The building that housed Guelph’s government and other functions –from marketplace to fire hall to dance hall –for so many decades is being turned into a courthouse. And as layers of wall and false ceilings have been removed in recent months, there have been surprises and poignant discoveries.

‘We found two or three layers of ceilings in some spaces’

The uncovering of a large classical image painted on the front wall of the old city council chamber – hidden behind walnut panelling since a major renovation of city hall in the 1960s –is poignant because its re-emergence is so fleeting. This intriguing mural will soon be covered up once again, and it will be hidden behind a courtroom wall when the building reopens in early August as a city-run provincial offences court.

However, city hall officials in charge of the building conversion are determined that the mural, which has a marble appearance, won’t be forgotten.

High-resolution photographs have been taken of the council chamber mural so that the image could be reproduced in some way, perhaps as a commemorative print, says city planning manager Ian Panabaker.

The high-resolution images could even be used to fully recreate the mural on a wall in the building at some future time. “This is not part of the current project, but we are protecting that potential for the future,” Panabaker says.

The mural will be encapsulated within a new service wall, and the mechanical design has been changed to ensure the painting is not damaged.

As with many parts of the old city hall, mystery surrounds the mural. A conservator was hired to analyse paint samples, but no conclusion has been reached yet on when it was painted.

A jigsaw puzzle aspect of converting old city hall was figuring out how to make it work as a courthouse. This was the toughest challenge faced by the project’s heritage architects, says Ida Seto of Toronto’s Goldsmith Borgal & Company Ltd. Architects.

However, the puzzle of how to separate four distinct parts of a courthouse –the judicial, public and administration areas and the “secure” area for people in custody –was successfully solved, says Brad Coutts, the city’s manager of court services. It’s a strict requirement that these four functions, which “all come together in the courtroom,” be kept separate in the rest of a courthouse, he says.

An addition containing chambers for judges and justices of the peace at the southeast corner of the old city hall is the only addition being built.

There will be two large courtrooms –one of them where the council chamber used to be on the second floor, and the other one directly below it. There will also be a third, smaller courtroom at the rear of the second floor. It will be used for longer trials and for various hearings, including pre-trial hearings for relatively serious offences.

For the most part, the conversion project has involved tearing down false ceilings and office partitions that made the building work efficiently as a city hall in recent decades. However, they obscured much of the architectural glory of the building.

“Oh man, did it feel good!” Panabaker exclaimed during a tour of the building, describing the reaction to getting rid of all those false ceilings and office partitions to open up the interior of the building.

“We found two or three layers of ceilings in some spaces,” Seto noted.

The biggest surprise for Seto was the discovery of an ornate plaster ceiling, more than 20 feet high, on the second floor of the building, with cornice work and large, round ceiling medallions still in good shape. “We had no clue they were still there,” she said.

This discovery prompted a big change in building plans. Instead of having a false ceiling installed to hide heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment, as originally planned, this equipment is now going in the attic. The original high ceiling will be restored and visible in a new public waiting area, located where the mayor’s office and various staff offices used to be. Some replicas of ornamentation too damaged to restore are being crafted.

Also located in the same general area of the building will be prosecutors’ offices, interview rooms, a boardroom and washrooms.

The building’s original curved staircase will join the two floors, replacing the straight-up stairs that until recently greeted people passing through the front door of old city hall.

The cost of converting the old city hall, which in 1991 was designated as a National Historic Site, is about $12 million, Coutts said. The cost is being split equally between the city and the county. The city’s share of conversion cost will be paid from fines.

The conversion project was coordinated with the building of a new city hall next door, and this allowed electrical and other services to be shared between the two buildings. Heat will come through ducts from the new city hall into the courthouse, for example.

Although the courthouse won’t be the same sort of highly public place that a city hall is, it will be the Guelph court that’s visited by more people than any other. “This is the court that the vast majority of citizens come in contact with,” says Coutts.