Manoir Richelieu
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The Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu is a historic hotel operated by Fairmont Hotels in
La Malbaie, Quebec La Malbaie () is a municipality in the Charlevoix-Est Regional County Municipality in the Province of Quebec, Canada, situated on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River at the mouth of the Malbaie River. It was formerly known as Murray Bay. ...
, Canada. The hotel was first built in 1899 but then burned down in 1928. The hotel was rebuilt in 1929 in the
Châteauesque Châteauesque (or Francis I style,Whiffen, Marcus, ''American Architecture Since 1780: A guide to the styles'', The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1969, p. 142. or in Canada, the Château Style) is a revivalist architectural style based on the ...
style, designed by Canadian architect
John Smith Archibald John Smith Archibald (December 14, 1872 – March 2, 1934) was a Canadian architect. Biography John Smith Archibald was born in Inverness, Scotland on December 14, 1872. He arrived in Montreal in 1893. He worked as chief architect in Edward Max ...
in the style of a French castle. About northeast of
Quebec City Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...
, the hotel sits on a cliff along the
St Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawren ...
. It has 405 guest rooms and four restaurants.


Associated facilities

U.S. president
William Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) served as the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices. ...
opened the hotel's 27 hole golf course in 1925 which was designed by British architect Herbert Strong. The
Casino de Charlevoix The Casino de Charlevoix is located in Pointe-au-Pic, now part of La Malbaie, about east of Quebec City. The historic Manoir Richelieu hotel is located right next to the casino. Charlevoix is a very popular tourist destination because of its l ...
adjoins the hotel and can be accessed via an underground passage. It is owned by Fairmont and the Quebec government.


Ownership history

Owned by
Canada Steamship Lines Canada Steamship Lines (CSL) is a shipping company with headquarters in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The business has been operating for well over a century and a half. Beginnings CSL had humble beginnings in Canada East in 1845, operating river ...
, it was sold in 1966 to Warnock Hersey. In 1971, the hotel was sold to American real estate developer John B. Dempsey, II of Cleveland. He ran the hotel with a private ownership group until 1975 after which it was sold to the Quebec provincial government and then to Raymond Malenfant in 1985. In 1998, Loto-Québec partnered with Canadian Pacific Hotels (which became Fairmont) and the Solidarity Fund QFL to acquire the Manoir Richelieu. Fairmont Hotels rebranded and reopened the hotel in June 1999 after a $140 million renovation and expansion.


Notable events

In 1985, businessperson Raymond Malenfant bought the hotel from the
Province of Quebec Quebec is Canada's largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, New Brunswick to the southeast and a coastal border ...
for $555,555.55 (). Malenfant refused to recognize the union for the then 300-350 employees at the hotel, claiming he had bought the building, not the collective agreement. Two of Malenfant's cars were torched. Workers broke into the hotel and ransacked the facilities resulting in 71 arrests. One person died of suffocation while in police custody. After an extended conflict all the workers lost their jobs and the union was crushed. Malenfant, worth hundreds of millions in the 1980s, was bankrupt by the early 1990s because of the dispute. The dispute is considered one of the nastiest in Quebec labour history. The hotel served as the main venue of the
44th G7 summit The 44th G7 summit was held on 8–9 June 2018, in La Malbaie in the Charlevoix region of Quebec, Canada. This was the sixth time since 1981 that Canada has hosted the meetings. In March 2014, the Group of Seven (G7)—comprising leaders of C ...
on June 8–9, 2018. This involved rings of security as world leaders and staff gathered. The hotel served as the main venue of a summit of the G7 foreign ministers on March 13-14, 2025.''Top diplomats from G7 countries meet in Canada as Trump threatens more tariffs on US allies''
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See also

* History of Quebec#Late 20th century Quebec (1960–1999)


References

{{reflist


External links

* Official Hotel websit

* Article in French Wikipedi

* The Canadian Encyclopedia entry on the labour disput

La Malbaie Hotels in Quebec Fairmont Hotels & Resorts 1899 establishments in Quebec Canadian companies established in 1899 Hotels established in 1899