The Senate of Canada Building () is a government building and former railway station that serves as the temporary seat of the Senate of Canada. Located at 2 Rideau Street in downtown Ottawa, it was known as Ottawa Union Station and served as the city's central railway station from 1912 until 1966. From 1966 to 2018, it was operated by the Government of Canada as the Government Conference Centre. The building currently includes a temporary Senate chamber (housed in the concourse of the former railway station), as well as some Senate offices and committee rooms (in the waiting room of the former station).

It is situated at the intersection of Wellington Street and the Rideau Canal, across the street from the Château Laurier hotel (which was constructed around the same time). It is from Parliament Hill and Confederation Square.

History

History of Railways in Ottawa

Before the turn of the twentieth century, several railway companies had run lines into the city and had begun to build railway stations. In chronological order:

  1. New Edinburgh: Bytown and Prescott Railway
  2. Broad Street: Canada Central Railway, QMO&O: 1870, 1881, 1896, 1900
  3. Elgin Street: Canada Atlantic Railway: early 1880s
  4. Nicholas Street at Mann Avenue: Ottawa and New York Railway: 1895

Broad Street, in the Lebreton Flats area, was the site of several stations including the first Union station (1881), which perished by fire in 1896 and again in 1900 and was rebuilt each time. The last one closed in 1920. Broad Street was near the Prince of Wales Bridge, the link to Montreal via the north shore of the Ottawa River. Broad Street itself no longer exists, erased as part of the National Capital Commission's efforts at improving the capital area.

Ottawa became part of the Canadian Pacific Railway's transcontinental rail service on June 28, 1886, when the first Pacific Express arrived at Broad Street from Montreal via Lachute and Hull, Quebec, on its way to Sudbury, Winnipeg, Calgary, and Port Moody, B.C. It used the existing Prince of Wales Bridge to cross the Ottawa River near the site of the present-day O-Train Bayview Station, west of Parliament Hill. This rail bridge had been built in 1880 by the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway and was transferred to Canadian Pacific in 1882.

However, there was no centrally located station until 1895, through efforts of John Rudolphus Booth. The station seemed to not be truly serving the needs of the railway companies, since it was built for the interests of the Canada Atlantic Railway.

In 1910, the Grand Trunk was apportioned part of the Rideau Canal in order to build a new station and hotel. When the last Canadian Pacific trains moved from the old Union Station on Broad Street to Grand Trunk Central station on January 4, 1920, the old station was closed and the Grand Trunk station became Ottawa Union Station.

The June 1912 opening of the Union Station and the Chateau Laurier was not met with much fanfare, since Grand Trunk Railway general manager Charles Melville Hays had just died in the Titanic disaster two months previously. was originally designed by New York-based architect Bradford Lee Gilbert who was eventually dismissed due to concerns of mismanagement. The Montreal firm of Ross and MacFarlane took over the project, making many design changes to the station. Ross and MacFarlane also took over the design of the Château Laurier and later built Toronto's Union Station.

Both Canadian National Railways (successor to the Grand Trunk) and Canadian Pacific Railway operated regularly scheduled passenger trains through the facility until it ceased operations on July 31, 1966.

Architecture

The building is inspired by the Beaux-Arts architectural style. The main departures hall (now the main conference area) is based on the Great Hall of the Roman Baths of Caracalla at 3/4 scale. It is therefore similar to the now-destroyed departures hall of New York Penn Station.

In 2007, the idea of reverting the building back to its original use sprang up as Ottawa considered various proposals for regional commuter rail systems. It is seen as being feasible to do so (although it would require a long tunnel to reconnect to the existing railway tracks) ; however, the Government of Canada's Department of Public Works says the building is not for sale.

Temporary Senate of Canada building

In July 2013, it was announced by Public Works Canada that the building would be used to temporarily accommodate the Senate chamber (in the main concourse of the old train station) along with 21 Senate offices and three committee rooms (in the old general waiting room) while the Centre Block undergoes major rehabilitation work projected to take up to ten years. It was decided that the need to rehabilitate this historical building presented a perfect opportunity to find an interim home for the Senate. The works included:

  • seismic reinforcement;
  • restoration of the masonry;
  • replacement of roofing materials including skylights, replacement of obsolete electrical, mechanical and life safety systems to meet current codes;
  • renovation of the interior space;
  • removal of outdated conference amenities added in the 1960s (i.e. translation booths);
  • conformity to universal accessibility requirements;
  • abatement of hazardous materials; and
  • expansion of the loading dock, to improve serviceability limitations of the building.

In February 2019, the Senate of Canada Building formally re-opened in its current role.

See also

  • Ottawa station, the station opened in 1966 to replace Ottawa Union Station

References

  • Senate of Canada Building on the Senate of Canada website
  • NCC Watch: Ottawa Union Station
  • The Railways of Ottawa - Colin Churcher's Railway Pages