Transcript
Friday, November 13, 2026
20:27 minutes
[00:00:00]
Amanda Cupido: Welcome to season three of On Parliament, highlighting the history, processes, and people that shape Ontario. I'm Amanda Cupido. The legislative building, commonly referred to as Queen's Park, looks pretty uniform from the outside, but the inside tells a different story. Today, we're talking about the devastating fire that took place in 1909 where the West Wing was destroyed.
[00:00:33]
Amanda Cupido: I'm joined by the Legislative Assembly of Ontario's Communications Officer, David Bogart. You might remember him as a guest from our Halloween episode. He's back to give us the lowdown on the fire. So, let's start there. What exactly happened that day?
[00:00:50]
David Bogart: One of the papers said Wednesday, September 1st, 1909, began like any other day at Ontario's legislature. But around 12:00 noon, many employees were enjoying their lunch break. Cabinet was meeting in the executive council chamber in the building's East Wing, and tourists were leisurely strolling through the hallways. All of a sudden, an elevator attendant shouted, "Fire," and moments later, a beam of burning timber crashed through the West Wing's glass ceiling, falling to the ground three floors below.
[00:01:16]
David Bogart: This set off an alarm, and everyone in the building began to notice that something was just not right. We have some accounts that says that employees in the building did what they could to help fight the blaze, and a number of people jumped in. Instead of running out the door, back in those days, they just stayed and fought this fire which was burning down half of the building.
[00:01:40]
David Bogart: So it was the West Wing that had caught fire, and that's what was really impacting the day. So that was the start of this big event.
[00:01:50]
Amanda Cupido: Now, one thing to note is that alarm that went off, it was not a fire alarm. So tell us a little bit about how the alarm system shook out that day and when people were notified.
[00:01:57]
David Bogart: Right. Well, there were alarms that were available in the building, but no one pulled them. And so the local fire department kind of got wind of the fact that something was happening. They could see smoke in the distance over on Yonge Street. But people were so scrambling in the building to try to start to fight the fire that they did not pull the alarm in the building.
[00:02:14]
David Bogart: There were alarms that were in the local area that were available to be pulled. Apparently one was pulled and then it wasn't until the firefighters got to the complex that they actually pulled the alarm that was within the building itself. It's really kind of crazy. This would just not have happened in our current day.
[00:02:31]
David Bogart: Our current fire procedures just were not in place at the time, which shows you just how much times have changed.
[00:02:40]
Amanda Cupido: So timeline-wise, how long did it take before the fire department was notified?
[00:02:49]
David Bogart: Yeah, well, approximately about a half hour, but they didn't really get to the site until between 12:45 and 1:15. And there was a concern about, "Well, what happened? Why didn't they get here fast enough?" And again, it had to do with the fact that the alarm didn't go through to a fire station. It was more like either word of mouth and things that were happening in the distance that kind of triggered the firefighters to respond.
[00:03:07]
Amanda Cupido: Now inside there was you mentioned lots of people were taking charge, trying to fight the fire. Paint us a picture. What did that look like?
[00:03:20]
David Bogart: Oh, there's a really great account I can share with one of you here. This said that "Employees like C.S. Horrocks from the Office of the Registrar General teamed up with others to help fight the fire.
[00:03:25]
David Bogart: Horrocks recalls that he was attracted by the noise of the breaking glass, and immediately rushed to the west end elevator and secured the nozzle of the hose and ran it under the skylight. Mr. Schreiner was at the elevator. When he got there, he turned on the hydrant and straightened out the kinks in the branch.
[00:03:40]
David Bogart: Mr. Pegg of the fisheries appeared first with the branch from the central elevator, but owing to the nozzle being defective, they were unable to get much water above the ceiling." There was this sort of an on all hands on scramble to try to get the fire fought inside. And there's another couple of points I'll touch on in a minute. I know you're gonna ask a question about who else was involved with trying to save the Chamber.
[00:03:55]
Amanda Cupido: Well, I mean, the premier at the time was very involved. Tell me about his role in all of this.
[00:04:06]
David Bogart: Yeah. And it's also interesting to see the way he was portrayed in the press. In fact, we have here, "The premier, the little gruff-voiced knight of the legislature, was one of the central figures of the fire for a time.
[00:04:18]
David Bogart: Sir James removed his coat and appeared in all the manly glory of his short sleeves. The ministers worked at saving the paintings and carried them to safety." They were having a meeting basically in the executive council chamber, and the cabinet was all sitting around a table, and they could hear what was going on with the sounds of fire.
[00:04:35]
David Bogart: So they basically cut their meeting and ran down the hallway towards the Chamber and began to take paintings off the wall then. And in fact, there, we even have a picture in one of the press that they moved the piano out from the speaker's apartment, which was on the first floor. Down the stairs, there was a group of people that actually saved this old piano from the building from being burned.
[00:04:56]
Amanda Cupido: Wow. And there were also some folks who were trying to save pieces from the library too, right?
[00:05:10]
David Bogart: Right. The library was unfortunately the biggest loss that day. The librarian in charge was Avron Pardoe and he saw almost 90 to 100,000 books. It was over 90,000. They say about 100,000 books that were lost from this collection.
[00:05:17]
David Bogart: And remember at that time that this library housed not just government publications, that there were social publications and historic publications that were lost that day. It was a huge loss. So the beautiful library was located at the west end of the hall. It was two floors. Beautiful galleries and lots and lots of books and shelving, and artwork, most of which were lost. That was, that was the biggest loss that day.
[00:05:43]
Amanda Cupido: Describe what parts of the building were impacted.
[00:05:50]
David Bogart: Well, thanks to all the work that was taking place by staff who were trying to keep the, the Chambers safe, the west hallway was the biggest area affected. Basically the roof collapsed in the west hallway, and it was made of wood beams.
[00:06:05]
David Bogart: It was a hip roof in terms of an architectural description, and a hip roof is created of massive wooden beams that support the weight of the ceilings below it. And there were skylights, and all of this structure basically burned and collapsed and crashed to the floors below. The problem with the roof was that with all this material made of wood, over the course of seasons, of course you have expansion and contraction with the seasons, and that's why the roof was always under repair. So that's what was going on that day, and it turned out that that was the source of the fire and what happened.
[00:06:40]
Amanda Cupido: Tell me more about the source of that fire. How did it actually happen?
[00:06:50]
David Bogart: It really didn't take very long for people to figure it out. In fact, within the burning embers of the structure, they did find a little charcoal burner that the tinsmiths had been working with to light charcoal that would basically melt lead solder that they would use to fill in these gaps in the roof that were basically cracked open.
[00:07:07]
David Bogart: And it was a windy afternoon. September 1st was a warm day, lots of warm wind as you can imagine on a warm summer day, and the burner was on the roof. And with the sparks coming out of the charcoal, they filtered into the air and then landed on the roof, and the workers just did not realize that with the wind, these cinders were being fanned into a flame, and that's what started things off so quickly.
[00:07:33]
David Bogart: And it just got out of control because of the weather conditions that day. The big drawback though was the lack of water pressure. In fact, some of these records that you see in the newspaper said that the water pressure was being improved within the downtown core, but not as far as Queen's Park.
[00:07:51]
David Bogart: So just south of College Street, the water pressure mains had been modernized, but north of College Street, the pressure just was not enough, and that was another reason why the West Wing was so damaged. Luckily it was mostly the roof that collapsed. The external walls made of beautiful pink sandstone that's still there remain pretty much intact. So it was the upper structure of the west side of the building that was most affected.
[00:08:12]
Amanda Cupido: And how would people around the area describe the sight? What were they seeing?
[00:08:30]
David Bogart: There were just hundreds of people that rushed to the park. They turned out to be such a stampede. There were literally hundreds and hundreds of people that came to the site.
[00:08:31]
David Bogart: They saw the smoke in the area. Remember, the university's right across the road, so you have a lot of people at the university and within the downtown core. In fact, one of the reports in the newspapers was one of the biggest problems on the grounds was not flames coming down from the sky, it was people trampling the flower beds that caused a lot of the exterior damage on the grounds because people were just fascinated. There's a great picture, and we have it online at our website, which is www.ola.org, but I know you can see some of the links with our podcast information on our website. But if you go on our site, you can see a picture of a crowd standing on the grounds with umbrellas and well-dressed, looking at this conflagration happening and the firefighters that were trying to battle the blaze.
[00:09:14]
Amanda Cupido: And I forget if it's you who told me this, but I heard that some would even say that it was, like, raining library pages like pages and pages falling from the sky.
[00:09:30]
David Bogart: Yeah. Apparently the amount of paper that was thrown up in the sky with the fire and then the wind, there were embers that were falling down well into the later part of the day.
[00:09:33]
David Bogart: And the fire started midday, and they pretty much brought it under control before 2:00. But by that time, they basically began to cordon off the area. There were even some reports of looting that was going on by people that came to the site believe it or not, back in those days. An artist even showed up to try to find a bust that he was working on inside the building, and apparently that was a complete loss.
[00:10:00]
Amanda Cupido: Let's talk about the financial impact. How much damage was done?
[00:10:04]
David Bogart: We know that the estimated damage the building was about $325,000. Now, that's back in 1909 terms. The library alone was 250,000, so that was the biggest hit. These were reports that were in The Globe. If anyone wants to look this up, this is a report that was in The Globe newspaper on September 2nd, 1909. And we know that that total though was not fully covered by insurance, unfortunately.
[00:10:29]
David Bogart: There was insurance on the building up to $750,000, but no insurance on the contents. So a lot of this was a huge loss for the government at the time, that didn't properly insure the structure. So 325, including the library damage and damage of 120,000 or so to the furniture and the contents.
[00:10:49]
Amanda Cupido: All right, and then what was the approach to the rebuild here?
[00:10:52]
David Bogart: Things were already in the works. I mean, we looked at the fact that the government seemed to already have hired someone to look at building a new library and add more space to the building. That was the North Wing. That was being planned by an architect by the name of George Gowanlock, and if you ever go down to the exhibition grounds in Toronto, there is still the old music building that he designed on the site.
[00:11:15]
David Bogart: But he did a number of buildings on the ex grounds. The other important person involved with the renovation of the building was E.J. Lennox. Mr. Lennox, well-known as a Toronto architect who designed Casa Loma, the Old City Hall, King Eddy Hotel. There's lots of structures that are still in the city that are part of his legacy.
[00:11:33]
David Bogart: And the original architect, Richard Waite, was an English architect living in Buffalo, New York. What was great to see with the rebuilding was that the controversy about not hiring Toronto or Ontario architects or Canadian architects was resolved by the fact that two major Toronto architects were involved with fixing the building after this really terrible event.
[00:11:53]
David Bogart: So Lennox rebuilt the west side of the building. He altered it slightly to add an extra two floors. And that's why, Amanda, if you come to the site and you stand back, you notice there's two different levels on the exterior. The west side of the building today is higher than the east side. So observers will note that the east side of the building reflects the original architecture of the building. You can just remember that it was a symmetrical style. So that west side was rebuilt by Lennox to add more office space at the government's demand. The building was basically full up by the time the fire had occurred, so the government wanted more office space.
[00:12:27]
David Bogart: Lennox kept to the original style of the design on the outside, but wow, if you come inside the building. Well, you obviously know. It's very different. When you saw that the first time, what did you think?
[00:12:40]
Amanda Cupido: I know, it's like you have to do a double take because you're looking down one hallway and it's, like, warm browns, wood, and then you look down the other hallway, and it is white, crisp marble and very bright. Both stunning and beautiful in their own ways, but very starkly different.
[00:12:58]
David Bogart: And that’s what makes the interpretation about the site really easy in a way, but also very interesting when you come and you stand inside. Please come and take a tour, and you can come and stand in the grand staircase and look down both sides and you can see the difference. I have another question for you. I'm not gonna interview you, but what side of the building do you prefer? The original architectural style with the wood and the cast iron, or do you like what Mr. Lennox did? To describe the interior of the West Wing, it's beautiful white Italian marble that covers a steel structure. Do you have a preference?
[00:13:32]
Amanda Cupido: I love both and I know that's the cheap answer. But, you know, for different reasons I will say, cause there is, around 2 o'clock in the afternoon, if you go onto that east side, the wooden side, the way that the light shines through the windows onto that wooden carpeted floor, it is so stunning. It takes my breath away every time I walk down that hallway.
[00:13:56]
Amanda Cupido: So if you can plan a tour for around 2 o'clock in the afternoon, you've got to do it because that environment is not recreated on that west side. Now, I will say though when you go to that west side, there is a beautiful skylight with the Ontario crest in the ceiling, which is also stunning in its own regard.
[00:14:15]
Amanda Cupido: I've taken multiple pictures of it, and as the light shines through that, it's a beautiful kind of mosaic glasswork that you don't get to see a lot in this city. And so that's where it's like, if it's the 2:00 hour, you're finding me on the east side. If it's another time, you're probably finding me on the west side. So it's a true both. I love both.
[00:14:33]
David Bogart: Can I add on to that a little? So the reason why is that there's still a company in business today in Toronto called, well it's not the original name, it was McCausland Glass, but they did three major skylights for the inside of the building. And what's part of the whole story of the fire was that they plussed the other skylight in the West Wing which replaced the original one, which was this orange-colored glass which creates this beautiful light effect with the sun.
[00:14:55]
David Bogart: But Lennox hired the same company. They brought them in again and created the stained glass of the Ontario Court of Arms, which had just been finalized. In 1909, it was given royal warrant to add the animals around the shield, the bear, the deer, and the moose. And the motto. You gotta come and take a look at it because what's also special about it was when they renovated, the problem with the glass was they put in a glass roof.
[00:15:18]
David Bogart: And those glass prisms are called Luxfer prisms. The patent for some of these was a very popular style at the time, but some of these were even held by Frank Lloyd Wright, the famous American architect. And this model glass roof was installed, but it leaked. So about 15 years after Mr. Lennox's roof was installed, they had to tar it over. But part of the architectural legacy of the building is that in order to preserve and really showcase that beautiful stained glass piece again, back in the mid-'90s during a building restoration, they stripped all this tar off, and so the natural light now comes back in through this glass sky.
[00:15:54]
David Bogart: So the legacy of Mr. Lennox's work is more easily seen today. And when you come and see the contrast between the two sides, you can really appreciate what went into this rebuild. And also the mosaic tile floors. You cannot miss those. They're beautiful. When I started work here just a few years ago, they were all carpeted with red carpet. And also during the mid-'90s, the carpet was stripped off, and you can see this beautiful mosaic tile floor. It was all hand-laid. The company as well, Amanda, is still in business today. The DeSpirt and Marble Company operates out of Buffalo, New York. But back 100 years and so ago, they had branch offices here in Toronto and Montreal, and they had hand-laid this entire floor on four levels.
[00:16:37]
David Bogart: So Lennox added one, two, three, four, he added fourth and fifth floors, and this marble tiling is just beautifully laid all, even up on the fourth floor.
[00:16:45]
Amanda Cupido: So is the West Wing your favorite, David?
[00:16:49]
David Bogart: I think the East Wing is honestly my favourite spot. It's really interesting to talk about the West Wing because the amount of stuff that happened there and the rebuilding. This whole experience after the fire was a showcase of Toronto architecture.
[00:17:10]
David Bogart: You really don't get that story in any other, as far as I'm concerned, in a lot of other buildings in downtown Toronto. And that's what's important about the legacy of this event is to see how much infrastructure was changed or how much input was put in by Toronto talent, and also talent that was coming in from other parts of the northeast, the United States and Canada, to recreate the building and keep it as a legacy that's important for us today.
[00:17:35]
Amanda Cupido: Now of course the marble is not flammable like wood would be. But there were still more fires after this one in 1909.
[00:17:44]
David Bogart: You touch on another good point. So the fireproofing of the building was necessitated by the event. So Lennox's installed this marble cladding even though it's a steel structure.
[00:17:56]
David Bogart: The east side of the building's originally, it's cast iron. But the North Wing itself is also kind of interesting because it was done to include a fireproof library. And so the steel bookshelves were installed, and the shelves are in the center now of this new library because it helps protect against water damage.
[00:18:16]
David Bogart: One of the other factors that happened during the fire was once they got the hoses going, they poured so much water into the building, the basement flooded. There were about three or four feet of water in the basement. The other question about adding more fires is yes, even as recently as about 15 years ago, we had another fire on the North Wing roof where the library currently is housed and it set fire to an air conditioning unit.
[00:18:39]
David Bogart: Fortunately, the fire was contained on the roof of the building. And even prior to the fire, if you come to the building for a tour, ask to see the cutout on the floor near the Chamber because you can see where a previous fire took place in about 1904, and apparently that one was caused by a lightning strike that hit the electrical wiring system. So you can see evidence of that.
[00:18:58]
Amanda Cupido: That apparently they didn't even discover right away. It took them doing a refurbishing project of the floor for them to even uncover that. Is that correct?
[00:19:07]
Amanda Cupido: There's a lot of little nods throughout the building. All the more reason to come on down and of course check out the photos, but come on down and then have a look for yourself. Any other fun facts about the fire that you think people ought to know about?
[00:19:21]
David Bogart: We luckily lost no one. There was no loss of life. And there were a few injuries, but that was really important, the good part of the bad story.
[00:19:39]
Amanda Cupido: Fun fact, you heard David talking about how people didn't evacuate the building right away. Well, that included the telephone switchboard operators. They remained at their posts diligently answering and directing calls related to the fire emergency. If you want to learn more, you can book a tour or see photos of the fire over on our website at ola.org.
[00:20:05]
Amanda Cupido: Thank you for listening to On Parliament. This podcast is produced by the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. I'm Amanda Cupido. We've got lots more where this came from. Be sure to hit that follow button on your favorite podcast player. Talk to you soon.