apparent, however, and in 1857 Queen Victoria was asked to choose the city that would become the long-serving capital.
Sir Richard William Scott, Ottawa’s member of Parliament, prepared an eloquent summation which cited the advantages of his city’s rail and water communication as well as its central geographical location to Canada East and Canada West by way of Union Bridge across the Ottawa River. On December 31, 1857, the Queen’s notice was contained in a letter from the desk of the colonial secretary. It read in part: “I am commanded by the Queen to inform you, that in the judgement of Her Majesty, the City of Ottawa combines more advantages than any other place in Canada for the permanent seat of the future government of Province.” A year later, in 1858, Ottawa became the capital of Canada.
Politicians needed to think about designing a building to house the seat of government in this new capital. On May 21, 1859, the Ottawa Tribune posted “Notice to Architects” specifying the budget for the buildings: “For Parliament House, $300,000; for Departmental Building $240,000.” The site chosen for the Parliament buildings was Barracks Hill, deemed the most desirable location, overlooking the Ottawa River.
The first sod was turned on December 20, 1859. The Centre Block took six years to complete. Delays followed one after the other due to instability in the underlying rock bed, the need to install water tanks in case of fire, and the transportation of the stone from the Nepean quarry, 12 miles away.
On September 1, 1860, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) laid the cornerstone of the original Centre Block of the Gothic-style Parliament buildings, comprised of three copper-roofed stone structures: the East Block, the West Block, and the Centre Block.
Architecturally, the Parliament buildings represented Canada’s best example of the developed, picturesque Gothic revival style. Features borrowed from medieval architecture included pointed arches, lancet windows with tracery, pinnacles with crockets, prominent exposed buttresses, and contrasting, variegated stonework, set off by brick trim. The Centre Block was first designed in 1859, reworked in 1863, and completed in 1866.
Disaster struck parliament hill on February 3, 1916, while the House of Commons was in session. Fire broke out and the Centre Block was gutted. The entire incident remains a mystery. The East and West Blocks and library were untouched. The Canadian poet, Duncan Campbell Scott, was witness to it all. “The fire was terrible and tragic; it was the most terrifying and beautiful sight I have ever seen ... I hope that the building may be restored without the practice of any vandalism, but I have my doubts. I hear talk of ‘a larger, more imposing, up-to-date building.’ The very phrases make one shudder. We had a building that was beautiful and harmonized with the site, and there will be some people who will want to destroy it because they can put up something more beautiful. If they can put up a more beautiful building, let them put it somewhere else. Let us preserve the beauty that we have.”
Picture of the corner of Rideau and Sussex Streets in 1865.
Library and Archives Canada
The damage was, as it turned out, too great and the building had to be demolished. For the interim, the government relocated to the Victoria Memorial Museum (now the Museum of Nature) at the foot of Metcalfe Street. Architect John A. Pearson’s Neo-Gothic design won the architectural competition, and the Centre Block was erected between 1916 and 1920. The new structure contained 490 rooms, including the House of Commons and the Senate Chamber. In 1919 the Prince of Wales laid the cornerstone of the Peace Tower, a majestic structure rising to a height of 88 metres (291 feet). With 53 bells that range in weight from five to 10,000 kilograms (10 to 22,400 pounds), the Peace Tower remains one of the world’s finest carillons.
In 1868 a distinct stone mansion was constructed by a prominent businessman named Joseph Merrill Currier. He chose a site overlooking Governor’s Bay and christened it Gorphwysfa (the Welsh word for “place of peace”). The property was later owned by lumber barons until the government of Canada expropriated the property in 1946 to be the official residence for the Prime Minister. Today, we know the house as 24 Sussex Drive.
Visitors to Ottawa cannot help but walk by or through the Chateau Laurier Hotel. This impressive building on Rideau Street was started in 1908 and finished in 1912 by architects Ross and MacFarlane. The design they chose was a chateau-style, which had become popular for railway hotels across Canada. As you enter the hotel, your first view is of the ornately carved wooden panelling in the front foyer. In 1911 tourist-guide comments included: “The corridors are divided into sections by means of fire doors to separate them in an emergency, although the hotel is absolutely fireproof, no wood, except frames for doors and baseboards, being used in its construction. The main corridors lead directly to fire escapes, iron balconies and stairways inside the building. All the windows and service floors will be screened with the best Canadian-made fly screens, and a special refrigerating room will be provided to freeze the garbage until it is removed from the building.”
It was Boston-born Bradford Lee Gilbert who won the design competition for the Chateau Laurier. Gilbert, for no known reason, was fired in 1908. Although his design had met with Cabinet approval a year earlier, the Montreal firm of Ross and MacFarlane replaced Gilbert.
The architectural design of the building also included an underground tunnel linking the railway hotel to Union Station, built in 1912, and now housing the Government Conference Centre. Many people at the time expressed concern for safety in an underground tunnel. People felt this tunnel might attract “not only pickpockets but gentlemen whose misdemeanours were of a far more serious nature.” Speculation still exists that tunnels were also built to Parliament Hill.
Looking at the building from the street level, you can see sheer sandstone walls reaching up to the top floors. The steeply pitched copper roofline is a dramatic feature. The castle-like atmosphere is enhanced by the corners, small towers that sport narrow slit windows as if for medieval archers.
The federal government remains the city’s largest employer and tourism is the second-largest source of income in the city. Visitors remember Ottawa for the millions of tulips in the spring and for the world’s longest skating rink, the Rideau Canal.
Colonel By and Queen Victoria could not have envisioned a more congenial place.
Parry Sound
The gateway to the 30,000 islands, Parry Sound, is situated on a bay, called a “sound,” in Georgian Bay, at the mouth of the Sequin River. The First Nations peoples called this sound Wau-sak-au-sing, meaning “Shining Lake.” It was Captain Bayfield of the Royal Navy who first surveyed the district and prepared a nautical chart of its waters, between 1822 and 1825. The Captain named the area Parry Sound, after Sir William Edward Parry, the arctic explorer.
The timber rights in the district were first owned, in 1857, by James and William Gibson of York County. They erected a water-powered sawmill on the Sequin River. The mill quickly became the nucleus of a settlement. There was a boarding house, a blacksmith shop, a few tiny log shanties, and a store. Early residents included Joseph Rogerson, Thomas Caton, D.F. Macdonald, Thomas McGown, and Frank Strain.
The actual founder of the town of Parry Sound was William Beatty. He arrived here from Thorold in 1863 with his father, William Sr., and his brother James. The Beatty family came in search of timber limits and fortuitously discovered that the Gibson timber rights were for sale. The Beatty property became known as the Parry Sound Estates. Their land consisted of the mill, several log cabins, and a 129.5-square-kilometre (50 mile) timber limit. Subsequently, they purchased an additional 2,000 acres of land at the mouth of the Sequin River. Today, this is Parry Sound.
Young William
