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The Canadian Pacific Steamship Terminal (1923-24), on the Inner Harbour, Victoria, B. C., designed by Francis Mawson Rattenbury (1867–1935). This Greco-Roman temple is a departure from Rattenbury's chateau-like design for Victoria's iconic Empress Hotel, also built for the Canadian Pacific Steamship Line. Here, Rattenbury has abandoned his flamboyant neo-Romanesque style so evident in his expansive designs for the new legislative buildings for the British Columbia provincial government, for which he had won the international competition in 1891 at the age of twenty-five. The spare neoclassical CP Steamship "pavillion" for the British Columbia Coastal Services division also seems a radical departure from his design for the Bank of Montreal at the entrance to Bastion Square, in a markedly Neo Gothic mode. However, the stately neo-classical temple also represents Rattenbury's continuing commitment to technological innovation in architecture: behind the gleaming façade of the Neoclassical Revival terminal the architects have employed onsite pre-cast concrete for the twenty-three massive Ionic columns on the long sides.
Detail of the building, from the southeast on Belleville.
The south façade of what amounts to a magnificent ticket-booth faces Rattenbury's Parliament Buildings on Bellevile Street, and to the north the Inner Harbour, the nineteenth- and early-twentieth century gateway to Victoria. For the three-storey structure dedicated to maritime commerce and underscoring the importance to Victoria of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company, he and his assistant, Percy Leonard James, have employed a hip roof and massive piers at each corner, and have placed a wide balustrade around the low roof. Although Rattenbury designed it in 1904, the building did not open for business on 1 January 1924 (as announced by the CPR cartouche above the main door):" "construction was completed in the summer of 1924, for $250,000" (Victoria Heritage Foundation). While it subtly incorporates such ornamentation as Ionic peristyles, dolphins, crowns, and crosses, its simple classical façade counterpoints the far more ornate frontages of the nearby Legislative Buildings and the Empress. Its exaggerated neoclassicism remains unique among Victoria's commercial and public buildings.
Left to right: (a) The head of Neptune. (b) Detail of the B. C. Coast Services cartouche above the doorway on Belleville.: the classical God of the Seas, from southwest corner. (c) The plaque for the B. C. Coast Services Building on Belleville.
From the previous ticket building on this site at 470 Belleville Street, passengers such as noted American humourist Mark Twain would take ship for the Pacific islands, India, and the Orient. Fittingly, then, the Neptune motif is repeated at each corner. "George Gibson, responsible for carvings in the Legislative Library and Christ Church Cathedral, created the intricate carvings, including Poseidon, god of the sea" (Victoria Heritage Foundation).
British Columbians in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth century thought of this spot as the gateway to both their capital city and western Canada. "It's easy to see how breathtaking the building would have been for those stepping off . . . their steamship and into Victoria for the first time. The CPR Steamship Terminal building witnessed passenger traffic growth from a mere 11,000 passengers on the route, to almost 150,000!" (Victoria BC.CA.).
Bibliography
Barrett, Anthony A., and Rhodri Windsor Liscombe. Francis Mawson Rattenbury and British Columbia: Architecture and Challenge in the Imperial Age. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1983.
Canada's Historic Places. CPR Steamship Terminal 396 Belleville Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8V, Canada. Formally Recognized: 1995/01/19. Web. 23 April 2023.
Elliot, David R. "Rattenbury, Francis Mawson." Canadian Encyclopedia. Edmonton: Hurtig, 1988. Vol. 3: 1828-1829.
Gregson, Harry. A History of Victoria 1842-1970. North Vancouver: J. J. Douglas, 1977.
"Rattenbury, Francis Mawson." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Posted 20 May 2008. Web. 20 April 2023
Victoria BC.CA. "CPR Steamship Terminal Building — Historical Places of Victoria, B. C.." Accessed 24 April 2023.
Victoria Heritage Foundation. "470 Belleville Street. CPR Steamship Terminal & Ticket Office." Posted 2021. Web. 23 April 2023.
Created 24 April 2017