The hidden politics of Montreal's 19th-century ice palaces

In the 1880s, before skyscrapers defined Montreal’s skyline, the city built some of its tallest structures out of ice. The first of its kind was erected in Dominion Square, what Montrealers now know as Place Du Canada. These frozen monuments were feats of engineering, as well as carefully staged symbols of how the city wanted to be seen. 

These ice palaces were designed by architect Alexander Cowper Hutchinson, a stonemason who also designed the Redpath Museum and Montreal’s City Hall building. Hutchinson extended his expertise to an entirely different medium and transformed blocks of 500 pound ice from the St. Lawrence River into Neo-Gothic castles.  Measuring approximately 160 feet long and 120 feet wide, the ice palaces were among the main winter carnival attractions.