page_title: Regina's historic buildings and precincts
section_title: Provincial
hierarchical_section_title: Regina's historic buildings and precincts / Government / Provincial
caption_attribution_description: English: Scarth Street looking south from Hotel Saskatchewan: photo taken in 1927, two years before the drought and Great Depression began. Legislative Buildings are visible in background. Regina was amply prosperous though not nearly as large as was early anticipated it would soon be. Other information Photographer unknown; held by Regina Public Library Photograph Collection, granding unlimited access and use.
context_page_description: Many historically significant buildings in Regina, Saskatchewan were lost during the period 1945 through approximately 1970 when the urge to "modernize" overtook developers' and city planners' sense of history and heritage. The old warehouse district to the north of the old CPR tracks was Regina's original commercial raison d'être once Lieutenant-Governor Edgar Dewdney had established the site of his considerable landholdings as the Territorial Capital. With the significant conversion of shipping of commercial goods from train to truck and cancellation of passenger service on the railway, the Warehouse District immediately adjacent to the train line has ceased to be exclusively industrial in character. Some areas of the Warehouse District have been transformed into a shopping, entertainment and residential precinct.
context_section_description: The Beaux-Arts Saskatchewan Legislative Building on the south shore of Wascana Lake was constructed 1908–12, replacing the Territorial Administration Building on Dewdney Avenue, east of Government House. Discussion initially contemplated constructing such facilities in city centre on the site which became Victoria Park; the provincial government decided instead to locate them south of the lake, then entirely undeveloped, farmland rather than commercial and residential buildings, which were not built until after the Legislative Building.
  Wascana Lake had been created in 1883 by damming Wascana Creek, but between Angus and Rae Streets, 1½ blocks west of the 1908 Albert Street dam and bridge, itself replaced by the present bridge in the same location when Wascana Lake was drained in 1931 for deepening of the bed. The design contemplates expansion of the building by the addition of wings extending south from the east and west ends and coming together to form a courtyard. In the beginning it was anticipated that Regina and the population of the province would soon grow much larger than it has ever become. The plans originally called for the exterior of the building to be red brick but after construction had begun and red bricks were already on the site, Premier Walter Scott insisted on Manitoba tyndall stone being substituted.
  It immediately became and remains the dominating architectural presence in Regina. "The streets in Regina’s downtown all provide a clear view of the Legislative Assembly. A bylaw prevents construction of structures that would block this view." Additional provincial government buildings were erected south of the Legislative Building, beginning in the 1950s.
caption: Looking south on Scarth Street as seen from the Hotel Saskatchewan in 1927. Legislative Buildings are visible in background.
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