Rideau Hall and Landscaped Grounds National Historic Site of Canada

Key elements of this cultural landscape include:

-the picturesque character of the English estate design with pastoral open spaces, woodland, meandering paths, serpentine drive, and formal garden framing the main house sited on a slight rise with smaller service buildings mainly clustered discretely to the rear;

-evidence of the 1860s landscape plan as a self-sufficient estate with constituent elements comprising gardens, lawns, playing grounds, a wooded area, and vestiges suggestive of a farm;

-the rich variety of mature trees and plant material and reinforcement of the private, pastoral character by a treed boundary within the fence;

-the enclosure of the estate by a fence with surviving 19th-century design, iron and masonry work, and a grand main cast- and wrought-iron gates with masonry piers as a transition between Sussex Drive and the estate;

-the main residence in its relatively large scale and predominant siting on a slight rise at the centre of the property;

-its evolutionary character illustrated by irregular massing and interior layout;

-its Beaux-Arts inspired facade comprised of a three-storey, five-bay central block with pedimented frontispiece and lower side wings under front-sloping gable roofs, classical detailing and stone cladding;

-the survivals of Lord Monck’s 1860s interior plan with state rooms (Ballroom, Tent Room, Reception Room) to the front, the Regal Suite on the second floor of the original villa, VIP suites in the Monck wing, private quarters to the rear in the Minto wing, and services in the north and east wings;

-the fine craftsmanship and formal decor of the public spaces, such as early 19th-century plaster work on the ceiling of the Regal Suite, the stone, wood and plaster work of the 1860s Monck wing interior, particularly the marble fireplaces, the plaster cornice with floral motif in high relief, the high arched windows decorated with gilt Corinthian pilasters, the coved ceiling in the Ballroom and the traditional tented treatment of the Tent Room;

-the formal main entry under a ''porte cochère'' with giant royal coat-of-arms within the pediment;

-the discrete scale and placement of service buildings, notably:

-the Gate Lodge in its location at the edge of the main driveway with unimpeded views to and from the public road, its two-storey octagonal main block under an eight-sided conical roof with central chimney shaft, pedimented stucco-faced wings, its brick facing set to resemble coursed stone, and arched fenestration with carved keystones;

-the former Gasometer (now Dome Building) excavated from the rock with round stucco-clad brick superstructure, classical articulation with faux pilasters, repetitive multi-paned fenestration, conical wood and iron roof with central ventilator;

-the Rideau Hall Cricket Association Pavilion in its prominent siting between the west fence and the pitch, its specific functional design and Queen Anne-inspired style, wood construction, vertical board and batten cladding, ornate millwork, two-storey octagonal tower, and inset verandah;

-the former Dairy Building in its wood construction, one-storey octagonal main volume with a window in each bay, conical roof with multi-gabled central lantern and finial;

-the Stable Building in its location in the “service area” near the turning circle, its symmetrical composition in the neoclassical style with T-shaped plan, stucco and clapboard cladding.