This content was created by Kyle Kreutner. The last update was by Maegen Sargent.

This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

Tent Room

MacKay's Rideau Hall, 1838, Showing the Original Hall's Placement in the Modern Configuration

This page is referenced by:

The Tent Room at Rideau Hall by Kyle Kreutner

The Tent Room at Rideau Hall is a remarkable phenomenon in Canadian architecture and interior design. It is an unconventional space whose unique and versatile design has allowed it to serve a variety of functions, all while remaining aesthetically unchanged for nearly 150 years. It is an integral part of the Hall’s history, and a benchmark in the building’s evolution, which spans from comparatively humble beginnings to the edifice of governmental power we see today.

Rideau Hall Before the Tent Room

Rideau Hall began as “MacKay’s Castle,” colloquially named for its resident Thomas MacKay, a Scottish-born lumber baron who erected the residence in 1838 (Macmillan 2004, 5-6). Rideau hall was a Regency style villa, constructed of high-quality local limestone, and erected on a hill not far from the mills from which MacKay had made his fortune (Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office 1986, 98; Taylor 1975, 344-345). It was, at that point, the finest house in the area, but after MacKay’s death in 1855 both it and its enormous grounds - nicknamed “MacKay’s Bush” - remained largely untenanted for nearly a decade (FHBRO 1986, 98; Hubbard 1977, 3-4). Then, in 1864, the Dominion Government leased the 1000-acre estate for use as the Governor General’s residence (FHBRO 1986, 97-99).

Immediately upon acquiring the house, the Dominion Government added an enormous, asymmetrical wing to its eastern façade that more than quadrupled the size of the building. This was the state in which Canada’s third Governor General, Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, called Lord Dufferin, found the Hall when he took up residence there in 1872 (Hubbard 1977, 19-22).
Dufferin was not impressed with Rideau Hall, describing it upon his arrival as “nothing but a small villa such as would suit the needs of a country banker” (Dufferin to Kimberly 1872, n.p.). Lady Dufferin echoed her husband’s sentiments, writing to a friend, “[our] first sight of Rideau Hall did lower our spirits just a little [and the] ornamentless rooms have a depressing effect” (Dufferin 1891, entry 27 June 1872).

By the time of the Dufferin's arrival, the house had already become shabby and outdated, and British tastes had turned to the neogothic and classical styles that were fashionable in London. The piecemeal and asymmetrical façades of Rideau Hall were now offensive to Victorian sensibilities, and the Dufferins would waste no time in remedying the situation.