Canadian Pacific Railway general manager Cornelius Van Horne commissioned this hotel in 1904 as one of the last in his chain of grand railway hotels meant to draw wealthy travelers along the transcontinental line and its connecting steamship routes. He hired Francis Rattenbury, fresh off designing British Columbia’s new legislative buildings, to create a Châteauesque landmark on Victoria’s Inner Harbour, though Rattenbury was fired before construction finished over cost disputes, leaving architect William Sutherland Maxwell to complete the work.
The Empress, named for Queen Victoria in her role as Empress of India, opened January 20, 1908, and the city grew up around it as its social and business center. Edward, Prince of Wales, danced until dawn in the Crystal Ballroom in 1919, an event so significant to Victorians that elderly women’s obituaries referenced it decades later. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth stayed in 1939 during the first visit to Victoria by reigning monarchs, later gifting the hotel the china pattern still used for its afternoon tea service today.