Susanna McLeod
Special to Canadian Design and Construction Report
Nestled on the shore of Lake Ontario, Cobourg was a United Empire Loyalist settlement. Over a few decades, the population neared 5,000 proud residents. “The town quickly developed into a thriving centre of administration, education, commerce, and immigration,” said Cobourg & District Historical Society. (CDHS) Planning a rail line and the harbour, administrators envisioned a town hall that would suit the community’s rising status. The regal Victoria Hall opened in 1860, regarded as one of Canada’s finest public buildings.
Architect Kivas Tully won the commission to design Cobourg’s exciting project. An Irish emigrant, 24-year-old Tully brought his civil engineering and architectural skills to Toronto in 1844. Completing a number of prominent competitions, the architect established a reputation for designing large churches, municipal buildings, and commercial structures. Cobourg’s Victoria Hall became his enduring legacy in architectural excellence.
Cobourg residents desired an impressive town hall, and the architect delivered. Local builders William and David Burnet, and William Thomas were hired for the lengthy project. Premier of Upper Canada and businessman Sir Allan Napier MacNab laid the cornerstone on December 30, 1856, signalling the launch of construction.
The three-storey building was designed in Palladian and Victorian Neoclassical style. Smooth ashlar stone facing and buff-coloured Cleveland sandstone were selected for the E-shaped symmetrical exterior. “The imposing entrance portico has four Corinthian columns, Greco-Roman roofed porch and a speaker’s balcony,” said Heritage in Cobourg. Lavishly decorated, the façade features “symbols of the British Isles, carvings of lyres, dolphins, shells, a bearded head and other intricate examples of the stone cutter’s art.” Contrasting with the smooth ashlar stone above, the ground storey was finished with the coarse textures of rusticated stone.
Rising from the slate roof, the dramatic column-ringed cupola featured large clocks on several sides that could be easily seen from afar. Ninety-six large, multi-paned windows lined the walls, with details of “window surrounds, cornice, shaped chimneys,” mentioned Parks Canada.
The interior of Victoria Hall was infused with luxurious style. Tully’s drawings began with a graceful foyer leading to municipal offices, space for the Masonic Lodge, judge’s chambers and “a deep-well courtroom modeled after the Old Bailey in London,” according to Katherine Sedgewick in City and Country Home Heritage, June 1987. The architect’s high point was the two-storey ballroom that transformed into a concert hall holding 1,000 people. It was “a stunningly beautiful room, 26 metres long by 14 metres wide, with trompe l’oeil architectural details—pilasters and moldings—painted in fresco on the walls and elaborate floral friezes painted on the ceiling.”
On September 7, 1860, 18-year-old Albert Edward, Prince of Wales officially opened Victoria Hall, named for his mother, Queen Victoria. (The Prince of Wales arrived in Nova Scotia by ship in early August for a Canadian/USA tour. He became King Edward VII in 1901 on the death of the Queen.) The young prince (and no doubt his entourage) remained at the celebration to enjoy the Grand Ball and a late supper.
The tally of construction costs came to $110,000, an enormous price in 1860. Cobourg’s aim for commercial heights collapsed shortly after the completion of Victoria Hall. The railway and bridge links failed, “heavy municipal debt from the construction of Victoria Hall, and a province-wide economic depression” caused the town to lose its status,” said CDHS. “For most of the next century, Cobourg quietly slumbered on the lakeshore,” with a brief surge as a resort town in the early 1900s.
Building maintenance was not a budgetary priority, and the grand hall received only minimal attention. Exhibiting the dire effects of neglect over the century, engineers examined the structure in the 1970s. The thorough analysis found “the building unsafe especially because of the dry rot in the supporting beams of the concert Hall and wet rot where beams entered the foundation walls,” according to Tammy Storing and Lt. Col. C.G. King’s “Tour Guides’ Guide to Victoria Hall,” prepared in August 1978.
Over the next decade, fundraising campaigns raised $2 million toward repairs, and nearly $4 million more was raised among federal, provincial and municipal governments. The Society for the Restoration of Victoria Hall was formed to save the building from demolition.
Architects Peter John Stokes, Howard Chapman and Howard Walker launched the arduous repair and restoration, reinforcing floor joists with steel and adding “new wiring, plumbing, air-conditioning and heating systems,” Sedgwick said. The exterior was refreshed and repaired, and the exquisite ballroom fresco was painstakingly restored, too. Reproducing original designs, artist Roman Svoboda recreated the decorative images painted in once-vivid colours back to “their original brilliance,” described Sedgwick. Completing the full project in 1983, Victoria Hall restoration earned Heritage Canada’s National Award of Merit, among others.
The magnificent Victoria Hall was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in November 1959. Cobourg’s municipal centre, Victoria Hall is again a vibrant functioning public space.
© 2024 Susanna McLeod. McLeod is a Kingston-based freelance writer who specializes in Canadian History
Editor Sources:
“Introduction to ACO Walking Tour,” Cobourg & District Historical Society
https://cdhs.ca/introduction-to-aco-walking-tour/
“Heritage in Cobourg—Victoria Hall,” Cobourg Internet: Information about a feel good town. Retrieved from https://www.cobourginternet.com/about-cobourg/heritage-in-cobourg-victoria-hall?highlight=WyJ2aWN0b3JpYSIsImhhbGwiXQ==
Sedgewick, Katherine, “Cobourg’s Victoria Hall,” City and Country Home Heritage, June 1987.
Retrieved from http://images.ourontario.ca/Partners/Cobourg/0538911T.pdf
Storing, Tammy; King, Lt. Col. C.G., “Tour Guides’ Guide to Victoria Hall,” Cobourg Digital Collections, August 1978. Retrieved from https://vitacollections.ca/cobourgdigitalcollections/details.asp?ID=53888
Suggested Image:
“Cobourg’s Victoria Hall circa 1950. Toronto architect Kivas Tully led the imposing project, completed in 1860. Victoria Hall is regarded as one of Canada’s finest public buildings.” Cobourg Digital Collection, 720-15. Retrieved from https://vitacollections.ca/cobourgdigitalcollections/18972/data
