The Glory of Ottawa: Canada's First Parliament Buildings

David E. Smith is a professor of political science at the University of
Saskatchewan and the author of Building a Province: A History of
Saskatchewan in Documents and The Invisible Crown.

The Centre Block of Canada’s first parliament buildings was destroyed
by fire in 1916. This account of the architectural competition and
construction of the buildings makes clear that the conflagration was
both a historical and an artistic tragedy. The Centre, East, and West
Blocks were built between 1859 and 1865 to house parliament and the
departmental offices of government in the new capital of the Province of
Canada. The Centre Block was the glory of the collection; a recent
sympathetic restoration of the East Block hints at the opulence of this
lost jewel.

These buildings, together with University College in Toronto,
introduced a truly national style to Canada’s architecture. As Young
demonstrates, the style was not an accident, nor was it parochial. A
public competition attracted Canada’s leading architects and, in
itself, contributed to the identity of that emerging profession. The
submissions reflected the fierce debate going on in America and Britain
over styles, especially Classical versus Gothic, and Young does an
excellent job, delineating the positions and protagonists in that
debate.

The successful architects (Fuller and Jones for the Centre Block, and
Stent and Laver for the East and West Blocks) produced structures in a
secular Gothic style that at the same time used up-to-date technology.
Thus, the Library of Parliament possesses the first iron dome in Canada.
To the modern lay viewer, all Gothic architecture may look alike. This
book destroys that misconception. There was nothing medieval about the
Ottawa design. On the contrary, it was bold, rough, even masculine, with
ornamentation that echoed the “frosty fortitude” that John Ruskin
said was essential to the style.

This is an illuminating study of an architectural treasure. It is no
slight on today’s monumental Centre Block (by John Pearson, 1916–27)
to regret the loss of its predecessor.