Hotel checks out

   If you plant a walking stick in Ceylon, they say a tree will take root. 

   Likewise, if you stare at any building long enough in Old Montreal, it will turn into a boutique hotel.

   Exceptions prove the rule, however, and here's one that went the other way: Freeman's Hotel, which stood at 186 St. James Street, just east of St. Peter, until it was torn down 84 years ago.
   Everything you see inside that didn't get nicked was put up for auction in March, 1923.

   The building came down the next month. It was to be replaced by the Insurance Exchange Building, which stands to this day. Molson's Bank, the reddish building on the right of the main shot, is also still there at St. Peter and St. James Streets.

  It may not have been swish, but it wasn't a fleabag either. Freeman's, we'll see you in hotel heaven.