Centre Block

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Coordinates: 45.425194174199° N 75.700102341103° W

The Centre Block of Parliament Hill

The Centre Block is the main building of the three on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario.

The House of Commons and the Senate are located in this building, as well as a number of offices for members of Parliament (MPs), Senators, and senior administration for both Chambers. The Prime Minister's parliamentary office is also in the Centre Block, although he also has an office across the street in the Langevin Block where most of his staff are located. The Leader of the Opposition's office is also located directly above the Prime Minister's office.

Built in a modern Gothic revival style, the rectangular Centre Block is 144 metres long by 75 metres deep, and six stories high. There are more than 25 different types of stone and marble were used in the building’s construction, though most of the exterior is Nepean sandstone, quarried near Ottawa, and the interior walls are sheeted with Tyndall limestone quarried from Manitoba.

The western wing of the building contains the House of Commons chamber, decorated in green as in the British House of Commons, and its foyer, featuring portraits of prime ministers and carvings depicting Canadian industries. To the east is the Senate chamber, decorated in red, and its foyer, featuring portraits of Canadian monarchs.

At the central axis of the building, the Rotunda and the Library of Parliament are linked by the Hall of Honour. The Rotunda provides access to the Memorial Chapel, which contains the Books of Remembrance listing all of Canada's war dead, and to the Peace Tower.

The main entrance to the Centre Block is featured on the obverse of the Canadian twenty-dollar bill.

The richly decorated interior of the Centre Block contains allegorical scenes.

1 Great fire and rebuilding
2 Gallery
3 Art in the Building
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Great fire and rebuilding

The Centre Block as it appeared around 1870.

The Centre Block the morning after the 1916 fire

The Centre Block burned in 1916; the edifice was entirely destroyed except for the Library of Parliament, whose treasures were preserved by a quick-thinking librarian who was able to close its massive, iron doors. The Centre Block was immediately rebuilt, being completed in 1920, with the Peace Tower, commemorating the end of the First World War, being completed in 1927. The new structure, designed by John Pearson and Omar Marchand, again embraced Gothic Revival, but also integrated the Beaux Arts ideas current at the time.

The Peace Tower is the most prominent part of the buildings. It replaced the 55-metre Victoria Tower, burned in the 1916 fire. Like the entire interior and exterior of the building, the tower is decorated with approximately 370 stone carvings, including gargoyles, grotesques, and freizes.

The centrepiece of the new buildings is the Hall of Honour in the Centre Block, which is notable for being one of the only places where Canadians can lie in state.

Since then there have been a number of significant incidents in the building's history. In 1966 Paul Joseph Chartier killed himself in a Centre Block washroom while preparing to bomb the House of Commons. In 1989 Charles Yacoub hijacked a Greyhound bus and drove it up onto Parliament Hill.

[edit] Gallery

The Commons Chamber

The Senate Chamber

The Rotunda

The Hall of Honour

[edit] Art in the Building

Paintings

Title/Subject	Public Office	Artist	Date Painted/Created	Medium
The Right Honourable Sir John Alexander Macdonald	Prime Minister	Henry Sandham	1889	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Alexander Mackenzie	Prime Minister	Artist: John Wycliffe Lowes Forster	1897	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Sir John Joseph Caldwell Abbott	Prime Minister	Muli Tang	2002	Oil on canvas
The Right Honourable Sir John Sparrow David Thompson	Prime Minister	John Wycliffe Lowes Forster	1897	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Sir Mackenzie Bowell	Prime Minister	Joanne Tod	2002	Oil on canvas
The Right Honourable Sir Charles Tupper	Prime Minister	Victor Albert Long	1896	Oil on canvas
The Right Honourable Sir Wilfrid Laurier	Prime Minister	John Wentworth Russell	1919	Oil on canvas
The Right Honourable Sir Robert Laird Borden	Prime Minister	Kenneth Keith Forbes	1947	Oil on canvas
The Right Honourable Arthur Meighen	Prime Minister	Ernest Fosbery	1948	Oil on canvas
The Right Honourable William Lyon Mackenzie King	Prime Minister	Frank Owen Salisbury	1945	Oil on canvas
The Right Honourable Richard Bedford Bennett	Prime Minister	Kenneth Keith Forbes	1962	Oil on canvas
The Right Honourable Louis Stephen St. Laurent	Prime Minister	Audrey Watts McNaughton	1958	Oil on canvas
The Right Honourable John George Diefenbaker	Prime Minister	Cleeve Horne	1968	Oil on canvas
The Right Honourable Lester Bowles Pearson	Prime Minister	Hugh Seaforth Mackenzie	1968	Tempera on masonite
The Right Honourable Pierre Elliott Trudeau	Prime Minister	Myfanwy Spencer Pavelic	1991	Acrylic on canvas
The Right Honourable Charles Joseph Clark	Prime Minister	Patrick Douglass Cox	2008
The Right Honourable John Napier Turner	Prime Minister	Brenda Bury	1999	Oil on canvas
The Right Honourable Brian Mulroney	Prime Minister	Igor V. Babailov	2002	Oil on canvas
The Right Honourable Kim Campbell	Prime Minister	David Goatley	2004	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Jean-Antoine Panet	Speaker of the House of Assembly of the Province of Lower Canada	Copy by Théophile Hamel	1856	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Michel Chartier de Lotbinière	Speaker of the House of Assembly of the Province of Lower Canada	Copy by Théophile Hamel	1854	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Louis-Joseph Papineau	Speaker of the House of Assembly of the Province of Lower Canada	Alfred Boisseau	1881	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Sir David William Smith	Speaker of the House of Assembly of the Province of Upper Canada	Théophile Hamel	1859	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Alexander McDonell (Collachie)	Speaker of the House of Assembly of the Province of Upper Canada	Copy by Théophile Hamel	1854	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Levius Peters Sherwood	Speaker of the House of Assembly of the Province of Upper Canada	Copy by Théophile Hamel	1855	Oil on canvas
The Honourable John Willson	Speaker of the House of Assembly of the Province of Upper Canada	Théophile Hamel	1855	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Marshall Spring Bidwell	Speaker of the House of Assembly of the Province of Upper Canada	Théophile Hamel	1854	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Archibald McLean	Speaker of the House of Assembly of the Province of Upper Canada	Théophile Hamel	1854	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Sir Allan Napier MacNab	Speaker of the House of Assembly of the Province of Upper Canada; Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada	Théophile Hamel	1853	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Henry Ruttan	Speaker of the House of Assembly of the Province of Upper Canada	Théophile Hamel	1856	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Austin (Augustin) Cuvillier	Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada	Copy by Théophile Hamel	1856	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Augustin-Norbert Morin	Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada	Théophile Hamel	1854	Oil on canvas
The Honourable John Sandfield Macdonald	Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada	Théophile Hamel	1854	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Louis-Victor Sicotte	Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada	Théophile Hamel	1855	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Sir Henry Smith	Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada	William Sawyer	1869	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Joseph-Édouard Turcotte	Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada	Théophile Hamel	1865	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Lewis Wallbridge	Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada	William Sawyer	1873	Oil on canvas
The Honourable James Cockburn	Speaker of the House of Commons	George Theodore Berthon	1872	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Timothy Warren Anglin	Speaker of the House of Commons	John Colin Forbes	1878	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Joseph-Godéric Blanchet	Speaker of the House of Commons	John Colin Forbes	circa 1880	Oil on canvas
The Honourable George Airey Kirkpatrick	Speaker of the House of Commons	Frances E. Richards Rowley	1887	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Joseph-Aldéric Ouimet	Speaker of the House of Commons	René Émile Quentin	1889	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Peter White	Speaker of the House of Commons	Robert Harris	1894	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Sir James David Edgar	Speaker of the House of Commons	Alphonse Jongers	circa 1899	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Thomas Bain	Speaker of the House of Commons	John Colin Forbes	circa 1900	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Louis-Philippe Brodeur	Speaker of the House of Commons	Ozias Leduc	1904	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Napoléon-Antoine Belcourt	Speaker of the House of Commons	Charles Ignace Adélard Gill	circa 1905	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Robert Franklin Sutherland	Speaker of the House of Commons	John Wycliffe Lowes Forster	circa 1906	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Charles Marcil	Speaker of the House of Commons	Ulric Lamarche	1912	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Thomas Simpson Sproule	Speaker of the House of Commons	John Colin Forbes	circa 1913	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Albert Sévigny	Speaker of the House of Commons	Charles Huot	circa 1918	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Edgar Nelson Rhodes	Speaker of the House of Commons	Sir Edmund Wyly Grier	1921	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Rodolphe Lemieux	Speaker of the House of Commons	Jacqueline Comerre Paton	circa 1924	Oil on canvas
The Honourable George Black	Speaker of the House of Commons	Kenneth Keith Forbes	1934	Oil on canvas
The Honourable James Langstaff Bowman	Speaker of the House of Commons	Kenneth Keith Forbes	circa 1935	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Pierre-François Casgrain	Speaker of the House of Commons	Kenneth Keith Forbes	circa 1940	Oil on canvas
The Honourable James Allison Glen	Speaker of the House of Commons	Kenneth Keith Forbes	circa 1945	Medium: Oil on canvas
The Honourable Gaspard Fauteux	Speaker of the House of Commons	Kenneth Keith Forbes	1946	Oil on canvas
The Honourable William Ross Macdonald	Speaker of the House of Commons	Lilias Torrance Newton	1951	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Louis-René Beaudoin	Speaker of the House of Commons	Kenneth Keith Forbes	1960	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Roland Michener	Speaker of the House of Commons	Cleeve Horne	1962	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Marcel Lambert	Speaker of the House of Commons	Kenneth Keith Forbes	1963	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Alan Aylesworth Macnaughton	Speaker of the House of Commons	Lilias Torrance Newton	circa 1964	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Lucien Lamoureux	Speaker of the House of Commons	Suraj Sadan	1977	Oil on canvas
The Honourable James Jerome	Speaker of the House of Commons	Robert Stewart Hyndman	1979	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Jeanne Sauvé	Speaker of the House of Commons	Brenda Bury	1984	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Lloyd Francis	Speaker of the House of Commons	Anita Elizabeth Kertzer	1987	Oil on canvas
The Honourable John Bosley	Speaker of the House of Commons	Shirley Van Dusen	1993	Oil on canvas
The Honourable John Allen Fraser	Speaker of the House of Commons	Gregory Furmanczyk	1994	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Gilbert Parent	Speaker of the House of Commons	David Goatley	2001	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Sir George Eulas Foster	Member of Parliament	T. Eyre Macklin	1926	Oil on canvas
The Honourable Thomas D’Arcy McGee	Member of Parliament	Bruce Mitchell	1957	Oil on canvas
The Fathers of Confederation	Historic event/people	Rex Woods	1968	Oil on canvas
Sir George E. Cartier	Member of Parliament, Father of Confederation, former Joint-Premier of the United Provinces of Canada	Juliette de Lavoye	circa 1965	Watercolour on ivory / Glass; velvet; walnut
George Brown	Member of Parliament, Father of Confederation	Juliette de Lavoye	circa 1965	Watercolour on ivory; Glass; velvet; walnut
Sir John A. Macdonald	Member of Parliament, Prime Minister	Juliette de Lavoye	circa 1965	Watercolour on ivory; Glass; velvet; walnut
The Royal Visit, 1939	Historic event/people	Frank Owen Salisbury	1941	Oil on canvas
Opening of Parliament in the 19th Century	Historic event/people	William Harvey Sadd	1901	Oil on canvas
Discovery of Canada by Jacques Cartier	Historic event/person, French explorer	Copy by Augustine Leriverend after Ferdinand Perrot (1840)		Oil on canvas
Major General James Wolfe	Military figure/history	Copy by Théophile Hamel	circa 1865	Oil on canvas
Louis Joseph Marquis de Montcalm	Military figure/history	Copy by Théophile Hamel	circa 1865	Oil on canvas
Sir George Prevost	Military figure/history	Copy by Théophile Hamel after Robert Field (circa 1808)	1864	Oil on canvas
Amerigo Vespucci	explorer	Copy by Antoine Sébastien Falardeau	1857	Oil on canvas
Christopher Columbus	explorer	Copy by Antoine Sébastien Falardeau	1853	Oil on canvas

Sculptures

Title/Subject	Public Office	Artist	Date Painted/Created	Medium
Lieutenant-Colonel George Harold Baker	Member of Parliament	Robert Tait McKenzie	1923	Bronze
The Right Honourable Sir Robert Laird Borden	Prime Minister	Alfred Laliberté	1915	Marble
The Right Honourable Sir Robert Laird Borden	Prime Minister	Lionel Gooch Fosbery	1927	Plaster, painted
The Honourable Ellen Louks Fairclough	First Woman Cabinet Minister	Elizabeth M. Bradford Holbrook	1959	Bronze
The Right Honourable William Lyon Mackenzie King	Prime Minister	Avard Tennyson Fairbanks	1943	Bronze
The Right Honourable Sir Wilfrid Laurier	Prime Minister	Lionel Gooch Fosbery	1938	Plaster, painted
The Honourable Alexander Mackenzie	Prime Minister	Cléophas Soucy	1943	Plaster, painted
The Honourable Agnes Campbell Macphail	First woman elected to the House of Commons	Felix Weihs de Weldon	1939	Bronze
The Right Honourable Roland Michener	Governor General	Kenneth Jarvis	1982	Bronze
The Right Honourable Louis Stephen St. Laurent	Prime Minister, Member of Parliament	Ernest Richard Gause	1954	Bronze
James Shaver Woodsworth	Leader of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, Member of Parliament	Cléophas Soucy	1946	Plaster, painted
Sir John George Bourinot	Clerk of the House of Commons	Roland Beauchamp	1949	Bronze
Dollard des Ormeaux		Alfred Laliberté	1923 (circa 1911-1915)	Bronze
La France		Auguste Rodin	1921 (1904)	Bronze