Great museum access from 171 O'Connor Street, the Imperial Apartments. Located just 11 min. walk from the Canadian Museum of Civilization, you will always have access to a great educational and entertaining experience!
Home to brand-new exhibitions and galleries, a 100-year-old stone “castle”, and Canada’s natural history collection.
See http://nature.ca/en/home for more information.
There is some great history with the building as well, the building, known as the Victoria Memorial Museum Building, was built in former farm fields known as Appin Place, the estate of the Scottish-born merchant, William Stewart. The neighbourhood became known as Stewarton and residential development started in the area during the 1870s. The government purchased the land in 1905 hoping to develop the site as a sort of 'end piece' to complement the stone structure of the Canadian Parliament Buildings at the opposite end of Metcalfe Street, on Parliament Hill.
This massive stone structure is an excellent example of early 20th-century architecture in Ottawa, and was built for $1,250,000 by architect David Ewart who is responsible for many similar structures around the city.The construction of the building involved the importing of 300 skilled stonemasons from Scotland.The architectural style is sometimes described as Scottish baronial. Ewart was sent to Britain to study the architecture of Hampton Court and Windsor Castle, which greatly influenced his design of this building.
Unfortunately, because of the presence of unstable Leda 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 unstable site forced some workers to stop working, as shifting foundations in the basement shot bricks and stones out from the walls, hitting some construction workers
The building found itself filling a more auspicious role than originally intended when in 1916, fire consumed the majority of the Centre Block on Parliament Hill. The recently completed Victoria Museum Building became the temporary home of the House of Commons from 1916 to 1919 and the affairs of the government were run from the site until the completion of the new Parliament building in 1922.The Senate used the first floor mineral room (now Talisman Energy Fossil Gallery) and the Commons used the amphitheatre on third floor (now the Salon). Chairs and tables for members were brought in, as well as the speaker's chair for both the Senate and Commons.
In 1968, the National Museum that occupied the building was split into the National Museum of Natural Sciences (eventually renamed the Canadian Museum of Nature) and the National Museum of Man (eventually renamed the Canadian Museum of Civilization), although both entities continued to share the same edifice. In 1989, the Canadian Museum of Civilization moved to a new location in Gatineau, Quebec, and the Canadian Museum of Nature was able to occupy the entire Victoria Memorial Museum Building.
For more information see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_museum_of_nature.
See http://glenview.ca/listings.php?list=rr&id_rr=21 for more information on the Imperial Apartments.
