The mysterious tower on top of the Colonial Building

People following the rehabilitationofthe Colonial Building in St. John'shave noticed a new tower with windows crowning thetop, but is the tower actually new?

The building, which housedNewfoundland's legislature in the 1850s,is being completely restoredto what it looked like whenit was originally built.

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But early photographs andstamps don't show a tower on theneoclassical gem.

Jerry Dick, directorof heritage with Newfoundland and Labrador'sBusiness, Tourism, Culture andRural Development department, says the toweris actually a lantern apopular architectural feature in the 19th centurythat would allow light to come into the top of the building into the lobby.

"Unless you're more than 120years old, you wouldn't have recollection of it," Dicksaid.

"It was part of the original design of the building, which was opened in 1850, and it was taken downwe think aroundearly 1890s, probably because it was not performing well. It was leaking."

The team behind the restorationdidn't have any constructionor original drawings, Dick said, so they had to work with historic photographs and the footprint of what was there decades ago.

He saidthere was lots of conversation about how to avoid any leaking problem.

"Theoriginal was probably made of wood and glass and this one is made of steel coated in lead,so we've been told it's going to perform very, very well," he said.

The restoration, whichhas been ongoingsince 2010,hasrecreateda"more formal, more ceremonialapproach" to the building, Dick said.

"In the openings of the house they used to have a procession that went from Government House. The whole government would march with the mace and they would have a procession right up to the building," Dick said.

Changes to the porch

There are also a number of changes to the porch area. Three windows have been removed and aspart of the process, workers areputting backa replica of the double door that pre-dates the Smallwood era.

Dick said withthe2017 reopening on the horizon, theoutside work on the building is expected to be completed inlate summer orearly fall then workers will move inside.

"That will entail redoing all the plaster work, ripping off layers and layers of paint off woodwork and then, in many cases, putting back original paint finishes, some of which were quite elaborate, Dick said.

"An exampleofthat, the front lobby.I always knew it as sort of, I'll call it transportationand works beige,but in fact is actuallydark-green Venetian marble."