Queen Elizabeth Hotel
building in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth (French: Fairmont Le Reine Élizabeth) is a historic grand hotel in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. With 950 rooms and 21 floors it is the largest hotel in Quebec, and the second largest Fairmont hotel in Canada after the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto. Located at 900 René Lévesque Boulevard West, in Downtown Montreal, it is connected to Central Station and to the underground city. The hotel is known for being the location for John Lennon and Yoko Ono recording "Give Peace a Chance" in Room 1742 during their 1969 anti-war Bed-In.
History
The Queen Elizabeth (French: Le Reine Élizabeth) opened on April 15, 1958. The hotel was built and owned by the Canadian National Railway and operated by Hilton Hotels International, though it was never branded as a Hilton.
Canadian National Railway selected leading architects and designers to give the interior decoration a "New France" theme, using Quebec handicrafts. The artists included Albert Edward Cloutier (carved wooden panels), Jean Dallaire (wall hanging), Marius Plamondon (stained glass mural), Claude Vermette (ceramic tiles) and Julien Hébert (bronze elevator doors). Cloutier painted a mural for the main dining room of the Salle Bonaventure in the hotel.
There was controversy over naming the hotel: Quebec nationalists wanted it called Château Maisonneuve in honour of Montreal's founder, Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve.
“Queen Elizabeth Hotel” enters the record as building in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Queen, Elizabeth and Hotel can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Queen Elizabeth Hotel” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Queen, Elizabeth and Hotel provides the most credible route into that argument.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2442059. Authority coordinates are 45.501, -73.568. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1742, 1969 and 1958.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Queen Elizabeth Hotel”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Queen Elizabeth Hotel primary sources, Queen Elizabeth Hotel archive and Queen research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Queen Elizabeth Hotel”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Queen Elizabeth Hotel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.