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CPR Magazine Article
Communications and Public Affairs
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Volume 26   Number 2

March 1996


An Alberta Rose by Any Other Name

Palliser Hotel circa 1914.
It's difficult to imagine a Canadian Pacific hotel named Swastika. Yet, in 1912, when the railway's newest hostelry was under construction in Calgary, that symbol - an ancient Eastern good luck charm, forever sullied by the Nazis - might have been applied over the front door.
 
Swastika was one of a dozen names suggested to management during its quest for an appropriate moniker for the hotel, which, along with the CPR railway station and adjoining gardens, would form the focal point of Calgary's social life for decades to come.
 
Other more obvious suggestions were Adanac - Canada spelled backwards and the name of a brand of CPR bottled mineral water - Great Western, Golden Northwest, Pride of the West, and Royal Northwestern.
 
Another rather awkward suggestion - which also sprang, in part, from CPR involvement in land development and settlement - was the Shaughden, a combination of Shaughnessy, for Thomas Shaughnessy, president of the railway at the time, and Dennis, from Colonel J.S. Dennis, assistant to the president, in charge of land matters.
 
Royalty, of course, were always in contention, the Duke of Connaught being considered as a possible name, along with the Royal Mary, after one of the reigning British monarchs.
 
More intriguing still was the proposal to name the hotel after Crowfoot, chief of the Blackfoot and a moderating voice among the northwest Indians during the CPR's construction period.
 
Eventually the choice was narrowed down and Piedmont came to the forefront. In the year preceding its opening, the hotel was even listed as such in several railway trade publications. However at the last minute, Shaughnessy is said to have had a change of heart, deciding that Palliser would be more appropriate.

This CP Rail News article is copyright 1996 by Canadian Pacific Railway and is reprinted here with their permission. All photographs, logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.