From Ashes to Steel: Rebuilding the Legislative Library of Ontario.

• Author: Hynes, Susanne
• Position: Essay

On September 1, 1909 the Legislative Library of Ontario was destroyed when afire gutted the West Wing of the Legislative Building. In the fall of 2009, the Legislative Library published a book, From Ashes to Steel: Rebuilding the Library and its Collection, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the fire. The book tells the story of the fire and its legacy and features reproductions of selected letters and photographs from the time of the fire. It is available for purchase at the Legislative Assembly" s Gift Shop http://www.ontla.on.ca.

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The Library moved into the newly-built Legislative Building at Queen's Park in Toronto in 1893. A short fifteen years later, in his 1908 Annual Report, Avern Pardoe, the Legislative Librarian, complained that the Library was short of space and that its rooms were "about as ill adapted for their purposes as it is possible to have them." Books, shelved around the periphery near windows, were being damaged by sunlight when the windows were closed, and by rain and snow when storms blew them open. Leaking steam pipes were a problem. Fear of fire was ever present: the shelves, books, chairs and tables were all flammable and the large open room would allow a draft to spread fire with "terrible effect".

In December 1908 Pardoe wrote the architect for the planned North Wing, George W. Gouinlock, about his ideas for a new Library: about shelving, layout, fixtures, windows and lighting, and about ensuring as fireproof a facility as possible. Nine months later, just as the foundation of the new Wing was being laid, fire swept through the Library.

On the day of the fire Avern Pardoe was vacationing in Muskoka. Marmaduke Wilson, his assistant, working in the Library, was alarmed by loud noises at around 11 a.m. and rushed out to the hall where he saw the beginning of the fire in the attic. By afternoon the West Wing of the Legislative Building had been engulfed in flames, the roof had collapsed, and most of the Library's collection had been turned to ash or was charred and soaked beyond salvage.

While the fire was still burning, the University of Toronto offered No. 4 Queen's Park as temporary quarters for the Library, quarters it was to occupy for three years. Pardoe, back in the city on the third of September, soon had moved what remained of his collection and begun the massive job of planning and rebuilding. Many details of this work are preserved in letters in the Archives of Ontario. (1)

Avern Pardoe's...