Crystal Palace (Montreal)
Encyclopedia
Construction
The building was designed by MontrealMontreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
architect John William Hopkins. It had an iron framework, a barrel-vaulted nave and two galleries, each twenty feet wide, extending all the way around the interior. Its design was inspired by the Crystal Palace of London, England.
The Industrial Exhibition displayed agricultural and industrial products from the then British North America
British North America
British North America is a historical term. It consisted of the colonies and territories of the British Empire in continental North America after the end of the American Revolutionary War and the recognition of American independence in 1783.At the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775 the British...
. The displays ranged from minerals, native woods, seeds and grains, preserved birds and fish, oils and foodstuffs to textiles and leather goods, furniture, clothing, machinery, iron work, tools and crafts. As part of the exhibition the Art Association of Montreal, the future Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is a major museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1860, making it Canada's oldest art institution, it moved to its current location in 1912 thanks to a large donation from businessman James Ross....
, organized a display of Canadian art. The Prince of Wales
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
visited Montreal that year and officially opened the exhibition.
Skating rink
The large open space of the exhibition hall was suitable for other uses. In later years, the hall would house a natural ice skating rink in the winter, and was one of the first indoor skating rinks in Canada. The skating rink was used by McGill UniversityMcGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
students to play ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
and the rink is the site of the first known photograph of ice hockey players in hockey uniforms, taken in 1881.
The rink also housed the Crystal Skating Club and Crystal Hockey Club, more commonly known as the Montreal Crystals
Montreal Crystals
Montreal Crystals were an ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada that existed from 1886 to 1895. The Club was a member of the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada . The team won the Canadian championship twice. In 1895, the team became the Montreal Shamrocks...
which played men's senior-level amateur hockey in the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada.
Relocation and fire
In 1878 it was dismantled and moved to Fletcher's Field, now known as Jeanne-Mance Park. In July 1896, the Crystal Palace was destroyed by fire, like its namesake, London's original Crystal PalaceThe Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in...
. The original location later was home to the Palace Theatre, a movie house, and today contains an alley named Ruelle Palace.