Donegana's Hotel, Montreal

Donegana's Hotel
Donegana's in The Illustrated London News
General information
Type	Private House Vice-Regal Residence School Hotel
Location	Old Montreal
Address	Notre-Dame Street
Construction started	1821
Destroyed	1880

Donegana's Hotel stood on the north-west corner of Notre-Dame Street and Bonsecours Street, a block away from Bonsecours Market in the Old Montreal district of Montreal, Quebec. Originally built as a private residence in 1821, the house served as the vice-regal residence of the Governors General of Canada from 1837 until 1843. It briefly housed the High School of Montreal before it was purchased by Jean-Marie Donegana who enlarged it to become the largest hotel in the British Colonies. It became famous across Europe and North America, where its reputation was only equal to, if not exceeding, that of New York's Astor House. Donegana's was burnt down in the Montreal Riots of 1849.

The site was sold in 1850 and the hotel rebuilt by American management as a new Donegana Hotel, which prospered until the 1870s under hotelier Daniel Gale. Gale promoted it in New York papers as a Montreal hotel that was equal to the finest American hostelries.Confederate agent and wine merchant P. C. Martin lived there around 1863, and after the American Civil War the family of ex-President Jefferson Davis stayed at the Donegana during their time in Montreal. In 1880 the second hotel was replaced by the Hôpital Notre-Dame.

Originally built as a private home, the main structure was started in 1821 for the American millionaire William Bingham (1800-1852), only son of Senator Bingham, in preparation for his marriage the following year to Marie-Charlotte Chartier de Lotbinière (1805-1866), daughter and co-heiress of the 2nd Marquis de Lotbinière. The Bingham house became a centre for fashionable society living in, and visiting, Montreal.

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