Dominion Square, way back in the day.

View of the Windsor Hotel across Dominion Square, ca. 1900

The square looks almost brand new in this picture. Consider this, when this photograph was taken the Windsor Hotel would have been the undisputed highest-class hotel in the entire city. The view from the hotel would have been striking, as the newly renovated Dominion Square opened up the new uptown and framed the many churches built around, none more impressive than Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral. Back in 1900, the entire city was about 400,000 people – a significant but by no means large North American city. Anyone who was anyone, including Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain, stayed here and would have seen this each morning. Moreover, back then, this would have been a residential square, with beautiful Golden Square Mile homes running the length from behind the hotel straight to the Mountain. Children probably played here. Odd to think of that now eh?

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