Windsor-West Hants
Joint Planning Advisory Committee

CONVOCATION HALL

King's College School was founded in 1788 and a year later the province passed an Act establishing King's College. Largely through bequests the college came into possession of a fine library of 18th century books and also through gifts by Thomas Beamish Akins, one of the most important collections of incunabula (books published before 1501) on the North American continent in the 19th century. In 1858 the Alumni Association of King's College proposed the construction of a convocation hall and library. With the backing of Sir William Fenwick Williams, hero of the siege of Kars in the Crimean War and lieutenant governor of the province, plans proceeded for its construction. The architect chosen was David Sterling and the contractor George Lang. Work began in 1861 and the building was officially opened two years later, but construction problems caused delays and it was not completed until 1867. Convocation Hall is a large sandstone building, originally constructed as a library between 1861 and 1867, in a Gothic Revival Style. The Gothic Revival detailing of this building is typical of ecclesiastical architecture of the period; largely inspired by medieval English parish churches. These details include: the wall buttresses, the large windows dominating the elevation and the parapet wall emphasizing the profile of the roof peak. An exception to these Gothic rules is the round headed design of the windows, though they are set within slightly pointed architraves.