Hôtel Ottawa (1903) rue St-Antoine, Place du marché, St-Hyacinthe

The Hôtel Ottawa is a legendary building, a witness to the history of Saint-Hyacinthe... whose appearance around 1955 I reproduce on this painting.

In an article from the weekly Le Courrier de Saint-Hyacinthe dated May 5, 2022, its history is recounted, drawing on sources from the History Centre of Saint-Hyacinthe.

This building, first erected around 1870, fell prey to flames on three occasions before disappearing from the Maskoutain landscape.

Property of Mr. Michel Guertin, it was first destroyed during the great fire of September 3, 1876, and immediately rebuilt in 1877 at the same time as the downtown market.

Property of Mr. Jean-Baptiste Daudelin around 1883, it disappeared again in a great fire on May 20, 1903, while it was the property of Mr. Calixte Ledoux, who had it rebuilt on the same site, that same year, 1903.

Mr. Ledoux passed away on August 21, 1923, and the widow Ledoux, Madame Mélina Corbeil, sold the hotel in 1925 to Mr. Médéric d’Anjou for the sum of $14,000.00

In the early 1950s, the owner Jean D. Céré set up a performance hall there which he named LE GRILL, on rue Saint-Simon.

Jean and Roger Lefebvre bought it in 1952, and Cabaret shows were held there every Saturday night at 9:45 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. Several star artists performed on the stage of the GRILL.

Dominique Michel, Michel Louvain, Jean Roger, Murielle Millard, Michèle Richard, Rose Ouellet (La Poune), Roméo Pérusse, Doris Lussier (Père Gédéon), etc...

In the 1970s, shows became less frequent there, dancing was still in the spotlight, and they sold the Hôtel in 1979. Several singer shows would be held there (the group Corbeau, Richard Séguin etc)

From 1974 rooms could be rented there, and the building became a rental property starting in 1980.

In 1990 the Bar Saint-Antoine presented alternative music there, and in its final years, before being destroyed once again by a fire for the third time on April 29, 2022, never to rise from its ashes again; the building housed an Asian cuisine restaurant and a golf accessories shop called Liquidagolf on the ground floor, rue Saint-Antoine.

In the 1940s, during their training camp, the Montreal Canadiens players stayed at the Grand Hôtel on rue Girouard in Saint-Hyacinthe

and the players of the New Haven Eagles club, of the American Hockey League, stayed at the hôtel Ottawa,

during the National League’s pre-season training camps that were then held in Saint-Hyacinthe

in the new Stade Louis-Philippe-Gaucher, inaugurated in 1937,

an arena in which the filming of the famous movie LES BOYS took place in 1997.