Hotels that last more than a century tend to collect legends, and the Manoir has its share. We have kept to what the hotel itself publishes on its history page, and we mark clearly the details that come only from Wikipedia, which we treat as a secondary source. Dates and names are given as those sources give them.
1899: a hotel for the steamers
At the end of the nineteenth century the quickest way to reach Charlevoix from Montréal or Québec was by water. The Richelieu & Ontario Navigation Company ran passenger steamers down the St. Lawrence, and in 1899 it opened the first Manoir Richelieu at Pointe-au-Pic as a retreat for the travellers its boats brought ashore. The hotel's history page names the architect as Edward Maxwell, one of the best-known Montréal architects of the period. The idea was simple and lasting: a grand house on the cliff, with the river as its front lawn.
1925: golf on the heights
The hotel's golf course was officially inaugurated in 1925 in the presence of William Howard Taft, the former President of the United States, and the landscape architect Herbert Strong. According to Wikipedia's article on La Malbaie, Taft spent his summers here for nearly forty years, from 1892 on, apart from his years in office, and was known locally as « le petit juge ». The course he helped open is still in use, now as a 27-hole layout on the hills above the hotel, and one of the meeting rooms today carries his name.
1928–1929: fire and a rebuilding
On 12 September 1928 the hotel was destroyed by fire. What followed is the most remarkable part of the story: a new building, designed under the direction of the architect John Archibald, was put up and opened on 15 June 1929 — barely nine months later. That is the château you see today, with its steep roofs and its long wings along the cliff. Archibald, too, has a room named after him in the conference centre.
Changing hands
From here we rely on Wikipedia's article on the hotel. It records that the Manoir belonged to Canada Steamship Lines for many years, was sold in 1966 to Warnock Hersey, passed to John B. Dempsey II in 1971, and came under the ownership of the Quebec government after 1975. In 1985 it was bought by the businessman Raymond Malenfant, a period remembered for a long labour dispute. In 1998 Loto-Québec acquired it together with Canadian Pacific Hotels and the Fonds de solidarité FTQ; after a renovation the article puts at $140 million, it reopened as a Fairmont in June 1999.
1994: the Casino de Charlevoix
The French-language Wikipedia article on the Casino de Charlevoix says the casino opened on 24 June 1994, in a building that had once been the Manoir's summer theatre — a hall already known, long before any gaming licence, as "Le Casino". The same article dates an enlargement to 1999, the opening of Bar 21 to 2008 and the arrival of the St-Hubert restaurant to 2016. Today Loto-Québec runs it and markets hotel and casino together as the Hôtel-Casino de Charlevoix.
2018: the G7 summit
On 8 and 9 June 2018 the leaders of the G7 met at the Manoir. The hotel's history page treats it as a turning point that put Charlevoix on a world stage for two days. Wikipedia adds that the hotel was also the main venue of a G7 foreign ministers' meeting on 13 and 14 March 2025.
2024 and after
In 2024 the hotel marked 125 years since the first Manoir opened. Its recent distinctions, as listed by the hotel, include a MICHELIN Key in the 2025 MICHELIN Guide, the 2025 Club de golf de l'année from the Association des Clubs de golf du Québec, a five-star rating from the CITQ, a Five Green Keys rating from the Hotel Association of Canada (dated 2024 on one page and 2023 on another), fourth place among Canadian resort hotels in Travel + Leisure in 2022, and a Tripadvisor Travellers' Choice in 2020.
Reading the building today
History at the Manoir is mostly something you notice rather than visit. The names of the meeting rooms — Richelieu, Malbaie, Tadoussac, Saguenay, Matapédia, Saint-François, William Taft, John Archibald, John Nairne, Malcom Fraser — read like a map of the river and a list of the people who shaped the area. Wikipedia's article on La Malbaie records that in 1763 two Scottish officers of the British Army, John Nairne and Malcolm Fraser, received concessions here from the Crown — Nairne's on the western side of the Malbaie river, Fraser's to the east — and renamed the bay Murray Bay after General James Murray. The English name never became official, but you will still meet it on old maps and in the name of the Club de Golf Murray Bay. The Musée de Charlevoix, at 10 chemin du Havre just down the hill, is the place to follow that thread further.
Sources: Fairmont, Our Story (hotel), Wikipedia, Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu and Wikipedia, La Malbaie (secondary), Wikipédia, Casino de Charlevoix (secondary, in French).