1 · POSITION
Railway promoters and speculators who acquired ground north of the boulevard des Capucines in 1853 and set out, in the phrase of the French record, to create a luxury quarter connected to the stations. Le Grand Hôtel was raised in about fourteen months from April 1861 for the Universal Exhibition of 1867, using electric light to work at night and building the joinery and furniture off site. Empress Eugénie inaugurated it on 5 May 1862 and is said to have exclaimed that it was exactly like home.
2 · ⚑ WHY THEY MATTER MORE THAN THE BUILDING
They built the hotel where the trains arrived, on purpose. That is the mechanism behind half of Part IV and it is almost never stated: the grand hotels of the nineteenth century are a railway product. The register already holds the same thought twice — LHL-486 Canadian Pacific built hotels along its own lines from 1886, and LHL-P-055 Georges Nagelmackers built a train and then the hotels to receive it. The Pereires did it first and in a capital city.
3 · CANDOUR
⚑ The authorship of the façade model is disputed between Charles Rohault de Fleury and Alfred Armand and the Library does not choose. The project was first given to Rohault de Fleury and taken from him. An 11-million-franc loan from Crédit Terrain is recorded in one source and not established elsewhere. Their wider career, and what became of the family firm, are not established here.