The only part to survive was the Library of Parliament, which has fireproof iron doors. Mizgala says the prime minister’s office is only one of about 40 special rooms for which Pearson paid close attention to the details of decoration, and custom-designed furniture like chairs and desks. John Boyd, Bibliothèque et Archives Canada / r000228 (Photograph by Carla Antonio). In the House of Commons on February 3rd, 2016. On the morning after the fire, the museum's auditorium was converted into a temporary House of Commons Chamber, and that afternoon, members of parliament conducted business there. What Is the Structure of the Parliament in Canada? Mr. Speaker, exactly 100 years ago today, on February 3, 1916, a fire broke out in the reading room here in the Centre Block of the Parliament buildings. Centre Block Fire of 1916 Statements By Members. The Centre Block was a smoking shell filled with icy rubble, with the exception of the Library of Parliament. The Library of Parliament had been built with iron safety doors, which were slammed shut against the fire and smoke. The House of Commons mace was destroyed in the fire, and when the first sitting of the House following the fire took place on February 4, 1916, at 3:00 p.m. in the Victoria Memorial Museum, now home to the Canadian Museum of Nature, the Senate loaned its mace to the House. The Easter Rising, Irish Rebellion of 1916, The Canadian House of Commons Question Period, What Is a Constitutional Monarchy? Those surviving buildings represent a priceless legacy of the Confederation-era parliamentary precinct. I somehow bring myself to read it that way—no matter what troubles and worries and differences of opinion take place in the building. The original Parliament building, officially opened in 1866, was celebrated from the outset as a superb interpretation of the era’s Gothic revival style. By the end of the last century, the exterior of the Library of Parliament was seriously deteriorated. (Underwood and Underwood, N.Y.). Decorative elements were designed to inspire those elected to serve, and Pearson intentionally left blank spaces in the Tyndall limestone, quarried in Manitoba, for future stone carvers to fill with images from Canada in the decades to come, a tradition that still continues. Fire safety was inadequate in the Parliament Buildings and the most likely cause was careless smoking in the House of Commons Reading Room. “There’s a natural [tendency], if you’re having an influence on the space, to sort of personalize it in that way,” she says. But Mizgala says they are part of a unified vision carried through into the main public spaces, like the Confederation Hall, or the House chamber itself, with its stained glass and painted linen ceiling. The Centre Block, departmental buildings, and a new residence for the governor general were each awarded separately, and the team of On what the letter reveals about Pearson, Mizgala says, “He had the soul of a poet.” She’s thought of trying to write his biography herself. Geoff Regan. LIBRARY OF PARLIAMENT. Two guests of House Speaker Albert Sévigny and his wife returned to get their fur coats and were found dead in a corridor. We reserve the right to close comments at any time. Image first published in The New York Times, Feb. 13, 1916 issue. Still, at least Johanna Mizgala, the curator of the House of Commons heritage collection, is smitten. Immediately after the fire, Pearson was hired, along with Montreal architect Jean-Omer Marchand, to survey the ruins. While World War I was raging in Europe, the Canadian Parliament Buildings in Ottawa caught fire on a freezing February night in 1916. 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