History
The Department of Public Works for the Province of Canada sent out, on 7 May 1859, a call for architects to submit proposals for the new parliament buildings to be erected on Barrack Hill, which was answered with 298 submitted drawings. After the entries were narrowed down to three, then Governor General Sir Edmund Walker Head was approached to break the stalemate, and the winner was announced on 29 August 1859. The Centre Block, departmental buildings, and a new residence for the governor general were each awarded separately, and the team of Thomas Fuller and Chilion Jones, under the pseudonym of Semper Paratus, won the prize for the first category with their Victorian High Gothic scheme with a formal, symmetrical front facing a quadrangle, and a more rustic, picturesque back facing the escarpment overlooking the Ottawa River.
The groundbreaking took place on 20 December 1859; however, workers soon hit bedrock, which, combined with a change to the design that saw the foundation moved to 17 feet deeper, meant costly blasting. Still, by 16 April of the following year, the first of the many coloured varieties of stone were laid – Nepean sandstone, red sandstone from Potsdam, New York, and a grey Ohio freestone. On 1 September 1860, Prince Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) arrived in Ottawa as part of his wider royal tour of the province, and laid the cornerstone of the growing Centre Block, with a luncheon on the grounds for the workers and their families. The Ottawa Citizen said on 6 June of the upcoming event:
| “ | t will be the first occasion on which he will be publicly recognized as the Heir-Apparent and he will see in the demonstrations of the Canadians something of a political rather than of a personal and individual character in after, when he occupies a more elevated position he will gratefully remember that his 'first appearance' as the representative of sovereign power and the warmth of feeling evinced towards him will make him more disposed to redress any grievances of the Canadians and more anxious to give his support to measures calculated to promote the prosperity of that country. | ” |
By 1866, the parliament of the United Province of Canada sat in its first and only session in the new building, by then dominated by the central Victoria Tower on the formal front, and with an articulated rear facade shaped along the curves of the adjacent cliff. The stonework contained carved mouldings, sculpted foliage, real and mythical animals, grotesques, and emblems of France, England, Ireland, and Scotland, spread across and over pointed windows in various groupings, turrets, towers, and finials, while the roof was of grey and green slate, topped with iron cresting painted china blue with gilt tips. Beautiful as the building was, however, the final tallies of the costs showed that the original budget had been far surpassed, with the total price of the Centre Block being $1,373,633, at 1866 rates, when $1,093,500 had originally been allocated for the construction of the entire parliamentary precinct.
On 1 July 1867, the Dominion of Canada was formed, with Ottawa as the capital, and the houses of parliament the legislature, for a larger territory than for which they had originally been built; within four years, the Dominion stretched all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. From 1906 to 1914, the Centre Block was expanded to suit the additional members of parliament and staff from the newly formed provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
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