From Cape Spear Lighthouse National Historic Site we drive back to Saint John’s and directly to the Colonial Building Provincial Historic Site. Parking is not easy but available at the nearby park, Bannerman Park. Colonial Building is the former Parliament Building during the time that Newfoundland was quasi independent between 1850 until 1959 and as such it is a magnificent one. We take first a tour around it before looking for an entrance, hint, it is not the main door.
We finally find the right side door and in we go after paying the entrance fee ready to see the exhibits.
We are surprised that inside there aren’t actually a lot of exhibits but at least there is a nice timeline explaining how Newfoundland was independent and didn’t want to join Canada and even when it joined after World War II it was a close call.
The major attraction inside are the two very well restored large rooms where the Parliament was assembled. The first one we enter you can actually walk in and explore but the floor itself is not restored with historic benches and tables.
It is also the more popular of the two rooms with a few groups with guides loitering around. So after enjoying the room for a while it is time to move on to see if we can find a quieter place in the large building.
Next is a temporary exhibit that we are not sure how it fits in the theme of the building but is interesting enough. It shows some dresses used in photos and then you can also see the real dresses themselves nearby.
Now it is time to climb to the balconies and more exhibits. One of them is holding the Great Seal of Newfoundland, something that was of great importance during the time it was independent and exciting to see.
We then explore both balconies with a bigger focus on the second room which actually has period appropriate furniture, it feels like a Parliament session might start at any moment, quite fun.
Next there are a few exhibits with printouts from newspapers showing major events that impacted Newfoundland and in which the building was involved directly or indirectly. It was involved directly in the riots following the Great Depression when a mob attacked the building and vandalized the ground floor. Less directly it was involved in legislative changes allowing women to vote and the site of confirming a large expansion of territory when the British confirmed that Labrador is part of Newfoundland and not of Quebec, an area of contention for years between Canada and Newfoundland.
Other interesting exhibits concern what was found during renovation, cigarettes, coins and of course bottles including some champagne bottles that are assumed to be lost from the opening ceremony of the building.
And then it is time to explore the area a bit more, this was the place where most government offices were located. In fact next to it is the Government House, which is the official residence of Newfoundland’s governors and lieutenant governors since 1829.
Our goal is the Commissariat House, another Provincial Historic Site, which we hope might be open. However in this case our luck runs out, it is closed so we can only explore from the outside before returning to the parking and our car.
Back downtown we search for an open restaurant, we are really hungry by this point. And we find something close to the hotel, Saltwater, which has a good menu and is open so in we go.
It takes a long time to receive the dishes we ordered but the food is very good and full we are ready to return to the hotel and go to sleep, tomorrow it is time to leave Saint John’s and go west. And supposedly it will rain most of the day, not something we are looking forward to, still that is an issue for tomorrow.
