Preparing the new House of Commons chamber in January 1920. (Library and Archives Canada)
Construction begins on the new Centre Block five months after the fire and is completed in four years; finishing the ornamentation takes another three years.
The new design matches the original style, but with updated materials and an extra floor for more office space. And architects John A. Pearson and Jean-Omar Marchand change the interior layout to incorporate the Beaux-Arts design.
LAC PHOTO: Prince Arthur, the Governor General of Canada, re-laid Centre Block's original cornerstone on Sept. 1, 1916.
On Feb. 26, 1920, Governor General the Duke of Devonshire stepped foot in the new House of Commons chamber to officially open the new Centre Block.
This would normally be a break in parliamentary protocol; the governor general (or sovereign) avoids the lower house in a symbolic nod to the independence of MPs.
In this case, the Senate chamber simply wasn’t ready yet. So, for one day, the upper chamber sat in the House of Commons so the Speech from the Throne could be delivered.
Opening the new Centre Block in 1920. (Library and Archives Canada)
"I congratulate you that after an enforced absence of four years, it is possible for you to assemble in your new legislative home, resting in trustful security upon the old foundations and surrounded by the picturesque and historic setting of Parliament Hill," said the governor general.
"Though not entirely completed, its noble proportions, its wide and convenient spaces, its beauty of design and chasteness of finish and its unique local situation mark it as a most striking and dignified structure, worthy of the people whose national life it will henceforth serve."
Also sending a well wish, via telegram, was King George V himself:
It is my firm assurance that the deliberations of the Parliament of Canada will as in the past redound to the happiness and prosperity of the great Dominion whose well-being is so vital to the whole Empire.
Sir George Foster, the acting prime minister speaking on behalf of an ill Sir Robert Borden, told MPs:
"As we cross the threshold of this the noble home of Canada's Parliament of to-day, it behooves us to contrast ourselves with the men of the past. We must look to the proud record which has been made and which has been handed down in trust to us. We must question ourselves as to what manner of workmen we shall prove ourselves to be as we bring forth the tools of our art and apply them to the work that yet remains to he done. Are we fitted to carry on the work so well begun?"
Opposition Leader W.L. Mackenzie King said:
"These Halls of Parliament, like those yonder, represent our nation's story; they are the centre of our nation's story; they are the centre of our national life ... The stone of which the walls of the interior are constructed bears upon its surface the marks of the sea, though it comes all the way from the Middle West. It is Canadian stone. Like the Laurentians which we see as we look toward the the setting sun, it reminds us that, recent as our country's written history may be, its material foundations belong to the oldest known geological formations to be found anywhere on the surface of the globe."
The Peace Tower's official inauguration came later, on July 1, 1927: the 60th anniversary of Canada's Confederation.
