CANADA - SEXTONdigital

JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF I JOURNAL DE LA SOCIETE POUR L'ETUDE DE L'
ARCHITECTURE!~
CANADA
VOL. 32 > No 1 > 2007

PRFS IDE!JT
PRESIDE'{!
PIERRE DUPREY
Department of Art
Ontario Hall
Queen's Uni versity
Kingston, ON KZL 3N6
(613 ) 533 -6166 1 f (6 t3) 533 -689 1
e pduprey@ post.queensu .ca
THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF ARCHITECTURE I N CANADA is a learned society
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EDITlNC. PROOFREADING, lMNSLA> ION REVISIOIILINGUISIIQUr IRADU CTrO•'i
MICHELINE GIROUX-AUBIN
GRAPHIC DESIGN I CO!XEPTION GRAPH IQUE
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JOUR!J.AI EDITOR REDACTEUR DU JOUR!•!.AL
LUC NOPPEN
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lnstitut du patrimoine
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PROVI !>lCiAL RFPR FSHJT.ATiVES !
REPR f SFNfMH( FIS DES PROVIWfS
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Culture and Housing
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L. FREDERICK VALENTI~E
Stantec Architecture Ltd.
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Ca lgary. AB T2A 7H 8
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DANIEL MILLETTE
511-55 Water Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 1A1
t If (604) 687-4907
e · lucubratio@yahoo .com
KAYHAN NADJI
126 Niven Dr.
Yellowkni fe. NT X1A 3W8
t I f : (867) 920-633 1
e kayen@nadji _architects .ca
SHELLEY BRUCE
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ANN HOWATT
P.O. Box 23 11
Charlottetown, P. E.I. C1A 8C1
(902) 626-8076
e: ahowatt@ upe i.ca

CONTENTS I TABLE DES MATIERES
JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF I JOURNAL DE LA SOCIETE POUR L'ETU DE DE L'
ARCHITECTURE~~
CANADA
ANALYSES I ANALYSES
REPORT I RAPPORT
> MICHELANGELO SABATINO
A Wigwam in Venice:
The National Gallery of Canada Builds a Pavilion,
1954-1958
> MARIE-BLANCHE FOURCAOE
La creation d'une petite Armenie ou les multiples usages
d'un sous-sol au Quebec
> SARAH BASSNETT
Visuality and the Emergence of City Planning in Early
Twentieth-Century Toronto and Montreal
> SHANE O'DEA AND
PETER COFFMAN
William Grey: 'Missionary' of Gothic in Newfoundland
> MALCOLM THURLBY
Two Churches by Frank Wills:
St. Peter's, Barton, and St. Paul's, Glanford, and
the Ecclesiological Gothic Revival in Ontario
> RHONA GOODSPEED
Saskatchewan Legislative Building and Grounds
3
15
21
39
49
61
VOL. 32 > No 1 > 2007

•
pr1x
Phyllis-Lambert • pr1ze
Appel de candidatures
Chaque annee l'lnstitut du patrimoine de I'UQAM decerne le Prix
Phyll is-Lambert a un(e) candidat(e) qui a soumis Ia meilleure these
de doctorat ou le meilleur memoire de maitrise portant sur
l'histoire de !'architecture au Canada selon !'evaluation qui en est
faite par un jury independant.
Le prix honore Phyllis Lambert, architecte et figure tutela ire de Ia
conservation architecturale, fondatrice du Centre Canadien
d' Architecture, institution montrealaise mondialement reconnue
pour son engagement dans Ia lutte pour Ia qualite du paysage
construit.
Chaque an nee, au plus tard a Ia fin du mois de janvier, l'lnstitut du
patrimoine de I'UQAM lance un appel au sein de Ia communaute
des historiens d'architecture et des architectes du Canada pour
que soient soumis les theses ou memoires ayant pour theme
l'histoire de !'architecture au Canada (histoire, theorie, critique et
conservation) et completes dans les deux annees precedentes.
Les documents soumis sont evalues par un jury national dont
l'lnstitut du patrimoine de I'UQAM nom me les membres.
Le Prix Phyllis-Lambert consiste en un certificat de reconnaissance
accompagne d'une bourse de 1 500 $, versee par Ia Fondation de
I'UQAM. L'lnstitut du patrimoine offre par ailleurs une aide a Ia
publication du texte recompense, dans l'une de ses collections ou
chez un editeur independant. L'ouvrage publie portera en couverture
Ia mention « Prix Phyllis-Lambert ». Le prix est rem is lors d'une
activite speciale, inscrite dans le programme du congres annuel de
Ia Societe pour l'etude de !'architecture au Canada (SEAC) qui se
tient en alternance dans differentes villes du Canada. L'auteur(e)
du texte prime est invite(e) a presenter une conference publique
sur son travail; ses frais de voyage et de sejour sont pris en charge
par l'lnstitut du patrimoine avec l'appui de Ia Fondation de
I'UQAM.
Les candidats doivent envoyer une copie de leur manuscrit
termine en 2005 ou 2006 (memoire ou these) accompagne d'une
lettre d'appui de leur directeur de recherche a l'lnstitut du
patrimoine.
Call for candidacies
Each year, the Phyllis Lambert Prize is awarded by UQAM's lnstitut
du patrimoine to a candidate who has submitted the best
doctoral dissertation or best master's thesis on the subject of
architectural history in Canada, based on the assessment of an
independent jury.
This prize honours Phyllis Lambert, architect and tutelary figure
of architectural conservation, founder of the Canadian Centre
for Architecture, a Montreal institution renowned worldwide for
its involvement in the promotion of the quality of the built
environment.
Each year, at the latest by the end of January, UQAM's lnstitut du
patrimoine asks the community of Canadian architectural historians
and architects for the submission of dissertations and theses
dealing with Canadian architectural history (history, theory,
critics, and conservation) that have been completed during the
two previous years. The documents submitted are evaluated by a
national jury whose members are appointed by UQAM's lnstitut
du patrimoine.
The Phyllis Lambert Prize consists of a certificate of recognition
that comes with a $1500 scholarship, awarded by the Fondation
UQAM.In addition, the lnstitut du patrimoine offers assistance for
the publication of the prize-winning text, either in one of its
collections or with an independent publisher. The cover page of
the publication will bear the mention "Prix Phyllis-Lambert."The
prize will be awarded during a special ceremony included in the
program of the annual conference of the Society for the Study of
Architecture in Canada (SSAC) - held in turn in various cities
throughout Canada. The recipient will be invited to present a
public lecture related to his/her work; his/ her travel and living
expenses will be paid by the lnstitut du patrimoine, with the
support of the Fondation UQAM.
Candidates must send a copy of their manuscript completed in
2005 or 2006 (doctoral dissertation or master's thesis) with a
letter of support from their supervisor at the lnstitut du
patrimoine.
Les manuscrits doivent parvenir au plus tard le 1 5 avril 2007, a l'adresse suivante:
Manuscripts should be sent by April 15th, 2007, at the following address:
lnstitut du patrimoine
Prix Phyllis-Lambert
Universite du Quebec a Montreal
279, rue Sainte-Catherine Est, local DC-1200
Montreal (Quebec) H2X 1 LS
Information :
Marie-Blanche Fourcade
courriel I email: fourcade.marie-blanche@uqam.ca
Telephone I Phone : (514) 987-3000, poste 5626
Telecopieur I Fax: (5 14) 987-6881
UQAM
Prenez position
UQAM
lnstitut du patrimoine
Universite du Quebec a Montreal

ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
A WIGWAM IN VENICE:
THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA BUILDS A PAVILION,
1954-1958
MICHELANGELO SABATINO (Ph.O.J is Assistant
Professor at the Gerald D . Hines College of
>MICHELANGELO SABATIN0 1
ArchitectUI'e of the University of Houston. His
publications have appea1'ed in "Casabella," "Harvard
Design Magazine," "Rotunda," and "JSAH." He
has contributed an essay to Foro ltalico (20031
and co-edited II nuovo e if moderno in architettura
12001 J. Sabatino's forthcoming book is entitled
Or'dinary Things: Folk Art and Architecture in Italian
Modernism.
Ca nada has built an intricate wigwam of
glass and w ood around a t ree, presumabl y
to symbol ize lov e o f nature. In truth,
perhaps all the p avili ons are, to some
extent, folkloric.
- Lawrence Alloway, The Venice 8 iennale
1895-1968.
FIG. 1. BIRDS EYE VIEW, CANADIAN PAVILION, VENICE.
Canada's first permanent international
pavilion for the display of art opened
to the general public on the grounds
of the Venice Biennale in June 1958.'
The Milanese architectural firm Studio
Architetti BBPR designed the brick, glass,
wood, and steel wigwam-like structure
on commission from the National Gallery
of Canada acting on behalf of the Canadian
Government (figs. 1-3). The pavilion
opened the same year in which BBPR's
controversial Milanese Torre Velasca and
Brussels Pavilion were completed. The
English critic Reyner Banham hailed those
two works as evidence of Italy's "retreat"
from the modern. 3 Compared with the
international style Canadian Pavilion by
Charles Greenberg at the 1958 Brussels
World's Fair, the Venice Pavilion offers
a distinct Canadian character for spectators
to contemplate. It is a testimony
to engagement with issues of national
identity in architecture during difficult
years following the end of World War II.
The modernism of the Canadian Pavilion
opposed the neutrality of the international
" white box" that would dominate
art exhibition spaces in the 1960s. That
divergence was typical of Italian architects
during the 1950s. Carlo Scarpa,
Franco Albini, and the Studio Architetti
BBPR came up with singular responses
to the design of museums; rather than
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N' 1 > 2007 > 3-14
3

M ICHELANGELO S ABATINO > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
FIG. 2. IN TER IOR, CANADIAN PAVI LI ON, VENIC E.
;;
-B
L----------------------------------------------------~~
FIG. 3. PERSPECTIVE DRAWING, CANADIAN PAVI LIO N, STUDIO ARC HI TETTI BBPR.
viewing the buildings as containers of moveable
objects, the architects permanently
embedded art objects in the architecture.
Such an approach w as encouraged by the
fact that architects in postwar Italy were
faced w ith the delicate task of restoring
or adapting extant buildings for museums
rather than designing new ones 4
The qualities that make this quirky and
idiosyncratic pavilion significant in the
history of Italian as w ell as Canadian
architecture and culture ha ve also made
it difficult for art curators over the last
decades to display w ork of various shapes
and sizes. Th e pavilion was conceived for
paintings, draw ings, and sculpture, without
considering the possibility that new
media might one day expand the field
of art. Its inflexibility is one reason for
the paucity of studies on the building's
history. 5 The conflict betw een form and
use-not unlike Frank Lloyd Wright's
Guggenheim Muse um in New York
(1959)-emerged early on; just t w o years
after the grand opening in 1958, Claude
Picher-a National Gallery Liai son Officer
for ea stern Canada-raised concerns
about the pavilion's capacity to fulfill its
program : "I w as told by se rious people
that the Venice Pavilion w as constructed
in such an aesthetic w ay that you could
not decently see one painting on its w alls,
because of the tree in the centre and the
continuous moving areas of light and
shadow its creates" 6 (figs. 4-5) .
Irritation at the aw kwardness of the exhibition
space con ceals a more deep-seated--
if unspoken--criticism of the underlying
message ofthe pavilion. By using an indigenous
w igw am as a source of inspiration
for the pavilion, the designers w ere venturing
into national identity building, an
arena that rarely finds all parties in agree-
ment. The pavilion w as designed and built
at a time w hen Canada began its move
from a Franco-English bicultural identity to
a multicultural identity in order to dissolve
the contradictions biculturalism posed.' In
light ofthat pluralism, Studio BBPR's use of
a form associated w ith Canada's First Nations
might seem naive and opportunistic 8
Despite the obvious reference, La w rence
Allow ay w as one of the first commentators
to explicitly compare the Canadian Pavilion
to a w igw am .• There is no documentary
evidence to suggest that the architects
w ere prompted by their Canadian patrons
to adopt or reinterpret the w igw am model
or that they had ever visited Native-Indian
communities in Canada and the United
States of America. Perhaps the architects
w ere able to view the monumental collection
of photographs assembled by
the US photographer Ed w ardS. Curtis.' 0
The efforts of cultural professionals in
Canada and Italy to construct an image
of national identity that w as modern and
indigenous makes the pavilion, despite its
shortcomings as a place to exhibit art, a
site that discloses contradictions embedded
in the contemporary cultures of both
nations, for w hich the fusion of modernity
and the "primitive" promised to w ork as
a solvent.
The w igw am image that BBPR utilized to
construct identity recalls the dw ellings
of some of North America's indigenous
population before European settlement.
By evoking one of Canada's most ancient
dw ellers, the Italian architects (and the
National Gallery Board ofTrustees, w ho ultimately
approved the design) circumvented
the diplomatic tug-of-w ar that w ould have
follow ed a decision favouring either Anglo
or Francophile sources." BBPR sought to
express an "original" Canadian identity
that could be shared by the entire nation.
Despite the pavilion's functional shortcomings,
that pursuit of "authenticity"
reflected the momentum of the Report
4
JSS AC I JSEAC 32 > N·• I > 2007

MICHELANGELO S ABATINO > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
of the Royal Commission on National
Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences
(informally known as the Massey
Report), issued in 1951, whose aim was to
free the arts of the country from colonial
subservience 12 (fig. 6) . The recommendations
of the Massey Report led, amongst
other things, to the establishment of the
Canada Council for the Arts, which continues
to play an important role in the
cultural life of the nation.
The Massey Report emerged from a desire
to project a position of cultural independence
for Canada by reducing its reliance
on England, France, and the United States.
The document did not yield immediate
and quantifiable results in terms of architecture
and art, but it stirred debate."
The authors of the report asserted :
A specific problem of architecture in Canada
has bee n t he tendency t owar d imitative
in 1945). Despite
the explicitly collaborative
nature
of the group, archival
materials
and official accounts
attribute
the design to
En rico Peressutti
alone. 15 The impetus
for a Ca -
nadian Pavilion
in Venice came
when the prestige
and fame of
Studio Architetti
BBPR in both
North America
and Europe was
at its height. Of
the three archi-
tects in the firm,
Enrico Peressutti
and derivative st yles of ar chitecture. Th e and Ernesto N.
aut hors of both the special st udies prepared
for us dealt severely w ith t he longst andin g
and widesp r ea d practice of imi t ati ng
inappr opriat ely st yles of past generations
or of other c ou nt r ies w hich have ind eed
solve d t heir ow n ar c hi tectura l problem s
but not necessarily in a manner which can
be suitable at t his t ime and in t his cou ntry
.. I It was drawn to our attent ion t hat t here
is in cr easin g con scious ness of t he nee d in
Ca nada for t he development of a r eg io na l
archi t ect ure adapted to t he landscape and
t he climate and also to t he material typical
of t he area . . It has bee n st ated t o us t hat
a true Canadian architecture must develop
in t hi s way. 14
ITALIAN ARCHITECTS FOR A
CANADIAN PAVILION
The architects of the Studio Architetti BBPR
firm were Lodovico Barbiano di Belgiojoso,
Enrico Peressutti, and Ernesto N. Rogers
(Gian Luigi Banfi, the first Bin BBPR, died
Rogers enjoyed
FIG . 4. INTERIOR, CANADIAN PAVILION, VENI CE.
the greatest international exposure; both
taught at American ivy-league universities
and both were involved with the ClAM
(Congres international d'architecture
moderne). Along with the engineer Pier
Luigi Nervi, Pe ressutti and Rogers were
the most visible Italian architects in North
America and they gained that renown
just as the arts in Canada were undergoing
a "coming of age." In 1955, Harry Orr
McCurry retired as Director of the National
Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, giving
way to charismatic Alan Hepburn Jarvis
(1915-1972), a sculptor, author, art critic,
film producer, and television commentator.16
Although Jarvis resigned in 1959, his
tenure coincided with the planning and
construction of the Canadian Pavilion.
Since the National Gallery was responsible
for promoting the arts in Canada and
abroad, it was the institution's responsibility
to initiate the project. Board of
Trustees minutes show that McCurry had
started to lay the groundwork before the
arrival of Jarvis:
The Director pointed out that as in the fifty
years since t he Biennale di Venezia was fir st
opened in Ve ni ce all the principa l European
countri es as wel l as the United States
and Argent in e have built nat ional fine arts
pavilio ns w ithin t he grounds of the Bi ennale
and as the art of t hese count r ies has in
t hi s way been brought regularly before the
in formed international publi c, the Canadian
Government should em ulate t he initiat ive
of other natio ns in this respect and build a
suit able sma ll pavilion to house Ca nadian ar t
on a site to be donat ed by t he authorit ies
of the Biennale, the cost t o be paid out
of blocked lira available t o t he Canadi an
Government in Italy. The Board fe lt that this
was a matter for furt her investigation and
t hat t he question of whether or not t here was
blo cked lira avai labl e should be looked into-"
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007
5

M ICHELANGELO SABATINO > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
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FIG. 5. PLAN, CANADIAN PAVILION.
Donald W. Buchanan (1908-1966), Deputy
Director of the National Gallery under
McCurry and Jarvis, provided continuity
for the project through the change of
leadership. Correspondence reveals that
Buchanan worked behind the scenes on
the pavilion with the Canadian Ambassador
to Italy, Pierre Dupuy.' 8
In a letter dated January 27, 1954, Peressutti
responded to McCurry's inquiry
about costs, which, according to the
latter, were not to exceed $25,000, for
a pavilion measuring approximately 60
x 45 feet. McCurry had begun to think
about engaging the Milanese firm as designer
of the pavilion.' 9 Peressutti visited
Ottawa later that year, likely during one
of his regular visits to North America to
teach at Princeton University, where his
students included Charles Moore and
William Turnbull. 20 Peressutti wrote a
_j '2
letter to Charles Moore in July 1958
(only a month after the opening of the
Canadian Pavilion in Venice) :
Pr es ent architecture is going t hro ugh
a very important period : the dog m a of
functionalism being surpassed is an already
acquired fact, a w ider and more free field
of architectonic expression opens in front
1950s, when the Marshall Plan was lendof
us. We are t hese years. crossing the
gate, architecturally speaking, between t he
anxious to shake off the stigma of fasrecent
past and the next future. Through
cism with a renewed sense of cosmopolithis
gate we must lea d the students and it
is of very great im portance t hat we use in
our di scussions t he r ight tools well defined
J
0
had "just received authorization from
the Government of Canada to proceed
with building a Canadian Pavilion for La
Biennale di Venezia if space is still available."
" It may have been the fact that
the blocked funds-initially earmarked
for scholarships for Canadian students
traveling to Italy-were available only in
lira that prompted Curry and the Board
of Trustees (and later Jarvis) to opt for an
Italian rather than a Canadian architect."
Or this may have been a politically exped i­
ent rationale for their open-minded (and
practical) decision to give the job to an
internationally recognized architect who
had a strong local presence in Italy and
could work without a language barrier.
The promotion of Canadian art by the
Massey Report coincided with a new
public presence for the National Gallery
in Canada and abroad. In 1959, one year
after inaugurating the Canadian Pavilion
in Venice, plans for a new building in
Ottawa had been abandoned and the
museum was moved into the uninspired
Lorneofficebuilding. 24 AfterWorldWarll,
the Venice Biennale emerged as the pre-
mier international art venue for Europe.
For a long time, the United States was the
only non-European country with its own
pavilion. Only in 1952 was Canada first
represented at the Biennale, in a small
room in the Italian Pavilion. During the
ing a new stability to Italy, Italians were
tan ism. The rebirth of the Ven ice Biennale
was led by its General Secretary Rodolfo
Pallucchini, a scholar of Venetian Renaisand
w ithout possible misunderstandings. sance art. Under Pallucchini (1948-1956)
Because also t he students must go through
this gate. 21
On December 14, 1955, the newly appointed
Jarvis informed the Biennale
Secretary Rodolfo Pallucchini that he
and subsequently Gian Alberto Deii'Acqua
(1958 -1968), a number of modernist
pavilions were added to the many permanent
historicist ones erected during the
first half of the twentieth century. 25 The
Canadian Pavilion, which would be owned
6
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007

MICHE LANGELO SABATINO > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
by Canada, was to be built on land ofthe
City of Venice. It was the twenty-third in
a growing list of buildings designed by
an international coterie of architects.
Among the most notable postwar additions
were Gerrit Rietveld's Dutch Pavilion
(1954), Carlo Scarpa's Venezuelan Pavil ­
ion (1954), Alvar Aalto's Finnish Pavilion
(1956), and Sverre Fehn's Nordic Pavilion
(1961) . The Canadian Pavilion was one of
the few to be designed by architects who
didn't have the citizenship of the country
they were designing it for. 26 This receptiveness
to modern architecture on the
Biennale grounds is in marked contrast to
the fierce resistance during the mid 1950s
to Frank Lloyd Wright's design for a new
building along the Grand Canal. The Biennale
itself did not include an architecture
section until several decades later, when
Vittorio Gregotti was asked to direct the
first architecture biennale in 1976.
The Studio Architetti BBPR acquired
a reputation as "humanist" architects
who rejected the sterile formalism of the
"international style." They were seen as
creatively engaged with cultural realities
FIG. 7. PERSPECTI VE SKETCH, CANA DIAN PAVILION.
and traditions ("continuity" was the term
Rogers used to refer to the design process)
without falling into historical mimeticism.
In 1955, they designed the acclaimed
Olivetti showroom in New York with the
collaboration of the emigre artist and
sculptor Costantino Nivola (1911-1988).
Stalagmites of green cipollino marble
thrusting up from the floor on wh ich the
typewriters and business machines were
displayed (indoors and outdoors) created
the impression of a primitive yet modern
cave in the heart of ManhattanY Rather
than ce lebrate the machine-aesthetic as
an impersonal and anonymous style, the
architects chose-taking their cues from
the enlightened approach of Olivetti's
promotion of the arts in Italy-to highlight
craftsmanship and human ingenuity.
The architects' involvement with an
addition (never realized) to Ca' Venier,
home of the American art collector Peggy
Guggenheim, introduced them to the
cosmopolitan circles of Venice that Canadians
were eager to join during those
years. BBPR had many commissions for
pavilion design in Italy during the 1950s,
including the American building for the
IX'h Triennale in Milan and the cupola-like
exhibition pavilion in Turin (1953). In 1956
Eric Arthur invited Rogers to serve as a
juror in the international competition for
the new city hall for Toronto 2 8
The reaction against post-and-lintel
"rationalism" that Studio BBPR's evocation
of the wigwam suggests reflected
a preoccupation in postwar Italy with
organic architecture that was paralleled
on Canada's West Coast or in Arizona by
such renegades as the Italian emigre architect
Paolo Soleri. 29 Rationalism, with its
classical underpinnings, was stigmatized
in postwar Italy by its association with
Fa scist architecture during the inter-war
years. A new generation of Italian critics
and historians directed architects towards
more "democratic" forms of expression.
Bruno Zevi (1918-2000) forcefully advocated
that position in his book Towards an
Organic Architecture, published in Italian
in 1945 (and in English in 1950), and his
short-lived journal, Metron. 30 In writing
about the Canadian Pavilion, Zevi characteristically
pointed out how it subverts
the compact and monumental qualities
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N ' 1 > 2007

M ICHELANGELO S ABATINO > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
by Giuseppe Pagano and his "Architettura
rurale ita Iiana" (Italian rural architecture)
exhibition of 1936. 32
FIG . 9. SKETC HES, CANADIAN PAVILION.
The w igwam evoked by the structural
and spatial organization of the pavilion
(as reflected in preparatory sketches) is an
indigenous Canadian dw elling type that
predates European settlement (fig. 7).
Other dwelling types associated w ith Can ­
ada's First Nations include the lroquoian
long house, the teepee (tipi) of the Plains
Indians, the six and t w o-beam w ood
houses of the West Coa st Nations, and
the snow houses (igloos) of the North-"
In BBPR's interpretation, brick and steel
lent w eight to a semi-permanent building
type that was originally constructed
w ith saplings and tree bark. 34 The Algonquian
wigwam used saplings covered w ith
sheets of bark whereas the teepee employed
poles (peeled pine or cedar) t hat
w ere covered with buffalo skins sewn
together. More significantly, the intimatesized
wigwam is significantly blow n up in
scale by the designers in order to fulfill
the requirements of a fully inhabitable
exhibition space. Studio BBPR 's first schematic
drawings of the pavilion w ere of
t w o octagons of varying sizes linked by
a passageway 35 (fig. 8). The facets of the
octagon recalled the round or oblong
plan of both wigwam and teepee. Sketches
show the architects struggling w ith
of the neighbouring classical English and the spatial and functional implications
German pavilions. 31 For architects w ho of an octagon and circle plan (figs. 9-11).
had not distanced themselves from fascism
in time, the move from classicism and patrons considered the possibility of
There is no evidence that the architects
tow ards an anthropologically oriented a w ood building in the manner of other
"primitive" vernacular offered possibilities
for redemption and "continuity" such as Alvar Aalto's pavilion for Finland
earlier pavilions on the Biennale grounds,
with inter-war interests. The redemptive (1956) and Carlo Scarpa's Galleria del
role of the vernacular in the discourse of Libro d'Arte (1950) 36
postw ar Italian modernism w as evident
in Franco Albini and Giancarlo De Carlo's BBPR's final scheme abandoned the octagon
plan of the initial design for the
" Spontaneous Architecture" exhibition
at the Milan Triennale of 1951, based Archimedes spiral of the nautilus shell.
on the model provided years earlier How ever, since the spiral can be generated
8
I ,JSE AC 32 > N" 1 > 2 007

MICHELANGE LO SAB ANALYSIS I A'IJALVS E
from the o cta gon, its fa ceted presen ce
is fe lt throughout th e pla n and in the
tapered octagonal colum n that supports
t he roof be a m s (fig s. 12-13). Roge rs
and other m embers of t he Stud io BBP R
parti cipated in an important international
conference on De divina proport
ione (divine proportion) held in 19 51 at
the Mi lan Triennale, along side Rudolf
Wittkow er and Sigfried Giedion. 37 leo
Pari si's Hospit alit y Pavili on for the Milan
Triennale of 1954 w as also ba sed upon the
geometry of t he spiral and bea rs a striking
resemblance to the Canadian Pavilion
completed four years later 38 (fig. 14). Movable
w al ls/sc reens reflecting the generative
geometry of the p lan and the layout
of the roof beam s w ere add ed to th e
Venice Pavilion to expand the hanging
surfaces and articulate the inner spa ce
(fig . 15). Yet, the re lativel y lim ited size
of the permanent and movable w all s (as
w ell as t he sloped cei li ngs) reflected la ck
of planning (or f oresight) by the pavilion's
clients and architects. The explosion of
canvas size during the 1960s left many
Canadian curators of the pavilion hard
pre ss ed t o display the paintings of Ja ck
Bu sh and Pau l- Emile Borduas.
FIG. 10. SKETCHES, CANADIAN PAVILI ON.
FIG. 12. VIEW OF COLUMN FRO M INSIDE THE
CANADIAN PAVILI ON.
Sketches of the o ctagon plan show that
Enri co Peress utti con sidered variou s
options. In these draw ings, the iconic image
of a preindustria l semi -permanent
dw elli ng is combined w ith idea l pro ­
portions; th e "s pontaneou s" quality of
the former competes w ith the ideali sm
of the lat ter. Though lac k ing the mysti ­
cism of the Canadian pa inter Emil y Carr's
West Coa st " prim itivism, " the pavilion's
embrace of nati ve -Ameri can imagery
reflect s a spirit of rugged vit ality and a
heightened aw areness of text ure similar
t o those perceptible in t he spectacular
Cana dian landscape paintings of the Group
FIG. 11. SK ETCHES, CANADIAN PAVILI ON.
renegade decision to li ve immersed in
FIG. 13. VIEW OF COLUMN FRO M OUTS IDE THE CANADIAN
PAVILI ON.
for the disp lay of art. Like a w igw am,
the Canadian w ilderness so that he might the buil ding does not have exterior w in -
capture the spi rit of th e pla ce on hi s
canvases.
dow s apart f rom narrow ribbon apertures
located just under the roofline. On the
interior, floor-to-ceiling w indows face a
of Seven and asso ciates li ke Tom Thorn- The conflation of the w igw am and the sma ll open-a ir courtyard, drawing indison.
The rugged and eccentric qualities of nautilus shell revea led by Peressutti's many rect light int o a spa ce that is ot herw ise
the Canadian pavilion paral lel Thomson's sketches created an ever-changing space shaded by t w o tall trees located w ithin
r;r,.L1,i_; J.- A ~ > ~-J > ,- 00 9

MICHELANGELO S ABAT INO > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
clarity of a classical modern temple, BBPR's
feels more like a rustic tree house. Yet the
shortcomings are precisely w hat make the
experience of the space so unique.
FIG. 14. HOSPITALI TY PAVI LIO N, ICO PARISI, MILAN TR IENNALE, 1954.
Although Canada was considered a
young nation in comparison to its European
forebears, it w as given a prestigious
site in the cul -de-sac at the end of the
two main thoroughfares in the Biennale
gardens, between the classically inspired
English and German pavilions and across
from the French . Ironically, Canada's
founding as a new nation in 1867 had
coincided with the political founding of
the Italian nation. Canada was presented
w ith t w o sites for consideration: site A
w as located behind the United States
and Czechoslovakian pavilions; site B
was located between the English and
German pavilions. Jarvis, advised by Peressutti,
chose site 8 39 (fig. 17). In a letter
dated March 23'd, 1956 Peressutti went to
great lengths to explain in his awkward
English why site B was more appropriate.
Having taken photographs and sent
Jarvis and Buchanan the schematic
drawings based upon the octagon plan,
Peressutti listed the follow ing reasons
for choosing site B over site A: "(1) wider
area for the construction, (2) open space
in front of the pavilion along the main
public circulation, (3) wider horizon on
the background of the pavilion looking
~ towards the laguna."
E
!
·~ Although the w igwam evoked a timeless,
FI G. 15. PLAN OF ROOF, CANA DI AN PAVILI ON.
its footprint. One of those trees is incorporated
into the pavilion's floor plan and
is encased in glass (fig. 16). The light well
created by the glass-encased tree evokes
the opening at the apex of the wigwam
traditionally used for release of smoke
generated by the hearth. Sverre Fehn followed
the Canadian Pavilion's lead in his
design of the luminous Northern Pavilion
(representing Finland, Norway, and Sweden),
completed for the Biennale in 1961.
Unlike the vast airy expanse of Fehn's exhibition
space, in w hich the trees are tall and
slender enough to weave gracefully in and
out of the roof structure without any glass
encasements, the integration of the trees
is awkward in the Canadian Pavilion. While
Fehn's pavilion evokes the elegance and
10
JSSAC JSE AC 32 > N 1 > 2007

M ICH ELANGELO SABATINO > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
---·------···------·----,
fnte Au!onomo "l A BIENNAL!. ~ I Vlllf~ I A ~
ti'OSIZIOtiE.IMTE&tiAZKlNI.U ~-,I. ~TE.
FIG . 16. IN TERIOR VIEW, CAN ADIAN PAVILION, VEN ICE.
serves as its backdrop (fig. 19). Although
Peressutti believed that the shared plaza
in front of the English and German pavilions
would attract visitors to the building,
the pavilion was placed so far back that
many visitors have a hard time finding
its entrance. Despite Pe ressutti's stated
interest in the view toward the laguna
the pavilion actually turns its back to it.
The most welcoming aspect of the pavilion
is the fact that it was constructed on
the ground (thus avoiding the ceremonial
steps used for the classical pavilions).
.,BACINO
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1"~ .· /'1ARC 0
"'B"
. ~
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E
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~
~
~
' ~ J
L-------------------------------------~
FIG . 17. PLAN, VEN ICE BIENNALE GARD ENS (SITES A AND B)
Philip Po cock, a friend of Bu chanan,
recounted in an interview that when the
pavilion was under discu ss ion and then
construction, Peressutt i lectured in Ottawa
on the cone-shaped stone trul/i of
southern Italy, much to the dismay of those
w ho were expecting to hear him speak
on avant-garde architecture. In terms of
"primitivism" and modernist architecture,
it is useful to note that the initial version
of the pavilion featured a Brancusi-like
endless co lumn of two elongated modules
in the place of octagonal tapered
co lumn that supports the steel 1-beams
holding the roof planes (fig. 20). Recent
scholarsh ip has demonstrated to what
FIG. 18. EXTERIOR VIEW, DETAI L OF I-BEAM, CANADIA N PAV ILION, VEN ICE.
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N• 'I > 2007
11

M ICHELANGELO SABAT INO > ANA LYSIS I ANALYSE
.--------------------·------------·-···-·----·····----
FIG. 19. SITE PLAN, CANADIAN PAVILION.
degree Brancusi's sculpture was indebted
to the folk art of his native Romania 40
Brancusi is just one of many artists w ho
achieved-not unlike major twentiethcentury
architects ranging from Loos to
Le Corbusier-their modernity by looking
with great interest to "timeless" folk
tradition for inspiration.
With the exception of Etienne-Joseph
Gaboury's Church of the Precious Blood
in Manitoba (1967-1968), the romanticized
identity represented in the w igw
am-inspired Canadian Pavilion w ould
be supplanted in the 1960s by a bolder,
less-literal "Canadianess" in the work of
Arthur Erickson and Ron Thorn. Erickson
evoked the sublime expansiveness of the
Western Canadian landscape in his designs
for Simon Fraser University (1963}
and Lethbridge University (1968) 41 Thom
recalled the massive, rugged landscape of
the Canadian Shield with his design for
Trent University (1964). Douglas Cardinal's
Canadian Museum of Civilization (1989} in
Hull builds on these precedents by recalling
rugged rock outcrops. A more recent
attempt at recreating the atmosphere of
a teepee (especially when seen glowing
at night with a blazing hearth) has been
achieved by Brian Mackay Lyons in his
"Ghost House" completed in 1994 (Upper
Kingsburg, Nova Scotia). By combining a
traditional European wood house with
indigenous transparencies, Lyons and
his students achieved a lasting tribute to
Canadian identities in architecture•'
The Massey Report and the Canadian
Pavilion set the precedent for architects
during the late 1950s and early 1960s to
begin to search for "origins" common to
all Canadians•' Parallel w ith these events,
Canada's charismatic Eric Ross Arthur
challenged the architecture profession
to rediscover North-American indigenous
architecture by looking to early "buildings"
and the majesty of cathedral-like
barns 44 Others took his cue and went on
to promote the "quiet dignity" of small
tow ns. 45 As editor of the Royal Architectural
Institute of Canada Journal (RAIC),
Arthur published Ernesto Roger's seminal
essay "Continuity or Crisis" (1958),
in w hich the Italian architect challenged
his peers to reconsider the creative role
that tradition (and not historicism) could
play in modern architecture.' 6 It is hard
not to see how those events laid the intellectual
groundwork for landmarks of
critical regionalism like the Mississauga
City Hall (1987) in which cues from regional
history were subsumed into an
international framework. By transforming
a vernacular model like the barn-not
unlike what BBPR set out to do with the
wigwam for the Canadian Pavilion in Venice-,
Edward Jones and Michael Kirkland
created a lasting civic monument; despite
its urbanity (achieved in part thanks to its
classical underpinnings), the new city hall
recalls the agrarian values of a pastoral
12
J SSAC I ciSEAC :32 > f\J '1 > 2007

MICH ELANG ELO S ABATI NO > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
landscape forever transformed by more
recent housing at odds with any sense
of place. Not unlike the Mississauga City
Hall, the Venice Pavilion reminds visitors,
almost fifty years after its inauguration,
of Canada's impressive natural environment
and the difficulties involved with
achieving a balance-common to ancient
as well as modern-day dwellersbetween
gentle stewardship ofthe land and
responding to the aggressive demands
of urbanization.
NOTES
1. This article closes a chapter of my life spent
traveling between Italy and Canada . The Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
Canada deserves my gratitude for a doctoral
and a postdoctoral grant that made my studies
on Italian modernism possible. I w ould like
to thank Cyndie Campbell (Head of Archives)
and David Franklin (Deputy Director and Chief
Curator) at the National Gallery of Canada. In
Italy the staff of the Archivio Progetti of the
lstituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia
(IUAV) was most helpful. A host of Canadian
colleagues deserves collective thanks: George
Baird, Robert Hill, Stephen Otto, Phyllis Lambert,
and Larry Richards. Thanks are in order
for my University of Houston colleagues who
read and commented the essay: Stephen Fox,
John Zemanek, and Bruce Webb.
2. The pavilion opened w ith a retrospective
exhibition of the post-impressionist painter
James Wilson Morrice (1865-1924) and work by
contemporary artists Jacques de Tonnancour
(1917-), Jack Nichols (1921 -), and Anne Kahane
(1924-) . See the exhibition catalogue XXIX Biennale
di Venezia, Venice, La Bi ennale, 1958,
p. 220-224. For an overview of Canada's participation
at the Venice Biennale, see Reesor,
Carol Harrison, 1995, The Chronicles of The
National Gallery of Canada at the Venice Biennale,
Master's thesis, Concordia University,
p. 18-39. Paikowsky, S., 1999, "Constructing an
Identity- The 1952 XXVI Biennale di Venezia
and 'The Projection of Canada Abroad"', The
Journal of Canadian Art History, XX/1-2, 130-
181 . The opening celebrations for the pavilion
w ere captured in the documentary, City Out
of Time, produced by the National Film Board
of Canada in 1958 [Camera operator: Dufaux;
58 -209-ECN-6] .
3. Ban ham, Reyner, 1959, « Neoliberty-The Italian
Retreat f rom Modern Architecture >>, The
Architectural Review, val. 747, p. 231 -235.
4. Significant examples of "renovations" are
Franco Albini's Palazzo Bianco and Rosso in
Genua (1952-1962), Carlo Scarpa's Castellvecchio
in Verona (1954-1967), and the Studio
Architetti BBPR's intervention in the Castello
Sforzesco of Milan (1949-1963) .
5. The pavilion has received only cursory attention
in Canada and abroad: see 1958, >, The Canadian Architect, no. 3,
November. p. 62-64; Buchanan, Donald W.,
1958, « Canada Builds a Pavilion at Venice >>,
Canadian Art, January, p. 29-31; Fenw ick,
Kathleen M., 1958, «The New Canadian Pavilion
at Venice>>, Canadian Art, November,
p. 274-277; 1958, , in Hubert-Jan Henket and Hilde
Heyden (eds.), Back from Utopia: The Challenge
of the Modern Movement, Rotterdam,
010 Publishers, p. 126-137.)
14. Royal Commission Studies: A Selection of
Essays Prepared for the Royal Commission on
National Development in the Arts, Letters and
Sciences, 1949-1951, Ottawa, Edmond Cloutier,
1951, p. 216-221; republished in Simmins,
Geoffrey (ed.), 1992, Documents in Canadian
Architecture, Peterborough, Ontario, Broadview
Press, p. 183-204. Only recently a French
translation of the report has been published
(Ottaw a, National Library of Canada, 1999).
15. See The National Gallery of Canada: Annual
Report of the Board of Trustees for the Fiscal
Year 1958-1959, Ottaw a, The National Gallery
of Canada, 1959, p. 32-36. The summary reads:
"There is no doubt that the Canadian Government
was most fortunate in obtaining the
services of the brilliant young Italian architect,
Enrico Perresutti of Milan, who was persuaded
to take on the assignment of designing the
pavilion and overseeing its construction, for
he has given Canada an exceptionally fine
pavilion w hich he has designed and supervised
to the last detail from the landscaping of its
immediate surroundings to the interior display
panels and stands."
16. Ord, Douglas, 2003, The National Gallery of
Canada : Ideas, Art, Architecture, Montreal
and Kingston, MeGill-Queen's University Press;
Mainprize, Ga rry, 1984, The National Gallery
of Canada: A Hundred Years of Exhibitions,
Ottaw a, The National Gallery of Canada,
originally published in RACAR-Revue d 'art
canadienne I Canadian Art Review, nos. 1-2,
1984; and Sutherland Boggs, Jean, 1971, The
National Gallery of Canada, London, Thames
and Hudson.
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N' 1 > 2007
13

MICHELANGELO SABATINO > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
17. Canadian Pavilion Venice 1953-1968, op. cit.
18. See Donald Buchanan to Harry Orr, August 28,
1954. Canadian Pavilion Venice 1953-1968,
op. cit.
19. Canadian Pavilion Venice 1953-1968, op. cit.
20. Ibid.
21 . Cited in Keim, Kevin, 1996, An Architectural
Life-Memoirs & Memories of Charles W.
Moore, Boston, A Bulfinch Press Book I Little,
Brown and Company, p. 28.
22. Canadian Pavilion Venice 1953-1968, op. cit.
23. That is the ambiguous impression left by a
letter of May 14, 1956, from Alan Jarv is to
Geoffrey Massey, who had solicited future
plans for the pavilion: "Many thanks for your
letter about the Canadian Pavilion in Venice.
In fact this has been arranged through External
Affairs using blocked funds and we have
therefore chosen an Italian architect to do this
job. It is Peressutti of Milan, whom I imagine
you know. We are sorry that we could not use
a Canadian architect for this job." (Canadian
Pavilion Venice 1953-1968, op. cit.)
24. Rybczynski, Witold, 1993, A Place for Art:
The Architecture of the National Gallery of
Canada, Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada.
25. On the history of the Biennale, see: Alloway,
op. cit.; Rizzi, Paolo, and Enzo Di Martino,
1982, Storia della Biennale 1895-1982, Milan,
Electa; and DiMartino, Enzo, 1995, La Biennale
di Venezia-1895-7995-Cento Anni di Arte e
Cultura, Milan, Editoriale Giorgio Mondadori.
26. Mulazzani, op. cit.
27. See Huxtable, Ada Luisa, 1954, «Olivetti's
Lavish Shop >>,Art Digest, Jul y, p. 15; and 1954,
, Architectural
Forum, August, p. 98-103.
28. In the brief biographies compiled by Arthur
for the article announcing the winner of the
Toronto City Hall competition published in the
Journal of the Royal Architectural Institute of
Canada (October 1958), he draws attention
to the fact that "Dr. Rogers' firm is engaged
on the Canadian Pavilion for the 'Biennale
d'Arte,' Venice, 1958."
29. Li scombe, Rhodri Windsor, 1997, The New
Spirit-Modern Architecture in Vancouver,
1938-1963, Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press; Lima,
Antonietta lolanda, 2003, Soleri: Architecture
as Human Ecology, New York, Monacelli Press.
30. Zevi, Bruno, 1945, Verso un'architettura organica,
Turin, Giulio Einaudi; English ed., 1950,
Towards an Organic Architecture, London,
Faber & Faber.
31. Zevi, Bruno, 1958, « Architetture alia Biennale-Arredi
Scarpiani Spaccato BBPR >,
L'architettura- Cronache e storia di architettura,
p. 216; republished in Zevi, Bruno, 1978,
Cronache di architettura-daii'Expo mondiale
di Bruxelles aii'Unesco parigino, Rome and
Bari, Laterza, p. 216.
32. For an overview, see Sabatino, Michelangelo,
2004, « Back to the Drawing Board: Revisiting
the Vernacular Tradition in Italian Modernism >>,
Annali di architettura, no. 16, p. 169-185.
33. For a discussion of the "first buildings" of
Canada, see Kalman, Harold, 2000, A Concise
History of Canadian Architecture, Oxford, Oxford
University Press, p. 1-23.
34. For an overview of indigenous dwellings in
North America, see Nabokov, Peter, and Robert
Easton, 1989, Native American Architecture,
New York, Oxford University Press.
35. Canadian Pavilion Venice 1953-1968, op. cit.
36. That option wou ld also have been more in
keeping with the longstanding Canadian
tradition of building in wood, whether for
log cabins or barns. (See Rempel, John 1. ,
1967 [rev. ed. 1980], Building with Wood and
Other Aspects of Nineteenth-Century Building
in Central Canada. Toronto, University
of Toronto Press .) On the tent in history, see
Hatton, E.M., 1979, The Tent Book, Boston,
Houghton Mifflin Company.
37. See Payne, Alina A., 1994, « Rudolf Wittkower
and Architectural Principles in the Age
of Modernism >>, Journal of the Society of
Architectural Historians, no. 53, September,
p. 322-342. The classic text suggesting the
relationship possible between natural organisms
and architecture is Wentworth Thompson,
D'Arcy, 1917 [2"' ed. 1992], On Growth
and Form, Cambridge, England, Cambridge
University Press. See also Otto, Frei, 1982,
NaWrliche Konstruktionen: Form en und Konstruktionen
in Natur und Technik und Prozesse
ihrer Entstehung, Stuttgart, Deutsche
Verlags-Anstalt (Italian translation: Otto,
Frei, 1984, L'architettura della natura, Milan,
II saggiatore); and Coineau, Yves, and Biruta
Kresling, 1989, Les inventions de Ia nature et
Ia bionique, Hachette, Paris.
38. Peressutti, Belgiojoso, and Rogers were no
doubt familiar with that building, just minutes
from their office and published in 1954 in Casabella-Continuita,
no. 202, August-September,
p. 31-32. (See Gualdoni, Flaminio, 1990, leo Parisi
& Architecture, Modena, Nuova Alfa Editore.)
39. In a memorandum to the Secretary ofthe Treasury
Board, July 26, 1956, Alan Jarvis wrote: "I
have recently returned from Venice where I
have chosen the site in the Biennale grounds
which is being given us for our permanent use
by the Biennale authorities. The National Gallery
of Canada now wishes to obtain permission
to make a contract with the architectural
firm of Belgiojoso, Peressutti and Rogers, via
dei Chiostri 2, Milan, Italy, for the designing of
this small pavilion." (Canadian Pavilion Venice
1953-1968, op. cit.)
40. Balas, Edith, 1987, Brancusi and Rumanian
Folk Traditions, Boulder, East European
Monographs.
41. Steele, Allen (ed.), 1988, The Architecture of
Arthur Erickson, London, Thames and Hudson;
Shapiro, Barbara E. (ed.), 1985, Arthur Erickson:
Selected Projects 1971-1985, New York,
Th e Center.
42. Brian Mackay Lyons, Halifa x, Tuns Press,
1998.
43. See Baird, George, 1982, «Northern Polarities:
Architecture in Canada Since 1950 >>, Okanada,
Ottawa, Th e Canada Council.
44. Arthur, Eric R., 1938, The Early Buildings of
Ontario, Toronto, University of Toronto Press;
Arthur, Eric R., 1926, Small Houses of the
Late 18" and Early 79" Centuries in Ontario,
Toronto, University of Toronto Press; Arthur,
Eric R., and Dudley Witney, 1972, The Barn­
A Vanishing Landmark in North America,
Toronto, M.F. Feheley Arts. On Arthur, see
my 2001, «Eric Arthur: Practical Visions>>,
Journal of the Society for the Study of Architecture
in Canada, vol. 26, nos. 1-2, December
p. 33-42.
45. The phrase "quiet dignity" is taken from
Greenhill, Ralph, Ken Macpherson, and Douglas
Richardson, 1974, Ontario Towns, Toronto,
Oberon.
46. Rogers, Ernesto N., 1958, «Continuity or
Crisis? >>, Journal of the Royal Architectural
Institute of Canada, May, p. 188-189 (originally
published in Casabel/a-Continuita,
April-May 1957).
14
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N' 1 > 2007

ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
LA CREATION D'UNE PETITE ARMENIE OU LES
MULTIPLES USAGES D'UN SOUS-SOL AU QUEBEC
MARIE-BLANCHE FOU RCAOE est docteure en
ethnologie. Sa these. recemment soutenue,
>MARIE-BLANCHE FDURCADE
portait sur le role du patrimoine domestique de
Ia communaute armenienne residant au Quebec
dans ]'expression d'une identite en diaspora.
Ses interets de rechel'che ont pour objet Ia
culture materielle des migrants, Ia museologie
du deracinement et les expressions identitai1·es
diaspo1·iques . Elle occupe actuellement le poste
de coordonnatl'ice a l'lnstitut du patrimoine
a I'UQAM.
Dans l'ouvrage Habiter, reve, image,
projet, Jacques Pezeu-Massabuau
commence son premier chapitre par Ia
description d'une maison. II dit ainsi :
Sa forme et sa couleur ne Ia distinguent
guere des maisons vo isines. Elle ne paralt
a l'etranger ni mains avenante ni plu s desirable
mais s'insere dans l'anonymat des
fagades proches, que le temps a acheve
de fondre dans l'harmonieux contrepoint de
ces parois I .. I Mais elle a pour vous une
evidence qui leur fait defaut : ell e seule vous
est intimement connue et vous attend. En
elle seule vous reconnaissez un refuge I .. I
II me su ffit de pousser une de ces partes
pour retrouver un monde familier ce que je
considere mien et qui ne revele que moi 1 .
Le sentiment d'intimite et d'harmonie
entre les habitats et les habitants decrit
par Jacques Pezeu-Massabuau releve
d'une observation commune des que
l'on interroge quiconque possedant un
logement.
Ill. 1. SOUS-SOL DES PARENTS DE HAS MIG. LA BIBLIOTHEQUE ACCUEILLE DES LIVRES DE COLLECTIONS, DES SOUVENIRS
D'ARMENIE ET QUELQUES BIBELOTS PRODUITS EN DIASPORA. I MARIE-BLANCHE FOURCADE
II y a cependant des situations ou Ia relation
entre individu et espace domestique
s'exacerbe considerablement. Tel
est le cas de Ia migration ou de l'exil
qui provoque l'abandon d'un espace a
soi et d'objets qui constituent le quotidien.
Dans le nouveau pays d'accueil,
les migrants doivent se reconstruire un
espace de reperes dans lequel ils pourrant
s'installer et reinstaurer une temporalite
fracturee par les deplacements. La
maison est un refuge contre l'exterieur.
Cet exterieur peut etre menac;ant par
son lot d'agressions et de problemes,
mais il demande surtout d'abandonner
sur le seuil de Ia porte une partie de sa
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007 > 1 5 -20
15

M ARIE-BLANCHE FDURCADE > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
specificite : sa langue, ses habitudes ainsi
que ses reperes au profit d'un collectif. Le
refuge n'est done pas veritablement contre
l'autre, mais pour soi, afin de pouvoir,
a l'abri des regards, conserver son identite
ainsi que les valeurs qui y sont attachees
et cela, tout en s'adaptant au x normes
du pays d'accueil. Pour chacun, done, le
foyer familial offre une liberte d'action
considerable dans les choix culturels et
personnels; il apporte aussi un sentiment
de force rattache a l'unite du groupe qui
efface une part de Ia vulnerabilite liee
a l'etat diasporique. En somme, il s'agit
d'un lieu ou se re-enraciner a moyen ou
a long terme.
Lors de mes recherches doctorales sur Ia
communaute armenienne residant a Montreal
eta Quebec, je me suis interessee a
l'investissement de l'espace domestique
par les migrants et, plus precisement,
au role de Ia culture materielle domestique-
que j 'ai finalement nommee patrimoine-
dans l'enonciation d'une identite
diasporique. Pour ce faire, j'ai effectue
dix-neuf entretiens dans Ia communaute
armenienne de Montreal et de Quebec,
aupres de onze migrants arrives des pays
du Moyen-Orient, de quatre autres venus
d'Armenie et enfin de quatre jeunes nes
au Canada. Dans chacun des logements,
j'ai suivi Ia visite guidee menee par les
proprietaires a travers les differentes
pieces afin de voir, par le biais des
amenagements, comment les individus
s'appropriaient les lieux et comment ils
exprimaient leur culture ou leur appartenance
armenienne. La comprehension
des espaces de vie s'est principalement
appuyee sur le comportement des informateurs
au cours des entretiens. Les visites
des interieurs constituent, en effet,
une situation d'hospitalite exemplaire au
cours de laquelle les occupants se doivent
de delimiter leur territoire face a I'Autre.
L'ordre des pieces parcourues, les endroits
valorises et oublies, Ia decoration des
ILL. 2. SO US -SOL DE VI CHEN. LE MANTEAU DE CHEMIN PERMET D'EXPOSER DE NOMBREUX OBJETS
CANADA OU RA PPORTES PAR LES ENFANTS DE LA MAISON. I MARIE-BLANCHE FOURCAOE
lieux et les choix semantiques accordes a
Ia description des differents endroits, tels
sont les indices qui ont permis le dechiffrage
d'une pratique quotidienne de Ia
maison et d'une relation particuliere aux
objets. L'exploration de !'habitat nous fait
progressivement traverser les sas d'intimite
qui, un a un, nous menent au plus
pres des individus.
Parmi toutes les pieces de Ia maison, le
sous-sol est apparu des plus interessants
et ce, a plusieurs egards. D'abord parce
qu'il etait l'objet, chez certains informateurs,
d'un investissement identitaire
distinct des autres pieces; ensuite parce
que tout en s'inscrivant dans une pratique
courante, depuis les annees 1960' ,
d'amenagement au Quebec liee a !'architecture
du bungalow, les migrants en
ont fait un espace a part entiere en le
transformant a leur maniere.
LE SOUS-SOL COMME
LIEU D'INTIMITE
Lors des entretiens, le sous-sol, pour les huit
informateurs qui en possedent un, fut Ia
derniere piece visitee, du fait de sa localisation,
mais aussi de son contenu. Avant me me
de savoir ce qu'il renferme, le discours des
repondants laisse entendre par les phrases
du type : « Vous verrez tout a l'heure en
bas )) que l'espace est, a differents titres,
une de de comprehension incontournable
de l'univers dont on entreprend !'exploration.
Au plus pres des assises de Ia maison,
le sous-sol est un endroit retire et protege
du reste du monde. Menagee tel un tresor,
l'espace est ainsi decouvert sous l'angle
d'une intimite cachee ou, tout du moins,
soustraite au regard des autres.
L'amenagement du sous-sol permet en
effet a chaque famille de creer, dans les
16
JSSAC i JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007

M ARIE -BLAN CHE FOURCADE > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
ou l'on cache les objets les plus intimes,
mais aussi un lieu de mise en valeur ou
certains biens et souvenirs sont exposes a
Ia maniere d'un musee personnel.
LE SOUS-SOL COMME SALON
UN E ORGANI SATION OR IENTALE QUI RENVOIE AUX
MAISONS ANTERIEURES AU LI BAN. I MARIE-BLANCHE FOURCADE
fondations de son habitation, un lieu de ou pour Ia retraite solitaire. Ainsi, Ia piece
vie complementaire qui varie en fonction
des interets et des besoins de cha­
des occupants qui trouve normalement sa
assume une part de l'intimite quotidienne
cun : > 3 . Qu'il soit une aire visiteurs. Certains ont ajoute un bureau
de rangement ou de loisirs, le sous-sol au salon ou ont totalement converti le
demeure l'objet d'un usage aleatoire qui lieu en un bureau et une bibliotheque.
prend cependant toujours appui sur sa II s'agit alors davantage d'un territoire
double qualite d'etre a Ia fois separe du individuel, pour travailler ou pour etre
reste de !'habitat tout en faisant partie au calme. Le fait d'etre partiellement
integrante de Ia maison par les activites coupe du monde en facilite l'usage. Le s
qui s'y deroulent. Malgre Ia diversite des rangements restent quant a eux essentiels
puisque Ia piece remplace d'une
endroits visites, deux tendances se dessinent
parmi les personnes interrogees, soit certaine maniere le role de Ia cave dont
Ia transformation de Ia salle en second Ia fonction est d'accueillir tousles biens
salon ou en bureau. Sont invariablement temporairement inactifs de Ia maison :
ajoutes a Ia fonction principale des espaces
derangement ouverts et fermes. Si le remment derisoires autant que des objets
N" 1 > 2007
17

M AR IE- B LANC HE F OURCAOE > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
qui accentue l'aspect confine et chaleureux
de l'endroit (ill. 02).
La decoration et le choix du mobilier sont
les deux points qui different du salon d'en
haut. Selon les pratiques des informateurs,
deux attitudes predominent dans
Ia construction du decor. Une premiere
consiste a mettre au sous-sol les meubles
et les objets desuets dont on ne veut plus
dans l'espace de reception et qui ont ete
depuis lors remplaces par de nouveaux
ensembles. lis sont parfois depareilles,
Ia necessite d'harmonie n'apparalt plus
une priorite. Si les exigences esthetiques
sont quelque peu attenuees, le bien-etre
semble davantage a l'honneur.
La seconde attitude veut que les informateurs
reprennent des reperes d'amenagements
des logements anterieurs 5 qu'ils
tentent, consciemment ou inconsciemment,
de transposer dans leur interieur afin de
l'apprivoiser. Les spectres des maisons
originelles peuvent aussi se traduire en
interpretations de references culturelles;
rassurantes, elles demarquent l'espace de
sa neutralite premiere. Le sous-sol de Silva,
par exemple, temoigne d'une memoire
moyen-orientale qu'elle definit ainsi:
« d'une certaine tradition, Ia tradition des
pays dans lesquels on a vecu » (ill. 03). Cette
esthetique est davantage prononcee dans
le sous-sol que dans les autres pieces de Ia
maison. Le salon s'articule autour d'une
petite table ronde sur laquelle est dispose
un service a cafe et d'une composition
d'objets. Un peu plus loin, deux narguiles
et un jeu de trictrac libanais entourent une
malle tapissee. Des bibelots, venus pour Ia
plupart d'Orient, abondent sur les etageres
au-dessus des banquettes. En comparaison
avec le reste de Ia maison, Ia piece detonne
par sa mise en scene. Elle semble d'ailleurs
reservee a un nombre restreint d'inities,
investie lors d'occasions particulieres. Plus
generalement, les objets a forte signification
identitaire ou a contenu explicite sont
Ill. 4. SOUS·SOL DE VIC HEN. L'ESPACE DE TRAVAIL LA VIE DE SON PARMI LES OBJETS MIS EN
ON RETROUVE UNE PHOTOGRAPH IE DES FIAN~AILLES DE SES PARENTS, DES SOUVENIRS ARMEN IENS, DE LA TERRE
D'ARMENIE, UN PLAQU E BLEUE POUR CHASSER LE MAUVAIS CEIL. .. I MARIE·BLANCHE FOURCADE
plus nombreux dans le sous-sol et contribuent
ainsi, d'une maniere ou d'une autre,
a en faire un lieu a part qui ouvre sur un
« ailleurs » incarne par le passe, Ia terre
d'origine ou le pays de naissance.
LE SOUS-SOL COMME BUREAU ET
BIBLIOTHEQUE
Le sous-sol peut etre aussi transforme
en bureau. Le mobilier qui le compose et
!'organisation qui lui est appliquee sont
resolument les memes partout: soit une
table contre le mur avec une chaise et des
aires de rangement. Les bibliotheques qui
ont perdu leur lustre d'apparat se replient
sur leurs qualites pratiques. Elles structurent
l'espace par leur massivite, creant une
atmosphere de cabinet de travail, studieuse,
cal me et retiree. Vecteur certain d'accumulation
de papiers et d'objets, le bureau presente
deux visages antagonistes, celui de
l'ordre autour d'une mise en scene claire
dans laquelle chaque chose trouve sa juste
place ou du desordre lie a Ia sedimentation
des couches de documents progressivement
deposes dont seulle proprietaire connalt le
sens. Le systeme decoratif qui est construit
tout autour du bureau s'apparente a une
biographie materielle des individus. Ainsi,
les souvenirs personnels accumules au cours
de Ia vie privee et professionnelle sont mis
en avant. Deux des endroits visites affichent,
pour decoration murale, diverses cartes de
I'Armenie, des reproductions d'enluminures,
des bas-reliefs et des photographies du
pays qui fa~onnent l'espace en un lieu de
memoire des origines et qui reflete aussi Ia
personnalite de son occupant (il l. 04). Par les
choix decoratifs qui sont operes, le bureau
donne a voir une inti mite profonde, celle de
l'identite individuelle. Dans certains cas, le
sous-sol est une piece hybride. Tel est le cas
chez Datevik qui a cumule une bibliotheque,
18
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N' 1 > 2007

M ARIE - B LANCHE F OURCAOE > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
un lit et une banquette, un piano electronique
ainsi que des placards. Le sous-sol se
situe entre un espace de loisir et de repos.
Les rangements existent generalement en
grand nombre dans le sous-sol. Plusieurs
formes s'y imposent a commencer par le
principe du debarras ouvert qui communique
avec le reste de Ia piece et dans lequel
on peut voir !'accumulation nonchalante
de choses. Chez Vahe, par exemple, l'espace
attenant au bureau est le theatre
d'une cohabitation entre paquets, livres
et archives. Un meuble vitre rassemble une
multitude de bibelots, le plus souvent des
cadeaux, venus du Liban, d'Armenie ou
des pays dans lesquels les occupants se
sont rendus. lis n'ont plus lieu d'iHre dans
le salon vu leur abondance et, parfois,
leur style. La reponse du proprietaire a
propos d'un present de mariage :

M ARI E- BLANCHE FDURCAOE > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
livres : «On a une collection de livres,
toute une bibliotheque transmise par mes
parents. J'aimerais vraiment lire tous ces
livres, peut-etre j'ai mille livres, mais estce
que je vais avoir le temps? Est-ce que
j'ai le temps? Non, je n'ai meme pas le
temps de lire mes propres livres. Mais c'est
une satisfaction qu'un jour je pourrais lire
ces livres-la. » De ce fait, en s'installant,
ils ont desire les etablir dans un endroit
accessible, mais retire. Non seulement Ia
piece se prete au rangement, mais elle
est aussi le lieu des possibles interactions.
Chacun accumule au fil du temps de nouveaux
souvenirs, consolidant ainsi Ia premiere
strate d'objets amenes avec soi. Le
bureau de Vahe en est un bon exemple
puisqu'il accumule des livres, des articles
classes, divers supports d'information sur
I'Armenie et son actualite; il complete
ainsi son fonds d'archives originel. En
plus de conforter sa collection, il elargit
aussi l'etendue de ses connaissances sur
Ia terre d'origine. Une telle manne peut
aussi constituer une source a laquelle
on peut puiser. De Ia meme maniere,
Ia source peut etre uniquement d'ordre
affectif, com me pour Vi chen, qui descend
pour etre dans son univers : « Je prefere le
sous-sol. Je me sens tout a fait detache du
monde. Je ne sais pas si c'est a cause des
murs qui sont enfonces dans Ia terre ou
quoi? Je fa is en sorte que ce soit un milieu
ou je puisse mediter, je peux ... D'abord, il
yale foyer aussi et les choses que j'aime,
qui tournent autour de I'Armenie ou de
mon armenite. »
A travers Ia somme des objets, l'univers
reconstitue dans les fondations du soussol
apparalt tel un «entre-lieu » et un
>, Cahiers de geographie du Quebec,
vol. 48, no 134, septembre, p. 141.
3. Morisset et Noppen: 143.
4. Serfaty-Garzon, Perla, 2003, Chez soi: Les territoires
de l'intimite, Paris, Armand Colin, p. 182.
5. Dans son article, Didem Kili~kiran met en relief
Ia succession des biographies domestiques
des femmes kurdes par Ia notion d'habitus
developpee par Pierre Bourdieu. (Kili~kiran ,
Didem, 2003 « Feminisme et sens de l'espace
domestique des femmes deplacees: Les refugies
kurdes a Londres dans leurs appartements >>,
dans Beatrice Collignon et Jean-Fran~ois Staszack
(dir.), Espaces domestiques Construire,
habiter et presenter, Paris, Breal, p. 363.)
6. Bachelard, Gaston, 2004 [1957). La poetique
de l'espace, Paris, Presses Universitaires de
France, p. 37.
7. L'Enfer est le departement d'une bibliotheque
ou sont deposes les livres interdits au public.
(Frere-Michelat, Claude, 1993, « Collectionneurs
dans leurs murs >>,dans Martine Segal en et Beatrix
Le W it a, Chez-soi, objets et decors : Les creations
familiales ?, Paris, Autrement, p. 202.)
8. Bahloul, Joelle, 1992, La maison de memoire,
ethnologie d'une demeure judeo-arabe en Algerie
(1937-1961), Paris, A.-M. Metailie, p. 45.
9. Idem: 176.
10. Serfaty-Garzon: 69.
11. Pigeon, Danielle, 2003, Etoge du bungalow,
Documentaire, Productions Vi rage, Montreal,
52 min.
20
JSSAC l JSEAC 32 > N' 1 > 2007

ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
VISUALITY AND THE EMERGENCE OF
CITY PLANNING IN EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY
TORONTO AND MONTREAL
SARAH BASSNETT is an Assistant Professor· of
A1·t History in the Department of Visual Arts at
>SARAH BASSNETT 1
the University of Western Ontario. She is cu1·rently
working on a book-length study of photography
and the urbanization of Toronto in the early
twentieth century.
COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING
FIG. 1. PLAN OF THE CITY OF MONTREAL WITH IMPROVEMENTS RECOMMENDED BY THE PQAA, 1909.1 RICKSON OUTHET FOR THE
PQMS CIVIC IMPROVEMENT COMMITTEE, VILLE DE MONTREAL, GESTION DE DOCUMENTS ET ARCH IVES.
In 1907, when the Civic Improvement
Committee of the Province of Quebec
Association of Architects (PQAA) introduced
their plan for improvements to
Montreal, they explained why it was
needed: despite its "splendid natural
location," Montreal had many of the
faults of an older city. The general plan
of the old city was rectangular and the
streets and blocks were laid out in a grid
pattern; however, the city had grown,
and the architects claimed that the original
layout had become inadequate and
inefficient. As a result, it had become
impossible to properly manage the city. 2
Rather than suggesting drastic, sweeping
measures aimed at rearranging the
city, the PQAA's plan offered a method
for modifying and improving the existing
city. The proposed changes centred
on opening up main avenues to create
"vistas," constructing diagonal roadways,
and connecting existing parks with thoroughfares
to form a system of continuous
avenues with "a lovely picture at each
end." 3 Describing the central part of the
city as "too congested," the PQAA's Civic
Improvement Committee proposed cutting
diagonal streets from the downtown
to the east and west areas of the city to
provide direct communication between
the central business district and outlying
areas.• To support their proposal, they
argued that the benefits of diagonal
roads had already been demonstrated in
cities such as Washington, DC, Vienna,
and Paris. 5 The PQAA's plan outlined a
strategy for turning a congested city with
"gloomy and unattractive" views into a
"well-designed city." 6 By implementing
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007 > 21-38
21

SARAH B ASSNETT > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
IMPROVEMENT COMMITIEE, JOHN BLAND CANADIAN ARC HITECTURE COLLECTION, MCGILL UNIVERSITY, MONTR~A l.
the new plan, the architects argued,
Montreal could become more distinctive,
more efficient, more modern, and more
beautiful. The campaign to modernize the
city and attempts to improve the urban
environment and civic life coalesced in the
newly emerging field of city planning.
Similarly, the plan of improvements
for Toronto, developed by the Ontario
Association of Architects (OAA) and the
Toronto Civic Guild of Art at about the
same time as the Montreal plan, sought
to transform the city from " a collection
of overgrown villages" into a place where
the city's potential for greatness could be
fulfilled . 7 Like the plan for Montreal, the
Toronto plan concentrated on creating
broad, diagonal thoroughfares, building
parkways to create a system of city
parks, and beautifying the area around
the harbour. They claimed that the " narrow
cramped streets" and the " thickly
populated districts" needed attention.•
These problems could be addressed by the
proposed diagonal streets, which "would
form great arteries of traffic and business
through the city." 9 A member of the
i"LETCH£~'5 Fltttl
110NTII£AL
IMI'P(NI;M£,NTJ JU:rot'l."'lENU£() 8'1' OlE
PQQ.'INC:f CJf O...:I!:IJf.(! A$SOCV.fi'J"i l)f
MtCHITI!CTS
'i.......Y'-~~-1J2.-~
~CA.Ucr rr:n
Civic Guild City Plan Committee, architect
W. Ford Howland, explained: "It is quite
apparent to anyone that the rapid growth
of Toronto will soon make the improvement
of her streets and the development
of her beautiful places most imperative
for the proper expansion of civic life and
character, as has been found necessary
by many other cities of this continent." 10
Taking up ideas that had been applied in
other urban centres, the OAA and Civic
Guild sought to apply city planning initiat
ives to problems they perceived in their
own cities. By incorporating elements
such as diagonal streets and a system
of continuous parkways to create a park
system, they further aimed to integrate
the qualities of an urban environment
that were becoming valued internationally.
They were certain that the proposed
improvements would transform Toronto
into a modern city."
The PQAA, the OAA, and the Civic Guild
argued that specifically what was needed
were comprehensive plans for Toronto
and Montreal. In contrast to "piecemeal"
development-which meant fixing minor
problems without considering the effect
on the city as a whole-, comprehensive
planning involved developing an ideal for
a city that took into account its future
growth. 12 " Piecemeal" changes could be
undertaken by municipal Works Departments
and would include, for example,
widening a road. Comprehensive planning,
on the other hand, required a
practitioner w ith specialized knowledge
and exceptional aesthetic sensitivity.
As Montreal architect J. Rawson Gardner
explained, comprehensive planning
meant having a "well defined plan or
ideal to work up to." 13 In order to grow
and prosper, and to become cosmopolitan,
these cities had to be transformed
from the congested, overgrown, and
inefficient places they had become into
sites of beauty and pleasure, and that
was only possible, they argued, through
systematic planning undertaken by sk illed
architects. 14
Architects in cities all over North America
we re arguing for comprehensive
planning, and planning became a way
to address the pressures caused by the
transformation of colonial settlements
into metropolitan centres. North American
plan makers felt that a comprehensive
approach to planning was the best way
to avoid the horrors of crime, disease,
and moral depravity associated with the
slums of major European cities. Planning
was viewed as a way of improving the
aesthetic qualities of the urban environment,
but it also provided a mechanism
for implementing practical solutions to
address problems such as traffic congestion
and overcrowding. 15 Through comprehensive
planning, architects argued, it
would be possible to enhance the urban
environment rather than merely fix individual
problems.' 6 Because comprehensive
planning was seen as a means of improving
the overall condition of the city, it
would open up the possibility for civic
22
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007

SARAH B ASS NETT > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
FIG. 3. PRINCE ARTHU R DRIVE. IMPROVEMENTS RECOMM ENDED BY THE PQAA, 1908. I RICKSON OUTHET FOR THE PQAfiS CIVIC IMPROVEMENTCOMMITTEE, JOHN BLAN D CANADIAN ARCHITECTURE COLLECTION,
MCGILl UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL.
beautification and the enhancement of
civic life. Through their attempts to implement
comprehensive planning, architects
in Toronto and Montreal participated in
what Anthony Sutcliffe has defined as an
international planning movement."
With the rapid growth of both Toronto
and Montreal, architects were concerned
with a range of related issues. In Toronto,
which was second to Montreal in size,
Winnipeg was seen as a rival with the
potential to draw away wealth. 18 Architects
concluded that by improving the
condition of the city and by fostering
civic pride, Toronto's appeal would grow
and investment would not be lured away.
Although Montreal was the largest city in
the country and was securely established
as a financial and industrial centre, civic
spirit was weak. Corruption scandals had
caused anxiety about the proper management
and development of the city,
and the drive for municipal reform was
strong . 19 In both cities, poverty, poor
health conditions, and immigration had
also been identified as problems. The
hope was that, by improving the overall
condition of a city, the development
schemes would resolve civic problems of
all kinds.
Social historians, sociologists, and urban
historians have shown that, around the
turn of the century, city planners and
social reformers believed there was a
direct correspondence between poor
health, cramped living conditions, and
deficient moral values. 20 Dolores Hayden,
for example, has shown that the social
settlement movement sought to improve
the physical and moral condition of the
poor by creating municipal services, such
as soup kitchens and public baths and
laundries, which would, in turn, raise
living standards. 2 ' In Canada, the Canadian
Municipal Journal, which addressed
a readership of civic improvement
advocates, architects, and members of the
business community, espoused the idea
that disease and decay were endemic in
cities. In an article discussing an American
city planning conference, one commentator
emphasized the negative outcomes
that result from poor living conditions:
" The most pitiful victim of modern city
life is not the slum child who dies, but the
slum child who lives. Every time a baby
dies the nation loses a prospective citizen;
but in every slum child who lives, the
nation has a probable consumptive and a
possible criminal." 22 The imminent threat
of physical and moral decay, criminality,
and a deficient citizenry spurred on civic
improvement advocates and supported
the argument in favour of city planning.
For those involved in civic improvement
in Toronto and Montreal, improving social
conditions meant changing the physical
conditions and spatial organization of
the city itself. In order to implement the
JSSAC I JStAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007
23

S ARAH 8 ASS NETT > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
CIVIC IMPROVEMENT COMM ITIEE, JOHN BLAND CANADIAN ARCHITECTURE COLLECTION. MCG ILL UN IVERSITY, MONTREA L.
A1fWA1ff.2 AVE OOUllEVAR;[))
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ARCHITF.ClJ
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ol
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FIG . 5. ATWATER AV E. BOU LEVARD, MONTREAL. IMPROVEMENTS RECOMM ENDED BY THE PQAA, 1908. I RICKSON OUT HET FOR THE PQAA:S CIVIC IMPROVEMENT COMMITIEE, JO HN BLA ND CANADIAN ARCHITECTUR E
COLLECTION, MCGill UN IVERS ITY. MONTR£1\ L.
desired changes and further the movement
for better cities, architects and
civic improvement advocates pressed
municipal officials to support their planning
initiatives. In both cities, that crucial
reform period saw the emergence of new
municipal institutions and agencies. The
Public Health Department, in particular,
took on an increasingly important role in
major cities in the early twentieth centuryY
Attempting to address a set of ever
more complex urban problems, architects
and civic improvement advocates in both
cities forged new relationships with their
municipal governments.
In their efforts to reshape the urban environment
and to build new cooperative
relationships with city officials, architects
involved in civic improvement initiatives
in early twentieth-century Toronto and
Montreal relied on a range of visual
materials, including architectural renderings,
technical drawings, and plans, to
convey a vision for their respective cities.
These renderings and plans were important,
not only in attempts to create the
desired urban environment, but also in
the emergence of a planning movement
in Canada . As Canadian architects claimed
and adapted ideas from planning initiatives
in countries such as Britain, France,
and the United States and applied them
to the cities in which they lived, they
worked out their ideas and conveyed
them to potential supporters through
24
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007

S ARAH B ASS NETT > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
lf!RONT
IRITVlE.~
~~- MONTJRIE:AL-oa
IMPIW\It:l'IENTS RECOMMENDED 5I' TH!:
PR.OV'lN(LOf QUUlf.C AlJOCIATION Of
ARCHIT[.CTJ
FI G. 6. RI VER FRONT, MONTREAL. IMPROVEMENTS RE COMM ENDED BYTHE PQAA, 1908. 1 RICKSON OUTHET FOR THE PQAA'I CIVIC
IMPROVEMENT COMMITTEE, JOHN BLAND CANADIAN ARCHITECTURE COLLECTION, MCGILL UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL
visual means. This article aims to show
that these visual materials became one
of the principal methods architects used
in persuading civic officials and the public
that their city planning initiatives would
help to resolve complex urban problems.
The visual discourse of the plans and renderings,
in particular, sought to convince
viewers of the value of aesthetic solutions
to civic improvement. At the same time,
the aesthetic quality of the renderings
emphasized the importance of visuality
in the experience of the modern city.
Although the architects' efforts to create
their desired cities for the most part
failed, they were somewhat successful
with an alternate but related ambition.
The visually rendered improvement plans
functioned both as a sign of professional
expertise and as an instrument ofthe aestheticized
discourse of early twentiethcentury
city planning. In this way, the
renderings were one of the professional
and technical means through which architects
attempted to constitute the city as a
potentially utopic field of possibilities.
CIVIC IMPROVEMENT IN
MONTREAL
In Montreal, the PQAA's Civic Improvement
Committee established their vision
for the city through a series of six architectural
plans, which were drafted by
landscape architect Rickson A. Outhet
in 1908-1909. 24 It was only after much
consideration and debate over a tentative
scheme, sketched out in 1906, that
the series of detailed drawings were prepared
.25 The PQAA was concerned with
improving traffic circulation, beautifying
the city, and providing new leisure spaces
and recreation facilities for city dwellers,
and the plans drawn up by Outhet
showed newly developed public parks
and a series of tree-lined boulevards
and parkways, diagonal thoroughfares
connecting the central business district
with the outer areas of the city, and a
civic centre. 26 In order to show how the
improvements would both fit into and
transform the city, Outhet plotted all of
the recommended improvements onto
a plan of the City of Montreal (fig. 1) .
Topographic features, such as Mount
Royal and the St. Lawrence River, were
indicated on the plan in order to show
how the built-up city corresponded to the
geography of the region. The names of
constituencies specified different political
districts, and the street grid and park
areas showed the infrastructure and spatial
organization of the city. By integrating
topographical, political, and spatial
features into one plan, Outhet produced
an overall picture of the proposals for the
JSSAC I JStAC 32 > N' 1 > 2007
25

S ARAH B ASSNETT > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
city. Existing urban parks were shaded in
dark grey, with a table in the bottom
right corner that calculated their total
area. Government lands were indicated
with crosshatching, and proposed parks
and boulevards were plotted in light and
dark tones respectively. With its combination
of existing and planned features,
the PQAA's plan represented an ideal
and showed how the proposals would
improve the city.
The plan of the City of Montreal showing
the PQAA's proposed improvements
endorsed the very idea of city planning. In
an article about their plans for Montreal,
the architects of the PQAA presented their
initiative as "a warning and an example to
every place, however small, which is going
to grow," because, they explained, cities
that did not follow a plan were bound to
encounter costly and inconvenient problems
once they grewY In Montreal, the
diagonal roadways radiating from Victoria
Square (shown as heavy black lines in
fig. 1) clearly cut across the existing infrastructure
of the city. These roads were
identified as among the most expensive
of the improvements. However, they were
also described as urgent modifications,
modelled on the success of diagonal boulevards
in cities such as Paris. In Montreal's
case, the proposed diagonal roads would
run almost entirely through the poorest
districts, and therefore, although costly,
they would not be prohibitively expensive
to the city. With the enhanced property
values resulting from the diagonal thoroughfares,
it was assumed the expenditure
for the improvements would quickly
be recovered . 28 The architects warned,
however, t hat other cities might not be
so fortunate. They argued that if cities
planned for growth, there would be no
need for expensive interventions in the
future . By adapting their knowledge
of the problems and solutions in other
cities, the architects argued that planners
would be able to determine the best
arrangement for their own cities. The
plan of improvements was thus both an
authoritative claim for particular interventions
in Montreal and an assertion of the
importance of city planning in general.
In addition to the city plan showing the
PQAA's recommended improvements,
there were five other plans, prepared as
detailed architectural draw ings focusing
on improvements to Mount Royal Park
and to the roadways that would connect
the city's main parks and squares. While
the city plan showed the new roads and
embellishments in relation to the existing
city, and the plans were drawn to scale,
the five architectural drawings showed
the proposed changes to the city, with
existing features included only when they
were to remain the same. In this way, the
proposals were somewhat disconnected
from the existing infrastructure, and the
extent of the changes was less readily
accessible to the viewer. In contrast to
the city plan, which presented all of the
information simultaneously in a single
representation and showed how specific
proposals fit into the city as a whole,
the series of five drawings provided a
more detailed, sequential account of the
proposed improvements. Because each
of the five drawings focused on parks
and connecting roads, it is clear that the
PQAA believed it was most important to
improve these aspects of the city.
Parks were considered such an essential
feature of improvement schemes because
the ordered experience of nature they
could provide was thought to offer relief
from the perceived ills of modern urban
life. The nineteenth-century public parks
movement, which was particularly influential
in England and the United States,
sought to improve the conditions of urban
life by incorporating natural scenery into
urban environments. Conceived as pieces
of the countryside constructed in the city,
pleasure grounds were carefully landscaped
to heighten the urban dweller's
experience of nature. In direct contrast to
the urban environment in which they were
created, pleasure grounds were thought
to provide physical and psychic relief from
the unhealthy and unnatural conditions
of urban life. 29 The eminent town planner
Thomas Adams confirmed the importance
of parks when he explained: "parks are a
better investment than hospitals and asylums,
and if we do not spend money on
the one we shall be compelled to spend
it on the other." 30 By providing public
parks, many people believed that urban
problems could be prevented and a better
citizenry would result. Visitors to pleasure
grounds would experience the beauty and
serenity of natural harmony through their
encounter with a pastoral landscape. The
benefits of a carefully laid out park were
made clear by Frederick Todd, a member
of the PQAA's Civic Improvement
Committee, who explained:
People whose lives are lived among t he bustle
and strife of a large city require some place
where they ca n rest after the days' exer t ion ;
mothers w ith little ones, whose life in t he
narrow tenements is ill-suited to f it them for
life's battle; t o all these what a boon ar e the
publi c parks, wher e the ai r is at least m ore
pure than in t he street, and the children
ca n romp on the grass or roam through the
woods I .. I The con stant familiar observat
io n of surroundin gs cannot help but have
some influence, especially upon the younger
members of t he community, and if these surr
oundings ar e untidy and careless, they must
influen ce to a certain extent one's after life,
while t he same is true if one's surroundi ngs
are neat, beautiful and artistic. 31
Neatness, beauty, and ar tistic surroundings
were the characteristics that obviated
crime, disease, and immorality.
Following Todd's notion of the purifying
26
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S ARAH B ASSNETT > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
effects of parks, the architectural drawings
for Montreal's parks and parkways
outline a vision for a city where leisure
and recreation in a natural setting were
essential features of modern urban life.
The belief that beauty and a good environment
were essential mechanisms of
reform was discussed, not only among
architects, reformers, and civic improvement
advocates, but also by members of
the press. An excerpt from an article in
the Montreal Daily News describes the
positive power commonly attributed to
a beautiful environment:
The clean street is an aid to virtue. The
playground renders the corner policeman
superfluous. Remove the slum, and you do
not need to pay for a jail. Broaden your park
spaces, and you give clean and happy m in ds
to young and old. Offer the noble monument,
and you will have high thinking. For, though
the streets may be paved, and the water
and other questions settled, a city can only
be truly redeemed by the appeal to what is
noble and true and beautiful. 32
Parks, in particular, were central to such
notion of reform through aesthetics and,
perhaps more directly than any other
intervention, they were intended to prevent
social deviance and to ameliorate the
problems of modern urban life.
The PQAA's vision for improved park amenities
in Montreal focused on Fletcher's
Field (now pare Jeanne-Mance), a centrally
located park on the northeast side
of Mount Royal (fig. 2) . The well-known
American landscape architect Frederick
Law Olmstead designed Mount Royal
Park in the late 1870s, and the PQAA's
proposed modifications to the park were
described as having considered Olmstead's
original intentions. 33 The improvement
plans included a new winding road for
pleasure vehicles and pedestrians that
would lead up the mountain, where visi ­
tors could enjoy peace and quiet amidst
the natural scenery. Playing fields for
lacrosse, football, and baseball, along
with other recreational facilities such as
a playground and wading ponds, were
planned for Fletcher's Field. The Civic
Improvement Committee explained that
it was "extremely desirable that the City
should supply adequate playgrounds for
the citizens." 34 Playgrounds kept children
off the dirty streets and away from the
moral corruption of back alleys. As Galen
Cranz has shown, along with the principles
of beauty and order, organized recreation
was explicitly taken up as a way
of teaching the principles of good citizenship,
which included self-reliance, initiative,
leadership, and a sense of ethics. 35
Between the playing fields and the houses
along Esplanade Avenue, the architects
designed an area they described as similar
to Luxembourg Garden in Paris. That
strip of land included tennis courts and a
croquet lawn, along with decorative gardens
and fountains. Skilfully combining
recreation areas with pleasure grounds,
the PQAA planned Fletcher's Field as a
park with the finest conditions for people
of all classes and ages.
The beautification of the area around
Fletcher's Field was almost as important
to the overall vision of development as
the plans for the park itself. Concerned
that the "unseemly display" of clotheslines
and garbage b i ns in the backyards
of the houses along Pine Avenue
would spoil the view from the park, the
architects proposed a scheme for street
extensions so that roadways encircl ­
ing the park would create a boundary
between parkland and the nearby residences
.36 New, well-designed, detached
or semi-detached houses could then be
built to block the unsightly homes along
Pine Avenue. Attempting to ensure the
best view for park visitors and local
residents alike, the architects followed a
key principle of Civic Art: they planned
new streets with houses that would face
onto the open space of the park. From
the park, visitors would see the fronts of
new middle-class homes rather than the
cluttered backyards of rundown homes.
Private developers were similarly involved
in regulating the area. From the turn-ofthe-century,
developers used contracts
specifying allowable building types and
construction standards to exclude all but
the affluent from the area around Mount
Royal. Multiuse buildings were prohibited,
as were new homes of cheap construction.37
Although the PQAA's plan for the
park itself followed Olmstead's reformist
vision and was ostensibly for citizens
of all classes, the surrounding residential
area was an exclusive domain reserved for
the wealthy.
Outhet's precisely rendered drawing of
Fletcher's Field emphasized the aesthetic
value of the proposals for improving the
area. The aerial perspective of the drawing
made evident the decorative quality
of the tree-lined boulevards and the
beautifying effect of the carefully laid
out recreation fields and plots of land
for housing. The newly planned area of
housing was depicted in the drawing as
unshaded blocks, which distinguished it
from the existing residential construction,
shown as shaded blocks (see top left sect
ion of fig. 2). By focusing on aesthetic
effect, the drawing itself concealed any
evidence of the exclusive development
practices that intervention required .
Instead, the new houses quietly seduced
the viewer by appearing to fit seamlessly
into the existing urban environment.
These new rectangular, triangular, and
trapezoid lots and the delicately curved
streets erased the ramshackle houses and
replaced them with the architects' dream:
an orderly, aesthetically pleasing space .
The captivating drawing obfuscated
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007
27

S ARA H B ASSNETT > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
what was at stake in the aestheticizing
discourse of city planning. What Outhet's
drawing did not show was that the architects
of the PQAA aimed to create an
environment that would, in itself, take
on the social work of urban reform.
Outhet's drawing was a hybrid form that
combined cartographic and topographical
codes to produce an idealized urban
space. The rationality of cartography was
referenced by the compass direction and
scaled measurement indicating the ratio
between inches to feet found in the top
right-hand corner of the drawing. The
recessional perspective view of Park
Avenue Boulevard, inset into the plan
for Fletcher's Field, invited the viewer to
imagine the three-dimensionality of the
space, and the shading and modeling on
the trees exceeded cartographic codes,
turning even the plan itself into a kind of
vista. The multiple views provided in the
drawing attempted to convey to viewers
how the improved area would feel. Looking
down on Montreal from the all-see ­
ing perspective of the God's eye view, the
city was shown as a place of light, space,
and beauty. The combination of rational
measurement and perspective rendering
worked to produce a persuasive drawing
that would have seemed at once carefully
thought out and visionary.
Outhet's Fletcher's Field drawing
employed this hybrid visual discourse
to lay out space that would be at once
functional and beautiful. It depicted a
broad three-lane boulevard that would
divide the pleasure grounds of Mount
Royal Park from the recreational area of
Fletcher's Field. The proposed boulevard
would have three separate roadways to
divide regular traffic, the street railway,
and pleasure driving. Four rows of trees,
one between each lane of traffic, were
proposed as a way to give Park Avenue a
new grandeur, and the long vista would
The other drawings in the series also relied
on a juxtaposition of technical and persuasive
features to delineate additional
spaces of retreat and pleasant, orderly
routes to connect them. These routes
took the form of a succession of boule-
vards that were designed to run through
the city, connecting the major parks. One
of the new boulevards was intended to
link Mount Royal, a large park on the
hilly, elevated ground in the centre of
the city, and Lafontaine Park, located
in a residential area in the east end of
the city. Outhet's drawing showed the
boulevard running from Fletcher's Field
along Duluth Street to Lafontaine Park. It
continued beyond the park where it connected
with Sherbrooke Street at the site
of a new public bath (fig. 4). The PQAA's
Civic Improvement Committee proposed
that the boulevard might be a memorial
to confederation, again suggesting statues
to the fathers of confederation for
the major intersections. Like the new Park
Avenue, that boulevard was to have separate,
tree-lined roadways dividing pleasure
drivers, tramcars, and heavy traffic.
Although the drawing was identified as
a rendering of the boulevard, Lafontaine
Park appeared to be its central feature.
The park design showed a large parade
ground, a lagoon, and a series of winding
pathways, which were characteristic of
the pleasure ground layout. It was these
winding pathways and the experience
of the natural landscape of the pleasure
grounds that they provided, which were
thought to be inherently purifying. The
aerial perspective of the drawing highlighted
the decorative features of the park
and the orderly layout of the city streets.
Although the three-dimensionality of the
space appeared less pronounced than in
the drawing for Fletcher's Field, the undulating
lines of the pathways in Lafontaine
Park stood out against the linearity of the
hatched city blocks. The visual reprieve
that the curvilinear areas of the drawing
be punctuated with circular "piazzas," in
which the architects hoped to place fountains
or monuments (see the perspective
vista in fig. 2). The circular juncture at
University Avenue, Park Avenue, and
a new boulevard was, according to the
architects, ideal for " a handsome fountain
on the lines of the one at the Piazza
di Termini at Rome, or else a monument
to one of the Fathers of Confederation." 38
By appealing to the senses, the proposed
features were intended to provide a
respite from the chaotic conditions of
modern urban life.
A second drawing in the series used similar
visual strategies to show proposed
improvements for another area adjacent
to Mount Royal Park. Identified as Prince
Arthur Drive (now Avenue Docteur­
Penfield), the drawing portrayed the
continuation of the tree-lined roadway
leading around the park and the decorative
features that would embellish the
approach (fig. 3) . Here again, the modeling
on the trees was used to make the
natural features of the landscape stand
out from the urban environment surrounding
the park. The trees along Prince
Arthur Drive punctuate the aerial view of
the streetscape and lead the eye through
the drawing . In doing so, the drawing
produced the same kind of experience of
movement for the eye that the pleasure
drive was meant to produce for the body.
The important role of visuality in the
modern city was particularly evident in
this drawing. Outhet marked two points
on the winding route through the park as
places where the visitor could expect to
view a pleasing vista. By indicating locations
from which city dwellers could look
at their city, the drawing validated visual
experience as a primary mode of engaging
with the city. The emphasis on looking,
conveyed in this drawing, reinforced
the PQAA's visually-oriented approach to
city planning.
28
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N' 1 > 2007

S ARAH B ASSNETT > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
provided to the viewer paralleled the restful
and refreshing effects that the parks
were intended to offer city dwellers.
Even though the boulevards were
designed to beautify the city, the
architects were also concerned with
providing pleasant routes through the
city and greater access to the city's leisure
spaces. To that end, a further proposal
sought to turn Atwater Avenue
into another tree-lined boulevard that
would extend from Sherbrooke Street,
just a short distance from Fletcher' s
Field, to the Lachine Canal, ending at
the point where Victoria Bridge crosses
the St. Lawrence River (fig. 5) . Outhet's
drawing for this proposal included
recessional perspective views of two
boulevards, Atwater and Tailrace, which
gave an indication of the kind of vistas
the improvements would provide. The
PQAA also proposed a parkway along
the St. Lawrence River to p rovide a
beautiful riverside view, and a plot of
land being used as a dumping ground
in the east end was slated for conversion
to parkland (fig. 6). In the drawing
for the riverfront, the viewer's attention
was drawn to the beautification of
the area looking onto the river through
the contrast between the curves and
rounded forms used to portray the
parks and boulevards and the straight
lines used to depict the built-up areas of
the city. Because the streets adjacent to
the proposed river front development
had been merely sketched in, the focus
of the drawing was on the riverfront.
This vicinity, designed for the pleasure
and rejuvenation of the city's inhabitants,
is the section of the drawing that
is the most decorative and agreeable
to look at. In both proposals for new
routes to the city's leisure areas, the
visual techniques used in the drawings
emphasized the desired effect of the
proposal depicted in the drawings.
The PQAA's series of drawings for improvements
t o Montreal conveyed the importance
of visuality in the improved city
and adapted ideas from the international
planning movement to the local conditions.
Drawing on planning initiatives in
other cities, particularly Paris, the plans
emphasized improving traffic circulation
by widening roads and carving out diagonal
thoroughfares. At the same time, the
architectural drawings articulated a plan
for reordering the city's spaces of leisure,
and the aesthetic properties of the drawings
reinforced the idea that the modern
city should be beautiful. Drawn up for
members of the City Council, the renderings
employed visual techniques, such as
three-dimensionality, to enable viewers
to imagine immersing their own bodies
in these idealized spaces. 39 By combining
aesthetic strategies with the rational
discourse of cartography, each drawing
provided multiple views of the proposed
improvements. While the PQAA described
their recommendations in terms of the
way the appearance and spatial organization
of the city would change and
how citizens would use the new spaces
and facilities, the drawings attempted to
persuade civic officials that the proposals
would function effectively as a means of
social reform. 40 By emphasizing a visual
experience of the city, Outhet's drawings
affirmed that an important aspect of the
improved urban environment would be
its pleasing visual appearance.
CIVIC IMPROVEMENT FOR
TORONTO
At the same time the PQAA was working
on plans for improvements to Montreal,
architects in Toronto were busy with a plan
for their city. The idea for a city plan had
been discussed at a meeting of architects
in 1901 and, in 1903, the Toronto chapter
of the OAA set themselves the task
of " procur[ing] a plan for the present
and future beautification and general layout
of the city." 41 The OAA produced a
blueprint in 1905 (fig. 7), but the municipal
government refused to provide financial
support for developing it into a city
plan. At that point, the OAA and the Civic
Guild agreed to collaborate in order to
produce a plan themselves. While the
Civic Guild raised funds from their welloff
supporters in the business community,
a committee of architects, including
William Langton, Edmund Burke, and
S.G. Curry from the OAA, and members of
the Toronto Architectural Eighteen Club
and the Civic Guild, revised the OAA's
blueprint to produce a new document,
the Plan of Improvements to the City of
Toronto. 42 The Civic Guild's ability to raise
five thousand dollars by subscription to
support their civic improvement initiative,
which included creating the plan
and producing an accompanying report,
is both an indication of the wealth and
influence of its members and a sign of
the widespread support among prominent
Torontonians for civic improvement
and city planning. 4 3
The OAA's plan proposed a series of
changes to three aspects of the city: a
new layout for the waterfront, a series
of parks and parkways, and new diagonal
streets that would cut across the existing
gridiron street Jayout. 44 These key features
of the plan have been discussed by
urban historians as evidence of the Canadian
involvement in the City Beautiful
movement; yet, although City Beautiful
ideas were discussed and even embraced
by some, criticism of City Beautiful and
Beaux-Arts planning from the period
shows that it was not, by any means,
unanimously popular among Toronto
architects. 45 An article in the country's
leading architectural journal, Canadian
Architect and Builder, clearly refuted that
notion. Discussing architect J.P. Hynes's
paper on civic improvements, the author
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007
29

SARAH B ASSNETI > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
noted that it was received with some
opposition because it advocated a grand,
ornamental entrance to the city, like those
planned for Cleveland and Buffalo. The
idea was criticized as merely a "Beaux­
Arts project, " and what was required
was described as city planning rather
than merely beautification. 46 Because
the support for City Beautiful planning
was far from unanimous, and because the
proposals for To ronto were comparable
to civic improvement initiatives in cities
throughout the United States, as well as
those planned for Montreal, it is more
accurate to interpret the OAA's proposals
as evidence of the Toronto architects'
eagerness to participate in the emerging
field of city planning.
When William Langton proudly presented
the plan to members of the OAA at their
annual convention in January 1906, he we have caught it from our generation ; and
explained that it w as essential to invest in Toronto in taking up this plan and carrying it
the f uture development of To ronto, and out w il l be merely fo ll owing a movement and
he claimed that the proposals were not following it a good way behind . That I think is
extravagant in comparison to the kind of the general argument for our plan; we must
improvements that were being executed not be left too far behind. 4 7
elsewhere on the continent. Langton put
it bluntly: Toronto was at risk of falling The significance of the OAA's plan was
behind other cities in North America. He therefore, in part, its ability to demondeclared:
strate that Toronto was involved in the
international planning movement.
When the idea of planning the future developm
ent of Toronto fi rst came into our One of the ways the Toronto architects
minds. some of us thought that we had got aligned their proposals with similar city
hold of an original idea, but when , having planning initiatives in other cities was
become interested in the matter, our atten- through the production of visual matetion
was awake to al lusions (in professional rials, such as plans and renderings. Puband
other journals) to similar efforts else- lished in the OAA's Proceedings, as well as
where, we found that everybody else on the in Canadian Architect and Builder (which
Co ntinent of America seemed possessed by Langton edited), the OAA's blueprint was
the same idea. Plan making is in the air; accompanied by a bird's eye view of the
30
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N' 1 > 2007

S ARAH B ASSNETT > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
FIG. 8. BIRO'S EYE VIEW OF THE PROPOSED WATER FRONT TO THE CITY OF TORONTO, 1905.1 OAA, CANADIANARCHITECTANDBUILDER, VOL19, NO.2, FEBRUARY 1906, PLATES lA AND B.
waterfront (fig. 8) 4 8 Looking down and
across the waterfront area from an elevated
viewpoint, the rendering depicted
long, wide boulevards stretching off into
the distance. Rows of trees were shown
decoratively lining the parkway that ran
along the lakefront, a small park area
jutted out into the harbour, and a sailboat
cruised nearby. The bird's eye view
offered viewers an enticing vision of the
entrance to the city. Projecting a lanternslide
of the waterfront drawing for his
audience at the OAA convention, Langton
explained that the beauty of the space
was its scale and simplicity. "Broad and
ample," the improvements would avoid
the "vulgarity of swaggering pretentiousness"
that other cities were risking
with their plans for elaborate gateways
around their harbours. The OAA's aim
was to restore the natural character of the
environment with a park by the water. 49
By referring to a perspective rendering to
present the proposal for a beautiful and
orderly waterfront, Langton followed a
precedent established in American city
planning around the turn of the century,
when bird's-eye views became increasingly
common for competition drawings
and client presentation drawingsso Drawn
pictorially and obliquely from an elevated
position, perspective renderings were
favoured for their ability to portray the
general features and overall sensibility
of a design in a persuasive manner. The
OAA's rendering conveyed their proposal
for Toronto's waterfront at the same time
that it compared the scheme with other,
similar initiatives in American cities.
The OAA's plan and perspective rendering
were seen by architects and engineers,
many of whom were already committed
to the idea of city planning. To that audience,
the unveiling of a plan of improvements
for Toronto was an encouraging
sign of progress. However, it was necessary
to address a wider audience and to
show City Council and the public that the
improvements were a viable project for
the city and not merely the pipe dreams
of utopian architects. To that end, the
OAA handed off their blueprints to the
Civic Guild, who set to work on a revised
version of the plan . Much of the work for
civic improvement then began to take
place outside the province's professional
architectural association, yet the push
for city planning was directed by architects
who sought to change conditions
in their own cities. A Plan Committee,
headed by Langton, continued developing
the plan, while a Publicity Committee
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007
31

S ARAH 8 ASS NETT > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
,.- f•illt,_ ~~Jl JUil(f ~W,t»ll
- - n:11t.l}"•-·~~ ·IOI.oll.
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TORONTO OU!LO OF OIVIO ART
Pl.,.\J( Of! IMVWOYIWI:tHTS
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GJTY OF T ORONTO
1909
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PROPOSED !>ARKS
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EXISTING PARKS
FIG. 9. PLAN OF IMPROVEMENTS TO THE CITY OF TO RONTO, ACCOMPANY ING THE REPORT ON A COM PR EH ENSIVE PLAN FOR SYSTEMATIC IMPROVEMENTS IN TORONTO, 1909.1 TORONTO GUlLO oF
CIVIC ART. CITY OF TORONTO ARCHIVES, FONDS 1015, BOX 146634, FILE 3
set out to promote it and gain support for
its implementation. A Citizens Committee
of one hundred members also attempted
to use their influence to get City Council
and the provincial government to introduce
legislation that w ould establish a
commission to carry out the improvement
plan. 51 Concerned to see that the vision
w as developed in an expert w ay and that
the plan itself w as properly prepared, the
ad visory board of the Civic Guild considered
hiring an architect and a draughtsman.
With some financial support from
City Council and more funds from their
private sponsors, Langton proposed
that the Civic Guild employ the English
architect, Sir Aston Webb, to develop
the plan into a form suitable for public
distribution. 52 In particular, Webb would
finalize the d etails for junction streets
and squares, w hich w ere formed by the
proposed diagonal roadw ays. 53
By 1907, w hen Webb w as retained by
the Ci vic Guild, his decade-long project
(1899-1909) for a new building for the
Victoria and Albert Museum (formerly
the South Kensington Museum) was
nearing completion and his plan for
the Queen Victoria Memorial and redesign
of the mall in front of Buckingham
Palace (1901 -1911) w as underway. Although
Langton did not explicitly state his reason
for suggesting Webb, the museum building,
the redesign of the mall, and earlier
w ork for the Birmingham La w Courts w ith
partner Ingress Bell had earned Webb a
prominent reputation, of which Langton
w as evidently aw are. Webb's contribution
to the plan for improvements to Toronto
w as minor compared to his w ork on a new
addition for an expansive museum and his
redesign of an important, symbolic area
of London; how ever, w ith each of these
projects, the architect w as hired to create
environments in w hich citizens would be
enriched by the beauty and harmony of
the space.
Webb must have seemed like an excellent
choice to assist the Toronto architects,
because both the Victoria and Albert
Museum and the Victoria Memorial w ere
important commissions that displayed
Webb's skill for redesigning existing
architectural and urban spaces . In the
1891 competition for a new building for
the Victoria and Albert Museum, administered
by the Office of Works and assessed
by Alfred Waterhouse, then president of
32
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N' 1 > 2007

SARAH B ASSNETT > AN ALYSIS I ANALYSE
the Royal Institute of British Architects
(RIBA), the eight entries were evaluated
on a set of principles that included elements
such as dignity, rhythm, general
symmetry and balance, and artistic treatment
of details. 54 Waterhouse also considered
light, wall space, spatial provisions,
cost, and congruency of the new building
with existing ones. Most important,
however, was the "excellence of the plan."
Here, the preferred traits were "simplicity,
symmetry of plan, and directness of
communication[ ... ] position and arrangement
of staircases, both for beauty and
convenience." 55 Waterhouse gave Webb's
entry full marks for the plan. Webb's plan
defined a cohesive space that flowed from
one section of the museum to another.
He demonstrated his ability to resolve a
complex problem-presented by the need
to coordinate a vast new building with a
rambling, older structure-that was not
unlike the problem of developing a plan
for improvements to an existing city.
While the process of designing a new
building for the Victoria and Albert
Museum was similar to the process of
city planning in that it involved integrating
the old with the new, redesigning
the mall in front of Buckingham Palace
was similar to planning for improvements
to Toronto, as both projects aimed to
reshape urban spaces. In the commission
for the Victoria Memorial, Webb
was charged w ith transforming an area
of central London into a memorial to the
recently deceased monarch wh ile, at the
same time, carrying out a program of
civic improvements. Londoners had often
described their city as lack ing the qualities
appropriate for an imperial capital, and
Webb's design for the mall was seen as
an opportunity to incorporate improvements
that would give the city grandeur
and spaciousness. Webb's design opened
up the main thoroughfare of the mall and
formed beautiful vistas, like those created
by the boulevards of Paris . 56 To Langton,
who longed for grand vistas and majestic
spaces, Webb's design offered a model
for the successful redevelopment of a
city centre.
Although Webb himself never vis ited
Toronto, his draughtsman, A .W. Bentham,
worked w ith the Guild for three months
during the summer of 1907. The Guild
was particularly concerned about solving
the difficult challenge presented by
the junctions of the proposed diagonal
roadways. Combining "safety, convenience,
and beauty with proper economy"
was described as "a very difficult
problem." 57 However, the combination of
beauty and convenience had also been
the focus of Webb's plan for the Victoria
and Albert Museum. Working with the
drawings prepared by the Guild, as well
as with photographs and a description of
the difficulties and aims of the project,
Webb prepared a new set of drawings.
Langton was thrilled by the results. He
explained: "it is gratifying to see from it
[the drawing] that the employment of Sir
Aston Webb for this work is justified. Our
own drawing looks amateurish beside his
and the improvements are not in the way
of elaborateness but in the way of that
simplicity, which is the particular mark of
good design." 58 Webb's contribution to
the civic improvement initiative was thus
in helping to draw up a plan that was suitable
for publicity.
Produced for city councillors, prominent
businessmen, and civic-minded citizens,
and distributed with the Civic Guild's
Report on a Comprehensive Plan for
Systematic Improvements in Toronto,
the Plan of Improvements to the City of
Toronto (fig. 9) should be read as one
component of a diverse attempt to influence
the development of the city and to
convince the public that city planning
would improve civic life. Steadfast in
its dedication to city planning, the Civic
Guild Plan Committee saw the publication
and widespread distribution of the
plan as a centra l part of its campaign for
civic improvement. The Plan Committee
produced a small version of the plan for
publication, which showed the principal
streets and proposed improvements, as
wel l as a large, fully detailed, co lour version,
wh ich it hoped would be hung in
City Hall and sent out for city planning
exhibitions. 59 Under the careful management
of the Committee, the smaller
version of the plan was also issued to
newspapers, along w ith a letter from
William Langton, in which he impressed
upon the reader the practical nature of
the plan, the intention to carry out the
improvements gradually, and, ultimately,
its benefits for the people of the city 60 He
explained that the scheme would be beneficial
both for business and pleasure, and
although the interventions were directed
at the city itself, the effects would be felt
by its citizens. In their bid to improve the
cond ition of the city and to inspire civic
pride, the architects had to convince the
public and the municipal government to
support their city planning initiatives.
Visual materials, such as the Civic Guild's
Plan of Improvements, at once conveyed
the architects' proposals and affirmed
that they possessed the professional
expertise to carry them out.
The Civic Guild's Plan of Improvements
used visua l strategies that supported the
architects' dual objective. It consisted of
key streets and existing parks and landmarks
plotted onto a plan of the city. The
street grid, wh ich extended north from
Lake Ontario and east and west to the
outer edges of the city, corresponded
with the grid laid out on the City Engineer's
Plan of the City of Toronto from
1902 (fig. 10). The shaded background
in the central part of the improvement
plan indicated the annexed area of the
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007
33

S ARAH B ASSNETT > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
city proper, w hile the surrounding section
showed the suburbs beyond the city.
These areas were consistent with the 1902
plan, in which the electoral wards of the
city defined the city proper. In addition
to show ing features of the existing urban
landscape, the Civic Guild's plan included
proposed parks, playgrounds, and parkw
ays. The streets, the topography, and the
areas shown on the plan were the same as
those found on the surveyor's city plan,
and the suggested improvements to the
city were depicted with the same visual
means as the existing features of the city.
Although the improvement plan used the
city engineer's technical drawing for its
structure, the proposals were rendered
w ith a simplicity and an aesthetic quality
that attempted to appeal to the view er's
desire for an orderly and beautiful urban
environment.
The Civic Guild's Plan of Improvements
attempted to present an authoritative
strategy for developing Toronto, but
the design was also persuasive. The Civic
Guild had approached Webb for his superior
draughting skills, w ith the hope that
he w ould produce an aesthetically pleasing
plan for a beautiful city. The graphic
clarity and simplicity of Webb's plan w as
appealing to Langton precisely because
it signified the clarity and simplicity of
the proposed improvements. However,
at the same time, because existing features
of the city had been plotted onto an
accurate, scaled city plan, the Guild's plan
claimed a direct relationship to the existing
city. By mapping proposed elements
for future development onto the extant
infrastructure, the unbuilt features would
have seemed more feasible and thus the
plan would have gained credibility. The
colour-coded elements and the numbered
keys indicating existing and proposed
parks and playgrounds worked to con ­
vey the idea that the proposed changes
to the city were natural additions to the
growing city. By using the language of
objectivity, borrowed from the field of
cartography, the architects attempted to
foreclose any argument about the kinds
of changes that should be implemented.
The Guild's Plan of Improvements utilized
a set of conventions that w ere established
in seventeenth-century Europe w ith the
introduction of scientific map production.
Historian of cartography J.B . Harley has
explained the purpose of modern cartography
as aiming to "produce a 'correct'
relational model of the terrain.""' Cartography
relies on scientific standards and
technical processes to validate the accu ­
rac y of maps and to establish its product
as an analogue of a pre-existing, objective
reality. Draw n to scale from surveys,
and emphasizing roads and landmarks,
scientific maps w ere employed to settle
property disputes and to define political
boundaries, as well as to provide visitors
with guides for navigating cities. Describing
these maps as affecting a form of
"space discipline," Harley argued that
they have frequently been used to support
struggles for political and economic domination"'
City plans, w hich are produced
by follow ing the precise measurements
and exa cting principles of cartography,
also rest on the assumption that a representation
can be an accurate depiction
of a place in the world. The scale in the
top right hand corner of the OAA's initial
plan, which specified that one thousand
feet of the real city corresponded to one
inch on the plan, signified the scientific
system on w hich the Civic Guild's plan
w as based . An indication of scale made
the assertion that the representation corresponded
proportionately to a physical
space. Aspects of the topography, such
as the harbour, Ashridges Bay, Don Valley,
and Humber River provided the geographical
setting for the city and, on the
Plan of Improvements, these features
worked to establish a clear relationship
between a real space in the w orld and
the representation of it.
Thus, the Guild's proposal for improvements
to Toronto used discourses of
objectivity and persuasion to visualize a
new kind of urban space and ne w and
more pleasurable w ays of experiencing it.
In the improved city, the architects imagined
that the natural and constructed
features of the urban landscape would
complement one another. The roadways
would serve as conduits to and from
parks, and the parks would break up the
uniformity and oppressiveness of street
after street of buildings. Whereas the
city surveyor's plan of the existing city
emphasized the repetitive, restrictive
quality of the street grid, the improvements,
plotted onto the Civic Guild's plan,
offered a solution to the monotony and
congestion. The bold diagonal lines that
cut across the grid offered the promise
of new routes for traveling from one end
of the city to another. The radial arteries
promoted circulation and fluidity
and presented the possibility of further
expansion . Parks, w hich I ha ve argued
w ere considered essential to the overall
health and aesthetic effect of the city,
appeared as green rectangles scattered
across the plan, providing a revitalizing
visual respite from the uniformity of the
built environment.
The Civic Guild's Plan of Improvements
constituted the city as a site of aesthetic
pleasure, and one of the primary w ays the
improvements could be experienced w as
by travelling through the city. By 1909,
w hen the Civic Guild's plan w as produced,
the automobile w as a new form of transportation
and pleasure driving w as a
new leisure activity for the upper and
middle classes. Car outings w ere principally
excursions around the city from park
to park, and the proposed circumambient
parkw ay and diagonal roads offered
34
JSSAC JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007

S ARAH B ASSNETT > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
lt0;-1 ' 1' 0
FI G. 10. PLAN OF THE CITY OF TORONTO, 1902. I CHARLES H. RUST.CITY SURVEYOR. CITY OF TORONTO ARCHIVES MT OOOS4.
new routes for city driving. The architects
were interested in the new possibilities of
motion, the new views, and the pleasure
in looking at and moving through urban
space. As Walter van Nus has noted, architects
involved in city planning were concerned
with visual variety because they
assumed that the city would be experienced
by people travelling through the
city or within a park system." With their
emphasis on the vista and the drive, the
architects imagined a profoundly cinematic
conception of space. The diagonal
roads would also contribute to the city's
character and individual identity by creating
squares and other unique spaces. 64
These small diversions and distinctive
spaces were what would constitute the
visual variety of the city.
The emphasis on pleasure driving was
coupled with a concern for the efficient
flow of traffic. City officials and businessmen
had begun to use cars regularly in
their daily activities and city dwellers
wanted to be able to drive from downtown
to the outskirts in a short time. The
proposed diagonal roadways, along with
street widening projects, were aimed at
alleviating traffic congestion. 6 s Although
congested roadways did not begin with
the automobile, and the transition to a
car-oriented city was a lengthy process
that took decades to resolve, both the
OAA's and the Civic Guild's plans identified
effective traffic circulation as a
necessary feature of the new city. Countless
articles in the Journal of the Town
Planning Institute of Canada during the
early 1920s were dedicated to the merits
of various methods of rounding street
corners, to make it easier for cars, rather
than horses, to navigate the city streets.
These ongoing discussions show that
creating an efficient traffic system was
a long, drawn-out process that was only
in its early stages with the Civic Guild's
improvement plan 66
With the focus on pleasure and efficiency
in travel and the visual and kinesthetic
experience of the city as a whole,
the plan for improvements satisfied the
interests of the architects, businessmen,
and prominent citizens who financed
and produced it. Instead of attempting
to improve slum housing in the downtown
areas, the plan focused on upgrading
aspects of the city that would benefit
the mobile, middle-class inhabitants who
had leisure time. Like the PQAA, the Civic
Guild had proposed improvements that
would wipe out slum areas; however, neither
group addressed the issue of where
the displaced residents would go. 67 With
the Guild's proposals, the poor, many of
w hom lived in downtown slums, would
not be better housed, nor would they
have increased access to city services. At
most, they might have access to a new,
nearby park. The working classes, who
frequently settled outside the city, relied
on streetcars to get to and from work. 68 35
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N' 1 > 2007

S ARAH B ASSNETT > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
For them, the diagonal roadways might eliminating congestion, they sought to NOTES
prove useful, if less pleasurable. With convince civic officials and the public to -----------------
their belief that open spaces, edifying
monuments, and beautiful vistas would
improve the otherwise diseased and
delinquent working class, the architects
may have expected their proposals would
solve a whole range of urban problems.
In any case, the visual renderings of the
proposed improvements erased poverty
from the city altogether.
The proposals represented visually in the
Civic Guild's Plan of Improvements were
embellished by the aestheticizing discourse
of Langton's descriptions of them.
In his explanation of the proposed system
of roads that would connect the park
areas, Langton repeatedly referred to the
beautiful and pleasant drives the roads
would offer. He described Kingston Road
as providing the opportunity "for a lovely
drive along the water." Regarding a proposed
extension of Ulster Street, he said
that the road "finds a good course, pleasantly
varied[ ... ] all the way to High Park."
In the eastern section of the city, Langton
stated: " w e have a beautiful drive all the
way[ ... ]," which, he explained, "descends
to the Don [Valley] by a long, picturesque
hill-road.'' 69 His descriptive language, particularly
his use of aesthetic terms like
"beautiful" and "picturesque," emphasized
the visual features of the proposals
and implied that if the Civic Guild's
scheme was implemented, urban problems
would be replaced by pleasurable
aesthetic experiences.
The Civic Guild's initiatives were at once
an attempt to influence urban development
and an assertion of their specialized
knowledge. The architects believed
that city planning was the remedy for
undesirable urban conditions, such as
congestion and its attendant problems
of disease and immorality and, by preparing
a plan that held the promise of
support their proposals. In producing
a plan that appeared both technically
sound and aesthetically appealing, the
architects demonstrated their expertise
and attempted to lay claim to the city.
The predominantly visual and aesthetic
character of the proposals was a fundamental
part of the effort to persuade the
civic community to support their vision
for the city. It was above all the visuality
of their proposals that enabled architects
to assert that they were the most qualified
to design an aesthetically pleasing
urban environment.
CONCLUSION: VISUALITY AND
SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE
In their drive for civic improvement during
the first decade of the twentieth century,
the PQAA, the OAA, and the Civic Guild
turned to a hybrid visual discourse that
conveyed rationality at the same time
that it was aesthetically engaging and
persuasive. The visual strategies used in
the renderings validated a visual experience
of the city and claimed that aesthetic
improvements could function as a mechanism
of reform. The architects' proposals
for civic improvements demonstrated
their involvement in a growing international
planning movement. They were at
once an attempt to eliminate the evils of
urbanism and an attempt to consolidate a
base of support for their aesthetic visions.
The architects deployed plans and renderings
in an effort to constitute the city as a
field of possibility and to claim it as their
rightful domain.
1. Th e author gratefully acknowledges the
financial su pport of the Social Science and
Humanities Research Council of Canada and
the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the
University of Western Ontario.
2. PQAA, 1907, « Improvement Pl an for
Montreal », Canadian Municipal Journal,
val. 3, no. 4, April, p. 154.
3. Ibid.
4. Gardner, J. Rawson, 1907, « Proposed Diagonal
Streets >>, Canadian Municipal Journal, val. 3,
no. 4, A pril, p. 155.
5. Idem: 156.
6. Maxwell, Edward, 1907, « Report of Parks and
Parkways>>; and PQAA, 1907: 154.
7. How land, W . Ford, 1907, « Improvements for
the City of Toronto >>, Canadian Municipal
Journal, va l. 3, no. 3, March, p. 110-111.
8. Ibid.
9. ldem:110.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Idem: 111.
13. Gardner: 156.
14. How land: 111 ; and «The Beaut ifying of
Cities >>, Canadian Architect and Builder,
va l. 15, no. 3, March 1902, p. 34.
15. See PQAA, 1907 : 154.
16. « The Beautifying of Cities >>. 34.
16. Sutcliffe, Anthony, 1981 , Towards the Planned
City: Germany, Britain, the United States, and
France, 1780-1914, New Yo rk, St. Martin's
Press .
17. Walker, Byron E., 1906, « A Comprehensive
Plan for To ronto>>, address delive red to the
Canadian Club, March 20. Published as« The
Pl an of Im provement in Toronto>>, Canadian
Municipal Journal, val. 2, no. 7, Ju ly 1906,
p. 248-250; reprinted in Pau l Ru therford, ed.,
Saving the Canadian City, the First Phase 1880-
1920: An Anthology of Early Articles on Urban
Reform, Toronto, University of Toronto Press,
1974, p. 222-225.
18 Herbert B. Ames, a prominent Montreal businessma
n, w rote about t he corruption in the
1890s. (Ames, Herbert B., 1894, « The 'Machine'
in Honest Hands >>, Canadian Magazine, val. 3,
no. 2, June, p. 101 -109; and Wickett, S. Morley,
1907, « City Government in Canada >>, in
36
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007

S ARAH B ASSNETT > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
S. Morley Wickett, ed., Municipal Government
in Canada, Toronto, Librarian of the University
of Toronto.) Both essays are reproduced in
Rutherford's Saving the Canadian City. The City
Improvement League of Montreal, founded in
1909, w as dedicated to the reform of local government
and other civic improvement activities.
For a brief history of the organization, see
Atherton, W.H., 1927, >, La revue municipale,
ed ition speciale d 'urbanisme, vol. 8, no. 9,
Decem ber, p. 30-32.
19. For examples of social and urban histories
relating to social reform, see Jones, Gareth
Stedman, 1971, Outcast London: A Study in
the Relationship Between Classes in Victorian
Society, Oxford, Clarendon Pre ss; Valverde,
Mariana, 1991 , The Age of Light, Soap
and Water: Moral Reform in English Canada,
1885-1925, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart;
Hayden, Dolores, 1981 , The Grand Domestic
Re volution, Massachusetts, MIT Pre ss; and
Hall, Peter, 1998, Cities of Tomorrow. An Intellectual
History of Urban Planning, Oxford,
Bl ackwell.
20. Hayden, Dolores, 1981, >, The
Grand Domestic Revolution, Massachusetts,
MIT Press, p. 150-179.
21 . See >, Canadian Municipal Journal, vol. 7,
no. 8, August 1911 , p. 302 (Emphas is in the
original). Also see >, Canadian Municipal
Journal, vol. 7, no. 6, June 1911 , p. 219. The
Canadian Municipal Journal was designated
the official journal of the City Improvement
League of Montreal on April 24, 1913. (Atherton,
W.H ., and Harry Bragg, 1914, >, Canadian Municipal
Journal, vol. 10, no. 6, June, p. 236.)
22. On attempts to regulate li ving conditions
and the health of the population in Toronto,
see my article >,History
of Photography, vo l. 28, no. 2, summer 2004,
p. 149-164.
23. >, Canadian A rchitect
and Builder, vo l. 19, no. 6, Jun e 1906, p. 88.
An early version of the plan was published
in the Canadian Municipal Journal, vol. 3,
no. 4, April1907, p. 152-153. At the time, the
members of the PQAA's Civic Improvement
Committee w ere: W.S. Maxw ell, Ch ai rman;
J Raws on Gardner; Percy E. Nobbs, Professor
of Architecture at McGill; M. Do umic, Professor
at Ecole Pol ytechnique; Joseph Venne;
C.J. Saxe; Hugh Val lance; Ri ckson A. Outhet;
Frederick Todd; and Ed w ard Maxwell.(>, Canadian
Municipal Journal, vol. 4, no. 7, Jul y 1908,
p. 285.)
24. >, Canadian Architect and
Builder, vol . 19, no. 7, July 1906, p. 107. See
France Vanlaethem's discuss ion of these plans
in >,
in Isa belle Gournay and Fran ce Vanlaethem,
eds., 1998, Montreal Metropolis, 1880-1930,
Toronto, Stoddart and Canadian Centre for
Architecture, p. 137-140. Jeanne M. Wolfe and
Peter Jacobs have also discussed the PQAA's
schemes in terms of Ed w ard and W.S. Maxwell
's invol vement in urban reform in , 1991, The
Architecture of Edward and W.S. Maxwell,
Montreal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts,
p. 50-55.
25. The main f eatures of the plan are described
in >, Canadian Architect and
Builder, vol. 20, no. 10, October 1907, p. 214.
26. PQAA, 1907 : 151 .
27. >, op. cit., vol. 19,
no. 6: 88.
28. See Cranz, Galen, 1982, >, The Politics of Park Design: A History
of Urban Parks in America, Cambridge,
MIT Press, p. 3-59.
29. Adams, Thomas, 1985, in M ichael Simpson,
Thomas Adams, and the Modern Planning
Movement, Britain, Canada, and the United
States, 1900-1940, London, New York, Mansell
Pub., p. 72.
30. Todd, Frederick, 1905, >, Canadian Architect and Builder,
vol. 18, no. 9, September, p. 135. Todd delivered
that paper at the Convention of the
American Municipal Society in Montreal. Todd
produced a plan for Mount Roya l as a "model
city" in 1911 -1912 . A syn thesis of City Beau ­
tiful and garden suburb ideas, Todd's plan
incorporated an orthogonal grid, rectangular
parce ls of land, and t w o diagonal avenues.
(Corboz, Andre, 2000, ,Journal of the Society for
the Study of Architecture in Canada, vol. 25,
nos. 2-4, p. 3-15.)
31. Montreal Da ily Mail, >, reprinted in Canadian Municipal Journal,
vol. 10, no. 8, August 1914, p. 325.
32 . On the design of Mount Royal Park, see: Olmstead,
Frederick La w, 1881 , Mount Royal, New
York, Putnam and Son s; Fi sher, Irving D., 1986,
Frederick Law Olmstead and the City Planning
Movement in the United States, Ann Arbor,
Michigan, UMI Research Press.
33. >, Canadian Municipal
Journal, vol. 3, no. 4, April 1907, p. 155.
34. Cranz, Galen, 1982, >, The Politics of Park Design: A History
of Urban Pa rks in America, Cambridge, MIT
Press, p. 61-67.
35. > : 230.
36. van Nu s, Wa lter, 1998, >,, in Isabelle Gournay and
Fran ce Van laethem, ed ., Montreal Metropolis,
1880-1930, Toronto, Stoddart and Canadian
Centre for Architecture, p. 62. Van Nus examined
a range of building regulations, imposed
by developers and local governments, which
excluded the working classes f rom settling in
ce rtain areas of Montreal.
37. PQA A, 1908, , Ontario Association of Architects:
A Centennial History 1889- 1989, Toronto,
Ontario Association of Architects, p. 65 -84.
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007
37

SARAH B AS SN ETT > ANA LYSIS I ANALYSE
42 . Burke, Edmund, 1906, « Ontario Association
of Architects Annual Convention>>, Canadian
Architect and Builder, vo l. 19, no. 1, January
1906, p. 5; and Advisory Board Minutes,
March 3, 1905, Civic Guild Minutes 1897-1914.
Toronto Gui ld of Civic Art, Toronto Reference
Library (hereafter TRL), SR 48, unboxed. Earl y
sponsors of t he Civic Guild incl uded Sir Henry
Pellatt and Byron Edmund W alker. Langton
noted that he thought there would not be any
p roblem rais ing eve n $10,000 for an im provement
sc heme for the city. (Proceedings of the
Ontario Association of Architects, Toronto,
Canadian Architect and Builder Press, 1905,
p. 108-109.)
43. According to Jam es Lemon, the OAA adapted
a plan drafted a f ew yea rs earlier by a young
architect, Alfred Chapman. (Lemon, Jam es, 1989,
'' Plans for Earl y 20'" Century Toronto », Urban
History Review, vo l. 18, no. 1, June, p. 13.)
44. On a Canadian City Beautifu l movement see,
for examp le, va n Nus, Walt er, 1984, « The
Fa te of City Beautiful Thought in Canada,
1893 -1930 », in Stelter, Gilbert A. and Alan
F.J . Artibise, ed s., The Ca nadian City: Essays
in Urban and Social History, Ottawa, Carleton
University Press; and Lemon, op. cit.
45. See« A Plan for Toronto », Canadian Architect
and Builder, vo l. 18, no. 3, March 1905, p. 33.
46. Langton, William, 1906, Proceedings of the
Ontario Association of Architects, Toronto,
Canadian Architect and Builder Press, p. 90.
47. Pro ceedings of the Ontario Association of
Architects, Toronto, Canadian Architect and
Bui lde r Press, 1906, n.p. [90a]. Canadian Architect
and Bu ilder, vo l. 19, no. 2, February 1906,
plates 2 ,a and b.
48. Lan gton, Proceedings of the Ontario Association
of Architects, 1906 : 90-91.
49. Planning historian Jon Peterso n has noted
that bird's-eye views became popular in city
planning proposals follow ing the McMillan
Commission's plan for Was hington, DC of
1902. (Peterson, Jon A., 2003, The Birth of
City Planning in the United States, 1840-1917,
Baltimore, London, John Hopkins University
Press, p. 126-127 and 289.)
50. Advisory Board Minutes, Ja n uary 26, 1906,
Civic Guild Minutes 1897-1914, TRL , SR 48,
unboxed .
51. On f undraising, see: Report of Plan Committee,
Toronto Guild of Civic Art Annual
M eeting, March 30, 1906; Advisory Board
Minutes, October 10, 1906; Executive Meeting,
September 19, 1907; and Report of
the Plan Committee, November 21, 1907,
Toront o Guild of Civic Art, TRL, SR 48, box 2.
On the arrangement with Sir Aston Webb, see
co rrespondence between Wi ll iam La ngton
and Aston Webb, March to De ce mber 1907,
Toronto Guild of Civic Art. TRL, SR 48, box 1,
letters 1907- 1910; Advisory Board Meeting,
April 7, 1908, Civic Guild Minutes 1897-1914,
SR 48, unboxed; Executive Committee Meeting,
October 1 [1908?], Civic Guild Minutes
1897-1914, To ronto Guild of Ci vic Art, TRL,
SR 48, unboxed.
52. General Meeting, February 19, 1907, Civic
Guild Minutes 1897-1914, TRL , SR 48, unboxed.
Another $5000 was raised through subscription
to pay for the architect's services .
53. Physick, John, 1982, The Victoria and Albert
Museum: The History of its Building, Oxford,
Phaidon, Christ ie's, p. 183-189.
54. Alfred Waterhouse, Public Re co rds Office,
Office of Works, Works 17/23/ 9, 148, quoted
in Physick: 190. On Waterhouse's assessment
of Webb's pl an, also see page 191 .
55. See Smith, Tori, 1999, «'A Grand Work of Noble
Conception': The Victoria Memorial and Imperi
al London », in Feli x Driver and David Gilbert,
eds., Imperial Cities: Landscape, Display and
Identity, Manchester, New York, Manchest er
Un iversity Pres s, p. 25; and Port, Michael Ha rry,
1995, Imperial London: Civil Government Building
in London, 1850 -1915, New Ha ven, Paul
Mellon Center for the Study of British Art and
Yale University Press, p. 22-23.
56. Report of the Plan Committee, Novem ber 21,
1907. Toronto Guild of Civic Art, TRL, SR 48,
box 2.
57. Idem. Correspondence between Aston Webb
and Mr. Bentham, August 19, 1907, Toronto
Guild of Civic Art. TRL , SR 48, box 1, letters
1907-19 10.
58. Report of the Plan Committee, November 21,
1907 and Report of the Plan Committee,
Dece mber 4, 1908, and Executive Committee
Minutes, October 17, 1907, Toronto Guild of
Civic A rt, TRL, SR 48, box 2.
59. «Toronto the Beautiful: A Suggestion for the
Coming Year», Toronto Sunday World, January
3, 1909, p. 1 and 10.
60. Harley, J.B. , 2001, « Deconstructing the Map »,
in Paul La xton, ed., w ith an introduction by
J.H. Andrews, The New Nature of Maps: Essays
in the History of Cartography, Baltimore, London,
Joh n Hopkins University Press, p. 154.
61. Harley, J.B. , 2001 , «Maps, Knowledge, and
Power>>, an d « Power and Legiti mation in t he
English Geographical Atlases of the Eighteenth
Century », The New Nature of Maps, p. 62-69
and 110-147.
62. va n Nu s, 1984: 171.
63. Langton, William, 1906, « The Plan of Improvements
to Toronto », Proceedings of the Ontario
Association of A rchitects, Toronto, Ca nadian
Architect and Bu ilder Press, p. 90 -94.
64. On the proposed widening and extension of
Teraulay Street (now Bay Street), for instance,
see« Te rau la y Street Extension», Civic Guild
Bulletin, vo l. 1, no. 3, August 1911, n.p.
65. For an example, see «Street Corners», Journal
of the To wn Planning Institute of Canada,
vol. 1, no. 12, November 1922, p. 4.
66. In particular, it was acknowledged that a
sc heme to develop a civic centre would wipe
out the slum area known as " The Ward," which
was very close to the central business district .
The plan for a civic centre was abandoned in
1913. Minutes of the Executive, May 31, 1911 ,
Toronto Guild of Civic Art, TRL, SR 48, box 2.
67. See Harris, Richard, 1996, Unplanned Suburbs:
Toronto's American Tragedy 1900 to 1950, Baltimore,
John Hopkins Unive rsi t y Press.
68. Langton, « The Plan of Im provement s to
Toronto » : 92-96.
38
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N' 1 > 2007

ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
WILLIAM GREY:
'MISSIONARY' OF GOTHIC IN NEWFOUNDLAND
SHANE O' DEA is a Pr·ofe ssor· in the Englisl1
Department at Memorial Univer·siLy. PETER
>SHANE O'DEA AND PETER COFFMAN 1
COFFMAN is an Assistant Professor· in the
Department of Art at Queen's Unrver·sity.
One tends to view the Gothic Revivalist
as a quaint antiquarian dashing
frenetically about the English countryside
with a sketchbook and a w hip. The sketchbook
is understandable-the reviva li sts
were the most diligent recorders of ancient
buildings. The whip? Well it is metaphorical.
In recording the old, they judged the
new and could be quite savage in their denunciation
of buildings that failed to meet
their standard. In so doing, they became
famous for their dogmatism and pedantry.
Even a staunch supporter like the historian
E.A . Freeman (1823-1892} was compelled
to concede: "The first phase of ecclesiology
was simple antiquarianism [ ... ] in its
theory a mere technical acquaintance with
the sacred buildings of a particular age, in
its practice a careful reproduction of their
features." 2
What this characterization fails to recognize
is that the revivalists were in fact
quite modern in their outlook. Both the
Oxford Architectura l Society and the
Cambridge Camden Society- principal
promoters of the Gothic Revival-had
developed fairly sophisticated building
inventory forms. And among their members
were those who came to see restoration
as the rape of history; who were
prepared to use iron as a building material;
who were among the first to value
the vernacular; who saw the relationship
between architecture and society. And it
was one of their members who brought
these ideas to Newfoundland.
The Hon. and Rev. William Grey (1819-
1872) was who lly in accord with them.
Having absorbed the attitudes of Tractarianism
(somewhat at odds w ith the
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N' 1 > 2007 > 39-48
39

SHANE O 'D EA AND P ETER C OFFMAN > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
FIG. 2. CHRISTCHU RCH , QUIDI VI DI.I R.E. HOLLOWAY, THROU GH NEWFOUNOLANDWITH THE CAM ERA, ST. JOHN'S, 190S, PLATE 17.
evangelical tendencies of his clergyman expression of interior spaces in exterior
father), Grey became interested in architecture
and a very active member of the and chancel. Such virtues, accord ing to
massing, and clear separation of nave
Oxford Architectural Society. In 1842, the ecclesiological doctrine, made Gothic
the year he finished his BA at Magdalen, the only appropriate style for the Church
Grey presented that society w ith a portfolio
of his drawings and gave what the the Ecclesiological Society had succeeded
of England . It has been said that, by 1867,
society's secretary described as "several in transforming the appearance of virtually
every Anglican Church building in the
excellent papers." ' Ta king up a clerical
post in Wiltshire, he lived a very simple world s This architectural revolution was
existence as a boarder on a farm. to be brought to the outports of Newfoundland
la rgely through the efforts of
Grey shared the architectural principles William Grey.
held by the Oxford Architectural Society
and the Cambridge Camden Society (later In 1848 Grey, interested in mission work,
renamed the Eccles iological Society). The accepted the invitation of Edward Feild,
latter, which had been founded in 1839 Bishop of Newfoundland, to join him on
by a group of Cambridge undergraduates, a journey to the diocese. Returning to
argued their position in the enormously England in June, he married Harriet White
influential periodical The Ecclesiologist as in Jul y and came back to Newfoundland
wel l as in several pamphlets.' To the Eccle ­ with her later that fall. 6 While Grey's
siologists, Gothic was the most beautiful, wish was to serve on the Labrador, the
most rational, most truthful, and most Bishop had others ideas. He asked Grey to
English style in the history of architecture. take over the Theological College and to
In church buildings such as St. Michael's, become the first and only Diocesan Architect,
in which capacity Grey designed
Long Stanton (fig. 1), they saw a host of
aesthetic, social, and moral virtues, such as several Gothic churches. He also contributed
a fascinating analysis of the truthful expression of materials, truthful
state
FIG . 3. THEOLOGICAL LE CTURE ROOM, Sl JOH N' S, BY
JAMES PURCELL. I THE UNITED SOCIETY FOR THEPROPAGATION OF THE
GOSPELIUSPG C/CANINFL 4 ADD. 89 1.
of Newfoundland church architecture to
The Ecclesiologist.' He served as principal
of the College until 1851 when he sought,
for health reasons, to move to Portugal
Cove and parish work. Two years later,
his health and that of his wife Harriet stil l
poor, they returned to England. He only
came to Newfoundland once after that,
in 1857, to travel with Feild on the mission
ship, The Hawk. On that visit he made a
series of sketches that remain among the
most va luable and beautiful re cords of
mid-nineteenth-century Newfoundland,
and they were published the following
year as Sketches of Newfoundland and
Labrador. 8
Grey had a dual architectural role in Newfoundland
: as principal of the Theological
College he was to educate the clergy
to be their own arch itects; as Diocesan
Architect he was to produce designs for
model churches that wou ld bring Gothic
gospel to the congregations and make it
the only acceptable style. The Church of
England in Newfoundland at that time
w as essential ly Evangelical with strong
Pu ritan tendencies, tendencies made
40
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N' 1 > 20 07

SHANE O 'D EA AND P ETER C OFFMAN > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
stronger when it came to spending of congregational
moneys. Feild, as new bishop,
had arrived just before the defection of
John Henry Newman from High Church to
the Roman Church and thus had concerns
about being too closely li nked with the
Ecclesiologists. He was very alarmed to
hear he had been made, without his consent,
a patron of the Cambridge Camden
Society. 9 But he was insistent on liturgical
and architectural reform.
On landing in St. John's, Feild immediately
set about enquiring for architectural
assistance-for his cathedral and other
churches. In his first letters home he asked
for designs from wooden Norwegian
"stave" churches, for models. 10 When the
old church burned in the 1846 fire, he
contemplated using an iron church as a
temporary measure." But all had to be
in the proper style and it is clear from
his letter which described Newfoundland
building 12 that he, while no architect, felt
he had a good sense of construction.
In St. John's, Feild would, initially, have
had little assistance. The builder, James
Purcell, had designed three other buildings
for Bishop Spencer. The first was a
proposal for the Church of England Cathedral:
a design Feild dismissed as, among
other things, "an abortion." 13 Another
was for a chapel-of-ease in Quidi Vidi
(fig. 2), a small community just outside St.
John's; a very neat, wood-frame structure
in the shape of a Greek cross . It might
have been taken for a gate-lodge were
it not for the rather baroque cupola over
the porch gable. Otherwise it was decorated
with a number of pinnacled buttresses
and crockets and, to a degree, bore
out Grey's contention in The Ecc/esiologist
that the " Newfoundland architect [could
not) produce all the varieties which battlements,
parapets, [and) pinnacles [ ... )
give to [ ... ) English churches, without
making his building either ludicrous, or
FIG . 4. ST. SAVIO UR'S CHURCH, HERMITAG E BY WILLIAM GREY. I FROM o.w. PROWSE, A HISTORY OF NEWFOUNDlAND, ST. JOHN'S, 189S.
dangerous, or both together." 14 Purcell's asset, Feild overruled Grey's wishes to serve
other Anglican commission was equally as a missionary on the Labrador, noting
diminutive: the Theological Lecture Room that he would be "eminently serviceable"
(fig. 3), which once stood next to St. Thomas's
Church . In plan this was a three-bay, ded, replace the Scotsman William Hay as
in St. John's and that he could even, if nee­
gabled wooden structure but, sim ilar to Clerk of Works at Feild's Cathedral.''
the original Quidi Vidi proposal, supplied
with buttresses at every junction. It had Grey's f irst work may have been the stone
church of St . Saviour's in Hermitage
an elaborate Gothic entrance and windows
in character on the sides. Over the (fig. 4), Fortune Bay. The construction of
door was a pinnacled crocket and, on the that church, which was begun around the
other gable, a castellated chimney. These year 1850, finished in 1854; it was consecrated
in August of 1855 16 and demolished
and a scattering of cottages ornees were
all that constituted architectural novelty around 1900. According to Canon George
in the St. John's of the 1840s.
Henry Bishop, who was rector there for
thirty-seven years, the stone, stone masons,
bricks, mortar, slate, and even every
When the opportunity came to work with
Grey, Feild must have thought it heavensent.
Grey in both manner and education gland." 17 Such a statement, if true, might
piece of timber were brought from En­
was perfect for the post. A good scholar, fine
designer, earnest craftsman, and modest writing before 1900-also reported "many
account for the fact that Canon Bishop­
person, he had the learning, open-mindedness,
and skill with brush and pen to pro­
while bu ilding his Cathedral in St. John's,
signs of decay." 18 As Feild had discovered
duce good plans. He was able and willing the Newfoundland frost was capable of a
to work on the structures himself and these remarkable degree of destruction totally
talents, combined with his gentleness, probably
did much to win people to the Gothic Moreover, the workmanship of the build­
outside the experience of British builders. 19
cause. Not wishing to lose such a valuable ing was apparently poor. "The masonry",
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007
41

S HANE O 'D EA AND P ETER COFFMAN > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
wrote Rev. Bishop, "was never meant to
last; the work was carelessly done; the
plaster crumbles continuously, and the
mortar in the massive walls has never set
hard." 20 By the time Bishop's article was
written, the congregation had outgrown
the church, and the prospect of enlarging
a fundamentally unsound structure was "a
problem to which we cannot find a solution."21
That being the case, its demolition
was inevitable.
FIG. 5. ST. PETER 'S CHURCH, PORTUGAL COVE, BY WILLIAM GREY. I RIBA GREYW [PB 195/l[.
Unfortunately, the shoddy workmanship
ultimately deprived Newfoundland of
what should have been one of its most
fascinating Gothic Revival buildings.
St. Saviour's was clearly in the tradition
of St. Michael's, Long Stanton, the thirteenth-century
parish church often held
up by the Ecclesiological Society as an
exemplar for the colonies. 22 Early English
in style, St. Saviour's was a two-celled
church with a south porch and western
bellcote. The chancel was narrower than
the nave, and had a lower roofline. Very
solid stepped angle buttresses supported
the corners of the nave, chancel, and
porch. Stepped buttresses also divided
the nave and chancel into bays. Single
lancets lit the nave; shorter, twinned
lancets, the chancel; a pair of tall lancets
lit the west end, while the east wall was
pierced by three graduated lancets. The
interior had an ornamental rood screen
of English oak, as well as an oak prayer
desk, lectern, and pulpit. In its proportions,
planning, and detailing, it was a
thoroughly convincing example of rural
Early English Gothic, and would have looked
at home in scores of English villages.
Imported into Newfoundland by workers
who were ignorant of local conditions,
the climate soon consumed it.
In his own parish, Portugal Cove, just nine
miles north of St. John's, Grey built St. Peter's
(figs. 5-6) to, as he put it in his funding
prospectus, "exhibit to the inhabitants of
42
JSSAC I JStAC 32 > N' 1 > 2007

SHANE O'DEA AND P ETER COFFMAN > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
the Capital a perfect model of a Gothic
Church." 23 Grey had been appointed to
Portugal Cove around Christmas in 1850,2 4
and one of his last acts before his return
to England in 1853 was to raise funds for
the building of a new church there. In 1854
Grey's successor at Portugal Cove, George
Johnson, reported to the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel (who had provided
funding for this and many other
Newfoundland churches) that "the event
of the year" had been the erection of a
new church. Arrangements, he reported,
had been made by Grey, who had raised
money among his English friends and
secured a significant donation from the
Bishop. 2 s The report was accompanied by
a drawing of the church very similar to
the drawing by Grey shown in figure 5.
Depicted from the southeast, it shows a
nave with aisles and a steeply pitched roof,
a western tower with a sharply pointed
spire, a chancel differentiated externally
by the termination of the aisles, and a
large and ambitiously traceried four-light
east window with a triangular head (possibly
similar to the one at Forteau discussed
below, although apparently larger). These
features are consistent with Grey's 1857
drawing (fig. 6), published in Sketches of
Newfoundland and Labrador, in which he
gave the church an idyllic pastoral setting,
both pictorially and verbally:
FIG. 7. RECTORY, PORTUGAL COVE. I COLLECTION OF SHANE O'DEA.
The descent to it from the Eastward is
one of the most beautiful scenes in the
neighbourhood. You wind down a long hill,
having a river full of cascades on the right,
and lofty heights on both sides, whose slopes
are partly covered with forest, and partly
broken into cliffs. About halfway down the
descent, on a sudden turn you catch sight of
the church standing on its own hill overlooking
the river, which washes its base 26
Grey also designed a rectory (fig. 7) for Portugal
Cove in which he quite successfully
executed his design ideas. Bishop Feild had
FIG . 8. ST. PETER'S CHURCH IN FORTEAU, BY WILLIAM GREY. I FROM SKETCHES OF NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR, 1857.
JSSAC I JStAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007
43

S HANE O ' D EA AND P ETER C OFFMAN > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
FIG. 9. ST. PETER 'S CHURCH IN FORTEAU, IN 1902 . I DIOCESAN ARCHIVES Of EASTERN NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR, #306, BOX 2, FILE 4.
FIG . 10. ST. JAM ES'S CHURCH, BATTLE HARBOUR, SKETCH BY WILLIAM GREY. I RIBA GREYW [PB 195/3[ BATILE HARBOUR.
earlier commented on the fact that clap- obliquely, with the frame-work painted
boarded buildings with their "succession with red and the clapboard with yellow
of horizontal lines [were][...] very strange ochre." 28 His work on the parsonage was
and disagreeable to English eyes." 27 Grey's not restricted to design for he became fully
solution was, as he explained in his arti- involved in the building, making doors, a
de in The Ecclesiologist, to have the clap- china cabinet, and a washstand, among
board "nailed on, some horizontally, some other pieces. 29
For the Labrador Grey designed two churches:
St. Peter's, Forteau, and St. James's,
Battle Harbour. Of the former, we have
scant but useful records. The oldest comes
from Grey himself, who sketched it while
accompanying Feild on a visitation during
the summer of 1857, and included it in
Sketches of Newfoundland and Labradof3°
(fig. 8). The exact date of its construction is
unknown, but it was consecrated by Feild
on August 9, 1857. 31 Grey's sketch, drawn
from the northeast, shows a simple nave
with a short western tower and spire, a
chancel with a separate, lower roofline,
and a vestry or sacristy on the north side
of the chancel. The east end has a triangular-headed
window with fairly ambitious
tracery, in keeping with the theoretical discussion
of wooden churches that William
Scott had contributed to The Ecc/esiologist.
32 Grey also appears to have followed
his own advice by mixing a lively variety of
clapboard patterns: vertical under the gable,
diagonal below that, followed by horizontal
and vertical zones. The most curious
feature is the series of diagonal struts, four
per side, which extend to the ground from
just below the mid-point of the north and
south walls. Looking somewhat like a cross
between flying buttresses and tent-pegs,
they are presumably inspired by the former
but perform part of the function of the
latter; i.e. they secure the structure against
the wind. All of these features are clearly
visible in what is possibly the only extant
photograph of the church (fig. 9), which is
part of an album of photos made during
the visitation of Feild's successor as Bishop
of Newfoundland, Llewellyn Jones (1840-
1918), in 1902. 33 Taken from the southwest,
it shows that the north and south nave
walls also used a combination of horizontal
and diagonal clapboard (the same may
be true of the chancel walls, although it is
not clear from the photograph). Also visible
is a south porch, which was the only
entrance to the building. The windows are
cusped trefoils. Although the church was
44
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S HANE O 'D EA AND P ETER C OFFMAN > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
not yet fifty years old when the photograph
was taken, it shows signs of wind
damage in the nave and porch roofs and
the west window, which fully justify Grey's
peculiar, earthbound "flying" buttresses.
Grey' s chu rch at Forteau, St. Peter's,
represents the most elaborate attempt
Newfoundland had yet seen to incorporate
the principles of Ecclesiology with the colony's
unique climatic and constructional
conditions in order to create "a national
style of wooden Christian architecture," as
The Ecc/esiologist had framed the problem. 34
Grey's other Labrador church, St. James's at
Battle Harbour, is slightly less ambitious, but
has the advantage of being still extant, albeit
in a heavily restored form. In 1853 Feild
reported not only that he had consecrated
the church at Forteau, but also that construction
had begun on a church in Battle
Harbour, and that "means of finishing it"
were at hand. 35 According to Grey, it was
consecrated on July 5, 1857. 36 A drawing
in the Royal Institute of British Architects
(RIBA)3' shows a design for the church at
Battle Harbour that varies slightly from what
was built, with a single roofline, a chancel
differentiated only by a narrowing of the
width, and some slight vertical articulation
on the sides of the church (fig. 10). Grey's
1857 drawing (fig. 11) shows the church as
built, with a lower chancel roofline and no
vertical articulation. Whether the alterations
were made by Grey or the builder is
not known. The more distinctly articulated
chancel would have been seen as an ecclesiological
improvement, although the removal
of all vertical emphasis (save the west
tower) would have been criticized.
St . James's was heavily restored in the
early 1990s. Pre-restoration photographs
show that, by the late twentieth century,
the nave windows, which appear in Grey's
1857 drawing to have been paired arches,
had been replaced with simple rectangular
ones. Another photograph in Bishop
FIG. 11 . BATTLE HAR BOU R, BY WILLIAM GRE Y. I FROM SKETCHES
Of NEWFOUNDlAND AND lABRADOR, 1857.
FIG. 12. ST. JAMES'S CHURCH, BATTLE HARBOU R, EXTER IOR
IN 1902. I DIOCESAN ARCHIVES Of EASTERN NEWFOUNDlAND AND
LABRADOR, #306, BOX 2, FILE 4.
Llewellyn Jones's album, taken from the
northeast of the church in 1902 (fig. 12),
shows the recent restoration to have been
largely faithful to the original configuration.
The exterior appears exactly as Grey had
drawn it in 1857, although much more detail
is visible. The nave windows were cusped
like those at Forteau, while the east
window consisted of three cusped lancets,
graduated to parallel the line of the chancel
gable and set within a frame painted in a
dark colour. As can be seen by comparing
photographs of 1902 and 2005 (figs. 12-13),
the current restoration matches the original
in most details and entirely in spirit.
The same can be said of the interior,
which is also illustrated in Bishop Jones's
album (fig. 14). The photograph is badly
faded and, having been taken before the
days of sophisticated lens coatings, must
FIG. 13. ST. JAM ES'S CHURCH , BATTLE HARBOUR, FROM THE
NORTHEAST. I PETER COFFMAN
IN 1902.1 DIOCESAN ARCHIVES Of EASTERN NEWFOUNDLAND AND
LABRADOR, lt:J06, BOX 2, FILE 4.
have suffered from excessive lens flare.
However, it can be seen that the essential
arrangement is unchanged. A nave
of open seats leads to a broad chancel
arch, beneath a triangulated, openframe
roof that would have met hearty
ecclesiological approval. The chancel is
raised three steps above the nave, and
appears to be separated by a simple altar
rail. The only difference from the current
arrangement (fig. 15) is that the pulpit
has been moved from the south to the
north side of the chancel arch.
In its clear spatial arrangements, honest
use of materials, and simple but effective
evocation of Gothic, St. James's manages
to be faithful both to ecclesiological principles
and its remote outport location. Set
upon a hill high above the extraordinarily
rugged coastline of Battle Island (fig. 16),
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N' 1 > 2007
45

SHANE O 'D EA AND P ETER COFFM AN > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
FIG. 17. ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST CHU RCH, LOWER BURG EO. [ RIBAGREYWIPB19 513I.
FIG. 15. ST. JAM ES'S CHURCH, BATTLE HARBOU R,
INTERIOR.[ PETER COFFMAN.
FIG . 16. ST. JAM ES'S CHUR CH, BATTLE HARBOUR, FROM THE
SOUTHEAST.[ PETER COFFMAN
it vividly evokes the pioneer spirit of
Feild's Labrador mission.
For Lower Burgeo, Grey designed a larger
church with a more complex plan. 38 Grey's
drawing (fig. 17) shows what must be the
earliest non-cathedral cruciform church
in Newfoundland. The design includes a
crossing tower with a broach spire and a
south porch. The roofline of the transepts
and chancel are lower than that of the
nave, which would have been considered
appropriate for a parish church. A pho- Following his return to England, Grey settograph
from c. 1960 39 suggests that the tied for a time in Allington, Dorset, where,
design was followed even if the crossing according to his acquaintance the Rev.
tower may have been lowered sometime T. Mozley, he served as curate while lodgafter
construction. ing with "an old farmer and his wife." 41
His lifestyle was exceedingly modest for
For St. John's, Grey provided a design forSt one of his social class, a fact that Grey's
Mary's built in stone, on the southside of the sister, visiting from an opulent estate in
harbour in 1859 and, with grim symmetry, India, frequently pointed outY Grey re -
demolished exactly one hundred years Ia - built the church of St. Swithun's at Allingter
(fig. 18). 40 A formidable piece of masonry ton according to ecclesiological principles,
construction, St. Mary's was altogether more resulting in a church that was, according
monumental and severe than St. Saviour's. to Mozley (himself no Ecclesiologist), "as
The style is again Early English. To the nave dark, and dull, and cheerless as before." 43
were added a north porch and, further to From Allington Grey returned to Exeter,
the east off the north side, a tower. The where ill health forced him to retire. After
tower, very disproportionately broad relative
to its height and capped by a shallow, of a throat ailment (probably cancer) that
lingering for a considerable time, he died
pyramidal spire, was possibly never carried Mozley attributed to the scraping, dusting,
to its originally intended height. The chancel and painting involved in his renovation of
was once again narrower and lower than the Exeter's St. Mary-Steps church .
nave. No external buttresses interrupted the
sheer wall surfaces, and the windows-all If it is a monument we seek, we should
single lancets, except for the triple lancets not look only to the few survivals of
of the west fa N' 1 > 2007

SHANE O 'D EA AND P ETER COFFM AN > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
FIG. 18. ST. MARY'S CHURCH, ST. JOHN 'S,
BY WILLIAM GR EY. I CITY OF IIJOHN'IARCHIVE\,2.03010 C-023.
FIG. 19. ST. STE PH EN'S CH URCH, GRE ENS POND.I PETER coFFMAN
Grey left his mark on the land. By educating
the clergy to look at architecture
w ith an informed Gothic eye, he fostered
an interest in and commitment to good
design that also produced some quite
remarkable structures. His knowledge,
developed as a studious antiquarian, his
design skil l, and his devotion to the mission
of the church left an influence that
lasted well into the twentieth century.
FIG. 20. ST. MARY'S CH URCH, BIRCHY COVE,
BY J.J. CURLING. I FROM JELF. RH .. 1910.
reflecting his direct and indirect influence.
St. Stephen's, Greenspond (fig. 19),
was designed by Julian Moreton, who
had been at the Theological College in
1848 and doubtless learned architectural
design from Grey. His work at Greenspond
appears to be a compromise between
strict ecclesiology and the demands of
a conservative building committee••
Ecclesiology of a purer sort can be seen
in the work of the clergyman/architect
J.J . Curling, whose church of St. Mary's,
IIIII
FIG. 21. ST. PAULS CHURCH, TR INITY I PETER COFFMAN
Birchy Cove (fig. 20, early 1880s, no longer
extant), would have been inconceivable
without the influence of Grey. 45 Later
churches such as St. Peter's in Catalina
(1873), St. Paul's in Trinity (1892, fig. 21),
and St. Lu ke's in Winterton (1901), show
that Grey's architectural influence was
still strongly felt decades after he left
Newfoundland.
Although only one of his churches survives,
and it in a somewhat altered state,
NOTES
-----··· ·-------·-----·--·----
1. Shane O ' Dea w ould like to acknowledge
Sylvia Cullum for introducing him to the Grey
drawings; the librarians and archivists at the
RIBA and the USPG; as well as the Secretary
of the Oxford Architectural and Histori ca l
Society w ho were all very helpful in opening
up and directing him through the marvellous
maze of their col lection s.
Peter Coffman would l ike to thank Juli a
Mathieson, Diocesan Archiv ist of Eastern
Newfoundland and Labrador; George Chalker
and Dale Jarvis of the Heritage Foundation
of Newfoundland and Labrador; and also
Malcol m Thurlby, Pierre du Pre y, and Luc
Noppen for many stimulating d isc ussions on
this topic.
2. Freeman, E. A ., 1849, A History of Architecture,
London, Jo seph Masters, p. 4.
JSSAC I JSEAC > N" 1 > 2007
4 7

SHANE O 'DEA AND PETER COFFMAN > ANALYSIS I ANA LYSE
3. Oxford Architectural and Historical Society,
1842, Annual Report, June 6.
4. There is considerable literature on the Cambridge
Camden I Ecclesiological Society. For general
introductions, see Clark, Kenneth, 1928, The
Gothic Revival, London, White, James F., 1962,
The Cambridge Movement, Cambridge; Brooks,
Chris, 1999, The Gothic Revival, London; Lewis,
Michael, 2002, The Gothic Revival, New York.
For up-to-date scholarship on more specific
themes, see Elliott, John, ed., 2000, A Church
as it Should Be: the Cambridge Camden Society
and its Influence, Stamford. The Society's early,
crucially important publications have been republished
in Webster, Christopher, ed., 2003,
'Temples ... Worthy of His Presence': the Early
Publications of the Cambridge Camden Society,
Reading, Spire Books.
5. Crook, J. Mordaunt, 1987, The Dilemma of
Style, London, p. 63.
6. Jones, Frederick, 1966, «William Grey>>, Dictionary
of Canadian Biography, vol. 6, p. 318-
319; Leader, Patricia J., 1998, «The Hon.
Reverend William Grey, M.A. >>, unpublished
MTS dissertation, Queen's College, Memorial
University, St. John's.
7. Grey, William, 1853, «The Ecclesiology of
Newfoundland >>, The Ecclesiologist, vol. 14,
p. 156-161.
8. Grey, William, 1857, Sketches of Newfoundland
and Labrador, Ipswich.
9. Diocesan Archives of Eastern Newfoundland
and Labrador, Bishop Edward Field's letters
to the Rev. William Scott, 100.43, box 2, file 4.
Transcribed by Tim Power under the direction
of Shane O'Dea. Letter dated May 20, 1845.
10. Feild to William Scott, July 1, 1844.
11. Feild to William Scott, August 6, 1846.
12. This letter is quoted in Scott, William, 1848,
« On Wooden Churches >>, The Ecclesiologist,
vol. 9, p. 14-27.
13. Feild to William Scott, May 20, 1845
14. Grey, 1853: 159.
15. Feild to Ernest Hawkins, May 21, 1849. On
William Hay, see MacRae, Marion, and Anthony
Adamson, 1963, Hallowed Walls, Toronto,
Clarke, Irwin & Company; and Magri!!,
Barry, 2004, « 'Development' and Ecclesiology
in the Outposts of the British Empire: William
Hay's Gothic Solutions for Church Building in
Tropical Climates (1840-1890) >>,Journal of
the Society for the Study of Architecture in
Canada, vol. 29, nos. 1-2, p. 15-26. On the
Cathedral in St. John's, see Coffman, Peter,
2006, «St. John's Anglican Cathedral and
the Beginnings of Ecclesiological Gothic in
Newfoundland>>, Journal of the Society for
the Study of Architecture in Canada, vol. 31,
no. 1, p. 3-22.
16. Simms, Walter, 1989, « Canon George Henry
Bishop>>, Newfoundland Churchman, May,
vol. 35, no. 5, p. 7. This article, although under
the heading of "Biography," is in fact a reprint
of an article about St. Saviour's, written at an
unknown date by Canon Bishop, who was rector
there for thirty-seven years.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Letters of Edward Feild to Rev. Cecil Wray,
1844-1867, Lambeth Palace Library, MS 1604,
January 26, 1848.
20. Simms : 7.
21. Ibid.
22. See« Report ofthe Thirty-Ninth Meeting of the
Cambridge Camden Society on Thursday, November
7 >>, The Ecclesiologist, vol. 5, January
1845, p. 23.
23. Proposed New Church at Portugal Cove, Newfoundland,
printed prospectus in RIB A Grey W
[PB 195/3].
24. Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador,
MG 598, Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel, "G" Series, letters read before
the Society. Edward Feild to Ernest Hawkins,
June4, 1851.
25. Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and
Labrador, Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel in Foreign Parts, "E" Series: Reports
from Missionaries, reel A-222.
26. Grey, 1858, plate VI.
27. Feild to William Scott, August, 1844.
28. Grey, 1853 : 160.
29. Leader: 140.
30. Grey, 1858, plate XII. Grey presents a striking
portrait of Labrador in his preface: "Like its
neighbour coast, the seaboard of Labrador
presents its worst side outside. It is constantly
beset by icebergs, and the islands and headlands
which are opposed to the ocean are,
at first sight, as bare as they can well be. But
if you ascend the deep inlets, or thread your
way between the innermost of the numberless
islands which lie off the mainland, you
find a warmer atmosphere, fine timber, luxuriant
vegetation, abundance of wild fruits,
and (what is less advantageous) thousands
of mosquitoes."
31. Grey, 1858, plate XII.
32. Scott, op. cit.
33. Diocesan Archives of Eastern Newfoundland
and Labrador, #306, box 2, file 9.
34. « Colonial Church Architecture. Chapter XI.
- Newfoundland >>. The Ecclesiologist, vol. 9,
1849, p. 215-217.
35. Feild to Ernest Hawkins, August 3, 1853.
36. Grey, 1858, plate 16. The consecration took
place during Feild's visitation, at which Grey
was present and during which the drawing w as
made. Grey comments that when the church
was consecrated, Feild also gave confirmation
to five "Eskimaux," which Grey claims were
the first of their people to enter the Church of
England. Grey also mentions that "Eskimaux"
is a misnomer, and that their proper name is
"lnnuit"-making him possibly the first European
to adopt the term that is now in current
use.
37. RIBA Grey W [PB 195/3] Battle Harbour.
38. RIBA, Grey W [PB 195/3] Lower Burgeo.
39. Memorial University, Centre for Newfoundland
Studies CNS.21.05.
40. O'Dea, Shane, 2003 « Rev. William Grey and
the Shaping of Newfoundland Gothic Revival
>>, unpublished conference paper read at
the Conference of the Society for the Study of
Architecture in Canada, p. 4.
41. Mozley, Rev. T., 1885 [2"' ed.], Reminiscences,
Chiefly of Towns, Villages and Schools, vol. II,
London, p. 344-346.
42. Idem : 344.
43. Idem : 345.
44. Kapelos, George, and Douglas Richardson,
1975, « Greenspond >>, Canadian Collector,
vol. 10, no. 2, p. 24-29.
45. On J.J. Curling, see Jelf, R.H., 1910, Life of Joseph
James Curling, Soldier and Priest, Oxford.
48
JSSAC i JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007

ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
TWO CHURCHES BY FRANK WILLS:
ST. PETER'S, BARTON, AND ST. PAUL:S, GLANFORD, AND
THE ECCLESIOLOGICAL GOTHIC REVIVAL IN ONTARI0 1
Professor MALCOLM THURLBY, Ph 0., F.S A.,
enjoys cooking, watching soccer, and driving his
>MALCOLM THURLBY
wife's BMW Z3 whilst listening to the music of Roy
Wood. His latest book, Romanesque Architecture
and Sculpture in Wales, was published by Logaston
Press, Almeley (Hel'efordshirel. in June 2006.
In his entry on Frank Wills (1822-1857)
in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography,
Douglas Richardson wrote: "It could
be argued that Frank Wills was the most
important Gothic Revival architect of
his generation in North America, even
though he is one of the least known
figures today. His obscurity must be due
partly to the widespread range of his
work-from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
from the Gulf of Mexico to the St. Lawrence
River-and partly to his early
death." 2 Richardson's assessment is quite
accurate, for although Wills's Anglican
cathedrals in Fredericton and Montreal
are generally given an important place in
the history of Canadian architecture, 3 and
Fredericton has often received international
recognition, 4 his role in the Gothic
Revival elsewhere in North America is
little studied.' Nowhere is this more
evident than in Ontario where his work
has been almost completely ignored.' To
some extent, this is understandable in
that there are just three Wills churches
documented in Ontario, of which only
one survives. That legacy is eclipsed by
that of William Hay (1818-1888), who
arrived in Toronto in 1853. Hay served as
Clerk of Works for George Gilbert Scott
on the Anglican Cathedral in St. John's,
Newfoundland, and designed Anglican
churches in Newfoundland and Labrador,
which received the rare distinction
of a positive review in The Ecc/esiologisU
During his ten-year stay in Toronto, Hay
established a thriving architectural practice.
He built a large number of churches
for various denominations in Ontario and
penned an article on Augustus Welby
Pugin, which provided a neat summary
of Pugin's True Principles of Pointed or
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007 > 49-60
49

M ALCOLM T HURLBY > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
closed except as a mortuary Church." 14
The church w as demolished in 1922, but
it is know n from t w o photographs of
the exterior, one from the sout h-west ,
the other from the north-w est, a sketch,
and an anonymous painting entitled
"St. Peter's , Barton, 1851-1922," that
hangs in the church hall of St. Paul's,
Glanford (figs. 1 and 2). 15 There is al so
a contemporary detailed description of
St. Peter's in The Church, the official voice
of the Anglican Church in Canada, w hich
is w orth quoting in full :
FIG. 2. ANON, Sl PETER'S, BARTO N, PAINTI NG IN THE PARISH HALL OF Sl PAU L: S, GLANFORD, DETAIL. I MALCOLM THURLBY
Christian Architecture• Of Hay's Anglican
churches in Ontario, the best-preserved
are St . George's, Pickering, St. George's,
Newcastle, and St. Luke's, Vienna. In 1862
Hay left his practice to Thomas Gundry
and his former pupil, Henry Langley
(1836 -1907) 9 Langley became the leading
church architect in Ontario and continued
to design in the Hay manner especially
in his Anglican churches. In light of the
large production of Hay and Langley, it is
not surprising that the focus has been on
their contribution to the Gothic revival in
chu rch architecture in Ontario in the third
quarter of the nineteenth century. Be that
as it may, the foundation of "ecclesiologically
correct" Anglican Gothic churches in
Ontario w as established by Frank W ills
before Hay's arrival in Toronto. Examination
of two of Wills's little-known Anglican
churches near Hamilton, St . Peter's,
Barton, and St. Paul's, Glanford, allow s
us to understand Wills as a key figure
in Gothic Anglican churches in Upper
Canada in the early 1850s.
Wills w as trained in the office of John
Ha yward in Exeter (Devon). 10
He w as
employed by Bishop John Medley to
design St. Anne's Chapel (1846-1847) and
Christ Church Cathedral (1845-1856) in
Fredericton, New Brunsw ick. Medley was
formerly a canon at Exeter Cathedral and,
in 1841, he founded the Exeter Diocesan
Architectural Society." He w as an avid
promoter of the doctrines of the Cambridge
Camden Society (renamed Ecclesiological
Society in 1846) for the erection
of "correct" Gothic churches based on
the careful study of English medieval
originals. In 1847 Will s moved to New
York and w as a founding member of the
New York Ecc le siological Societ y, which
published the Ne w York Ecclesiologist
from 1848 to 1853 . In 1850 he published
Ancient English Ecclesiastical Architecture
and Its Principles, Applied to the Wants
of the Church at the Present Day, w hich
promoted the true principles of pointed
architecture according to Pugin and the
Ecclesiologists ."
Of Wills's Ontario churches, St . Peter's,
Barton, w as opened June 13, 1852. 13 lt w as
closed in 1879, reopened in 1898 but, by
1908, it w as "definitely and permanently
It was only the other day that a kind friend
drove us out in his carriage from Hamilton
to see, for the first time. the little Ba rton
church , which is a perfect gem in its waythe
model, indeed, for country churches.
The architectural correctness of this pretty
edifice is due to the good taste of t he late
incumbent, the Rev. R.N. Merritt, who. as our
readers have been apprised, was compelled
a short time ago by ill-health to leave this
Diocese, and has settled in t he Diocese of
New Jersey. He was happy in the choice of
his architect, Mr. Frank Wills, a gentleman
who, we have every reason to believe, is
imbued with the religious spirit of his noble
profession , as every church architect ought
to be. In carrying out the plans furnished by
Mr. Wills, Mr. Merritt's own appreciation of
genuine Church architecture and good taste
were of service t o him. The r esult has been
the erection of a building which affects you
with a pleasing interest the moment the eye
rests on it; and simple village-church as it
is, fills the mind, immediately on entering
it, with a quiet and solemn sense of God's
presence. We have never entered a church
in Canada w he re the effect o f s oftened
light and internal ar·rangements lisl s o
instantaneous and so complete in exciting
devotional impressions.
St. Peter's, Barton, is of the early English
style , and stands upon a si te adjoining
that of the old Barton Church , one of the
50
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N' 1 > 2007

M ALCOLM T HURLBY > ANALY SIS I ANALYSE
first Church buildings in the Gore dist r ict ;
to wh ich . if we are not mistaken , the
Re v. J.G. Geddes, A.M ., received his first
appointment. The many moss grown stones
of the old graveyard w hich is all that remains
to mark the sp ot on which the former
Church stood, bear the names of departed
members of al l the old famili es in that part
of the district. The present church is built
of stone- contains nearly 200 sittings.
and cost about £600. The roof is openthe
chancel roof 32 feet high; the roof of
the nave 40 feet. The chancel is in good
proportion- about one th ird of the length
of the nave- being 18 feet by 16 feet. whilst
the nave is 50 feet by 27 feet. The wall s are
20 inches in thickness and 14 feet in height.
The chancel w indow is filled with stained
glass from New York , and has the cross
well represented in the middle lancet. The
window at the opposite end corresponds
w ith that in the chancel. consisting of three
lancets, all of stained glass. The chancel
is about 20 inches above t he fl oor of the
nave . and is d1vided by a single rail, ins ide
of which. near the Communion Table. are
three sedilia and the Credence Tab le; and
on the outside are other lsicl three sedili a.
Of these . t he prayers are read in the one
which is nearest the nave-an arrangement
which most felicitously dispenses with the
reading-desk. which reading-desk in many
country churches, and not a few town ones,
is n ot much better than an ungraceful
and inconvenient mountain of wood. The
Communion Tabl e in front is ornamented
with the Cross within a circle. the latter
f igure being emblematic of eternity. Both
of these devices are bronzed. The lectern
is neat and convenient and stands on the
first step of the chancel. On one side of
the chancel stands the pulpit. of plain style
and proper dimensions; and on the other,
is the organ. the case of w hich is made to
correspond w ith the style of the Church.
Th is organ . by the w ay, rests off the floor
of the nave. a position wh ich wi ll be found.
FIG. 3. LONG STANTON (CAMBRI DGESH IR E), ST. MICHAEL'S,
GENERAL VIEW FROM SOUTH WES T. I MALCOLMTHURLBY
FIG. 4. LONG STANTON (CAM BRIDGESHIRE ), ST. MICHAEL'S,
EXTERIOR FROM SW (AFTER RAPHAE L AN D J. ARTHUR BRAN·
DON. PARISH CHURCHES, 2 VO LS., LONDON, W. KENT & CO.,
VOL. I, 1848). 1 MALCOLMTHUR LBY
we doubt not, to encourage congregational
singing; whilst it leads the choir to consider
themselves part of the congregation. as
they ought alw ays to do. renouncing , on
that gr ound. al l such unsuitable screens and
barriers. as curtain s and the like.
The Barton Church is provided with a belfry
which will hold three bells. We are glad to
hear that the services of an excel lent or ganist
have been engaged-
an Englishman , whose
father was a Dr . of Music . and organist of
St. Asaph's Cathedral . in Wales. We must
not forget to add that St. Paul 's Church.
Glanfor d, and St. Mary's, near Brantford.
were likewise erected through Mr. Merritt 's
exertions. 16
In addition to that description, we should
note that St. Peter's has a four-bay nave
divided by stepped buttresses with weatherings
and a single lancet window in each
bay, except where the porch is located
in the third bay on the south side. The
FIG . 5. LONG STANTON (CAMBRIDGESHIRE). ST. MICHAEL'S,
EXTERIOR FROM EAST. I MAL COLM THURLBY
fac;ade is divided into three vertically by
stepped buttresses.
The Church article is most informative on
w hat w as considered to be t he ideal form
for an Anglican country church of the
time in Upper Canada, one that included
many of the elements advocated by the
Ecclesiological Society, even though it
was not written by a card-carrying member.
The patron, Rev. Merritt, is praised
for his "good taste" and appreciation of
the "correctness" of the "genuine Church
architecture." In other w ords, it is a Christian
Gothic edifice, not a pagan classical
one, and its details follow English medieval
precedent. Inside, there was "a quiet
and solemn sense of God's presence" and
"the effect of softened light and internal
arrangements w as so instantaneous and
so complete in exciting devotional impressions."
The style is Early English Gothic
and the reference to the open roof may
be taken to mean that the timbers w ere
JSSAC I JSE AC 32 > N' 1 > 2007
51

M ALCOLM T HURLBY > ANALYS IS I ANALYSE
FIG. 6. GLANFO RD, ST. PAUL'S, EXTERIOR FRO M
EA ST. I MALCOLM THURLBY
FIG . 7. GLANFORD, ST. PAUL:S, EXTERIOR FROM
NORTH . I MALCOLMT HURLBY
truthfully exposed." That was an expression
of "reality" in architecture, according
to Frank Wills. 18 There is a separate
chancel "in good proportion" and "about
20 inches above the floor of the nave,"
and stained glass in the east windows.
All these elements speak of the High
Anglican Church, as does the inclusion of
sedi lia. However, the author refers to the
"communion table," rather than the altar;
this is the terminology of the Low Church,
not that of the High Church 1 9
Comparison of St. Peter's, Barton, with the
thirteenth-century church of St. Michael's,
Long Stanton, Cambridgeshire, is instructive
at two levels (figs. 1-4). First, there is
the romantic ideal of the English country
church nestled in a churchyard with its
stone wall and trees. That established the
perfect image of the colonial church for
the rest of the nineteenth century, as vividly
illustrated in presentation draw ings by
Thomas Fuller and Henry Langley, and still
to be experienced in St. James-the-Less
Cemetery Church, Toronto. 20 Secondly,
FIG. 8. GLAN FORD, ST. PAUL'S, EXTERIOR FROM
WEST I MALCO LM THURLBY
FIG . 9. GLANFORD, ST. PAUL'S, EXTERIOR FROM SOUTHWEST,
OLD PHOTOGRAPH. I MALCOLM THU RLBY
there is the architectural "correctness" in
the recreation of the Early English Gothic
forms with the separate nave and chancel,
south porch, steeply pitched roofs,
pointed arches, and stepped buttresses.
Specific reference to St. Michael's, Long
Stanton, is indicated in the placement of
the belfry and the division of the w est
front into three w ith stepped buttresses.
Rather than copy the two-light bar tracery
window at Long Stanton, Wills opted for
triple lancet wi ndows in the w est front
at Barton, a motif he adapted from the
east front at Long Stanton (fig. 5) . Wills
may have visited St. Michael's, Long
Stanton, himself, w hen he traveled to
Snettisham, Norfolk, to study St. Mary's
Church, w hich served as the basic model
for Bi shop Medley's cathedral in Fredericton.
Long Stanton had already served
as the model for St. James-the - Le ss,
Philadelphia {1846-1847),2 ' and was the
inspiration for St. Saviour's, Hermitage,
Newfoundland, probably by William Grey
(c. 1850-1854). 22 1t was also an important
point of reference for Frank Wills's Chapel
of the Cross, Madison, Missouri (1848), 23
Christ Church Episcopal, Newark, New
Jersey {1848-1850). 24 and St . Michael's,
Sillery, Quebec (1854-1856). 25 In the
absence of illustrations of the interior
of St. Peter's, Barton, we wi ll now turn
to Wills's church of St. Paul's, Glanford,
which stands to this day on the east side
of Highway 6, 2869 Upper James Street,
south of Hamilton.
In 1850 a meeting w as held for the purpose
of planning the erection of a Church
of England at Glanford. ' 6 On January 28'h,
1851, a Building Committee w as struck
and, on February 6'h, 1851, a site on Lot 6,
Concession 4, Glanford, was measured for
the church . On September 30'h, 1851, an
agreement was drawn up between the
Building Committee, and Robert Blair
and John Simple for the construction
of St. Paul's Church. Stone cost t w o shillings
and six pence per perch (16.5 feet
or 5.092 metres), 27 brick was eleven shillings
and three pence per thousand, and
plastering sixpence per square yard. The
contractors agreed to finish the building
of the church within two ca lendar
months. For each and every day after the
two months had expired and the work
w as uncompleted, the contractors were
to forfeit the sum of one pound per day.
The Building Committee on their part also
agreed to forfeit one pound per day that
the contractors were kept idle for la ck of
material. These were no smal l forfeits,
52
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MALCOLM T HURLBY > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
FIG. 10. GLANFORD, ST. PAUL'S, INTERIOR TO
EAST. I MALCO LM THURLBY
FIG . 11 . GLANFORD, ST. PAUL'S, INTERIOR TO
WEST. I MALCOLM THURLBY
the equivalent of eight perches of stone,
wh ile one pound two sh illings and six
pence would have bought two thousand
bricks. It is not recorded when the building
was completed, but it was dedicated
May 7, 1858, by the Bishop of Toronto.
While mention of St. Paul's, Glanford, in
the article in The Church does not specify
that Frank Wills was the architect, seeing
that St. Paul's was built for the same
patron as St. Peter's, Ba rton, it seems
likely that it was also the work of Wills.
That is confirmed by numerous features
in the building.
St. Paul 's, Glanford, is built of red brick
and comprises a square-ended chancel,
a wider and taller rectangular nave, and
a vestry to the north of the chancel in
the angle with the nave (figs. 6-8) . The
chancel and nave are both covered with
steeply pitched roofs. The congregation
now enters the church through the south
tower, but an old photograph preserved
FIG. 12. GLAN FORD, ST. PAULS, FONT. I MALCOLM THURLBY
at the church shows that originally there
was a south porch (fig. 9) . At the western
corners of the nave there are buttresses
that project at a forty-five-degree angle
(fig. 8). Pointed arches are used throughout.
There is a single window in the north
wa ll ofthe vestry (fig. 7) . Taller, paired lancets
are used in the sidewalls of the nave
(fig. 7), whi le triple stepped lancets are
used in the east wall of the chancel and
the west w all of the nave (figs. 6 and 8).
Also in the nave west w all there is a sma ll,
vesica-shaped window above the middle
lancet (fig. 8). Inside, the floor of the chance
l is raised two steps above the nave, and
the two spaces are connected through a
wide pointed arch (fig. 10). Originally, the
high altar was elevated at the east end
of the chance l-the step is sti ll there, but
the altar is now placed close r to the con ­
gregation. The nave preserves its original
timber roof supports, albeit with a later
coat of paint (fig s. 10 and 11). There are
short wall posts w ith arched braces, scissor
FIG. 13. GLANFORD, ST. PAUL'S, NAVE, BEN CH
END. I MALCOLMTHURLBY
FIG. 14. GLANFORD, ST. PAUL'S, CHOIR STALLS. I MALCOLM
THURLBY
beams and rafters. Above the intersection
of the scissor beams there is a king
post that gives support to the centre of
the collar beam that joins the tops of the
two scissor beams. The ceiling panels in
the nave and chancel are not original. The
octagonal font is located at the west end
of the nave and is dated 1856 by inscription
(fig. 12). The nave seating is integral
with the church as are the choir stalls in
the chance l, although the choir sta ll s were
rearranged as a result of liturgical reform
(figs. 13 an d 14).
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N' 1 > 2007
53

M ALCOLM T HURLBY > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
FIG. 15. FREDERICTON, ST. ANNE'S CHAPEL OF EASE,
EXTERIO R FROM NORTHEAST. I MALCOLM THURLBY
FIG. 16. EXWICK (DEVON), ST. AN DREW'S, EXTERIOR FRO M
SOUTH-SOUTHEAST, JOHN HAYWA RD. I MALCOLM THURL BY
The two-cell plan with nave and chancel
plus a south porch, the steeply pitched
roofs, and the triple lancets in the east
wall of the chancel and in the w est wa ll
of the nave, at St . Paul's, Glanford, is
similar to St. Peter's, Barton. The location
of the vestry at Glanford is the same as
Wills's chapel of St. Anne's at Fredericton
(figs. 7 and 15). The forty-five-degree
angle buttresses on the west wall of the
nave are closely related to Wills's church
of St. Mary's, Castleton, Staten Island,
New York, built in 1853, and is modeled
on the east front of St. Michael's, Long
Stanton (fig. 5}. 28 This motif was used by
John Hayward, in St. Andrew's, Exwick,
Exeter (1841-1842), where the side walls
of the nave omit buttresses as at Glanford
(fig. 16}. St. Andrew's, Exwick, was
described in The Ecc/esiologist as "the
best specimen of a modern church we
have yet seen."' 9 Forty-five-degree angle
buttresses were also used frequently by
A.W. Pug in as at Our Lady and St. Wilfrid's
FIG. 17. WARWICK BRIDGE (CUM BERLAND), EXTERIOR
FROM SOUTHWEST, A.W. PUG IN. ! MALCOLM THURLBY
(now St. Mary's), Warwick Bridge, Cumbria,
which also share triple lancets on the
west front w ith Glanford (figs. 8 and 17}. 30
The tops of the buttresses at Glanford
preserve an unusual detail. The weathering
is constructed in wood, a detail that
suggests the builders were still working in
the traditions of the 1840s (fig. 18).
St . Peter's, Barton, and St . Paul's, Glanford,
reflect the principles of the (Cambridge
Camden) Ecc lesiological Society
as expressed in the quarterly journal The
Ecc/esiologistfirst published in 1841, and
a series of pamphlets like A Few Words to
Church Builders. 31 Here it was emphasized
that the church should be oriented, that
there be a separate nave and chancel, and
that the chancel "should be raised at least
two steps at the Chancel arch ." "
Thi s division, essential in the interior, is no t
always to be traced in the exterior. It is fa r
better indeed, generally speaking , that it
FIG. 18. GLAN FORD, ST. PAUL'S, NAVE, SOUTHWEST
BUTIRESS, DETAIL. I MALCO LM THURLBY
should be marked in both; and to this end
the breadth of the Chancel should be a little
less than that of t he Nave; a difference of
four or five feet will be quite suff icient. The
he ight of the Chancel is usually less. in the
same pr-oportion. I . I The comparative size
of Chancel and Nave is a point which, within
certain limitations, must be left to taste.
Yet. as a general rule. the Chancel should
be not less than the third, or m ore than the
ha lf. of the whole length of the church. 33
Wills adopted this at Barton but, at
Glanford, the cha nce l is thirteen feet six
inches (4.15 metres) E-W and seventeen
feet six inches (5 .33 metres) N-S, whi le
the nave is forty-nine feet six inches
(15.09 metres) E-W by twenty-five feet
three in ches (7.69 metres) N-S (internal
measurements). Here it must be supposed
that the Glanford Building Committee
opted for a chancel that was at
once less ritualistic than recommended by
the Ecclesiologists, and more traditional
54
JSS AC I JS EA C 32 > N" 1 > 2 007

MALCOLM T HURLBY > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
FIG . 19. FREDER IC TON, CHRI ST CHU RCH CATHEDR AL ARCHIVES, FRANK WILLS DRAWING
FOR CHOIR FURNITURE. I MALCOLMTHURLBY
FIG. 20. MOULIN ETIE (NOW UPPER CANADA VILLAG E), CHRIST CHURCH, INTERIOR TO
EAST (W EST). I MALCOLM THUR LBY
for an Anglican church of the 1840s in
Upper Canada. Although the larger chancel
w as adopted at Barton, the description
in The Church does note that there
were no "unsuitable screens and barriers"
between the nave and chancel. This may
be contrasted with Wills's use of screens
at St. Anne's, Fredericton, for Bishop
Medley, and St. Andrew's, Newcastle,
where the patron was Father James Hudson,
a strong supporter of Medley's High
Church ideals. 34 Wills himself considered
the chancel screen as an indispensable
feature of the church 35 One also imagines
that a situation like that at Glanford
was experienced by Wills in Grace
Church, Albany, New York, where the
chancel was eighteen feet (5.49 metres)
in length, while the nave was sixty feet
(18 .29 metres). 36 For building committees
it was not always a matter of conforming
to the High Church values of the Ecclesiological
Society and Frank Wills; compromises
and changes had to be made to suit
specific circumstances. To cite just two
examples in Wills's churches elsewhere:
Trinity Church, Scotland Neck, North Carolina
(1856}, w here there was no screen,
no masonry chancel arch and the "walls
were painted to resemble square blocks
of stone,"" the very sort of sham despised
by Wills. At Portage-du-Fort, Quebec,
the chancel was never constructed and
a pointed barrel vault in plaster was
constructed over the nave, which was
"frescoed in a most chaste and ecclesi ­
astical manner," 38 but not according to
ecclesiological principles.
The Ecclesiologists recommended that the
vestry "may be throw n out, as w as often
done, on the north or south side of the
Chancel," 39 exactly as at Glanford.
On the matter of style, the Ecclesiologists
recorded that "[n]othing for example can
be better suited to a small chapel than
Early English." 40 In other words, models
should be sought in English Gothic architecture
between about 1170 and 1280, in
which lancet windows are used singly, in
pairs, and triplets. For the east wall of the
chancel "[t]hree lancets are the most usu ­
ally adopted; these, it need not be said,
symbolise the HOLY TRINITY." 41
On the pitch of the roof, a low trajectory
w as specifically rejected by the (Cambridge
Camden) Eccle siological Society
in the eighth edition of A Few Words to
Churchwardens on Churches and Church
Ornaments, published in 1851, in which
a steeper pitch w as advocated . 42 This
view was earlier expressed forcefully by
Augustus Welby Pugin: "Our northern
climate requires an acute pitch of roof to
prevent the accumulation of snow and to
resist weather. The Greeks, whose climate
is the reverse of ours, had their roofs and
pediments exceedingly flat; nor could
they be raised to our proper pitch w ithout
violating the character of their architecture."
43 Both Pug in and the Ecclesiologists
insisted on the truthful exposure of timber
in roofs. The Ecclesiologists were adamant
about "the absolute necessity of getting
rid, at any sacrifice, of those monstrous
innovations, pews, or, to spell the word
according to the most ancient spelling,
pues." 44 It is recorded that open wood
seats were more prevalent in England. This
opinion was upheld by Frank Wills when
he referred to medieval precedent: "The
seats were always facing east, and a central
passage (the wider, the better the effect
on entering) was indispensable. No square
pews ever existed, no doors have w e ever
seen ." 45 It seems likely that the choir stalls
and the nave seats at Glanford were integral
with the design of the church, as at
St. Anne's, Fredericton. The recessed quatrefoil
towards the top of the nave bench
ends at Glanford is a motif also used by
Wills and the ends of the boys' stalls in
the choir at Fredericton cathedral (figs. 13
and 19- low er right of illustration). This
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007
55

M ALCOLM T HURLBY > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
FIG. 21. KENILWORTH (WARWICKSHIRE), ST. AUGUSTINE'S,
EXTE RIOR FROM SOUTHE AST. A.W. PUGIN.I MALCOLM THURLBY
FIG . 22. FREDERI CTON, ST. ANNE'S, EXTERIOR FROM
SOUTH . I MALCOLMTHURLBY
seating is in sharp contrast to the box pews
at Old St. Thomas's, St. Thomas (1824), or
Christ Church, Moulinette (1837), now at
Upper Canada Village (figs. 10, 11 and 20) .
The objection to pews, or box pews as they
are more generally known, was not simply
on grounds of style. It carried an important
social agenda. Box pews were rented,
and cost reflected the location of the seat
in the church. The more affluent members
of society could afford seats at the front of
the church while the poor were relegated
to the back. Open seating on the medieval
model would be free, as indicated by
Bishop Medley, in his paper entitled "The
Advantage of Open Seats." 46
On the font, "[t]he shape of the basin
ma y be either square, circular, or octagonal;
the greater number of examples in
each style are octagonal; an octagon
being a very ancient symbol of Regenera ­
tion. [ .. . ] The position of the Font MUST
FIG . 23. TANGMERE (SUSSEX), ST. ANDREW'S, EXTERIOR
FROM SE (A FT ER RAPHAEL AN D J. ARTH UR BRANDON,
PARISH CHURCHES, 2 VOLS., W. KENT & CO., LONDON,
VOL. II, 1851).1 MALCOLMTHURLBY
BE IN THE NAVE, AND NEAR A DOOR; this
cannot be too much insisted on: it thus
typifies the admission of a child into the
Church by Holy Baptism." 47 The Glanford
font conforms to these principles of form
and place (figs. 11 and 12).
A "[t]ower, though highly ornamental,
is not an essential part of a church; and
the really essential parts should never be
sacrificed for it. A bell gable may be made
a beautiful ornament, and is very we ll
suited to a small church." 48 This is seen at
Barton (fig. 2) . "The choice of the stone
must of course depend on the locality;
for almost every county has its own kinds
of stones. Brick ought on no account be
used: white certainly is w orse than red,
and red than black, but to settle the precedence
in such miserable materials is
worse than useless ." 49 By 1847 the Ecclesiologists
had softened their position; in
an article on Colonial Church architecture,
it was said that brick was "by no means
• proscribed." 50 In 1850, Frank Wills somewhat
reluctantly approved: " The red
color of the bricks in general use is the
great objection to them; if they cannot
be obtained of a more quiet tone, and if
painting be required to preserve them,
the bright tint can be modified w ithout
concea ling the nature of the wall ing." 51
In the same year, in an article entitled
"On the Proper Characteristics of a Town
Church," published in The Ecc/esiologist,
George Edmund Street advocated the use
of brick. 52 Pe rhaps there was an element
of inevitability in the use of brick for
church building. Pugin used red brick in
a number of his churches, as at St. Chad 's
Cathedral, Birmingham, 53 St. Wilfrid's,
Hulme, Manchester, 54 and in a church of
a similar scale and design to St. Paul 's,
Glanford, at St. Augustine's, Kenilworth,
Warwickshire (fig. 21). This is most significant,
for Wills hailed Pugin as "the great
English Architect" while, more generally,
Mordaunt Crook regarded Pugin as "the
godfather of Anglican ecclesiology." 55
Brick was later used by Wills and Dud ­
ley in St. John's, Montgomery, Alabama
(1852-1853), 56 Christ Episcopal Church,
Napoleonville, Louisiana (1853), and Christ
Church, Oberlin, Ohio (1855). 57 And, in
November 1852, W.A. McVickar's article
entitled "Brick, a Material for Churches,"
published in the New York Ecc/esiologist ,
promoted a polychromatic masonry in the
manner of William Butterfield's All Saints',
Margaret Street, London (1849-1859). 58
Clearly, attitudes towards the use of brick
changed dramatically around 1850, which
is not that surprising given George Gilbert
Scott's observation: "There was no
class of men whom the Cambridge Camden
Society held in such scorn, as those
who adhered to their own last opinion
but one." 59
"The sedilia I wou ld restore, if I could,
because at least they are ornaments; but
56
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N' 1 > 2007

M ALCOLM THUR LBY > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
if their restoration would give offence I
would not insist on them, because they
are only ornaments." 60 Sedilia were
used at Barton but there are none at
Glanford.
STA INE D glass is of much importance in
gi ving a chastened and solemn effect to a
church . Those who t ravel on the cont inent
might find many opportunities of procur ing.
from de secr'ated churches. at a very trifling
expense , many fragments. w hich would be
superi or to any we can now make. But if
it be modern. let us at least imitate the
de si gn s, if we cannot attain t o the richne ss
of hue s, which were our ancestors"'
Stained glass is recorded at Barton and
was used in St. Anne's Chapel and Christ
Church Cathedral, Fredericton.
The absence of buttresses on all but the
western angles of the nave at Glanford
is unique in Wills's churches, although
at St. Anne's, Fredericton, buttresses are
confined to the angles on the nave and
chancel, there being no buttresses to
mark bay divisions in the nave (fig. 22).
The omission of buttresses on sidewalls
is frequent in High Victorian churches,
but it is also common in English medieval
parish churches, as at St . Andrew's,
Tangmere, Su ssex (fig. 23). Paired lancet
windows are used in each bay of the nave
at Glanford, as in Wills's House of Prayer,
Newark, New Jersey 62
St. Mary's near Brantford, mentioned in
the article of St. Peter's, Barton, in The
Church, is likely to be St. Mary's, Cainsville,
about which little is known. It was
a frame church which by 1883 was "much
out of repair, owing to the accident that
the leading members happen to have
lately removed from the neighbourhood
of Cain sville, its services are but insufficiently
attended." 63 To date, no illustrations
of the church have come to light
FIG. 24. MOULINETIE (NOW UPPER CANADA VILlAGE),
CHRIST CH URCH, EXTERIOR FROM NORTHWEST (SOU TH ·
EAST). I MALCOLM THURLBY
but circumstantial evidence suggests
that it may have used board-and-batten
construction. Wills used board-and-batten
in Grace Church, Albany, New York
(1849-1850) ,6 4 and with Henry Dudley, at
St. Luke's, Canton, Mississippi (1851) . 65 It
is also used at St. George's, Hannon, commissioned
by Robert Merritt's successor,
Rev. Geo. A. Bull, now preserved at Balls
Falls Conservation Area. 66 And, just along
Highway 54, southeast of Brantford, the
board-and-batten and ecclesiological correctness
of St. John's, Middleport, 1868,
may reflect Wills's St. Mary's, Cainsville.
In terms of their ecclesiological correctness,
Wills's churches represented something
quite new in Ontario. The decade of
the 1840s w itnessed a demise of classicism
in Anglican church architecture measured
by St. James Anglican Cathedral, Toronto,
rebuilt after a fire in 1839 in classica l
style, but rebuilt Gothic after the 1849
FIG. 25. HOLlAND lANDIN G, CHRIST CHURCH, EXTERIOR
FROM WEST. I MALCOLM THURLBY
fire 67 Gothicised versions of Gibbsian
preaching boxes had already appeared
in an Anglican context in Upper Canada,
as at St. Thomas Old Church (1824), Christ
Church, Moulinette (1837) (fig. 24), and
St . John's, Nelson (1839). Four ch urches
by John G. Howard built from 1841 to,
1844- Christ Church, Holland Landing
(fig. 24), St . John's, York Mills, Christ
Church, Tyendinaga, and St. James's, Dundas68-appear
somewhat more medieval,
especially in the form of their towers.
However, Howard's roofs retained the low
pitch of the Gibbs tradition. St. George the
Martyr, Toronto (1844), by Henry Bowyer
Lane, has a higher pitch to the roof, but
has wooden arch mouldings and columns
in imitation of stone to the west doorway,
as in the contempora ry main arcades in
William Thomas's St. Michael's Cathedral,
Toronto 69 The detailing of St . James's
Cathedral, Toronto, is more convincing
in a medieval sense, although the
JSS AC I JStAC 32 > N" 1 > 20 07
57

M ALCOLM T HURLBY > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
placement of the four side porches reflects
the earlier church rather than medieval
precedent and the inclusion of galleries is
totally against ecclesiological principles. 70
Not surprisingly, when the Ecclesiologists
compared it w ith Wills's Christ Church
Cathedral, Montreal, the account was not
favourable: "Altogether Montreal cathedral
will, when completed, mark an epoch
in transatlantic ecclesiology. It w ill be the
largest completed cathedral in America
of our communion; for although the new
one at Toronto would, if completed, be
larger, it is as yet unfinished, and on (we
believe) a much inferior and less correct
plan ." " Interestingly, Frank Wills had
submitted a design for the competition
to build St. James's Cathedral, Toronto,
but his nave and chancel were described
as "cold and correct.'' 72 Furthermore, his
spire, which copied St. Mary's, Snettisham,
was deemed suitable "for a country parish
Church situated close to some rugged
shore of the mother country," but was
"hardly fit for the metropolitan Church of
Western Canada."" Fortunately, Rev. Merritt
saw Wills's wo rk in a more positive
light when he commissioned St. Peter's,
Barton, and St. Paul's, Glanford. With
these churches, Wills introduced the
ecclesiological principles of design based
on the careful study of English medieval
design into Anglican churches in Ontario.
Wills sought true Gothic precedent for his
work and, far from producing cold copies
of medieval models, he succeeded in
creating stone, brick, and wooden exemplars
for Anglican churches throughout
North America.
NOTES
1. I shou ld li ke to thank Rob Hamilton for his help
w ith archival material relating to St. Peter's,
Barton; Mark Richardson of the Archives of
the Anglican Diocese of Huron for his search
on St. Mary's, Cainsville; Rev. Patricia Lu cy,
Rector of St. Paul's, Glanford, for facilitating
the study of her church; and Peter Coffman,
Candace Iron, Barry Magrill and Luc Noppen
for their help with references and discussion
on various aspects of eccles iology in Canada.
2. Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online,
VI II, 1851-1860, [http://www. biographi .c a/
EN/ Sho w Bio.asp? B iold =38376&query= ].
3. Kalman, Harold, 1994, A History of Canadian
Architecture, 2 vols., Toronto, Oxford University
Press, val. I, p. 282-287.
4. See, for example, Hitchcock, Henry Russell,
1977 [4'" ed. ]. Architectur e: Nineteenth and
Twentieth Centuries, Harmondsworth, Middlesex,
Penguin Books, p. 160; Crook, J. Mordaunt,
1987, The Dilemma of Style: Architectural Ideas
from the Picturesque to the Post-Modern,
Chicago, University of Chicago Press, p. 63;
Brooks, Chris, 1999, The Gothic Revival, Lo n­
don, Phaidon Press, p. 285, ill. 170.
5. On Christ Church, Fredericton, see Richardson,
Douglas Scott, 1966, Christ Church Cathedral,
Fredericton, New Brunswick, u n pub I ished
MA Report, Yale University; Stanton, Phoebe,
1968, The Gothic Revival and American Church
Architecture: An Episode in Taste, 1840-1856,
Baltimore and London, The John s Hopk ins
University Press, p. 127-153; Watson, Robert L. ,
1984, Christ Church Cathedral, Fredericton: A
History, Fredericton, Christ Church Cathedral;
Finley, Gregg, and Lynn Wigginton, 1995, On
Earth as it is in Heaven : Gothic Revival Churches
of Victorian New Brunswick, Fredericton, Goose
Lane Ed itions, p. 95-107.
On Christ Church, Montreal, see The Ecclesiologist,
CXIII, December 1857, 357-360; Adams,
Frank Dawson, 1941, A History of Christ Church
Cathedral, Montreal, Montreal, Burton's Limited;
Epstein, Clarence, 1999, Ch urch Building
in Montreal during the British-Co lonial Period,
1760-1860, unpublished PhD thesis, University
of Edinburgh, p. 250-254.
For other W ills churches, see Stanton, Gothic
Revival and American Church Architecture:
286-297; Stanton, Phoebe, 1982, « Frank Will s>>,
Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects, 4 vols.,
Adolf K. Placzek, ed., New York, Free Press, val. IV,
p. 404-405; Finley and Wigginton: 87-95, 109-
110, 118-120; and a varied collection of entries
in [http://www.ecclsoc.org/wills.html]. The follow
ing churches in New Brunsw ick: St. Anne's,
Welsh pool, Campobello (1855), St. John's White's
Cove (1853), and St. Paul's, Sackvil le (1858), are
either by Wills or a close follower.
6. Wil ls 's church of St. Pe ter's, Barton, is illustrated
and discussed briefly in Thurlby, Malco
lm, 2006,

MALCOLM THUR LBY > ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
12. Wills, Frank, 1850, Ancient English Ecclesiastical
Architecture and its Principles, Applied to
the Wants of the Church at the Present Day,
New Yo rk, Stanford & Sw ords. (Review: The
Ecc/esiologist, vol. 11 [1850], p. 168-169.) Wills
w rote: " Pugin, the great English architect[ ... ]
first clearly show ed us w hat the true principles
of pointed architecture w ere" (p. 85). Earl ier,
W ills referred to Pugin is an article entitled
>: " Th e great
and true princi ple of Gothic A rchitecture is, as
Pug in expresses it, 'the ornamenting construction
and not constructing ornament."' (New
York Ecclesiologist, val. I, April, 1848, [http://
ang licanhistory.org/ecclesiologist/ny/1.htm I] .)
13. Hamilton Spectator, June 23, 1852.
14. [http ://l i brary. mcmaster.ca/a rch ives/anglica n/
fond_htm 1/a n barton. html].
15. Hamilton Public Library, Special Collections
Ham CE 283.713521.
16. The Church, val. XVII, no. 21, Decem ber 22,
1853, p . 2, cols. 4-5.
17. Brandon, Raphael, 1849, The Open Timber
Roofs of t he Middle Ages: Illustrated by Perspective
and Working Drawings of some of the
Best Varieties of Church Roofs: With Descriptive
Letter-press, Lo ndon, D. Bogue.
18. See above, note 12.
19. Cross, F.L. , and E.A. Li vingstone, ed., 1977,
Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, [2''
ed.], Oxford, Oxford University Press, p. 323 .
20. For Thomas Fuller's prese ntation drawing
of the church of St . Stephen-in-the-Fields,
Toronto, see Westfall, Wi lliam, 1989, Two
Worlds: The Protestant Culture of Nineteenth­
Century Ontario, Montreal, McGill-Queens
University Press, fig. 16; f o r Hanry Langley's
St. Pete r's, Toronto, see Westfall, William,
and Malcolm Thurlby, 1990, , in David Keene and Colin Rea d,
ed ., Old Ontario: Essays in Honour of J.M.S.
Careless, To ronto and Lo ndon, Dundurn Press,
p. 118-147 at p. 134, f ig . 14; for St . James-the­
Le ss , Toronto, see Simmins, Geoffrey, 1997,
Fred Cumberland, Building the Victorian
Dream, Toronto, University of Toronto Press,
p. 141-148.
21. Stanton, Gothic Revival: 91-114.
22. Coffman, > : 161-162,
ill. 5-26.
23. Il lust rated in [http://www.chapelofthecrossms.
org /a bout/f aci I iti es. htm I] .
24. Illustrated in [http://www.njchurchscape.com/
Newark-ChristEpis. html] .
25. Noppen, Luc, and Lucie K. M o ri sset, 1995, La
presence anglicane a Quebec: Holy Trinity
Cathedral (1796-1996), Sillery, p. 170-17 1.
26. Anon, St. Pa ul's Church (Anglican), Glanford,
Ontario, 100'h A nniversary, July 1", 1951 , p. 4.
27. On the perch, see Fernie, E.C. 1985, >,Archaeological Journal,
val. 142, p. 246-254.
28. Illustrated in [http://www.stmarysi.com/who_
we_are/Chapter1.htm] .
29. The Ecclesiologist, val . II, October 1842, p. 23.
30. Stanton, Phoebe, 1972, Pugin, London, Thames
and Hudson, ill. 54.
31. A Fe w Words to Church Builders and seven
other pamphlets published by the Cambridge
Camden Society from 1839 to 1843 are conveniently
gathered in Webster, Christopher, ed.,
2003, "Temples .. Worthy of His Presence":
Early Publications of t he Cambridge Camden
Society, Reading, Spire Books.
32. A Few Words to Church Builders, p. 5 (#6); p. 10
(# 16); p. 11 (# 18); Webster: 137, 142-143 .
33. A Fe w Words to Church Bu ilders: 6; Webster
: 138.
34. Fin ley and Wigginton : 117.
35. W ill s, Ancient English Ecclesiastical A rchitecture
.. : 78.
36. Idem : 113.
37. Sm ith, Stuart Hall, 1955, Th e History of Trinity
Pa rish, Scotland Neck [and] Edgecombe
Pa rish, Halifax County, Scotland Neck, Christian
Printing Company, North Carolina, p. 69,
[http://dig ita 1.1 i b. ecu .e d u/histo ryfi ct i on/item.
aspx?id=smt].
38. Ele venth Report of the Inco rpora ted Church
Society of the Diocese of Montreal for the Year
Ending 6'" January 1862, Montrea l, Joh n Lovell,
p. 36; [htt p ://www.lieuxd ecu lte.qc.ca/fiche.
php?LJ EU _ CU LTE _I D =92372& LieuSu iva nt=1 &
LieuPrece dent=-.1 &debut=O& n I ieux=3 &type_
req u ete = critere & I ignes =25 & Construction Deb
ut=1671 &ConstructionFin= 1991 &Concepteurl
d =0 & Munici pa I iteld=84020].
39. A Fe w Words to Church Builders : 24 (#50);
Webster: 156.
40. A Few Words to Church Builders : 4 (#4); Webster
: 136.
41 . A Fe w Words to Church Builders: 13 {#27);
Webster : 145.
42 . A Few Words to Church Wardens: 10; Webste
r : 202.
43 . Pugin, True Principles: 56.
44. A Fe w Words to Church Builders: 20 (#40);
Webster : 152.
45 . W ills, Ancient Eng lish Ecclesiastical Architecture
.. : 70.
46. Medley, John, 1843, >, Exeter Diocesan Architectural Society
Transactions, vol. 1, p. 10.
47. A Few Words to Church Builders : 14-15 {#28);
Webster : 146-147. Wills expressed the same
opinion (Ancient English Ecclesiastical Architecture
.. :70).
48. A Few Words to Church Builders: 8; Webster
: 140.
49. A Fe w Words to Church Builders: 9; Webster:
141 .
SO. The Ecclesiologist, vol. VII I, December 1847,
p. 142-147. I owe this referen ce to Peter Coffman
.
51. Wills, Ancient English Ecclesiastical Architecture
.. : 90; Will s,, The Ecclesiologist,
val. 11 , p. 227-233 at p. 22 9.
53. Illustrated in co lour in [http://www.stchadscathedral.org.uk/].
54. Illustrated in colour in [http://www.lookingatbu
i I d i ngs.o rg . u k/defa u It .asp? Docu me nt=3.
T.7 &1mage=1 22&gst=] .
55. Wills, Ancient English Ecclesiastical Architecture
... , p . 85; Mordaunt Crook, J., 1987, The
Dilemma of Style: Architectural Ideas from the
Picturesque to the Post-Modern, Chicago, University
of Chicago Press, p. 54.
56 Patrick, Jam es, 1980, « Ecc les iologica l Gothic in
the Antebellum South >>, Winterthur Portfolio,
val. 15, no. 2, p. 11 7-13 8 at p. 129, fig. 8.
57 Illustrated in [http://www.oberlin.edu/ externa
li E OG / H istoricPre se rvation/ H PCh ristChu rch .
html].
58. New York Ecclesiolog ist, va l. 5, Nove mber
1852, p. 173-1 74, quoted in Hersey, George L. ,
1972, High Vic torian Gothic, A Study in Asso ­
ciationism, Baltimore and London, The Johns
Hopkins Unive rsi t y Press, p. 82-83 .
59. Scott, George Gilbert, 1879, Personal and Professional
Recollections, new edit ion, edited,
introduced and restored by Ga vin Stamp,
Stamford, Paul Watkins, 199 5, p . 206.
JSSAC I JStAC 32 > N'' 1 > 2007
59

MALCOLM THUR LBY > ANALYS IS I ANALYSE
60. A Few Words to Church Builders: 12 (#21);
Webster, p. 143.
61 A Few Words to Church Builders: 26-27 {#54);
Webster : 158-159.
62. Wills, Ancient English Ecclesiastical Architecture
... , pl. XVIII.
63. The History of the County of Brant, Ontario,
Toronto, Warner, Beers & Co., 1883, p. 367;
Tweedsmuir History of Cainsville Women's
Institute, vol. 4, p. 27 and 99 (the latter is
avai lable at the Brant County Museum and
Archives, 57 Charlotte Street, Brantford).
64. Richardson, Douglas Scott, 1972, « Hyperborean
Gothic; or Wilderness Ecc lesiology
and the Wood Churches of Edward Medley»,
Architectura, vol. I, p. 48-74 at p. 56, fig. 5.
65. Patrick: 131-32, fig. 13.
66. For illustration, see [http: //www.jordanvillage.
com/local-attractions.shtm 1].
70. Simmins, Fred Cumberland :124-139. Interestingly,
Frank Wills had submitted a design for
the competition to build St. James's Cathedral,
but his nave and chancel were described as
"co ld and correct" (The Church, September
13, 1849, p. 26). Furthermore, his spire,
wh ich copied St. Mary's, Snettisham, was
deemed su itable "for a country parish Church
situated close to some rugged shore of the
mother country," but was "hardly fit for the
metropolitan Church of Western Canada "
(The Church, October 11, 1849, p. 42). On the
desig n competition for St. James's Cathedral,
see Morriss and Benn : 195-200.
71. The Ecclesiologist, vol. 18, 1857, p. 359.
72. The Church, September 13, 1849, p. 26. On the
design competition for St. James's Cathedral,
see Morriss and Benn. 195-200.
73. The Church, October 11, 1849, p. 42.
67. Morriss, Shirley, 1975, «The Nine-Year Odyssey
of a High Victorian Goth: Three Churches by
Fred Cumberland», Journal of Canadian Art
History, vol. II , no. 1, p. 42-54; Morriss, Shirley,
with Carl Benn, 1998, «Architecture »,
in William Cooke, ed., The Parish and Cathedral
Church of St. James, Toronto 1797-1997,
Toronto, St. James's Cathedral, p. 179-215;
Dendy, Will iam, and William Kilbourn, 1986,
Toronto Observed: Its Architecture, Patrons,
and History, Toronto, University of Toronto
Press, p. 56-58; Thurlby, Malcolm, 1992, « Medieval
Toronto »,Rotunda, vol. 24, no. 4, p. 27-33;
Simmins, Fred Cumberland: 124-139, 252-254.
68. Macrae, Marion, and Anthony Adamson, 1975,
Hallowed Walls, Church Architecture of Upper
Canada, To ronto, Clarke, Irwin, p. 99-102, ills. IV-
11 (Holland Landing) and IV-13 (Tyendinaga);
for Dundas, see The Church, vol. IV, no. 10, September
11, 1841, p. 30; and The Church, vol. VII,
no. 27, January 12, 1844, p. 106.
69. Arthur, Eric [3'' ed.], 1986, Toronto, No Mean
City, re vised by Stephen A. Otto, Toronto,
Toronto University Press, il l. 4.24 (St. George
the Martyr, exterior from NW), ill. 4.41 (St. Michael's
Cathedral, interior to E).
60
JSSAC I ,JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007

REPORT I RAPPORT
SASKATCHEWAN
LEGISLATIVE BUILDING AND GROUNDS
RHONA GOODSPEED has been an ai'Chitectural
t1istorian with Pa1'ks Canada since 1 990. During
>RHONA GOODSPEED
that time she has WOI'ked on a range of subjects,
mcluding militai'Y complexes [such as the Quebec
and Halifax citadels), historic distl'icts, cultural
landscapes. ecclesiastical buildings, houses, and
othel' building types. She also has a pal'tlcular
expel'tise on the decorative art and designs of
Italian bom Guido Ninche1·i.
DESIGNATION
The Saskatchewan Legislative Building
and Grounds were designated a national
historic site of Canada in 2005. The rea ­
sons for designation are the following:
the building and its grounds embody the
ambition and drive of the Saskatchewan
people and are a highly visible, well ­
known symbol of the province of Sas ­
katchewan- its Government, its people,
and its membership in Canada-embodying
in their design, symbolism appropriate
to the province's history as a unit both
within Canada and the British Empire.
Beautifully enhanced by its carefully
designed grounds, the Saskatchewan
Legislative Bu ilding is a stunning exam ­
ple of an imposing, la rge-scale building
exhibiting a consummate design and execution
of Beau x-Arts principles, including
axial planning, symmetry, controlled circulation
patterns, and a clear expression
of function within and without, from the
perspective of its overall design down
to its fine details. The building and its
grounds, including paths, gardens, and
recreational spaces, are one of the best
examples in Canada of a well-preserved
landscape designed according to Beaux­
Arts and City Beautiful principles, including
those of symmetry, variety, and civic
grandeur.
INTRODUCTION
FIG . 1. SASKATCHEWAN LEGISLATIVE BUILDI NG AN D GROU NDS, AER IAL VIEW FROM THE NORTH, N.D.
The Saskatchewan Legislative Building
is an outstanding, massive, and monumental
building designed according
to Beau x- Arts principles and incorporating
Ed w ardian Baroque features
(figs. 1-5). Symmetrical with horizontal
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007 > 61 -88 61

R HONA G OOD SPEED > REPORT I RAPPORT
storeys encircle the entire building. The
elevations at the ends of the w ings are
also decorated with large columns supporting
a broken pediment with an
entrance to the basement level. The
rear of the building makes use of similar
motifs including a portico at each
end, but is plainer (fig. 5} . The masonry
along the first storey and areas framing
the porticos is deeply channelled while
the rest of the surfaces are smooth. The
ribbed, octagonal dome, rising one hundred
feet from the roof, is set on a colonnaded
base; it is sheathed in copper and
capped by a lantern (fig. 9). Behind the
columns, tall slender windows provide
light within the dome, as do the oval
w indows in the roof. Sculpture, visible
w hen close up, decorates areas above
the entrances and on the base and lantern
of the dome, and includes figures,
lions heads, gargoyles, and intertwined
grains and fruits (figs. 9-10} .
massing and a highly prominent central
dome, the building is characterized by
great elegance in design and warmth
of materials. The plan is the form of a
Latin cross with the principal axis in the
shorter arms from front to rear (fig. 6}.
The building is three storeys high with
a fourth storey confined to the central
axis and very largely hidden by the parapet,
as well as a full basement and a
recently excavated sub-basement. The
building is faced in a warm, pale buff,
Tyndall limestone from Manitoba, except
for the basement, which is faced with
granite from Quebec. The dimensions
are approximately five hundred and
twenty-three feet long, two hundred
and sixty-three on the north/south axis,
and one hundred and eighty-four feet
to the top of the lantern on the dome.'
The building construction makes use of
steel-reinforced concrete.
The fa~ade is composed of a classical
centrepiece and two long horizontal
wings with porticos near the ends marking
single entrances (figs. 7-8}. These
are composed of pairs of monumental
attached columns supporting a broken
pediment, each containing a shield with
the initials of King Edward VII. Each storey
is defined by a different window
type, with the second storey, location
of the legislative chamber and principal
offices of government, marked by tall
round-headed windows with smooth
stone panels above and below. The
stringcourses below the first and second
The symmetry of the exterior is carried
into the interior, with the main entrance
opening into a progression of spacesa
vestibule and the foyer on the first
floor, leading to a staircase rising to the
rotunda on the second floor-culminating
in the legislative chamber (figs. 11-
17) . The rotunda rises through the floor
above, to a dome-s haped ce iling, supported
on four large piers, each supporting
a shield with the king's insignia,
and the ceiling, of plaster, is decorated
with huge coffers and rosettes covered
in gold leaf (figs. 13 -15} . On the third
floor, above the entrance to the chamber,
is a large mural painting entitled
Before the White Man Came, also visible
from the foyer (fig. 14) . In the centre
of the floor is a well, which opens
into the floor below, and is surrounded
by a marble balustrade (fig. 15). The
rotunda and other areas of the building
are reportedly decorated in thirty-four
types of marble.
62
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007

R HONA GOODSPEED > REPOR T I RAPPOR T
FIG. 3. SASKATCHEWAN LE GIS LATIVE BUI LDING AND FOR MAL ORNAMENTAL
GAR DE NS, 2004. I R. GOODSPEE D. 2004
FIG. 4. DETAI L OF EAST WING AND EAST SIDE OF CENTREPIE CE, 2004.[ R. GOODSPEED, 2004
The legislative chamber is decorated
largely in oak w ith a ceiling designed
in the shape of a king's crown (fig. 16).
One press and three public galleries provide
viewing space (fig. 17). According to
custom, the speaker's chair and dais face
the entrance, with desks for the government
and opposition on either side, and
tables in the centre. The furnishings are
of oak and behind the speaker's chair is
a silk wall hanging. Symbolic carvings
decorate the chambers. Cameras for
television coverage have been installed
behind wall panels on the corners; the
panelling was added early on to improve
the acoustics.
Aisles around the rotunda extend north
to the front of the building, where they
provide access to the executive suite of
offices, comprising the Premier's office,
the Cabinet Room, and the Cabinet
Lounge (figs. 18-20). From the rotunda
are also accessed the wings, long continuous
hallways off which doors open into
the legislative library on the second floor
on the north side (fig. 21), as well as government
and opposition caucus offices.
On all levels, the halls terminate in stairw
ells at the ends, lit by tall windows.
Access between floors is also provided by
FIG . 5. REAR ELEVATIO N. DETAIL OF CENTRE FROM THE PRO POSED SOUTH BOUNDARY OF TH E GROUNDS.[ R. GooosPEED, 2004
elevators. On the first floor in the rotunda ment and other offices are also located
area, partially lit through the w ell, is the on the other floors of the building.
lieutenant-governors' Portrait Gallery
(fig. 22), adjacent to w hich are several The symmetry and monumentality of the
other art galleries. Art w orks are also building are reinforced by the design and
displayed in the main axis on the basement
level , for example in the Premiers' central location within them, all represen­
attractiveness of the grounds, and by its
portrait gallery in the rotunda. Governtative
of Beau x-Arts and City Beautiful
JSSAC I ,JSE AC 32 > N• 1 > 2 007
63

R HONA G OODSPEED > REPORT I RAPPORT
'~ FIRST FLOOR PLAN
--
Key
-"""""
--~
D .....
SPMC
tm """""""'
·- """w""""""
LEGISLATIVE BUILDING
2901 ALBERT STREET
REGINA, SASKATCHEWAN
FIG . 6. CURRENT PLAN OF FIRST FLOOR.
FIG . 7. CENTREPIECE. THE NEW BARRIER FREE ENTRANCE IS VISIBLE ON THE RIGHT. I R. GooosPEEO, 2004
FIG. 8. PORTICO ON FRONT FA ~ ADE OF EAST WING. I R.GooosPEE0,2004
64
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007

R HONA GOOD SPEE D > REPORT I RAPPORT
principles. The precinct as defined here grounds. A brief section will then outline
includes paved roads and paths providing
access to the main entrance of the associations-the Saskatchew an Govern­
one of the building's important historical
building, as well as to the side entrances ment's contribution to the establishment
and to the parking lots at the rear of the of Medicare in Canada . The section will
building (fig. 1). The building, located end with a summary of the importance
on g round slightly higher than its surroundings,
overlooks Wascana Lake, and
of the site.
is enhanced by the formal flower gardens History of Competition, Construction,
of annuals planted in summer, and shrubs and Laying out of Grounds
laid out in front of it. Around the perim-
eter of the precinct on the north and east The Legislative Building was constructed
along the shore of the lake run a road as soon after Saskatchew an became a provwell
as cycling and walking paths. There ince. Carved out of the Northwest Terriare
w oodlots of various types of trees and tories, Saskatchewan achieved provincial
open spaces with lawns (figs. 1 and 23) . status in 1905 and provincial elections
w ere held that year. The new province
The Saskatchewan Legislative Building had a population of approximately two
and Grounds will be assessed against two hundred and fifty thousand, made up
ofthesecriteriafordetermining places of of Aboriginals, Europeans, and Metis.
national historic significance. According Already the capital of the Northwest Terto
those criteria, a place "may be des- ritories since 1883, Regina was chosen as
ignated of national historic significance provincial capital by the Saskatchewan
by virtue of a direct association with a Assembly in 1906. From 1906 to 1908,
nationally significant aspect of Canadian the Assembly met in the unassuming twostorey,
wood-frame Territorial Legislative
history. An archaeological site, structure,
building, group of buildings, district, or Building (not extant), built in 1883. However,
with the province's growing popula­
cultural landscape of potential national
historic significance will:
tion and the resultant and projected need
for an increasing number of elected repa)
illustrate an exceptional creative achieve- resentatives and public servants, the Govment
in concept and design, technology ernment decided to have a new legislative
and/or planning, or a significant stage building constructed more in keeping
in the development of Canada; with a view held by many, that Saskatchew
an would become the w ealthiest,
b) be most explicitly and meaningfully most populated and important province
associated or identified with events in Canada . Premier Walter Scott envisthat
are deemed of national historic aged the new building as a cornerstone
importance."
for the province, a bridge between the
past and future 2 In 1906, the Assembly
HISTORIC VALUES OF THE PLACE voted one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars for the purchase of a site, for the
This section will begin with the early his- preparation of plans and commencement
tory of the construction ofthe Legislative of construction -'
Building and of the subsequent laying out
of the grounds. An analysis of the build- Of seven possible sites, an undeveloped area
ing's design will follow, dealing with both of one hundred and sixty-eight acres to the
the exterior and interior, and then the immediate south of the Wascana reservoir
FIG. 9. DETAIL OF THE DOME, FROM THE
NORTHE AS T. I R. GOODSPEED, 2004
FIG . 10 a-b. DETAILS OF SCULPTURAL DEC ORATION, ON
THE EAST WI NG PORTICO, ABOVE, AN D ON TH E MAIN
ENTRANCE, BELOW. I R. GOODSPEED, 2004
JSSAC I JSE AC 32 > N' 1 > 2007
65

R HONA G OODSPEED > REPORT I RAPPORT
FIG . 11 a-b. TH E FOYER, ON THE FIRST FLOOR, SHOWN FROM THE VESTIBULE LOOKING THROUG H TO THE STAIRCASE (ABOVE), AND DETAILS OF THE CEILI NG AN D ARCHES OPENING ON TO THE
SIDE CORRIDOR (BELOW). j R. GOODSPEED. 2004
FIG. 12. VIEW UP TH E STAIRCASE INTO THE ROTUNDA. j R. GOODSPEED. 2DD4
FIG. 13. DETAIL OF DOMED CEILI NG IN THE ROTUNDA. j R. GOODSPEED, 2D04
was chosen, outside and some distance
south of the city li mits.' Premier Wa lter
Scott w anted to have an imposing building
set within beautified grounds, and he
agreed that the town park already created
in 1905 on the north of Wascana Reservoir
be incorporated in the p lans s He hired
wel l-known, Montreal-based landscape
architect Frederick Todd to provide a plan
of the park and to select the exact site for
the building. In his 1907 plan, Todd set
the building w ithin a large park extending
north and south of the reservoir and
he proposed that it overlook the w ater
and be aligned with Sm ith Street, on the
opposite side (fig. 24).
At first, Premier Walter Scott, wanting personal
ly to select an architect to design the
new building, chose John Lyle, but after
he refused, Scott decided to hold a formal
competition, in order to avoid political
criticism.' That competit ion is significant
for the history of the architectural profession
in Canada. Scott asked architect
Percy E. Nobbs (1875-1964), Professor of
Architecture at M cGill University, to take
charge of it on behalf of the Sa skatchewan
Government. Nobbs accepted on condition
that the competition follow the guidelines
laid dow n by the Royal Institute of British
Architects (RIBA) and, with that agreed, he
set about to organize it. Scott and Nobbs
decided to limit the contest to a number
of selected architects, which was in accordance
w ith RIBA recommendations. In
order to keep cost s dow n, Scott decided to
limit the number to seven : one from Great
Britain, one from the United States, and
five from Canada. Among them w as w ellknow
n American Cass Gi lbert (1859 -1934)
of New York, an obvious choice based on
66
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N' 1 > 2007

RHONA GooDSPEE D > REPORT I RAPPORT
FIG . 14. BEFORE THE WHITEMAN CAME, BY JOHN LEMAN, AND DETA ILS OF THE SHIELDS ABOVE
THE PIERS WHICH VIS UALLY SUPPORT THE RIBS. THE BALUSTRADE OF THE MEZZANINE APPEARS
BELOW THE PAI NTING. I R. GOODSPEED. 20D4
his design for the Minnesota State Capitol,
a building which Premier Scott greatly
admired and which he described as "one
of the really successful buildings on the
continent".'
Nobbs drew up the competition pro-
gramme and specifications were made
the competitors, it
was, however, to be
a visible expression
of Saskatchewan as a
political unit within
the British Empire. 9
The design was to
cost from seven
available in November 1907 8 The design hundred and fifty
required the accommodation of up to one
thousand to one
hundred and twenty-five members, five million dollars. 10
times the size of the Assembly at the time,
as well as allowance for the construction
The announcement
of future additions and alterations. Cli- in December 1907
mate, availability of materials, and con-
ditions of the labour market were all to
be taken into account and would "largely
dictate the type of building selected by
the assessors." Canadian materials were
to be used where possible. A dominating
feature, such as a dome or tower,
was to be included in the design, so that
the building could be seen from the city,
while the "character" of the surrounding
countryside, which was flat, open,
and uncultivated in all directions, would
"render this a valuable landmark." Nobbs
chose red brick with limestone trim for
the exterior wa lls . While the building's
style was left open to the discretion of
of the winner of the
competition estab-
lished a landmark for Canadian architects
in an era when the most prestigious commissions
went to non-Canadians. Based on
the merits of its design, the well-known and
respected architectural firm of W.S . and
Edward Maxwell of Montreal was chosen to
construct the building (figs. 25-27). According
to architectural historian Kelly Crossman,
the fact that a Canadian firm had won in the
face of competition as formidable as that of
American Cass Gilbert, seemed a sign that
the Canadian profession had come of age''
In fact, the brothers Edward (1867-1923) and
William (1874-1952) Maxwell were among
FIG. 15. VIEW OF ROTUNDA WITH WELL IN THE CENTRE, FACING TOWA RDS THE EAST WING.
ABOVE IS THE BALUSTRADE ALONG THE MEZZANINE AND AN ARCHED ENTRANCE TO THE LONG
CORRIDOR OF THE WING. HERE THE WELL IS SHOWN FILLED WITH FLOWERS. I R. GOODSPEED. 2004
the most important architects in Canada at
the turn of the century. 12
The contract for the building's construction,
the largest public works project
undertaken in Saskatchewan up to that
time, was awarded to Peter Lyall and Sons
of Montreal." Quality of workmanship
was considered essential, with the province
bringing in outside expertise when
required, but using local men whenever
possible. Technically, the methods of
construction used were fully up-to-date,
adhering to modern technical standards.
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007
67

R HONA GOODSPEED > REPORT I RAPPORT
FIG. 16. VIEW OF THE LEG ISLATIVE CHAMBER. TH E SPEAKER'S DAIS AND GALLE RY I R. GOODSPEED, 2004
FIG. 17. ONE OF THE TH REE PUBLIC GALLERIES IN THE CHAMBER, SHOWING TH E SI DE
EN TRANCES. I R. GOODSPEED, 2004
FIG. 18. PREMIER'S OFFICE. I R. GOODSPEE0,2DD4
The building was constructed mainly with
steel-reinforced concrete, though for the
legislative chamber and the south wing
the building was
constructed. The
Kahn System w as
first introduced
in 1905 and, during
the following
decade, became
the most w idely
used method
of reinforcing
concrete . 14 The
building's footing
s were carried
on concrete
piles driven to an
average depth of
sixteen feet, each
pile head carrying a load of twenty-five
tons's When completed, the Legislative
Building was the largest reinforced-conin
general, the building w as of steel con- crete building in the Canadian West. 16
struction fireproofed with concrete, and,
in many sections, the exterior masonry
walls were load-bearing (fig . 28) . The
remainder of the building, including the
dome, was reinforced using the Kahn
System, where concrete is reinforced by
trussed steel bars w ith fins set at fortyfive-degree
angles. Not w idely used until
the 1890s, reinforced concrete was still a
relatively new, modern technique when
In Ju ly 1909, Premier Scott decided that the
building's appearance wou ld be "cheapened
[ .. . ] by the use of red brick," and that
the building was to be faced "entirely of
stone." 17 Pale buff, Tynda ll limestone from
Manitoba was used, distinctive for the
fossil organisms found in it, except for
the low er part of the basement storey,
which w as faced in granite from Quebec,
used also for the steps. On October 4,
1909, Governor-General Earl Grey laid
the cornerstone. In 1911, the Legislative
Assembly was ab le to hold sessions in the
building; first in the library until January
1912, when they moved to the legislative
chamber and all provincial departments
were able to move in, as the rest of the
interior was substantially completed. The
contract with the Maxw ells also included
the design and selection of interior fittings
and furniture. The Maxwells took
care to include beauty and symbo lism
in their designs as well as craftsmansh ip
and they made special efforts in selecting
the appropriate firms to execute their
designs. The firms included the Bromsgrove
Guild (Canada) England, which had
formed within the context of the second
w ave of the Arts and Crafts Movement in
Birmingham, England; Waring & Gillow;
and The Craftsmen, a Regina firm about
w hich little is known. 18 The building was
officially completed in March 1912. In spite
of the cyclone that damaged the building
and grounds in June, the Governor-General,
H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught, son
of Queen Victoria, officially opened the
building on October 12. In 1914, the sculp ­
ture executed by the Bromsgrove Guild
w as placed w ithin the pediment. The final
68
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N'' 1 > 2007

R HONA GOODSPEE D > REPORT I RAPPORT
cost of the building was much greater than
anticipated, coming to some three million
dollars. "At the time of its construction"
it was "undoubtedly one of the finest of
its kind in Canada" and sy mbolized the
"unbounded optimism and enthusiasm"
of the province' 9
buildings in Canada during the first t w o
decades of the twentieth century. The
Edwardian Baroque flourished first in
Great Britain, and soon after in Canada,
from the early 1900s to the outbreak of
the First World War. It too w as used for
public buildings.
that a building express its own particular
character, which would depend upon its
purpose, the nature of its site and its client.
To help convey this character, the Beaux­
Arts architect often relied on architectural
sculpture of subjects that symbolized the
activities carried on inside the building 2 4
Once the building w as completed, the
design and beautification of the grounds
were addressed. Already by 1908 a dam
and a new concrete bridge across Wascana
Creek at Albert Street had been built to
allow for the deepening of the reservoir
to enhance the site. In 1910, the Maxwells
provided a design for the area immediately
surrounding the grounds, in consultation
w ith Todd, who had produced the
first plan in 1907 (fig. 29). 20 Premier Scott's
vision for a capital with an imposing building
set in spacious, beautifully landscaped
grounds, finally led him to commission
plans from internationally-known English
landscape architect Thomas Mawson, w ho
in 1913 produced a comprehensive plan for
the city (fig. 30) . Within it, he included, in
consultation with newly appointed Public
Works landscape architect Malcolm Ross,
the grounds for the legislature. Reproducing
much ofthe Maxwells' layout, Mawson
integrated it with the larger park, including,
for example, the creation of vistas
of the building from other points in the
park. How ever, the only section of the plan
that was fully implemented was the area
around the legislative building.
The Legislative Building
Exterior Design
The design of the Legislative Building,
both the exterior and the interior, is an
outstanding expression of the application
of Beau x-Arts principles incorporating,
on the exterior, features inspired by the
English Edwardian Baroque. 21 Beau x-Arts
design, named for the Ecole des Beaux­
Arts in Paris, w as prevalent for public
The principles of Beau x-Art design, based
on the teachings of the Ecole, offered a
systematic education in architectural
design from 1819, when the school was
reorganized, until well into the t w entieth
century." The teachings at the Ecole
emphasized an approach to design with
the application of certain principles,
rather than any one partic ular style." The
student w as to find a parti or solution to a
particular problem, which he would then
present by means of elevations, sections,
and plans of the required building. Methods
of good composition were learned by
studying historical prototypes in detail.
Imitation was discouraged, but elements
of earlier styles were to be learned and
adapted to the type and conditions of
the building required in the programme.
Students progressed through the Ecole by
participating in monthly competitions as
well as the most prestigious, annual competition
for Le Grand Prix de Rome. That
is very well summarized by art historian
Rosalind M. Pepall :
The ultimate goal of Beaux-Arts design
was clarity and order in the composition
of a bu ilding. To achieve this aim, the Ecole
stressed the classical rules of pr oportion
and composition in the plan and elevation
of a structure. A symmetrical, ax ia l plan
was pr-eferred that would unite parts of
the building and clearly define the path of
circulation. Symmetry in t he design was
also recommended as a way of giving the
structure a fee ling of monumentality,
a c ommon aim in Beaux-Arts inspired
buildings. In addition the Ecole recommended
The Maxwells w ere fully versed in Beau x­
Arts principles of design by the time of
the competition for the Legislative Building
. Like other Canadian architects of
their generation, they were encouraged
to train in the United States, where a
systematic approach to Beaux-Arts principles
was having a growing impact on
the design of buildings from the 1870s
onwards. 25 Ed w ard Maxwell, having
apprenticed with well-established Montreal
architect Alexander Dunlop (1847-
1923), 26 went to Boston and, by 1886,
at age 19, was in the office of Shelley,
Rutan & Coolidge, heirs to the practice of
famed H.H. Richardson, who had studied
at the Ecole, and had learned the value of
artistic collaboration involving sculptors,
painters, and landscape designers. The
architectural ideas of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology permeated the
Boston architectural milieu, ideas which
Edward and, later, his older brother William,
absorbed. After opening an office
in Montreal in 1892, Edward went to Ch i-
cago to attend the Columbian Exhibition
in 1893. That was an important landmark
for bringing Beau x-Arts and City Beau-
tiful principles into the forefront of the
architectural milieu. The creation of a
theatrical setting, especially in the Court
of Honour, with its grand, monumental
buildings, some to designs of McKim
Mead & White, and their careful siting,
were designed according to the rational
and axi al order of Beaux-Arts principles
and planning. William was in Bo ston
from 1895 to 1898, where he w orked in
the large, well-established firm of Winslow
and Wetherall. He took a particular
JSS AC I JSEAC 32 > N" 'I > 2007
69

R HONA G OODSPEED > REPOR T I RAPPORT
interest in the important Beaux-Artsdesigned
Boston Public Library built to
designs of McKim, Mead & White, opened
in 1895, a building that stimulated further
interest in Beaux-Arts classicism: the
building was decorated by some of the
best American sculptors and painters. In
1899, after a short return to Montreal,
William went to Paris to study in the atelier
of Jean-Louis Pas cal (1837-1920), a
leading Beaux-Arts architect closely associated
w ith the Ecole, whose ideal was
architecture that was, and looked, distinguished.
William's talent as a painter and
draftsman made him an ideal student of
the Beaux-Arts method, as the Ecole considered
the architect to be an artist. It was
William w ho carried out the designs for
furniture, plaster, carved woodwork, and
other fittings for the firm's projects. 27
American traditions for the design of
state capitols according to Beaux-Arts
principles also had a significant impact
on the design of the Saskatchewan Legislative
Building. 28 Their cla ssica l symmetry,
vocabulary, and monumental domes
were inspired by the United States Capitol
in Washington (1855-1865) and its many
derivatives in individual states. 29 That
long-established tradition of the domed,
symmetrically composed capitol building
was transported north to Canada by
Francis Mawson Rattenbury (1867-1935)
w ith his designs for the British Columbia
Parliament Buildings (1893-1897) in Victoria
.30 Exam ples of American capitols
designed according to Beaux-Arts principles,
wh ich influenced the design of the
Saskatchewan building, were the previously
mentioned Minnesota State Capitol
(1895-1904) by Cass Gilbert and the
Rhode Island State Capitol (1895-1905} by
McKim, Mead & White. 31
Fa sh ion, immediate precedents, and
architectural experience were factors that
led the Maxwell brothers to create the
design for the Legislative Building in the
ultimately French tradition of the Beaux­
Arts. However, in 1915, the exterior was
described as "a free adaptation of English
Renaissance work [...] a logical, sensible
and architecturally interesting solution of
the problem that marks it unmistakably as
representative of the British sovereignty
under which the Province is governed.""
To express the province's British affiliations,
the architects turned to the style
of the Ed w ardian Baroque, which carried
British connotations and was fashionable
in both Great Britain and Canada at the
time; they incorporated some of its features
within the overall Beaux-Arts design
of the building. The Edwardian Baroque
was a free adaptation of the early eighteenth-century
manners of British architects
Wren, Hawksmoor, Vanbrugh,
Gibbs, and Archer to modern building
requirements and was popular in England
for its predominantly English roots, which
fitted well with the fashionable theory
of the time that a modern style should
have national origins. This style expressed
a sense of patriotic history, gave outward
evidence of prosperity, and appeared in
many parts of the country for public and
other building types. 33 The vocabulary of
the style included channelled masonry,
robust modelling, use of segmental pediments,
and a Baroque sense of movement,
decorative features which w ere to
appear on the Saskatchewan Legislative
Building.
The Saskatchewan Legislative Building
was designed as a truly fine expression
of Beau x-Arts principles, with its imposing
monumentality, its clearly readable
and logical axial plan based on a cross, its
perfect symmetry, and its finely balanced
classical design. In addition, the function
of the building was expressed on the exterior
through its monumental design. The
centrepiece of the fa

R HONA G OODSPEED > REPORT I RAPPORT
FIG . 19 a- b. DETAILS OF THE ORIGINAL WOOD FITIINGS IN THE CABINET ROOM, INCLUDING THE FIREPLACE, THE WOODWORK -PILASTERS, ARCHES AND PANELING-
AND AN ORIGINAL MAXWELL CLOCK CASE. I R. GooosPEEO. 2004
GILDED PLASTER WORK,
FIG. 20. CABINET LOUNGE, FORMER LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR'S OFFICE, INCLUDING AN ORIGINAL
MAXWELL FIREPLACE. I R. GOOOSPE ED, 2004
FIG. 21. VIEW OF THE LIBRARY: THE STACKS, WHICH MAY BE GLIMPSED THRO UGH THE DOORWAY
OF THE READING ROOM.I R. GOODSPEED. 2004
FIG. 22. ROTUNDA ON FIRST FLOOR, WITH THE BOTIOM OF THE WE LL VISIB LE IN THE CEILING AND A
VIEW OF THE CORRIDOR OF THE EAST WING. I R. GOOOSPEED, 2004
FIG. 23. EAST ELEVATION OF LEGISLATIVE BUILDING SHOWING THE LAYOUT OF PATHS BYTHOMAS
CHURCH AND THE LOCATION OF TRAFALGAR FOUNTAIN, INSTALLED IN 1963. THE SIDE ELEVATION OF
THE EAST WING IS SHOWN BEFORE THE CONSTRUGION OF THE NEW ENTRANCE IN THE MID-1960S.
JSSAC I JSE AC 32 > N• 1 > 2 007
71

R HONA G OOD SPEED > REPORT I RAPPORT
sides, and tall windows at the corners
framed by curving channelled masonry
and curved, broken pediments. Features
from that level break into that of the
copper dome above, recalling Baroque
exuberance, including carved decorative
features above the pediments and sma ll
gables on the longer sides. The dome
itself is eight-sided pierced by sma ll oval
windows and capped by a lantern with
intricate decoration. From a distance, the
windows behind the columns give the
dome a lightness and somewhat floating
quality.
The four main levels of the building are
clearly defined along the wings in part by
means of different window patterns, patterns
which are largely carried along the
side elevations and around to the rear,
south fa~ade (figs. 4-5). Here the central
southern wing is emphasized by a somewhat
more uniform pattern, setting it
somewhat apart as the container of the
legislative chamber. The second level,
where the legislative chamber is located,
has the tallest, largest, and most decorative
windows, which are surmounted by
smooth stone panels. In contrast, the first
floor is defined by paired rectangular windows
and channelled masonry. At either
end of the fa~ade, along the short east and
west elevations and at the ends of the rear
elevation, are wing porticos of two pairs
of attached columns rising through two
leve ls and capped by a broken pediment,
recalling the Edwardian Baroque (fig. 8) .
Here the central w indows are somewhat
larger, described on the Maxwell plans as
French windows. 36 Architectural and sculptural
ornament of swags, grain, fruit, lions'
heads, gargoyles, and geometric designs,
enrich those features, recalling the Beaux­
Arts approach to decoration, along the
front mark entrances, clearly indicated by
staircases (figs. 8 and 10). Beside the porticos,
the channel led masonry, recalling the
Edwardian Baroque, rises to frame and
emphasize them (figs. 7-8) . The building
as a whole, whose proportions are very
grand, is beautifully held together by its
design, especially by the repeating window
patterns, the repetition of smaller
porticos echoing the main central one, the
channelled masonry carried right around
the building and up to flank the porticos,
the pronounced stringcourses above the
basement and the first levels, and the continuous
parapet at the roof level (figs. 4-5) .
The gentle but fine articulation of all the
elevations, along with the contrasting surfaces
of channelled and smooth masonry,
is enhanced by the use of the warmth of
the Tyndall limestone, with its yellow and
brown hues. The building is a truly fine
expression of an overall application of classica
l Beaux-Arts principles, enlivened with
the controlled exuberance of Ed ward ian
Baroque features.
Interior: Plan
The Beaux-Arts principles of symmetry
and axiality are expressed on the interior
as well as on the exterior. The plan of the
building is a Latin cross with the principal,
shorter axis running from north to
south, that is from the main entrance to
the rear, and with a rotunda at the centre,
expressed from the basement to the
third floor (fig. 6) ." Within that shorter
axis were located the most important of
the buildings functions, in particular the
legislative chamber at the rear, and the
offices of the Premier of the province
and of the Lieutenant-Governor along
the front. Within the long wings were
located the offices of the government
departments. The plan is expressive of
Beaux-Arts design, in its clear definition
of the principal paths of circulation and
of spaces according to function.
The main axis flows through a sequence
of well-defined, increasingly monumental
spaces to the legislative chamber, the
focal point of the interior, "The room
above all others for wh ich this building
was erected" 38 . The triple entrance opens
into the smal l enclosed vestibule and then
into the larger foyer on the first floor
(fig. 6 and 11). From here a large and wide
entrance unmistakably directs the path of
circulation to the Staircase of Honour, two
flights occupying a space rising through
two floors, having a vaulted opaque skylight
above, and open bays on the sides
at the second floor, to allow natural light
in from windows located in the corridors
on either side (fig. 12). The stairs rise to
the second floor and to the openness of
the spacious, impressive domed rotunda,
designed to be a magnificent anteroom
to the legislative chamber (figs. 15 and
49). In the centre of the rotunda floor
was a well, surrounded by a marble balustrade
and opening to the floor below,
providing it too with natural light. The
rotunda had a lofty domed ceiling made
of plaster, visually supported on four
huge piers, and rose up through the third
floor, where natural light filtered in from
the dome above. Columns on the second
floor created straight aisles around the
rotunda which supported a mezzanine on
the third floor (figs. 14 and 31) .
On the south, the rotunda provided
access to the legislative chamber, through
a central main entrance of double doors,
beneath the mezzanine (figs. 31). Once in
the chamber, the space was, in contrast to
that of the rotunda, enclosed, but partly
lit by natural light from above. According
to the architects, that room was designed
"after making a study of successful rooms
of a like character" and "an unobstructed
view of the speaker's rostrum from every
seat in the house is obtained, as well as
from every seat in the public galleries,
provided on three sides of the room ." 39
The galleries were constructed of oak
and placed in long recesses along the
four sides of the room, the speaker's and
press gallery on the south side, behind
72
JSSAC I JSE AC 32 > N• 1 > 2 007

R HONA GO ODSPEED > REPORT I RAPPORT
the speaker's chair, and the three public
galleries on the other three sides (figs. 16-
17 and 32).
Corridors, or aisles to the east and w est
of the main axis along the second floor
led around the outside of the chamber,
providing access to its ground floor on the
east and w est, to w ashrooms and smoking
rooms on the opposite sides of the corridors,
and to the speaker's apartments at
the rear. Those corridors, becoming aisles
in the rotunda where they opened to the
long wings on the east and west, continued
over to the front of the building, to
the executive office suite of the Premier's
and Provincial Governor's offices and the
executive council chamber, located in
"the place of honour." 40 The location of
this executive suite of offices at the front
of the building is said to symbolize openness
to the public. 41
The rotunda al so provided clear and open
access to the long corridors stretching out
to the east and west. On the second floor,
located to the east, w ere the reading and
sta ck rooms (library) on the north side to
protect the space from intense sunlight,
and committee rooms; and to the w est,
the w riting room, t w elve offices for members
and the public w aiting room. Above,
on the third floor, within the wings w ere
the Attorney General ' s Department,
departments of Education and Railways,
the Provincial Secretary and Municipal
Commissioners and, along the north,
draughting rooms, for the Chief Engineer,
Public Works, and the Department
of Railways. Below on the first floor w ere
the principal government departments,
including the Treasury, Public Works, and
Agriculture, as well as the post office near
the main entrance. In the basement w ere
the members' dining room, a smoking
room, a private dining room and kitchen
department, as well as the government
printer, storage, and quarters for the
janitor and engineer. Access between
floors was provided by stairwells at the
ends of the east and west wings, where
they were lit by large French w indow s,
w hich also allow ed natural light to shine
back into the long corridors. Tw o stairw
ells w ere also adjacent to the rotunda
corridors on the w est and east, and elevators
provided access to the four levels 42 A
metal staircase within the dome provided
access to the lantern (fig. 33).
Interior Decoration
As part of their contract, the Maxwells
were also commissioned to select the fittings
and furnishings for the legislative
chamber and other main parts of the
building • 3 According to Beau x-Arts theories,
all aspects of the building's design
and decoration were an integral part of
the whole; fittings and furniture were to
be appropriate to, and reflect the function
of the spaces, as the choice of materials,
with the highest quality materials
used for the most important spaces. That
integration was a primary consideration
in the Ma xwell brothers' w ork and they
demonstrated their characteristic commitment
and care in the execution of their
designs, choosing skilled craftsmen and/or
selecting companies that produced finelymade
products. They placed a high value
on collaboration between architect and
craftsman. The quality and workmanship
in their buildings were outstanding••
This was reflected, for example, in the
choice of the Bromsgrove Guild (Canada),
for much of the decoration and
furniture. 45 The guild, originally from
near Birmingham, England, w here it was
called the Bromsgrove Guild of Applied
Arts, was a loose association of artistscraftsmen
who followed the ideals of
the British Arts and Crafts Movement
and emphasized the revival of handcrafted
decorative art objects and their
integration with architecture and the
other fine arts. Its specialities included
decorative plasterwork and architectural
metalwork. Their letterhead advertised
them as "The Bromsgrove Guild (Canada)
Limited, Montreal: Woodw orkers, Carvers
& Cabinet Makers, Plaster w orkers
and Artists in Decoration." 46 Until 1938,
w hen their Montreal w orkshop closed,
the guild produced a variety of commissions
for the Maxwell brothers, including
carved woodwork, hand-wrought metalwork,
decorative plaster, furniture, and
stone sculpture. The Legislative Building
was one of the most important commissions
on which they collaborated • ' The
Maxwells also chose other firms for furnishings
and fittings w ith care.
The focus of the most elaborate decoration
and finest materials w as the main
north/south axis, from the ve stibule
through to the legislative chamber. From
the vestibule through to the rotunda, different
types of marble were used extensively
for wall panelling, column s and
pilasters, balustrades and carving (figs. 11-
17 and 34). The legislative chamber, somew
hat more sombre, w as furni shed and
decorated predominantly w ith oak. Plasterw
ork was used for ceiling decoration
in all those areas and, where moulded in
relief, w as usually covered w ith gold leaf.
Symbolism abounded throughout, w ith
iconography making reference to the new
province and to English royalty.
In the foyer, for example, was a floor
mosaic of the provincial shield, exquisite
marble carvings betw een the doors from
the vestibule exhibiting shields decorated
w ith GR, the initials of the king (Georgius
Rex - George V became king in 1910),
surrounded by laurel leaves, and ceiling
plasterw ork w ith gilded borders of foliage.
Brass lamp fixtures lighted the spa ce:
one suspended from the ceiling over the
mosaic, and others mounted on the wall.
Carved marble frames also decorated the
JSSAC I JS EAC 32 > N" 1 > 2 007
73

R HONA GOODSPEED > REPORT I RAPPORT
FIG. 24. PLAN FOR WASCANA PARK INDICATING SITE FOR THE LEGISLATIVE BUILDING, GARDENS
AND GENERAL LAYOUT OF LANDSCAPE. FR EDERI CK TODD, 1907. 1 SASKATCHEWAN ARCHIVES BOARO, REPRO·
DUCED IN RONALD REES, WASCANA CENTRE: A METAPHOR FOR PRAIRIE SETI LEMENT, JOURNAl OF GARDEN HISTORY, VOL 3, 0. 3, P. 22 1.)
FIG. 25. EDWARD & W. S. MAXWE LL, COMPETITION DRAWING FOR SASKATCHEWAN
LEGIS LATIVE BUILDING.
FIG. 26. EDWARD & W. S. MAXWELL, SECOND FLOOR PLAN, SASKATCHEWAN LEGISLATIVE BUI LDI NG.
~- PARLIAMENT ·BUIWINGS-REGINA· CANAD'>• " v
L_ _________ ~------~--~·-·---- --~=-~-~=-~~"--- ------~~
FIG. 27. EDWARD & W. S. MAXWELL, SECTION, SASKATCHEWAN LEGISLATIVE BUI LDI NG, WITH THE
MAIN ENTRANCE ON THE LEFT AND THE LEGISLATI VE CHAMBER ON THE RIGHT
walls. Above the grand staircase, plasterwork,
including gilded roses and maple
leaves, and the pillars framing the open
bays on the second level w ere panelled
in dark green marble and were joined
by a balustrade of marble and metalw
ork, the latter executed by the Bromsgrove
Guild. The lavish decoration of the
rotunda included dark green Cypress marble
co lumns supporting the four ribs of
the dome at the corners and plinths supporting
shie ld s with the initials GR, sup ­
porting a crown (figs. 13-15). The domed
ceiling formed of plaster was decorated
with large gilded rosettes and ribs leading
up to the skylight. In addition were piers
and, along the aisles, pilasters, sheathed
in dark green marble. Above the entrance
to the chamber was a marble relief carving
of the Canadian coat of arms and
immediately below w as a metal transom
with the initials ER Edwardius Rex (died
in 1910) . The aisles leading to the executive
suite of offices w ere, in addition to
being panelled with marble, decorated
w ith marble niches. On the third floor
along the mezzanine, the ceiling was decorated
with gilded plasterwork, including
provincial symbols of buffalo heads. The
four lunettes at the mezzanine level were
intended for mural paintings, but only the
one on the south was completed.•• Before
the White Man Came, executed by John
Leman, a former Saskatchewa n Public
Works employee, in the 1930s, refers to
provincial history, showing a peaceful
and prosperous Aboriginal village in the
Qu'Appelle Valley, where severa l people
are preparing to attack a herd of buffalo,
visible on the opposite shores of a nearby
lake (fig. 14) 49
Within the legislative chamber, the speaker's
dais, the galleries, and the furniture
were made of oak (figs. 16-17 and 34) .
The desks on the right side were for the
Government while the opposition sat on
the opposite side. In the centre were t w o
tables, one for the clerk and the other for
the placement of the mace during parliamentary
sessions. The tables and desks
74
JSSAC I JSE AC 32 > N" 1 > 2007

R HONA GooDSPEED > REPORT I RAPPORT
were executed by a local firm, The Crafts- the Canadian coat of arms. The Maxwells
men Ltd. of Regina, who advertised as designed a range of furniture, including at
Decorative Artists, Cabinet Makers, Mill- least one clock case, for the council chamwork,
Regina, 5° and were chosen by the ber, executed in oak by the Bromsgrove
Maxwells. Of the fittings in the recesses, Guild around 1912 (fig. 19) -' 5 Clocks were
the speaker's dais was appropriately the also designed for the main hallways and
most elaborate, with panels along the were engraved with frequently appearing
front, and intricate wood carvings of initials GR.
urns, flowers, and wheat sheaves, symbolizing
Saskatchewan, in the balustrades Grounds
on either side, as well as the initials ER
(Edward ius Rex). 51 Behind the speaker's The creation of the grounds for the Legislachair
was the Canadian coat of arms and tive Building took place within the context
below, installed a little later, was a silk of the City Beautiful Movement, which had
tapestry with Saskatchewan's emblem, its origins in the belief of architects and
woven by craftswomen: nuns from a landscape reformers, influenced by the
Montreal convent. The four wooden galleries
were united by the design of the ugliness of cities could be overcome with
urban-reform movement, that the ills and
balustrade, which repeated the motif of a program of civic beautification achieved
a series of circles. The small wooden pediments
on the east and west galleries were tion. The movement began in the United
through good design and effective regula­
decorated with sculpted relief carvings of States with the park movement associated
beavers, symbols of Canada. The carvings with distinguished landscape architect
in the chamber were probably executed Frederick La w Olmsted (1822-1903) and
by woodcarver Thomas Middleton Pryde his widely admired precedent of Central
of the Bromsgrove Guild." Two lamps Park (Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, begun in
were placed on either side of the entrance 1858} in New York. 5 6 The event that contributed
most to furthering the City Beau­
(fig. 32). Plasterwork was also used for
the ceilings of the recesses, which were tiful Movement, however, appears to have
coffered, whi le each of the four corners been the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in
of the room had a fluted pilaster with Chicago, already mentioned above in the
a capital capped by a crown. The Max- context of its role in promoting Beaux-Arts
wells proposed green carpeting for the design, and for which Olmsted had served
chamber, based on tradition, but red was as ch ief landscape architect. With that
chosen instead."
exhibition, a City Beautiful Movement was
said to have "swept the country," 57 having
The Maxwells also paid close attention to a major impact on architects in numerous
other important areas in the building, for American cities.
example the library and the executive suite
of offices. The Premier's and Lieutenant- According to historian W. Van Nus, the
Governor's offices and the executive council three main principles of City Beautiful
chamber all had unique fireplaces, probably design were coherence, variety, and civic
all designed by the Maxwells and executed grandeur-'" Coherence referred to harmony
in respect to the design of group­
by the Bromsgrove Guild. 54 The council
chamber was fitted with an elaborate and ings of buildings. The purpose of variety
beautifully carved mahogany fireplace, was to avoid visual monotony (such as in a
wood panelling, and gilded plasterwork grid plan) by means of vistas, terminating
including ceiling mouldings and a relief of for example with a building, and varieties
FIG. 28. LEGISLATIVE BUILDING UNDER CONSTRUCTION,
IN 1910.
FIG. 29. LEGIS LATIVE BUILDI NG AND GROUND S,
CIRCULATION AND PLAN TIN GS PLAN. WATERCOLOUR BY
EDWARD & WS. MAXWELL, 1910.
FIG. 30. THOMAS MAWSON, PROPOSED SU BD IVISI ON
OF PROPE RTY NEAR WASCANA LAKE, RE GI NA, FOR TH E
GOVERNMENT OF SASKATCHEWAN; 1913.
JSSAC I JSE AC 32 > N" 1 > 2007
75

RHONA GOODSPEED > REPORT I RAPPORT
in street patterns, with the introduction
of curves and diagonals, as well as open
spaces for monuments and seats, to surprise
and delight the visitor. Parks were
not only to include areas for recreation,
but also to be integrated into a system
of parkways. Civic grandeur, the most
publicized of the three principles, usually
meant grandiose public buildings set
in spacious surroundings, or a "civic centre"
functioning as a focal point within an
overall city design. That was thought of
as a way to introduce a beautiful building
or buildings into the city. Such a building
could be emphasized by grand avenues. In
1906, Percy Nobbs observed that spacious
grounds were particularly important for
public buildings in the classical style, for
they depended on proportion for their
effect. 59
It was undoubtedly City Beautiful ideals
that first led Scott to envision the Legislative
Building set within a large park having
beautified grounds and, initially, to
hire landscape architect Frederick G. Todd
(1876-1948) to design such a plan. Todd
had trained with Olmsted and Sons in
Brookline, Massachusetts, and had moved
to Montreal in 1900, to become Canada's
first resident landscape architect and
town-planning consultant. 60 (Todd had
been retained by the Ottawa Improvement
Commission in 1902 to prepare a
study on Ottawa's parkways.) Todd's plan
of 1907 reflected City Beautiful thought,
setting the proposed building within a
large park extending north and south of
Wascana Lake, and carefully aligning it
to the opposite, north side of the water
(fig. 24). Todd wrote:
The location of the parliament building is
s uggested at the axis of Smith Street. on
the highest elevation across the lake. This
seems to be the best location. as it ha s
the most commanding aspect and such an
important building as this should certainly
be placed on the axis of some street, and
Smith Street seems the only one of several
streets which would be practical.
Axially aligning it with Smith Street, he
chose the site well back from the water
and set a formal garden in front of it,
"thus rendering it more important as seen
from the town." 61 Todd's plan also proposed
a general circulation and landscape
plan for the grounds with open spaces
and trees, and a road along the shore.
Around that time, Todd also produced a
detailed plan for plantings around the
building. 62
In 1910, the Maxwells produced a fairly
detailed plan for the immediate grounds
in consultation with Todd. 63 Based on
Beaux-Arts and City Beautiful principles,
the plan was carefully designed
to enhance the building's importance
through emphasizing its monumentality
and design (fig. 29) . The main vehicular
access to the grounds was from Albert
Street, on the west, along a wide avenue
(now Legislative Drive) bisecting the
property in front of the building, over to
the shoreline road, and providing access
to a semi-circular driveway leading to the
building's main entrance. A terrace was
planned to surround the perimeter of the
building. The large lawns, the garden in
front, and the dock on the shore were
retained on axis with the main entrance.
The immediate design and layout of roads
and paths around the building were symmetrical,
while a road and a footpath
lined with trees paralleling the winding
shoreline added a little variety to the site.
The conservatory was to be behind the
building, and behind it, the powerhouse
for the Legislative Building. Around that
time, George Watt, gardener for the
Government House who had trained in
Scotland and apprenticed on the estate
of the Duchess of Athol," 4 had also been
given the responsibility of supervising
plantings on the legislature grounds. He
made suggestions for additions for recreational
purposes, including facilities for
lawn bowling and tennis "for use of members
while house is in session [...] preferably
to the south of the building," sports
grounds, and a bathing pool. 65
With the Maxwell landscape plan, Todd's
initial plantings plan apparently proved
unworkable. 66 That, along with a decision
by the Government to include an
area on the east side of Wascana Lake
within the larger park, led Malcolm Ross,
landscape architect for the province, to
approach celebrated English landscape
architect Thomas Henry Mawson (1861-
1933), about the need for a new design.
Historian William Brennan has described
Mawson as "the most influential proponent
of City Beautiful planning ever
to set foot in Canada." 67 A designer of
international stature, Mawson had also
been shaped by the English Garden City
movement, whose values were similar to
those of the City Beautiful movement,
in that its goal was beautification of the
suburbs, with the inclusion of parks and
variety in street layout. Mawson had laid
out numerous public parks and worked
on town planning for clients in Great
Britain and Europe; his prominent firm,
Thomas Mawson and Sons, had recently
opened an office in Vancouver and, in
1912, he agreed to undertake the project
for the design of the Legislative Building
grounds, as well as the larger landscape
plan for the city. 68 The highly impressive
Mawson Plan of 1913 was developed in
close consultation with Ross, and covered
a large area, including formal gardens on
the opposite, north side of Wascana Lake
and formal landscaping and terraces to
the west, the proposed location of the
Government House (fig. 30). Probably
because the layout according to the
Maxwell design had already begun to be
implemented by the time the Mawson
76
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007

R HONA G OODSPEED > RE PORT I RAPPORT
plan was being drawn up," 9 its general
design was largely incorporated into
the larger plan. In any event, the plans
for grounds immediately surrounding
the legislature were the only part of
that City Beautiful plan that was fully
implemented. 70
The portion of the plan surrounding the
Legislative Building exhibited generally
the same layout of roads and paths as in
the Maxwell plan, but made changes to
the arrangement of plantings. 71 Symmetrical
gardens were located on the east and
west, and trees were to be planted around
the lawns on either side of the large front
garden and to the rear of the building.
For the gardens and lawn in front of
the building, Ross substituted ornamental
flowerbeds of annuals between the
wide stretches of lawn. On the rear, a mall
was shown, with space for future government
buildings to the south, and the two
roads parallel to the rear of the building
fully crossed the property from east to
west. Ross, in collaboration with Watt,
prepared detailed plans from Mawson's
general recommendations.
A variety of trees were planted early on,
including elm, spruce, Russian popla r,
maple, and ash. In 1914, formal hedges of
caragana and maple trees were planted
following the plans supplied by Thomas
Mawson & Sons . 72 Fourteen types of
perennials were planted. 73 The beds for
the large ornamental gardens at the front
of the building were laid out according
to the Mawson plan in 1920, and planted
the following year. 74 Concrete steps were
built to the immediate south of the garden.
By now, many visitors came to the
grounds, for recreation and sport. The
landscape at the rear of the building was
also developed with the construction of
the conservatory around 1919 (used to
supply gardens for government sites
throughout the province) and the plant-
ing of numerous trees. Some sports activities
had been allotted temporary spaces,
including the tennis club by 1920, shown
to the southeast by 1926; comfort stations
were also erected. 75 However, the plans
for the landscape to the rear as shown
in the Mawson plan, including the mall,
were not carried out.
In preparing the framework and criteria
for the evaluation of historic parks and
gardens, architectural historian Nathalie
Clerk identified the grounds around the
Legislative Building for the example of
an urban park in the style of Edwardianperiod
gardens.
Th ese gar dens reflect t he m ajor aesthetic
t re nds of the early twentieth century.
particu lar ly t hose that f low ed from the
t eachings of the Eco le des Beaux-Ar t s and
t ho se that were po pularized by t he City
Be autiful Movement in t he United States.
Thomas H. Mawson here used the id eas of
the City Bea ut iful Movement, t he Garden
City Movem ent and the Ecole des Be aux­
Arts de Paris t o take advantage of the site
t opography. He cr eated pat hs. gardens
and recreat iona l spaces that refl ect t hat
era's likin g for spaces designed in a ca r eful ,
ba lanced and rational way-' 6
The design of the grounds, while originally
intended as one component in a
much larger City Beautiful plan, is nevertheless
an excellent expression of Beaux­
Arts and City Beautiful principles. The
grounds were developed to enhance the
public importance and grandeur of the
building, by extending the two axes of the
building into the landscape, emphasizing
in particular the main north/south axis;
and by their symmetrical design, which
elegantly frames the building's symmetry.
The site was also developed as a public
park with gardens, paths and roads, as
well as spaces for recreational purposes.
Although the other major components of
the Mawson plan weren't executed, nevertheless,
the vista of the building from
the opposite side of the Lake remains.
Historical Associations
Over the past eight decades, the building
has played an integral role in Saskatchewan's
politics and history as a province.
One of its important associations is its
role in the establishment of Medicare in
Canada, described as the country's most
valued social program. 77
State-sponsored health insurance was
first introduced in Canada at the provincial
level, as various provincial governments
introduced different models
of hospital and medical insurance in the
1940s and 1950s. The contemporary universal
Canadian health insurance system,
however, had its genesis in the province
of Saskatchewan under the Cooperative
Commonwealth Federation. The legislation
was introduced into the legislature
on March 12, 1946, and received Royal
Assent on April 4, 1946. It was scheduled
to make benefits available on January 1,
1947. Universal comprehensive medical
care insurance was introduced in Saskatchewan
in 1962. Each was in due course
used as a model at the federal level, with
the passage of the Federal Hospital Insurance
and Diagnostic Services Act in 1958,
and the Federal Medical Care Act in 1966.
By 1971, all the provinces had universal
medical and hospital services insurance
plans eligible for federal cost-sharing
based on the system implemented by
Saskatchewan. 78
Conclusion
The Saskatchewan Legislative Building is
a truly outstanding example of a largescale,
monumental building expressing
Beaux-Arts principles of classicism
including symmetry, which enhances
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007
77

R HONA GOODSPEE D > REPORT I RAPPORT
FIG . 31. ROTUNDA IN 1924, BEFORE THE EXECUTION OF LEMAN 'S PAINTING; SHOWING ENTRANCE
TO LEGISLATIVE CHAM BER BEHIND TH E WELL AND TO THE WEST WING, TO THE RIGHT.
FIG. 32. LEGI SLATIVE CHAMBER IN 1924, WITH ALTERED SPEAKER'S DAIS ON THE RIGH T.
FIG . 33. THE METAL STAIRCASE IN THE DOME, LEADING TO THE
LANTERN. I R. GOOOSPEED, 2004
its monumentality, of clarity and logic
in composition expressing its function,
brought together in a design of the
utmost elegance and grace. The Edwardian
Baroque features of the style of the
dome w ith the octagonal shape of the
drum and the dome itself, its overlapping
levels, its curvilinear details, and its var- w ith which the Maxwells ordered space
ied articulation; the huge porticos on the and volume to serve the needs of imperial
front and rear of the east and west w ings, grandeur, is one of the achievements of
as w ell as those at ends, convey a sense of the American-and French-inspired Beau x-
restrained exuberance, enhanced by the Arts manner in Canada." 79
w armth of the Tyndall limestone facing of
the building. The building is highly attrac- INTEGRITY
tive from a distance, as well as closer up, -----------------
w hen the details of the surface articulation
and sculptural effects become clear. tion ofthe provincial government remains
The function of the building as the loca­
The warmth of the Tyndall limestone w ith unchanged, though the Lieutenant-Governor
and government departments no
its yel low ish -gold colour is accentuated
by sun light. The careful ly landscaped longer have premises there. Overall the
grounds were effectively designed and integrity of the architecture on the exterior;
of the overall layout, fittings, and
laid out, extending the axes and symmetry
of the building into the landscape, decoration of the interior, especial ly in
in order to emphasize its design and the most important spaces relating to
enhance its functional and symbolic sig- the primary functions of the building; and
nificance. The large ornamental garden of the landscape is very largely good to
in the front flanked by hedges and trees excellent.
frames the building and helps further to
create a sense of civic grandeur, making Major structural deficiencies, however,
the building stil l more imposing. In the became obvious w ith the appearance
w ords of architectural historian Kelly of cracks in the building, visible both on
Crossman, "the Saskatchewan Parliament the exterior and in the interior, as w ell
House, with its American architectural as with the dislodgement of stone from
antecedents, with its situation in a landscaped
garden, and in view of the ski ll shifting of the clay foundation on wh
the exterior in place s. That was caused by
ich
78
,ISSAC I JSEAC 32 > 1\1" 1 > 200 7

RHONA GOODSPEED > REPORT I RAPPORT
the building was constructed in the areas
of the dome and the north, south, and
east wings. The dome shifted slightly;
that and weather conditions over time
damaged its masonry construction. To
address the problem, a major rehabilitation
project was carried out in 1997-2002.
The foundation of the building was stabilized
with the installation of one thousand
eight hundred piles under the north,
south, east, and centre core areas of the
building. That involved the excavation
of a three-metre deep sub-basement
beneath the original basement. The latest
in technology was employed for this
undertaking. 80
Evolution of Site-Building
While the principal function of the building
as location of the legislative chamber
and offices for the members of Government
has remained unchanged, some evolution
has taken place with the growth
of the Government and the public service,
and the unfolding of history. 81 The
government departments have moved
out of the building and spaces have
been turned over for use by government
ministers. Various small sculptures have
been added over the years, for example
in the rotunda, with the installation of
small busts on pedestals of prominent
political figures, including John G. Diefenbaker,
Walter Scott, and Tommy Douglas.
Above the grand staircase and in alcoves
on either side of the bottom of the stairs
are maquettes made in 1921 for Canadian
battlefields memorials in Europe. In
1966, spaces were altered to create art
galleries in the basement and on the first
floor of the rotunda, mainly for display of
paintings from the art collection begun
by Premier Scott, including portraits of
former premiers, lieutenant-governors,
and speakers (fig. 22). 82 In 1982-1983,
television cameras were installed and
well hidden in the walls of the chamber
(fig. 16) and a press room was created,
adjacent to the chamber. Current plans
for the rotunda include a new painting
for the north lunette, opposite the one
already in place.
Alterations to the exterior architecture
include the installation of new dividedlight
aluminium windows throughout
on the first, second, and third levels,
designed to simulate the originals. The
new windows at the basement level did
not introduce mullions to resemble the
original windows (fig. 4). 83 New entrances
to the basement level have been added
on the east and west elevations of the
ends of the wings and apparently on the
east and west sides of the centrepiece
(fig. 23) . That involved the construction
of stairs from grade down to the basement
and the addition of balustrades,
made from Tyndall limestone, to match
the original. These changes have not
significantly altered the building, partly
because those on either side of the centrepiece
are well hidden, and those at the
end elevations of the wing are located
beneath porticos, as are the original
wing entrances along the front fac;ade .
Most recently, as part of the 1997-2001
rehabilitation project, a new barrier free
entrance was built in the fac;ade, immediately
to the right of the centrepiece.
In the design of the balustrade flanking
the ramp, care was taken in the choice of
Tyndall limestone to match the original
used for the building, and in the addition
of a second balustrade on the left side
of the centrepiece, in an attempt to balance
the design. Though the precise symmetry
of the building has been altered
with the addition of the ramp, it is fairly
well hidden due to the very large scale
of the building and, from a distance, the
landscape features in front of it.
The basic layout of the building remains
unchanged, that is the principal progres-
sion of spaces from the main entrance
through to the legislative chamber, and
the long hallways with stairwells at the
ends, in the east and west wings, which
provide space for offices and other functions
with stairwells at the ends (fig. 25).
The main north/south axis is very similar to
how it was when built. Changes include,
from north to south, beginning with the
foyer, new glass doors replacing the original
solid wood doors, the obstruction of
the flow of circulation with the introduction
of a desk for security purposes, and
the introduction of furnishings for displays
(figs. 11). Along the grand staircase,
handrails were installed. The rotunda on
the second and third floors has been very
largely retained as it was when originally
constructed, with few if any alterations
to the original design (compare figs. 15
and 31). The floor of the corridors on the
second floor have been resurfaced with
marble, replacing the original terrazzo.
The legislative chamber is very similar
to how it was when first built (compare
figs. 16-17 with 32 and 34) . In 1978 the
dais was restored to its original form with
the two balustrades joined by a central
panelled section. 84 Changes include the
replacement of the original burlap panels
on the walls with acoustic panels,
added very early on to address acoustical
problems in the chamber, and in the
adaptation of the corners of room to
the needs of modern video and sound
recording technology, by incorporating
a system well hidden behind acoustic
panels similar to gallery walls. The recent
stripping and refinishing of woodwork in
a light stain has also altered its overall
effect. The lampposts flanking the main
entrance have been replaced, with posts
of a slightly different style but of similar
size (compare figs. 16 and 32). 85 The
design of the skylight has changed with
simple rectangular panels replacing the
original design where each panel was
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007
79

RHONA G OO DSPE ED > REPORT I RA PPORT
surrounded by a narrow perimeter band
of wood mullions. Overall, the chamber
is very similar to when it was built and
any additions, such as the wood reliefs
decorating the panels flanking the main
entrance, have been sensitive to the
original design (fig. 16).
A change in the lighting of the chamber,
the staircase and the rotunda has
taken place: their original illumination by
natural light has been replaced with, at
present, artificial, halide lights, a change
which has affected the overall quality
of light within those spaces . Within the
drum of the dome above the ceiling, a
wooden light box has been built to house
the lighting equipment and protect the
top of the ceiling.
Some original fireplaces and fittings have
been retained in the executive suite of
offices (figs. 18-20). There has been the
dismantling and reassembling of certain
other fireplaces, additional fireplaces
copied from the originals added over the
years elsewhere in the building. Recently,
an original f ireplace was rediscovered in
the basement. Some of the original Maxwell
furniture is extant (fig. 19). 86 On the
second floor, a washroom for male members
was constructed using salvaged fixtures
and marble toilet partitions from
an earlier washroom to retain a historical
appearance.
Many changes have taken place outside
of the principal spaces. While the second
floor retains most of its original partitions,
including those in the library as
well as the original stacks, other areas
have had significant alterations in layout,
especially the basement which has
been fully altered Y In the east and
west wings very few original finishings
are visible and there have been
major renovations to all corridors of the
wings, replacement of all surfaces, and
the removal of all the original terrazzo
flooring . 88 The fourth floor is at present
abandoned, because of limited access
and exiting available. The rotunda at
the basement and first floor levels was
almost totally changed by the creation
of the new art galleries in 1966 (fig. 22) .
One octagonal and two narrow galleries
were created on each floor.
The stairwells at the ends of each wing
no longer have their original glazed
entry screens, and are now screened by
firewalls, added as part of the 1997-2001
rehabilitation project. Many of the original
vaults continue to exist, though they
no longer fill their original functions;
however some in the basement have been
converted to art galleries.
The building has been very well maintained
over the years and every effort
is made to retain its heritage character,
especially in the principal and symbolic
areas. During the recent Rehabilitation
Project, t he Saskatchewan Property Management
Corporation (SPMC) hired heritage
consultants to document the interior
of the building, with a view to ensuring
that its historical significance is retained
in the future.
Evolution of Site -Grounds
The grounds have also evolved over the
years. A war memorial was added on the
strip of property to the west in 1926.
Changes in the late 1950s included the
installation of a small fountain near the
rear of the building. 89 The administration
of the legislative grounds was assumed
by the Wascana Centre Authority in
1962, when it was created by provincial
statute. In the same year, the Authority
commissioned their first master plan,
from architect Minoru Yamasaki (1912-
1986) and landscape architect Thomas
Church (1902-1978). That plan covered
not only the legislature grounds, but
a much larger total area of over two
thousand acres. Yamasaki was a leading
American modernist architect, who later
went on to design New York's recently
destroyed World Trade Centre. Church
was, by the 1950s, a leading landscape
architect in the United States, working
on large commercial and institutional
projects with eminent architects of the
modern movement as well as on smaller
scale garden design. 90 The architects set
the Legislative Building and Grounds at
the centre of their proposed plan, which
was based on the original Mawson plan.
In their report, t hey noted:
Th e w onderful M awson Pl an of 191 3 by
Thomas M awson has lon g ag o set the them e
to the w hole south end of Wascana Lake.
Th e Parliament Build ing and its beautif ul
s urro und ings f orm t he base o n which
any plan must be lai d . Thus t he plan t hat
is propose d here is an extension of t he
M awson Pl an. 9 '
As a result of that plan, the conserva ­
tory was demolished with a view to
developing the mall at the rear of the
building, though it has not been carried
out (figs. 1 and 5) . 92 In the spirit of
the Mawson plan and its City Beautiful
ideals, was the introduction of Trafalgar
Fountain and the associated paths and
landscape on the east. The fountain, one
of a pair designed by Sir Charles Barry
that stood in Trafalgar Square, London,
from 1845 to 1939, was installed
in 1963 to honour the establishment
of the headquarters of the North West
Mounted Police in Regina in 1882. 93 The
precise location of the fountain, and
the layout of t he paths and terracing
between Avenue A and Lakeshore Drive
were chosen and designed by Church,
including the fountains's Tyndall stonewall,
and the terrazzo pattern on the
pavement around it (fig. 23) . 94 Such
80
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007

R HONA G OO DSPEED > REPORT I RAPPORT
r-·-·------· ! - - ·-
;
While there have been some other changes
to the site, such as the removal of lampposts
around the building, originally
designed by the Maxwells, the integrity
of the landscape is largely excellent. Along
the front and the sides of the building, the
original roads, paths, location of lawns,
trees and gardens retain their original layout.
Most of the trees are, in fact, original
to the site, though a few may have been
lost from along the shore. 97
Future Plans
With the recent deepening of Wascana
Lake, the shoreline may have been
altered; as part of this project, the shoreline
will be extended further into the lake
.. t and over to the weir under the bridge, in
~------------~----------------------------------------~~
order to create a promenade over to the
opposite shore. 98
A large equestrian statue of the Queen is
planned for placement in the ornamental
gardens, in the circular flowerbed
nearest the building. 99 More memorials
are planned for the strip of property
between Albert Street and Saskat chewan
Road . A second war memorial as well as
two cairns, one to commemorate War
Brides, are to be erected. The area will
be used for other memorials that may be
officially approved in the future. 100 At the
rear of the building, new tennis courts
are planned for the area just north of the
present courts, in the wooded area, near
Avenue A.
COMPARATIVE CONTEXT
changes have been very well integrated
into the landscape and have contributed
to enhancing the site. In 1980 and 1983,
the legislative landing and the saluting
monument were installed on the shore,
on the same axis as the main entrance,
and gardens. 95 Another War Memorial
was added in recent years, built of Tyndall
limestone. Decisions concerning
the grounds continue to be guided by
the Master Plan produced and regularly
updated by the Wascana Centre Authority,
which in turn continues to take the
Mawson plan into consideration. 96
Three Canadian legislative buildings have
been nationally designated, for their
architecture and historical associations:
the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings
in Ottawa, Province House in Halifax
and Province House in Charlottetown; of
these, only the Parliament Buildings are
set within landscaped grounds.
JSSAC I J SEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007
81

R HON A G OO DSPEED > REPORT I RAPPORT
The Centre Block of the Ottawa Parliament
Buildings, nationally designated
along w ith the East and West blocks
in 1976, was built in 1916 to designs by
John A . Pearson and J.O. Ma rchand,
after fire destroyed the original building
by Fuller & Jones. The east and west
blocks, for departmental offices, were
built to designs by Stent & Laver. All
three buildings were constructed in the
Gothic Revival style, beginning in 1879,
and were first occupied by the Province
of Canada in 1865 and by the Dominion
Government two months later. Also
nationally designated in 1976, the Public
Grounds of the Parliament Buildings
were considered to be "a good example
of landscape design."' 0 ' An overall design
for the grounds at the front was provided
by New York landscape architect
Calvert Vaux, who worked with Olmsted
on New York's Central Park, and were
implemented in 1873-1875. While the
area has undergone changes, including
the removal of original small geometric
flowerbeds, diagonal walks and a central
fountain, its formal character as set
out by Vaux is still clearly discernable.
The setting of the building above a cliff
overlooking the Ottawa River, the wilderness
areas on the cliff, and, to the east,
as well as the asymmetrical approach to
the site from the city streets, all bring out
the picturesque aspects of the Parliament
and grounds.
Province House in Halifax, Nova Scotia,
was built in 1811-1819 for the colonial
assembly, perhaps to designs by John
Merrick. From 1867, it has functioned
as the legislative building for the province.
The building was recommended
for commemoration by the Historic Sites
and Monuments Board of Canada, as
" one of the best examples of the Palladian
style in Canada, a style associated
with the establishment of British institutions
in this country and influenced by
the great Palladian buildings of 18'h century
England [.. .] it is the longest serving
legislative building in Canada." It was also
designated for its historical associations
as "the scene of critical constitutional and
legal debates which led to the establishment
of two fundamental principles of
Canadian democracy-freedom of the
p ress and responsible government." ' 02
Province House in Charlottetown, Prince
Edward Island, was completed in 1847
for the colonial assembly, to designs by
Island architect Isaac Smith (1795-1871).
The building was nationally designated
in 1966 and is considered to be nationally
significant as the site of the Charlottetown
Conference of 1864, which led to
Confederation in 1867, for its architecture,
which is considered to be a fine
example of the Neoclassical style, and as
representative of the judicial institution
of Prince Edward lsland. 103
The third Legislative Building in the Marit
imes, in Fredericton, New Brunswick, was
designed in the Second Empire style and
built to designs by J.C. Dumaresq in 1882.
This building is also closely surrounded
by buildings that are a part of the larger
urban setting.
Constructed around the same time was
the Hotel du Parlement in Quebec, Quebec.
A large, imposing building, it was
constructed in the Second Empire style,
to designs by Eugene-Etienne Tache in
1878-1887 and decorated with numerous
sculptures of historical figures. To make
reference to its historical and national
affiliations, it exhibits the strong influence
of French prototypes, such as the Louvre
in Paris, but also of the Ottawa Parliament
buildings.' 04 The paths and gardens
were also designed by Tache, who had
carefully thought out an arrangement
which would complement the somewhat
busy design of the building. As a result,
he proposed a plain, regular symmetrical
garden design, having avenues and a
circular driveway at the front, and large
expanses of lawns and smaller flowerbeds,
with the site as a whole surrounded
by a low stonewall. Some modifications
have taken place but much of the original
design remains. Today the building is
located within a busy urban environment
with large buildings on three sides, and a
large artery with a traffic circle is located
in front of the grounds. 105
Ontario's Legislative Building in Queen's
Park, Toronto, was built to designs by Richard
A. Waite in 1886-1892. A large central
block connected by short arms to a pair
of deep wings, created a courtyard in the
rear. The west w ing was rebuilt after a fire
in 1909 under the guidance of architect
E.J. Lennox. That was the first significant
appearance of the Romanesque Revival
style in Canada, which was just beginning
to gain popularity in the United States.
The building was described by architectural
historian Hall Kalman as "a showpiece
in the latest American fashion." ' 06
The centrepiece, largely unchanged, lies
directly on the axis of University Avenue,
which divides in two, to create the ovalshaped
grounds around the building. The
grounds are formally landscaped, along
the front with a path up to the main
entrance flanked by flowerbeds, and at
the rear, with mature t rees and monuments.
The setting is a busy urban one,
in downtown Toronto, with the University
of To ronto to the rear of the site.
British Columbia's Parliament Buildings
in Victoria were built in 1893-1897 with
additions in 1912-1915, all to designs of
Francis Mawson Rattenbury. The building
is a t ightly organized, symmetrical, horizontal
composition with a central dome
and end pavilions, a design that creates
a " majestic presence," in the words of
Kalman . Its " free-style design" includes
features from a range of styles and sources
82
JSSAC I JS EAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007

RHONA G OODSPEE D > REPORT I RAPPORT
and it resembles late Victorian public legislative chamber. Decorative features
buildings in London. 107 The grounds along appearing on both buildings, especially
the f ront of the legislative building are the domes, were inspired by the Edwardlandscaped
w ith lawns and flowerbeds. ian Baroque style. 109
As with the other government buildings,
the approach is formal and symmetrical, The Legislature Building in Edmonton,
reflecting the symbolic aspect of the Alberta, was constructed in 1907-1913 to
building and the important functions of designs by A .M . Jeffers and R.P. Blakely.
katchewan and Alberta legislative buildings,
with little emphasis on the ends of
the wings. The rea r fa c; ade also has a
central portico announcing the entrance.'"
The dome, two hundred and forty feet
high, has a tall drum with columns supporting
the roof, and much detailing at
the corners with decoration rising into
Government.
The plan ofthe building is T-shaped with
the chamber located in the rear of the T,
The Confederation Building, in St. John's, its location indicated by a slightly raised
Newfoundland, built in 1958-1960 to circular roof. visible in an aerial view.
designs by A .J.C. Paine in association w ith Like the Saskatchewan building, it has
Lawson, Bettes and Cash, is designed in a f ive-part fa c; ade including a classical
a modern style. This symmetrical building
portico with columns and a decorated
has a centrepiece in the twelve-storey pediment rising through three storeys,
tower with a hipped roof and a beacon, and wings on either side where the
which is flanked on either side by much ends are emphasized by three projecting
lower, horizontal wings, decreasing in size
bays separated by paired attached
as they are further from the centre. The columns running through two storeys.
style was startling in the province when Details of Edwardian Baroque inspirat
built, though it had long ceased to have
ion included the channelled masonry on
centre-stage in the rest of Canada. The the first storey, and the detailing of the
building was constructed some distance dome. The building occupies a superb
from the city centre. Directly in front property overlooking, along the rear,
is a parking lot and plainly landscaped the high banks of the North Saskatchewan
grounds. 108
Rive r, while the rest of the site is
defined by the surrounding urban streets
The only legislative buildings in Canada and nearby buildings. The site itself is
which are truly comparable to the Saskatchewan
irregular in shape and appears to have
building in style are those been informally laid out, with little if any
located in the other two Prairie provinces
attempt to extend the Beaux-Arts plan
(figs. 35 -36) . The Alberta and Man­
beyond the design of the building. It is
itoba legislative buildings were both characterized by an asymmetrical roadway
built around the same time as the Saskatchewan
pattern, tree-lined pathways, and
building; they were similarly large open areas. 11 0
influenced by traditions in the United
States for state capitols as the result of The Legislative Building in Winnipeg,
a desire for imposing buildings and were
Manitoba, was built to designs
designed for flat prairie landscapes. Both by F. Worthington Simon in 1913-1919
were designed according to the classical (fig. 35). The three-storey building is H­
Beaux-Arts principles of symmetry, monumentality,
shaped in plan, with the main facade
and axial design. Both heavily located on one side of the H. In the
emphasized the centrepiece with columns centre a projecting portico rises the full
and a pediment, and a large, monumental three storeys and includes a pediment
dome above. In both buildings the main decorated with sculpture. The lower
axis lies from the main entrance through story has channelled masonry and the
to a wing on the rear, location of the wings are plainer than those of the Sas-
the level of the dome. On the top of the
lantern is a statue of the Golden Boy,
symbolizing enterprise and youth . The
Winnipeg building stands on a thirtyfive-acre,
formally landscaped site, having
an overall symmetrical plan centred
on the building and Beau x-Arts-inspired
circulation patterns and gardens. (fig. 36) .
The lawns are dotted with statuary commemorating
Canadian historical figures,
and a "next -of-kin" monument honouring
the war dead. Those features correspond
to those immediately surrounding
the Saskatchewan building. The Manitoba
site is defined by the boundaries of the
surrounding urban street plan. 112
Like the Saskatchewan Legislative Building,
these two legislative buildings are
fine examples of Beaux-Arts designed
buildings, one of which is enhanced by
its Beaux-Arts landscape. The Saskatchewan
building may be somewhat more
imposing than these examples with
a longer fa c; ade and the use of more
detail, including sculpture, to articulate
the fac;ade, and its fully developed
Beaux-Arts landscape with monumental
gardens overlooking the lake. Of these
three examples, only the Saskatchewan
building has been deliberately enhanced
outside the boundaries of the site, for
example, by being framed from at least
two other points in the city to create vistas,
and by the deepening of the lake in
front of it. On the subject of the grounds
of the Saskatchewan building, Crossman
wrote, "The land surrounding the building
was developed as a park, and it has
under various hands become one of
JSSAC I JStAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007
83

RHONA G OOD SPE ED > REPORT I RAPPORT
FIG. 35. MANITOBA LEGISLATIVE BUILDING, BUILTTO
DESIGNS BY F. WORTHINGTON SIMON IN 1913-19.
Tr
I /
/I
j
u ~
§ •
, I
/; ~ · - · • I
FIG. 36. MANITOBA LEGISLATIVE PRECINCT, SITE PLAN.
FIG. 37. TORONTO POWER GENERATING STATION POWER HOUSE NHSC, NIAGARA FALLS, ONTARIO, BUILT IN 1903 TO DESIGNS
BY TORONTO ARCHITECT E. J. LENNOX.
the most beautiful legislative grounds in Beaux-Arts movement." The second directly off a city street; neither one posthe
country."" 3 example, Union Station in Winnipeg, sessesthe Beaux-Arts landscaping of the
constructed in 1908-1911, was recom- Saskatchewan building.
To date, ten buildings designed according
to Beaux-Arts principles have been
designated National Historic Sites of
Canada; none of these is comparable
in terms of function . Of a number of
monumental Beaux-Arts train stations
constructed in Canada, two have been
nationally designated. Union Station in
Toronto, designated in 1975, is the largest
train station in Canada. Built from
1915 and 1920 to designs of Ross and
Macdonald, H.G. Jones and J.M. Lyle, 11 4
it was considered by the Historic Sites
and Monuments Board of Canada to
be the "finest example in Canada of
stations erected in the classical Beaux­
Arts style, during an era of expanding
national rail networks and vigorous
urban growth. Its sweeping fa~ade and
imposing Great Hall exhibit the monumental
architecture and dramatic use
of enclosed space characteristic of the
mended for commemoration in 1976.
The building was designed by Warren
and Wetmore, architects of New York's
Grand Central Station. The Beaux-Arts
design is apparent in its balanced plan
and its classical details of the grand
central arch flanked by paired columns
and topped by a large dome. Its smooth
plain surfaces contribute to its austere
expression of the style. 115 While
these buildings share features with the
Saskatchewan Legislative Building, such
as monumentality, symmetry, urban
presence, and careful organization with
respect to interior circulation, neither
of them embodies the symbolic importance
and elegance present in the legislative
building, expressed by means of,
for example, its prominent dome and
developed landscape. Both train stations,
in response to their function, were
deliberately intended to be accessed
The Toronto Power Generating Station
Power House, in Niagara Falls, Ontario,
built in 1903 to designs by Toronto architect
E. J. Lennox and designated in 1983, is
another monumental, large-scale Beaux­
Arts building (fig. 37). 116 Described as a
"palatial powerhouse," that otherwise
purely functional, industrial building was
designed on the exterior in an imposing
style, to complement its scenic setting
along the Niagara River. An early and
unusual application of Beaux-Arts design
to an industrial site in Canada, the building
has a large centrepiece, flanked by wings
with rows of columns, and semicircular
elements at the ends, capped by a curved
parapet pierced with oculi. This building
is very different from the Saskatchewan
building: because of its function, Beaux­
Arts design principles were appropriately
not applied to the interior, nor does the
84
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007

RHONA GOODSPEED > REPORT I RAPPORT
surrounding landscape exhibit related
design features. The building has nothing
like the symbolic importance of the
legislative building.
The Former Vancouver Law Courts have
been described as an imposing urban
court house which makes use of features
of Beaux-Arts design; it was built in 1907-
1911 to designs of F.M. Rattenbury and
recommended for national commemoration
in 1980. 117 Like the Saskatchewan
building, the court house has a classical
centrepiece flanked by long wings and a
dome in the centre. However, the scale is
much smaller, and while the building is
of significant importance as an enduring
visual landmark and symbol of justice in
the heart of what was then British Columbia's
new metropolis, it possesses nothing
like the scale and complexity of the
design of the Saskatchewan Legislative
Building. It is the symbol of a city rather
than that of a province within Canada,
and it is located directly on an urban
street, clearly a part of, rather than set
apart from, its urban surroundings.
One last site which may recall the Saskatchewan
building is the Oratoire Saint­
Joseph in Montreal, built in 1924-1932
and designated in 2004. The site possesses
a Beaux-Arts-inspired landscape
along the front, with a broad straight
avenue flanked by a symmetrical landscape
design and entrance pavilions leading
to the far;;ade of the building, which
is surmounted by a prominent dome.
However, the history, function, and symbolism
of this religious site are totally different
from the Saskatchewan Legislative
Building and Grounds.
Produced within the larger context of a
plan for the city which embodied Beaux-
Arts and City Beautiful principles, the Saskatchewan
legislative grounds with the
Legislative Building as the focal point,
both within and beyond the grounds,
remains one of the few Beaux-Arts City
Beautiful plans in Canada which was
implemented to any degree and which
still remains legible. 118
CURRENT STATUS
a) Threat(s)
The shifting foundation is a threat to the
building, having caused cracks and falling
stone, but those problems have been
addressed through the recent Rehabilitation
Project. The SPMC and the Wascana
Centre Authority, which manage the
building and the grounds, are fully aware
of the importance and heritage value of
the site, and are committed to ensuring
the survival of its heritage features.
b) Other Designations
In 1978, the Legislative Building was the
first structure to be designated a Provincial
Heritage Property. The provincial plaque
text, placed on the building, reads:
In 1905 the province of Saskatchewan was
createdfromtheNorth-WestTerritories. Three
years later the government of Premier Scott
chose the firm of Edward and W.S. Maxwell of
Montreal to design a new legislative building
c) Community Value
The dome in the landscape has been
described as the "foremost architectural
symbol of the province of Saskatchewan."' 20
The building, and especially the dome, is
an extremely well-known, major visual
landmark from numerous points within
the city, for example from Wascana
Centre and from across the Lake. It is
also visible from the highway when
approaching the city.
The building has been a defining feature
of the local landscape since its construction,
and is known throughout the
province. It has played an integral role in
Saskatchewan's history as a province and
is featured on numerous post cards. Each
year, thousands of people from the province,
the rest of Canada, and elsewhere
visit the site. 12 1 The Legislative Building
has tremendous value to the people of
Regina and is a focus of community pride.
The grounds are highly popular for recreational
purposes, and many community
events are held along Legislative Drive.
The fireworks for July 1" take place
here every year, 122 as well as many other
important events.
NOTES
for the province. Constructed by Peter Lyall -----------------
and Sons. also of Montreal, the project was
completed at a cost of three million dollars
in 1911 . Faced with Tyndall limestone, with
an interior containing 34 different types of
marble, this Beaux-Arts style building is one of
the most impressive government buildings in
Canada. In 1978 it became the first building in
Saskatchewan to be designated as provincial
heritage property.
Currently there is an intention to
designate the Saskatchewan Legislative
Building and Grounds as a Provincial Heri-
tage Property." 9 The building is also on
the Wascana Centre Authority's list of
heritage buildings.
1. Bodnar, Diana Lynn, 1979, The Prairie Legislative
Buildings of Canada, MA thesis, University
of British Columbia, p. 85.
2. Barnhart, Gordon L. , 2002, Building for the
Future: A Photo Journal of Saskatchewan's
Legislative Building, Regina, Canadian Plains
Research Centre, University of Regina, p. 2-6.
3. Bodnar : 74.
4. In 1857, the site was described by explorer
captain John Palliser, "[ ... ] as far as the eye
can reach nothing but desolate plains meet
the view: at noon reached a small creek called
'The Creek Before Where The Bones Lie,' here
we found water and some little grass, also a
few willow and cherry bushes, but no wood
for fuel." (Barnhart, 2002: 86.) Chosen by
Scott to evaluate the site, The Honourable J.A.
Calder, Minister of Education and Deputy Pre-
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N" 1 > 2007
85

R HON A Goo DSPEED > REPORT I RAPPORT
mier, described it: "It lies high and if the building
w ere erected there, they [sic] w ould face
the city and [ ... ] overlook the reservoir. The
grounds could be easily beautified." (Ibid. : 9.)
See also Brennan, J. Wi lliam, 1994, "Visions
of a City Beautiful: The Origin and Impact of
the Mawson Pl ans for Regina », Saskatchewan
History, vo l. 46, no. 2, f al l, p. 22.
5. See Doull, lan, 1999," Wasca na Park and Legislative
Precinct, Regi na, Saskatchewan», Sub ­
mission Report, Hi storic Sites and Monuments
Board of Canada (HSM BC), 1999-09, for the
la rger context of the w hole plan.
6. Crossman, Ke ll y, 1987 Architecture in Transition:
From Art to Practice, 1885-1906, Kingston
and Montreal, MeGill-Queen's University
Press, p. 143 and 173-174, fn. 28 .
7. Quoted from Crossman · 144.
8. See Annual Report of the Department of Public
Works of the Province of Saskatchewan for
the Financial Year 1907-1908, Regina, Government
Printer, 1908, p. 155 ff.
9. Crossman: 144.
10. Barnhart, 2002.
11. Crossman: 148.
12. The Montreal Museum of Fi ne Arts, 1991, The
Architecture of Edward & W.S. Maxwell, exhibition
catalogue, Montreal, Montreal Museum
of Fine Arts, p. 11 and 17.
13 . Crossman: 147.
14. Punt in, J.H., 1913, " The New Legislative Building
at Regina >>, Engineering and Contract
Record, vol. 27, January 8, p. 42. For details of
constru ction, see also " Legislative Buildings
and Exec utive Buildings, Regina >>, Construction,
January 1915, p. 11 ; Montreal Museum
of Fi ne Arts: 173; and Bodnar: 83. It was first
use d by C Lambot of Paris (ibid.)
15. Puntin: 38-39. See also Kalman, Haro ld, 199 4,
A History of Canadian Architecture, vol. 2,
Toronto, Oxford University Press, p. 558; and
Bodnar : 82 -84.
16. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: 173.
17. Fo r example Bodnar: 85.
18. Punt in: 42; and Saskatchewan Archives Board
(SAB), " Le gislative Building- Furniture- Legislative
Chamber >>-Contingent Rooms.
19. Th omas, Lewis H., 19 55, " The Saskatchewan
Legislative Building and its Predecessors>>,
Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Journal,
vol. 32, no. 7, Jul y, p. 252; and Barnhart,
2002 : 36-37.
20. In 1909, the Maxwell firm was ret ained under
a separate contract to prepare a more detailed
plan for the gardens, roads, and pathw ay immediately
surrounding the legislature in consultation
w ith Todd. (SA B, R-195.2 Public Works, File
1.75 2/4, letter to Todd, April 7, 1909.)
21. Named f o r Edward VII (1901-19 10) and sometimes
ca lled Ed ward ian Classicism. The buildin
g is discussed in suc h terms by: Kalman,
op. cit.; Bodnar, op. cit.; and Ricketts, Shannon,
Lesl ie Maitland, and Jacqueline Hucker,
2004, A Guide to Canadian Architectural
Styles, Secon d Edition, Broadview Press.
22. For the principles of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts,
see Drexler, Arthu r (ed.), 1977, The Architecture
of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, New
Yo r k, The Museum of Modern A rt; M iddleton,
Ro b in, 1982, The Beaux-Arts and Nineteenth-Century
French Architecture, London,
Thames and Hudson; Pepall, Rosalind, 1986,
Construction d'un musee Beaux-Arts. Montreal
1912. Building a Bea ux-Arts Museum,
Montreal, Montreal Museum of Fin e Arts;
Clerk, Nathalie, 1990, >, unpublished manuscript; Kalman,
op. cit.; Gelernter, Mark, 1999, A History of
American Architecture: Buildings in their Cultural
and Technological Context, Han over and
London, University Press of New England.
23. In the opinion of VanZanten, "The Beaux-Arts
denotes not a style but rather a technique."
(Van Zanten, David, 1977, "Architectural
Composition at t he Ecole des Beaux-Arts from
Charles Percier to Charles Garnier >>, in Drexler,
op. cit.: 11 5.) See also Kalman: 556.
24. Pepa ll : 88, based on Middleton: chap. 6.
25. Gelernter: 175.
26. Architect o f Saint James United Church,
Montrea l, built 1887-1888. The building is a
National Historic Site of Canada.
27. Th e arch itectura l practi ce of Ed w ard &
W.S. Maxwe ll is considered one of the most
significant in Canadian history. The f irm produced
desig ns for commercial, institutional,
cu ltural, and religious buildings, tra in stations,
city and country houses, many for Montreal 's
elite, as w ell as government buildings. Among
their best known w orks are the Birks Building
(1893-1 894) in Montreal, t he CPR Winn ipeg
Station and Royal Alexandria Hotel (1904-
1906, the hotel is demolished), and additions
to W indsor Station (1897-1898) and the Chateau
Frontenac (1920-1924). They also w on the
competition for the Ju stice and Departmental
Buildi ngs in Ottawa (1907 and 1913), a project
that w as eventua ll y abandoned. (See Montreal
Museum of Fin e Arts, esp. p. 11 and 17;
and Pepall , in Th e Montreal Museum of Fine
Arts: 43.)
28. " Legislative Buildin gs and Executive Bu ildings,
Regina >>: 5
29 . Kalman: 556.
30. Crossman: 145.
31. Ka lman: 555 -556.
32. " Legislative Buildings and Executive Buildings,
Regina » : 9. According to Crossman: 175,
fn. 45, " Both the editor and t he Maxwells[ ... ]
used the term 'English Renaissance' broadly,
to encompass virtually the entire range of
Classicism in Great Britain from Inigo Jones
onwards."
33. Alistair Service, 1975, Edwardian Architecture
and its Origins, London, Architectural Press, p.
303-3 04.
34. Barnhart, Gordon, 1987, Sentinel of the Prairies:
The Saskatchewan Legislative Building,
Regina, Saskatchewan, p. 37.
35. " Legislative Buildings and Executive Buildings,
Regina »: 6.
36. Canadian Architecture Collection, McGill University
Archives, Maxwell architectural plan
no. 197.
37. Similar axes w ith a rotunda at the ce ntre w here
the floor is broken by a well also are present
in other public buildings of the period, for
example the W isconsin State Capitol. The w ell
is also present in certain Ed wardian Baroque
bu ildings in Great Britain, such as the Belfast
City Hall, built ca. 1900. While the origin of
that feature could w ell have been Napoleon's
tomb in Paris, by the t ime of the construction
of the Saskatchewan Legislative Building, t he
motif would have been well know n to Beaux­
Arts architects.
38 . " Legislative Build ings and Executive Buildings,
Regina », op. cit.
39. " Legi slative Buildings and Executive Buildings,
Regina » : 7.
40. Ibid.
41 . Saskatchew an Property Management Co rporat
ion, 1998, " Hi storic Structure Report- Structural
Rehabilitation and Building Conservation
Prog ram: Sa sk atchew an Legislative Building,
Re gina », Saskatchewan, October, p. 77.
42. " Legislative Bu ildings and Executive Buildings,
Regina » : 7-9.
43. Annual Report, Department of Public Works,
Saskatchewan, 1907-08, p. 165.
86
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N·1 > 2007

RHONA GOODSPEED > RE POR T I RAPPOR T
44. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: 43-49, esp.
p. 43.
45. The group, originally founded near Birmingham,
England, in 1897, emphasized the
revival of handcrafted decorative art objects
and their integratio n with architecture and
the other fine arts. Initially the English guild
was a loose association of artists with connection
to the Birmingham School of Art and
who exhibited together. The firm expanded,
reaching the peak of its achievement just after
1900, the year it won an award at the Paris
exhibition. By 1911, the guild had opened an
office in Montreal, where it soon organized
a workshop, forge and display studio. (Crawford,
Alan (ed.), 1984, By Hammer and Hand:
The Arts and Crafts Movement in Birmingham,
Birmingham, Birmingham Museums and Art
Gallery, p. 32; and Pepall: 75 ff.)
46. SAB, « Legislative Bu ilding .. » op. cit.
47. For their collaboration on the Musee des Beaux­
Arts in Montrea l w hich included sculpture,
w oodw ork and furniture, see Pepall: 76 -82 .
48. «Saskatchewan Legi slative Buildings, Regina »,
Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Journal,
April to June 1924, vol. 1, no. 2, p. 43.
49. Catalogue of Historical Paintings in the
Legislative Building, Regina, Saskatchewan,
Regina, Government of Saskatchewan, 1933,
n.p.; and McKay, Marylin J., 2002, A National
Soul: Canadian Mural Painting, 1860s- 1930s,
Montueal & Kingston, MeGill-Queen's University
Press, p. 28-29 and 152-153.
50. SAB, >, op. cit.
51. Very early on the front of the dais w as
altered w ith t he removal of the central portion,
apparently to accommodate the short
stature of George Scott, speaker during the
1920s. (Barnhart, 2002: 58-59.)
52. Site visit, April 7, 2004.
53. Barnhart, 2002: 55.
54. The Maxwell plans for the fireplace in the
Provincial Governor's office and associated
correspondence are in the SAB, « Legislative
Bu ilding .. >> op cit.
55. The original watercolour design for the clock
case is in the Canadian Architecture Co llect
ion, McGill Archives.
56. Kalman: 649.
57. Gelernter: 203; Kalman: 649-651; and Van
Nus, W., 1975, ,The Canadian
Historical Association, Historical Papers I
Communications historiques, p. 191-210.
58. Van Nus: 194-198. For the City Beautiful
Movement see also Meek, Margaret Anne,
1979, History of the City Beautiful Movement
in Canada 1890-7930, MA thesis, University of
British Columbia.
59. Van Nus: 198.
60. Kalman: 651; and Jacobs, Peter, 1983,

RHONA GOODSPEED > RE PORT I RAPPORT
85. Those lamp posts appear in the original Maxwell
plans in Canadian Architectural Collection,
McGill Archives, and in historic photos.
86. That is a topic which appears to require further
re search.
87. On the first floor, sixty percent of the original
partitions were removed; on the second floor
all partitions were in place except for new
doorways between existing offices, and on
the third floor, seventy percent of the original
partitions are gone. Doors and light fixtures
were replaced.
88. Most original ceilings were of decorative hung
plaster or plaster applied to the underside of
original concrete.
89. Joe Moran, former Executive Director, Wascana
Centre Authority, conversation, May 3,
2004.
90. « Thomas Church, Landscape Architect>>,
available at [http://filebox.vt.edu/users/emcgarry/L
(consulted May 3, 2004). Church was
consulted annually for his opinions on proposed
changes to the landscape overseen by
the Authority. (Moran, conversation, 2004.)
91. Mcleod, T.H., 1999, «The Wascana Centre
Authority in Regina: A Case Study in Planned
Development >>, a paper prepared for the 1971
Conference of the Institute of Public Administration
in Canada, Regi na Saskatchewan, 1971 ,
p. 2; quoted in Doull, 1999: 300, fn. 38.
92. See Doull, 1999, op. cit.
93. Barnhart, 1987: 17. Its counterpart is in
Ottawa in Confederation Park .
94. Joe Moran, conversation, May 3, 2004.
95. Doull, 1999, op. cit.
96. See Wascana Centre Authority. Du Toit Alisop
Hillier, « Wascana Centre 1999 Master
Plan >, p. 90 ff. for planning for the Legi sla ­
tive Grounds. Available at [http://wascana.
sk.ca / MasterPian], (consulted May 7, 2004).
97. Moran, conversation, May 3, 2004; and Ken
Dockham, Director of Operations, Wascana
Centre Authoriy, site visit, April 6, 2004.
98. Huber, conversation, May 6, 2004.
99. Huber, conversation, April 7, 2004.
100. Huber, site visit, April27, 2004.
103. See Hunter, Robert, « Great George Street,
Charlottetown, Prin ce Ed wa rd Isl and>>,
HSMBC Agenda Paper, 1990-54, esp. p. 409-
410; «and Commemorative Integrity Statement>>,
p. 7).
104. Kalman: 550.
105. Beaulieu, Andre, 1981 , L'H6te/ du Parlement,
Quebec, L'Assemblee nationale du Quebec,
p. 12.
106. Kalman: 552.
107. Kalman: 554-555.
108. See Kalman: 770-772, for that building.
109. Both buildings are illustrated in Service,
Edwardian Architecture, ill. 13, where the
author w rites: "The Baroque Grand Man ­
ner proved popular in the capitals of the
Empire," and ill. 8, w here the W innipeg
building is described: "As grandiose, but
less flamboyant than the Baroque government
buildings built throughout the Empire
a decade earlier."
110. Bodnar, op. cit.; and Doull, 1999: 307.
111. Illustrated in Kalman: 559.
112. Bodnar, op. cit.; and Doull, 1999: 308.
113. Crossman: 143.
114. HSMBC, Minutes, June 1975.
115. HSMBC, Minutes, 1977.
116. HSMBC, Minutes, June 1994.
117. HSMBC, Minutes, 1984.
118. Doull, lan, 2004, Hi storical Services Branch,
conversation, May 12.
119. Carlos Germann, Manager, Heritage
Resources, Culture, Youth and Recreation,
Saskatchewan; site visit; April 6, 2004.
120. Saskatchewan Property Management Corporation
: 75.
121. Saskatchewan Property Management Corporation,
« Th e Saskatchewan Legislative
Building Rehabilitation Project >, available
at [http://www.legrehab.gov.sk.ca/heritage/
heritage.html], (consulted April 17, 2004).
122. Carlos Germann, Manager, Heritage
Resources, Culture, Youth and Recreation,
Saskatchewan; conversation; April 7, 2004.
101. HSMBC, Minutes, November 1976.
102 . HSMBC, Minutes, November 1993, p. 26 -27.
See also Graham, Fern, «Province House,
Hollis Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia>>, HSMBC
1993-26 .
88
JSSAC I JSEAC 32 > N' 1 > 2007

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Collection Cahiers de l'lnstitut du patrimoine de I'UQAM
Une nouvelle collection sur le patrimoine
a travers le monde dirigee par Luc Noppen
Les Cahiers de l' lnstitut du patrimoine de I'UQAM font echo aux
questionnements et aux explorations que ce vaste domaine soul eve, dans
le but de mieux com prendre les mecanismes qui eng end rent les ancrages
identitaires et qui pavent Ia voie aux constructions memorielles.
Le patrimoine apparalt ici com me outil societal de projection dans l'avenir
plut6t que com me l'encensoir d'un passe glorifie.
lJnstitut du patrimoine de I'UQAM offre cette co llection aux recherches
de Ia releve, autant ce lle qu i evolue dans ses murs que ce lles qui, ail leu rs
dans le monde, se consacrent a cette reinvention du patrimoine. Au
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travaux en cours et un reseau d'echanges et de collaborations, anciennes
ou nouvelles.
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0 PAYSAGES CONSTRUITS: MEMOIRE, IDENTITE, IDEOLOGIE
Sous Ia direction de Anne-Marie Broudehoux
James P. Freeman, Yona Jebrak, Marie Alice L'Heureux, Tania Martin
et France St-Jean
140 pages, ISBN 97828954410 74, 24,95$
Cet ouvrage presente une vision globalisante des problematiques lies
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representation collective a partir d'exemples observes au Quebec, en France,
en Chine, au Bresil et en Estonie. ll reunit des auteurs issus de milieu aussi divers
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f) PATRIMOINE ET PATRIMONIALISATION DU QUEBEC ET D'AILLEURS
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Les auteurs ont choisi de prendre le contre-pied du constat globalisant.
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patrimonialisation: les paysages urbains, les mediateurs et les interpretations.
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