Admiral Beatty Hotel

The Admiral Beatty Hotel stands at the intersection of King Square South and Charlotte Street,[1] adjacent to the Imperial Theatre.

[1] It was named in honour of Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, who served as the Governor General of Canada.

[6] The land on which the Dufferin Hotel was built had previously been the location of an old windmill, which, in 1807, while struggling financially as a mill, had been temporarily occupied by the Kings County Militia due to war between Great Britain and the United States.

[14] Upon opening, the Admiral Beatty Hotel featured amenities such as a lounge, a barber shop, a cafeteria, a main dining room, a regal suite for members of royalty or notable visitors, and a Georgian ballroom.

[23] While performing in Saint John, Black celebrities including Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald were even made to enter the hotel through the back door.

[32] On August 8, 1984, the Court of Queen's Bench granted permission for the former Admiral Beatty Hotel building to be sold.

[33] For the price of $550,000,[34] the property was to be sold to a non-profit company to be named "Admiral Beatty Estates Ltd.",[33] who planned to turn the former hotel into a 112-room senior-friendly apartment complex, with commercial offices on the ground floor.

[39] At the dining room, she met a Telegraph-Journal reporter who gave her a copy of the newspaper published that day, which featured her.

Members of the Canadian royal family, including Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, entered the Admiral Beatty Hotel.

[41] In 1964, American evangelist Billy Graham visited Saint John, during which he was interviewed at the Admiral Beatty Hotel.