page_title: Colonial Building
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: Colonial Building / Construction
caption_attribution_description: English: The ceiling in the former chamber of the Newfoundland House of Assembly in the Colonial Building, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The detailed ceiling was painted by an inmate in exchange for one less month in his sentence.
context_page_description: The Colonial Building located in St. John's was the home of the Newfoundland government and the House of Assembly from January 28, 1850 to July 28, 1959. In 1974 it was declared a Provincial Historic Site.
  In 1832 when the Colony of Newfoundland governed itself by representative government there was not a formal building assigned to house the legislature. The first home of the Legislature was a tavern and lodging house owned and operated by a Mrs. Travers. The stay was brief as in the legislature's haste and inexperience it forgot to vote approval for the funds to pay rent. For the next seventeen years they would meet in various temporary quarters. In 1846 an act was approved authorizing the construction of a Colonial Building as a permanent home.
  On May 24, 1847, the cornerstone was laid by the Governor, Major-General Sir John Gaspar Le Marchant. The official opening of the Colonial Building took place on January 28, 1850, by Governor Le Marchant for the second session of the House's fourth general assembly.
context_section_description: James Purcell was the main architect and Patrick Keough was the contractor. Colonial Building, built in the style of neoclassical was constructed of white limestone specially imported from Little Island, Cork, Ireland. The facade features a massive portico consisting of six ionic columns supporting an entablature triangular pediment. The pediment is decorated with the Royal Arms sculpted in deep relief. The interior hall is screened with ionic columns supporting a quadrangular lantern dome. the two legislative chambers, each with a ceiling height of twenty eight feet, are decorated with corinthian pilasters. The whole structure was built at a cost of £18,335.
  In 1880 Alexander Pindikowski, a Polish fresco painter, then serving a 15-month prison sentence for forgery received a one-month reduction in his sentence for the immaculate fresco painting work he completed at both Colonial Building and Government House.
  Worthy of note is the fact that the governing party had chosen to sit on the left side of the House of Assembly as opposed to the traditional right side of the speaker because that's where the heaters were located, and it was the warmest part of the house. To this day the ruling party in the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly continues to sit on the left side of the speaker of the house.
caption: Colonial Building chamber ceiling, 2006
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