Ottawa, Canada's Canadian Museum of Nature is housed in the Victoria Memorial Museum Building, built in former farm fields in 1905

This massive stone structure is an excellent example of early 20th century architecture in Ottawa, and was built by architect David Ewart who is responsible for many similar structures around the city. The erecting of the building involved the importing of skilled stone masons from Scotland. The architectural style is sometimes described as 'Scottish baronial.'

The design was intended as a sort of 'end piece' to complement the stone structure of the Canadian Parliament Buildings a the opposite end of Metcalfe street, on Parliament Hill. Unfortunately, due to the presence of unstable 'Lida' clay in the geology of the site, a tall tower that was situated at the front of the building had to be taken down in 1915 due to settling and the concern that the foundation could not support the weight.

The building found itself filling a more auspicious roll that originally intended when in 1916, fire consumed the majority of the Parliament Buildings. The recently completed Victoria Museum Building became the temporary home of the House of Commons, and the affairs of the government were run from the site until the completion of the new Parliament in 1922.

Until 1989, the museum on the site was called the Museum of Man. The building was renamed the "Canadian Museum of Nature" following the construction of a new Museum across the river in Gatineau, Quebec. This new structure, designed by renouned architect Douglas J. Cardinal, took on the bulk of the former Museum of Man collection - becoming the Canadian Museum of Civilization, and allowing the previous natural history collection co-located with the Museum of Man to expand to occupy the whole building.

Interestingly, the historical record on the Museum of Nature's Website has stricken the "Museum of Man" moniker from the history books.

External Link

The Canadian Museum of Nature