The Bessborough Hotel, Autograph Collection

Saskatoon's landmark 1935 Bessborough Hotel — a Canadian National Railway chateau hotel long run as Delta Hotels Bessborough — is undergoing a full renovation and brand change, emerging as The Bessborough Hotel, Autograph Collection. Closed to guests since May 2026 for new mechanical systems, a redesigned lobby, refreshed rooms and a relocated restaurant called Grand Junction, the 225-room hotel is targeted to reopen either in late 2026 or, per one official listing, February 2027.

The place

The Bessborough stands at 601 Spadina Crescent East on the bank of the South Saskatchewan River, directly across from Saskatoon's downtown core and a short walk from the Broadway Bridge and the University of Saskatchewan campus on the opposite shore. Its ten-story chateau silhouette has anchored the riverfront skyline since the 1930s, and the property still holds roughly 20,000 square meters of waterfront garden between the building and the river — a scale of green space unusual for a downtown hotel of this size.

The concept

Canadian National Railway announced the hotel in 1928 as one of its chain of grand railway hotels, the same program that produced the Chateau Laurier and Hotel Vancouver. Construction wrapped by 1932, but the Depression delayed the opening to December 10, 1935. Architects J.S. Archibald and John Schofield gave it a Châteauesque design — steep roofs, turrets, dormers and carved stonework in Tyndall stone from Manitoba over Saskatchewan brick — that earned it the local nickname "the Castle on the River." The Baltzan family bought the hotel from CN in 1972 and sold it to Delta Hotels in 1989; Marriott's 2015 acquisition of Delta folded it into the Marriott portfolio as Delta Hotels Bessborough. Announced in December 2025, the current project drops the Delta flag entirely: on reopening the property becomes The Bessborough Hotel, Autograph Collection, positioned as an independently branded heritage hotel within Marriott Bonvoy rather than a flagged Delta property. Work began mid-January 2026 on the north wing before the hotel closed to guests entirely from May 1 through the summer for the heaviest phase — a full redesign of the 225 guest rooms, an overhaul of the lobby and meeting spaces, and replacement of the building's heating and cooling systems, timed to the warmer months since the hotel cannot operate without them. Historic ceilings are being retained where original, with walls, lighting and fixtures updated around them; a lobby installation called the Cabinet of Curiosities will display artifacts and photographs from the hotel's nine decades of operation.

Dining & wellness

The renovation relocates the hotel's flagship dining to the ground floor, where the former pool has been demolished to make way for a new three-meal restaurant called Grand Junction. Further dining and lounge details had not been disclosed as of the closure.