About

Built between 1876 and 1878 on Peel Street, the Windsor Hotel was designed by American architect William Boyington and quickly celebrated as the finest hotel in Canada. Its nine storeys of sandstone and granite held a gold-embossed lobby, six restaurants, a concert hall, 382 guest rooms and two grand ballrooms.

For the next century, the Windsor was where Montreal gathered. It stood at the heart of the city’s winter carnival in 1884, hosted the Chamber of Commerce in its concert hall in 1903, and grew with the addition of its north annex between 1906 and 1917. That annex gave us Peacock Alley, the grand promenade that still welcomes guests today. Through the 1940s and into the 1950s, the hotel received a long list of distinguished visitors, including a royal couple honoured at a dinner here in 1951.

A fire in 1957 shook the city, and in 1982, after celebrating its centennial, the Windsor Hotel closed its doors. The building was reborn as prestigious office space and named Office Building of the Year in 1995, while its historic ballrooms carried on. In 2016, the Crystal Lounge joined them.

Today, Peacock Alley, Le Windsor, Versailles and Crystal host more than 200 weddings, galas and corporate events a year in downtown Montreal, in rooms that have been bringing people together for nearly 150 years.