O’Brien House like ‘the biggest cottage you’ve ever been to’

Habs owner’s 1930 retreat restored as boutique hotel overlooking Meech

What was once the getaway of the industrialist owner of the Montreal Canadiens opens later this month as an intimate 11-room boutique hotel with a serene Canadiana vibe and sweeping views of Gatineau Park.

Long-empty O’Brien House, built on a promontory overlooking Meech Lake for J. Ambrose O’Brien in 1930, has been revived and rechristened simply as O’Brien.

It opens March 30.

“We did our best to retain the integrity of the structure and I think that’s been successful,” said Robert Milling of WMD Wakefield Mill Developments Inc. in the hotel’s library lined with shelves of board games and vintage books.

“Our intent was to create a feeling of a 1930s cottage lodge, obviously with contemporary touches. The objective is just to feel comfortable and relaxed, a place that’s like the biggest cottage you’ve ever been to.”

It’s been a four-year project for Milling — “1,465 days ago we started,” he said — who envisioned a second Gatineau Park destination linked to his Wakefield Mill, which opened in 2001. O’Brien is about a two-hour ski from the mill and three kilometres from Chelsea.

“The primary inspiration was the fact that it was in the park,” he said. “We’d always been looking for a sister property connected by ski trails.”

Milling, who already caters to cross-country skiing and cycling enthusiasts, is expecting an international clientele to come for three- or five-day ski, cycling and hiking trips and to host meetings and small weddings. A fine-dining restaurant is overseen by chef Patrick Marion.

Rooms will range from $229 to $729 depending on size and season.

Milling won’t say how much was spent on renovations, but when the National Capital Commission’s board of directors approved the use as a hotel in September 2016, it gave NCC staff the authority to approve the design of a $3.9-million rehabilitation. The lease is for five years with the option of a 20year renewal.

What was once known as Kincora Lodge was designed by Ottawa architect W.E. Noffke, who designed everything from Old Ottawa South’s iconic firehall to the city’s Central Post Office.

One of the first homes in Gatineau Park, it sits imposingly atop a winding road, but the materials — granite, log siding and cedar — link it to the Canadian wilderness, according to the NCC, which acquired the property in 1964.

But by the time Milling conceived the project, “it was just bare walls,” architect Peter Simister said.

He designed the renovation to be aimed at solving challenges such as making the lodge, serviced by steep steps, wheelchair accessible — the solution was a scenic walkway — while salvaging as much as possible, like half-a-dozen fireplaces, the original wooden floors and even the arched front door, now a glossy maple leaf red.

Those contemporary touches include two new dining rooms and guest rooms that combine old and new with sleek log headboards that double as room dividers and spalike bathrooms.

Simister has also designed two “tree houses,” guest rooms housed in modernist cubes that will be ready by summer.

From the lodge, views to the south include Ottawa’s skyline in the distance behind a canopy of trees. Next door is Willson House, where the Meech Lake Accord was negotiated. Northward, new decks offer views of the treetops and lake.

The rooms are outfitted with luxurious touches like custommade mattresses — guests choose between soft and firm — McAusland Woollen Mill blankets in a rainbow of hues and works by local artists. All will be for sale to guests via Shopify.

Much as it was in O’Brien’s day, though, is the Douglas-fir beamed Canadiana Room with a massive stone fireplace, rustic wooden mantle rescued from storage and a new wrought-iron fire screen depicting birds and branches by blacksmith Michael Kinghorn.

The hotel’s great room is furnished with an eclectic mix of art, carpets and antiques from the NCC’s Crown Collection of the official residences, which provided pieces like Charles Pachter’s oversized painting of a Canadian flag.

There are a few nods to the hotel’s first occupant, but they’re subtle, said Milling, who delighted in researching the life of the Renfrew-born scion of a railway builder.

“Almost single-handedly,” according to the Hockey Hall of Fame, O’Brien organized the rival National Hockey Association, the forerunner of the National Hockey League, when Renfrew’s application for a team was rejected in 1909. He went on to launch the Canadiens. Remembered as “a fine player and ambitious promoter,” he was inducted into the hall as a builder.

Now O’Brien’s picture sits on the front desk beneath a painting of hockey players in a blur of motion.

Nearby is a century-old Underwood typewriter that guests will be able to write out messages on postcards featuring vintage images of Gatineau Park.

During a conversation interrupted by the sounding of a grandfather clock once owned by Sir John Thompson, Canada’s fourth prime minister, Milling said that it’s one of the counterpoints to technology aimed at guests who want to escape modern life.

The hotelier hoped to create a place that’s “casual, comfortable, but quite elegant,” he said.

“As if you’re a guest of Ambrose O’Brien himself.”