Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 24

Second Empire Style in Canadian Architecture

by Christina Cameron and Janet Wright

Other Public Buildings

The choice of Second Empire for public architecture was not restricted to federal buildings; provincial and local governments as well as institutions and associations were quick to adopt this style for new structures erected under their jurisdiction.

Provincial governments chose Second Empire designs when circumstances required construction of new legislative buildings. Parliament House in Manitoba (Fig. 28), a Second Empire structure, had in fact been erected by the federal government, but it was provincial authorities in Quebec and New Brunswick that chose versions of Second Empire in the 1870s for their legislatures (Figs. 29-30).

The provinces also found the style acceptable for judicial buildings, as witnessed by the Law Courts Building in Charlottetown (Fig. 31) and the Court House in Winnipeg (Fig. 32). We have already observed that provincial authorities in Ontario selected a Second Empire design for the residence of the lieutenant-governor (Fig. 14).

Buildings that came under the jurisdiction of local governments, such as city halls and market halls, were not exempt from Second Empire fever in the 1870s, as examples like Montreal City Hall (Fig. 1), Victoria City Hall (Fig. 33), the Saint John Market (Fig. 34) and the Byward Market in Ottawa (Fig. 35) confirm. Given government allegiance to the appropriateness of this style for public buildings, it is not surprising that other institutions followed suit. Ranging from asylums, such as Falconwood near Charlottetown (Fig. 36), to community halls, like the Athenaeum in St. John's (Fig. 37) and the Masonic Temple in Victoria (Fig. 38), these institutional buildings adopted the current fashion for exuberant mansarded designs. One organization that embarked on a major building programme in the 1870s was the Young Men's Christian Association (Y.M.C.A.). Although individual chapters hired local architects to design their multi-purpose structures, a common denominator of Y.M.C.A. buildings of this period put up at Toronto, Brantford, Montreal and Quebec City (this last one being the lone survivor) is their dependence on the Second Empire mode (Figs. 39-40).

Schools of course were no exception to this fashion. Since cost was a significant factor in most cases, the façades were often plain, although such features as the mansard roof and pavilion massing were retained. There appears to have been a difference between secular and Roman Catholic schools in terms of design. The secular examples are more individual and draw mere directly on Second Empire prototypes, as the example in Truro, Nova Scotia (Fig. 41), suggests.

The Roman Catholic church, however, had a more far-reaching influence in the dissemination and perpetuation of at least the mansard roof. Many of the teaching orders put up parent buildings in the province of Quebec, large institutions with mansard roofs, pavilions and plain façades. An early and significant event was the "mansardization" of the main building of Laval University in Quebec City (Fig. 42). Founded in the mid-19th century under the auspices of the Seminary of Quebec, the university immediately erected the Central Pavilion, an enormous and austere flat-roofed block in keeping with the classicizing spirit of the day. Yet only 20 years later it was deemed appropriate to update the building by adding the splendid mansard roof which has become a Quebec City landmark. The undeniable stature of Laval University as an adjunct of the Seminary of Quebec meant that the mansard roof in a sense received official approval from the Roman Catholic establishment.

Whether or not the influence came directly from this example, it remains clear that schools, academies and teaching convents built by the Roman Catholic community in the last quarter of the 19th century adopted the mansard roof again and again (Figs. 43-44). Perhaps the fact that the mansard offered an additional living storey for dormitories encouraged its use by such institutions. This phenomenon was not limited to the province of Quebec: religious communities established missions in frontier areas, often in western Canada (Figs. 45-46). Long after the style became unfashionable, the church continued to put up massive mansarded institutions that came almost to symbolize culture, order and the Roman Catholic presence in the newly settled areas.