Named the Olympia Hotel after the cafe, the building at 331 Smith Street opened to great fanfare on November 18, 1914. The former manager of the Chateau Lauirer in Ottawa, A.T. Folger, was hired to run the hotel. Winnipeg Mayor Thomas R. Deacon was the first guest to check in and the future looked bright. But the opening of the luxury hotel could not have come at a worse time. In 1914 the First World War started, drawing young men and resources into the war effort. That same year also marked the opening of the Panama Canal, which made it more cost effective to ship goods by boat instead of by train through Winnipeg. With the economy faltering, the new Olympia Hotel was doomed. It closed its doors only six months after opening.
Having only ever received one payment towards the $350,000 mortgage, creditors sold what they could of the hotel's furnishings to try and recoup their losses. But the Olympia did not stay vacant for long. The Canadian government leased the hotel and moved the 184th Battalion in 1916, with soldiers staying in usually lavish quarters. The military left in 1918 and the building returned to being a hotel with new ownership and management. Things were looking up once again for the Olympia.
In 1921 the hotel was closed so that six additional storeys could be added to the building. Architect John H.G. Russell was hired to over see the design of the red brick addition, which included moving the original parapet up to the new roof line. World War I hero and later Winnipeg Mayor Colonel Ralph Webb was hired as the manager, opening the newly renamed Marlborough Hotel on July 23rd, 1923.
http://heritagewinnipeg.blogspot.com/2019/07/from-olympia-to-marlborough.html
http://transpressnz.blogspot.com/2020/01/1911-kelly-springfield-limousine-bus.html via http://theoldmotor.com/?p=154893
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