Four Seasons started on a Toronto street known for derelicts.
Isadore Sharp, a builder with no hotel experience, opened a 125-room motor hotel on Jarvis Street in 1961, though almost everyone he talked to warned that people would take it for a flophouse. His hotels were the first to offer shampoo, bathrobes and 24-hour room service, perks every hotel now copies.
Four Seasons on Brandseum