lounge, beverage room, coffee shop, and basement grill room.
At the time of this renovation, many of the significant features in the interior of the original hotel were maintained, including the formal dining room, and architectural elements within the lobby. The Churchill Dining Room’s twenty-foot rib vaulted ceilings and walnut wainscoting have been preserved even through various renovations and redesigns, such as the one overseen by Winnipeg interior designer Grant Marshall in the 1980s. The neo-Gothic decoration of this older space is perhaps most dramatically revealed in the rear cocktail lounge, which features soaring Gothic spandrels, quatrefoil designs, and stained-glass windows. The entrance into the 1956 annex is funnelled through the original lobby, which has been redesigned and expanded to meet increased traffic. Off the lobby, for many years, was the entrance to the Winnipeg Press Club, the oldest such institution in Canada.
A plaque in the lobby of the hotel, erected in 2010 by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, commemorates a meeting here in November 1925 that led to the founding of the Royal Canadian Legion, Canada’s largest veteran-based social and advocacy organization. In 2005, the building (a municipally-designated historic site) received a Conservation Award from Heritage Winnipeg. In 2014, it received an MHS Centennial Business Award from the Manitoba Historical Society.