Chateau Frontenac - Quebec City

[PSPZ]

I watched a video by JonLevi recently that briefly discusses the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec (Architecture of Cathedrals, 14 min approx into the video). Chateau Frontenac is said to be the most photographed hotel in the world. As the pictures demonstrate, it is quite massive with over 600 rooms. It is also said that it was built between 1892 and 1893. JonLevi points out that it would be impossible to build it this fast even today. And I tend to agree with that. It would certainly take more than a year today with our technology; imagine people of the 19th century making all this with horses and wooden carriages, ropes and pulleys in only one year.
I understand his point leads to the notion of a building of the ancient world, though.

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But was it ALL built in 1893?
I managed to find pictures of construction and evolution of the structure from a 1970's article put online. It turns out that it was erected in several phases. Let's see.
First here is a picture taken in 1860 of the site years before construction. The caption informs us that they 'had' to demolish a previous hotel as well as rows of tenements dating from the 1700s. Just like that. Today such older buildings would be considered of historical significance, but anyway...
Notice, quite typical of mid 1800s photography, that the streets are overcrowded. People almost stepped on each other's toes!

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The next image is dated 1893. The caption says it's under construction. But as you can see there is not much construction going on as it is in fact completed (as usual perhaps...)

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This next photo was taken during the tricentennial of Quebec City in 1908.

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Phase 2 of construction going on in 1909.

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Phase 3 going on in the 1920s. This expansion including the main tower took several years to build. The dates appear on the pictures.

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I include this next image of the completed third phase of the Chateau mainly because it clearly shows the Citadelle in the background. I visited it as a kid. But only today I realize that this was a star fort...

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One last expansion was made in 1990s. So, according to those photos, it appears that this building was not built in one year but pretty much in 100 years, with long lunch breaks...
Here are my impressions on this:
-First, if it was built on the site of older buildings, why did they 'had' to destroy them to replace them with a more spectacular one. Replacing History with pastiche History? It reminds me a little of the Empire State Building. It may have merits of its own, but if you saw the pictures of the magnificent Astoria Hotel that was standing there before, you would scratch your head like I do.
-Second, the reason why JonLevi misunderstood like everybody else the timeline of this construction, is because it is not mentioned anymore that it was built in different phases over a century. I had a hard time to find those early photographs. Do 'they' expect us to believe that this was all done in a year? Give us a few more generations and everybody will buy it, having forgotten all the details of construction.
-Third but not least, a picture taken soon after completion of the 1920s expansion:

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The entire original section was destroyed by a fire. They rebuilt it almost identical afterward apparently. The destructive fire managed however to spare the expansions altogether. How very remarkable. This means that what was inaugurated in 1893 doesn't exist anymore. Were there things in the older section that needed to disappear?
Even funnier, everybody ignores this fire nowadays. Only one article from the 1970s would timidly mention it with that single picture. In fact, Wikipedia which goes with a bunch of details about the Chateau Frontenac completely omits this fire. Ah, Wikipedia... The place to go for reliable information...
When it comes to the original portion of the Chateau Frontenac, there is still a place for the theory of ancient building I guess, particularly in view of this suspicious fire. After all, the 1893 photo doesn't show actual construction. This would imply that the 1860 photo does not really show the current location of the Chateau. I can't confirm either way. I'm not familiar enough with the History of Quebec.

It shows at least this: The more you dig into something, the more funny things you find.
I bet there are more secrets to reveal about this hotel.

 

[road_to_inle]

the most recent great reset?

 

[PSPZ]

the most recent great reset?

I'll put it this way. I think we have been going through a slow reset since the industrial age rather than a brutal, sudden one like a massive natural disaster. That would have happened sometimes before. Although there is something slightly brutal about forcing the population of the world to wear masks and stay home even if those masks have proven to provide little (if any) protection against a certain virus... Anyway, gradually, step by step, traces of the past are being erased and replaced by new things. The bulk of structure demolition happened until the end of WW2 (the biggest demolition orgy conceived by mankind). It's still going on now but in a more discreet way. Many protection and conservation movements make it more difficult to simply demolish whatever pleases the Elite.
In the not so far future, people might not understand what was involved in building old constructions. Building techniques will improve and so speed of construction. New generations might look back at something like the Chateau Frontenac or much older buildings perhaps wrongly attributed to people of the 19th century and say: "Wow, those Gilded Age builders were really gifted, I mean all this in one year...?" Even if they are skeptical, they might lack the historical details to understand what might have happened.
Of course, places like this website allows us to put things in perspective. But how many people read such information and show interest towards the past? Not too many I suppose.

And now, a few images of the Chateau Haldimand, demolished to make place to Chateau Frontenac.

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This one shows the condition of the streets around 1870. Just dirt. When did they start to apply some pavement like cobble stones or whatever?

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Demolition images.

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Now this is a painting or drawing from 1835. The overall shape is recognizable but what's wrong with the ground floor? And The building in the background seems in ruins... I wonder if this is accurate. Interesting, in any case.

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And finally, a more recent and better view of the Citadelle nearby. It really is half a star shaped fortification.

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[road_to_inle]

I'll put it this way. I think we have been going through a slow reset since the industrial age rather than a brutal, sudden one like a massive natural disaster. That would have happened sometimes before. Although there is something slightly brutal about forcing the population of the world to wear masks and stay home even if those masks have proven to provide little (if any) protection against a certain virus... Anyway, gradually, step by step, traces of the past are being erased and replaced by new things. The bulk of structure demolition happened until the end of WW2 (the biggest demolition orgy conceived by mankind). It's still going on now but in a more discreet way. Many protection and conservation movements make it more difficult to simply demolish whatever pleases the Elite.
In the not so far future, people might not understand what was involved in building old constructions. Building techniques will improve and so speed of construction. New generations might look back at something like the Chateau Frontenac or much older buildings perhaps wrongly attributed to people of the 19th century and say: "Wow, those Gilded Age builders were really gifted, I mean all this in one year...?" Even if they are skeptical, they might lack the historical details to understand what might have happened.
Of course, places like this website allows us to put things in perspective. But how many people read such information and show interest towards the past? Not too many I suppose.

And now, a few images of the Chateau Haldimand, demolished to make place to Chateau Frontenac.

View attachment 25962View attachment 25963View attachment 25964
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This one shows the condition of the streets around 1870. Just dirt. When did they start to apply some pavement like cobble stones or whatever?

View attachment 25965
​

Demolition images.

View attachment 25966View attachment 25967​

Now this is a painting or drawing from 1835. The overall shape is recognizable but what's wrong with the ground floor? And The building in the background seems in ruins... I wonder if this is accurate. Interesting, in any case.

View attachment 25968
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And finally, a more recent and better view of the Citadelle nearby. It really is half a star shaped fortification.

View attachment 25969​

Thanks a ton for sharing - this is really interesting and new favorite rabbit hole for me.

 

[jonnye]

Most people think photoshop is a recent invention. In fact, photoshop was invented in the 1840’s by the same people who introduced photography. It is as old as photography itself. My guess is that this chateau is a few hundred years old, possibly as old as 500 years. The “construction” photos are most likely interior structure rehabilitation; windows, rooms, wood floors, walls, stair cases and wells, etc. All these construction pictures share the “vanilla sky” characteristic of 19th and early 20th century photoshop.

 

[Tapioca]

Most people think photoshop is a recent invention. In fact, photoshop was invented in the 1840’s by the same people who introduced photography. It is as old as photography itself. My guess is that this chateau is a few hundred years old, possibly as old as 500 years. The “construction” photos are most likely interior structure rehabilitation; windows, rooms, wood floors, walls, stair cases and wells, etc. All these construction pictures share the “vanilla sky” characteristic of 19th and early 20th century photoshop.

In school I learned how in the US civil war photographers would rearrange the dead bodies to create better scenes.