The hotel project was part of the Grand Trunk Pacific's plan to make Prince Rupert a west coast port city to rival Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco.

[2] At the company's annual meeting in 1911, president Charles Melville Hays informed shareholders that the railway "proposed to construct a chain of first-class modern hotels" stretching from Winnipeg to Prince Rupert.

Curiously, the image Rattenbury submitted and the building the article describes was the first iteration of the design, which had been superseded in September 1912.

[5] In the summer of 1985, a set of 283 drawings of the hotel was found in the attic of Glenlyon School in Victoria by headmaster Keith Walker.

A full set of drawing is also held by the Prince Rupert City and Regional Archives as part of the Francis M. Rattenbury fonds.