The Richelieu and Ontario Navigation Company, a steamship line moving passengers and freight along the St. Lawrence River, commissioned architect Edward Maxwell to build a 250-room hotel atop the Pointe-au-Pic bluffs in 1899, giving travelers a grand destination at the end of their river journey. The hotel’s golf course opened in 1925 with former U.S. President William Howard Taft in attendance.
On September 12, 1928, as staff were closing the property for the winter season, a fire broke out and destroyed the hotel entirely. Rather than rebuild slowly, the company brought in architect John Smith Archibald, who redesigned it as a Loire Valley-style château, and the new Manoir Richelieu reopened just eight months later, on June 15, 1929. Canadian Pacific Hotels, later Fairmont, acquired the property in 1998. It has hosted two G7 summits, most recently in 2018, transforming the small town of La Malbaie into a stage for world leaders.