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Tent Room

The Creation of the Tent Room

In 1873, Lord Dufferin arranged for the creation of a new and fashionable ballroom for Rideau Hall, where he could host social and political entertainments in a more suitable setting (Ballroom, Rideau Hall, National Capital Commissions Projects 2003, 1). The room was erected at the northwest corner of the building’s front façade, but while it succeeded in offering the sort of entertainment space the Dufferins required, it only worsened the house’s asymmetry. Now hopelessly lopsided, one commentator of the time described the Hall as “Utterly devoid of any attempt at architectural style - a piecemeal agglomeration of incongruous brick, plaster and stone” (Dixon 1875, 187, 189). This was not only unacceptable for a residence of the Governor General, but an embarrassment to the Canadian government, and it was not long before Dufferin suggested the construction of a second, symmetry-providing addition to the southwest corner of the house.

The proposal was for a unique, dual-purpose space: a large racket court, which, when dressed with an internal, two-storey tent of red and white stripes, could be transformed into a formal dinning hall or ‘supper room.' Though no plans for the space are extant, it is supposed that Lord Dufferin must have designed the space himself. Gwyn writes how Dufferin “[drew] up plans for a cricket pavilion and a new ballroom” (Gwyn 1985, 165-166), and the National Capital Commissions’ Heritage Report on Rideau Hall says that “in all likelihood [the Tent Room] was created by the fertile imagination of Lord Dufferin” (Tent Room, National Capital Commission Projects 2003, 16-17).

Though unusual to modern eyes, such impermanent and elaborate entertainment spaces were not unheard of in Dufferin’s time. In Britain, expensive, temporary, multipurpose pavilions had been erected for events like the World's Fair exhibitions, and aristocrats like the Earl of Derby were known to have built entire structures for only a single evening’s entertainment (Musson 2017, 8, 12). Neither was a tent an unusual proposition for this kind of space in nineteenth century Canada; shops and private homes were both commonly hung with fabrics and bunting, and temporary, highly ornamental tent structures were often erected for public celebrations (Tent room, NCCP 2003, 16-17). The proposal for the new space was, however, initially rejected by the Department of Public Works as an unnecessary expense, and records do show that adequate space for both sports and dinning already existed at Rideau Hall (Tent Room, NCCP 2003, 2). Nonetheless, in a coup befitting upper-class Victorian politics, a telegram was quietly delivered to the office of the Minister of Public Works from Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie, reading simply: “Do the Racket Court as Lord Dufferin suggests” (Tent Room, NCCP 2003, 2).

Construction began in 1873, with some of the room’s costs being discreetly buried in the financing of the ballroom (Tent Room, NCCP 2003, 13). The Dufferins, who had been vacationing in England, returned to find construction well underway (Tent Room, NCCP 2003, 2). The new addition was chiefly composed of brick and wood, but its exterior would soon be dressed in Limestone to match that of the ballroom (Hubbard 1977, 42).

The interior was a different affair. It was a large, spartan, wood-lined court of exposed tongue and groove planks, painted floor to ceiling in a tinted whitewash (Tent Room, NCCP 2003, 13). High above, arched windows illuminated the room’s bare fixtures and exposed beams, and from its second storey projected a long, closed gallery or ‘penthouse’ from which spectators could watch events. The tent, which was commissioned from D’Arcy Brothers of New York, cost $598.98 plus shipping expenses - an amount equal to more than $15,000 today, and required one of the D’Arcys to travel from New York to oversee the tent’s installation (Bank of Canada 2019; Tent Room, NCCP 2003, 2). The room’s construction was a slow process, and various structural decisions would be made both during and after its commencement. These included the reinforcing of its foundations, and the addition of a basement for storage (Tent Room, NCCP 2003, 14). It was, nonetheless, essentially completed by 1876, and an inaugural ball was arranged for the twenty-third of February.

Preparing for the event was no easy task. Erecting and affixing the fabric to the walls took a team of eight labourers an entire day - a process which also required the installation of tall, gas light fixtures (Tent Room, NCCP 2003, 3). To decorate the tent, Dufferin commissioned a complete set of fabric banner pendants, each emblazoned with the shield of a Canadian province, and the tables were laden with roses and gold and silver service (Hubbard 1977, 2, 31-32). Both the ball and the new room were a great success. The Canadian Illustrated News remarked “There never was so splendid a ball … it had not often been excelled, even where silks and satins are more indigenous to the soil than in this young Canada of ours” (“The Governor General’s Fancy Ball” 1876). Lady Dufferin was similarly impressed, writing “I was really surprised when I came into the supper-room to see how handsome it looked. It certainly is a much-needed addition to the house, enabling us to give supper to a large party at once” (Dufferin 1891, entry 1 March 1876).

Even shortly after its completion, the room would undergo further alterations and renovations. Changes included the installation of electricity in March of 1895, the varnishing of the floors, and the room’s structural attachment to the Hall in 1912 - before which time it had only been accessible through a wooden porch that faced the driveway (Tent Room, NCCP 2003, 14, 18, 19). However, for all the refurbishments since its creation, the space has, unique among all the other rooms at Rideau Hall, stayed essentially the same as Lord Dufferin originally conceived it, exhibiting an exceptional combination of novelty and versatility. It would also serve as an important milestone in the Hall’s architectural history. As the National Capital Commissions Projects report puts it:

The Tent Room provided a balanced façade for the official residence. Since transforming the Mackay residence into a suitable Government House is a theme critical to the history of Rideau Hall, this was an important early step. By insisting on the construction of the Tent Room, Dufferin kept Rideau Hall within the bounds of architectural acceptability by the skin of his teeth. (Tent Room, NCCP 2003, 4)

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