Lake O'Hara Lodge was built in the winter of 1925-26 by the Canadian Pacific Railway. With a monopoly on rail transportation through the Canadian Rockies, the CPR was looking for ways to promote passenger traffic. To accommodate its more adventuresome passengers, the CPR constructed a network of backcountry lodges, which provided an alternative to larger hotels like the Banff Springs and Chateau Lake Louise.
Although the original Lake O'Hara Camp had already been established in a nearby alpine meadow, the present site was chosen when a larger building was needed. The impressive Douglas fir and cedar timbers for the Lodge were hauled up the horse trail on sleds.
The winter after the Lodge was built, the Lakeshore Cabins were skidded down from the meadow using horse teams. The main building in the meadow was then handed over to the Alpine Club of Canada, and still operates as the Elizabeth Parker Hut. The Guides' Cabins were built in 1961. Until the late 1950s, guests reached the lodge either by horse or on foot; bus service began in 1958.
"If you must have the glories of the Rocky Mountain scenery plus such trappings of modern luxury as magnificent hotels, ball rooms, golf courses, automobiles, and swarms of visitors… go to Banff or Louise. O’Hara’s appeal is rather to those who prefer to take their scenery straight… the accommodation at the lake is confined to a log chalet and a group of bungalows, so modest and so happily conceived that they seem to melt into their background"
– CPR brochure about the Lake O’Hara Bungalow Camp, ca 1929
