To say Frank Albo welcomes a critical view from those who take his tours of the Manitoba Legislative Building is a big understatement.

“What I want you to be thinking throughout this entire tour is – bull----,” the amiable Albo said with a grin moments after we met.

I soon discovered that Albo, an architectural historian who has studied every inch of this magnificent building, has a reason to be confident his work will stand up to skeptics.

Albo, who annually guides tours through the Legislative Building from May to September, begins unravelling the tale behind it from outside its stunning front entrance.

Those tours start under more favourable conditions than the one I had in February, but Albo’s passion for telling how British architect Frank Lewis Worthington Simon designed this marvel has a way of making one forget the harsh elements.

Above the staircase, between the two sphinxes, is a mother (Lady Manitoba), a child and a basket of produce -- the “very scene that was used to describe an ancient divinity, called The Great Mother,” Albo said, from the parking area a few feet from the front steps.

“The reason crops grow and babies grow is because of this spirit of fertility within the earth and (Simon) borrowed these elements to describe Manitoba.”

Albo pointed out other symbols that represented people coming from the east and west to what was considered a boomtown in 1911, when the provincial government commissioned a new Legislative Building.

The government accepted submissions from any architect in the British Empire. Simon’s was selected over 66 entries.

“(Simon) wanted to create this allegory of showing why people came here,” Albo said.

Many of our ancestors came to Manitoba from Europe and they are represented above the entrance beside Lady Manitoba by “the bull of Europa, being led to what was called the Land of Promise – Manitoba,” he said.

Albo then turned his attention to The Golden Boy statue on the building’s dome.

“Nobody ever called him the Golden Boy – that is a misnomer,” said Albo, who believes a newspaper reporter came up with the nickname.

“What he was meant to represent was the Greek God Hermes. He’s the same guy as the FTD florist logo. The reason Hermes is on the dome is because of The Hermetic Code (behind how the building was designed).”

As Albo strolled through the Leg he pointed out everything from a statue of Medusa, hieroglyphic inscriptions and astrology to the number of steps, features that equal 13 and room dimensions that equal 666 (the power of the sun, not the number of the beast), and explained their meanings.

“I know this (code) has been solved, because there’s no other reason for the arrangements,” said Albo, 44, who studied Hermetic philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. “(Simon) wanted to – Hermetically speaking – draw down the energy of the sun.”

So what we view as a symbolic building where laws are enacted was actually constructed as a temple to Hermes, Albo said.

When studying ancient languages at the University of Toronto, Albo showed his professor a photo of an Egyptian inscription he found on Leg’s exterior.

The prof’s response was “what temple did you get it from?”

Albo, who became a Freemason as part of his research, explained how four secrets of Freemasonry “help decipher the language of this building in a way that you will never look at this building the same way.”

Albo ended his tour, which has been taken by more than 20,000 people, in what he called the “most powerful but under utilized” room in the building. It’s called the Pool of the Black Star and it’s below the rotunda.

“A single whisper from the very centre of this star goes everywhere,” he said in a clear voice that was so magnified by the incredible acoustics that it drew a curious security member to arrive behind him.

Speaking from the star is almost like an out-of-body experience as you hear your amplified voice resonate around you. It was the Black Star that sparked Albo’s curiosity for the building. He had no idea what it was, but he knew it was something special and he had to learn why it was there.

“When you speak from that star, you’re not speaking with your own voice,” Albo said. “You’re speaking with the authority of Manitoba and that strange thing on dome misnamed the Golden Boy for 100 years.”

Perhaps it was a sign of things to come, but the building was the subject of public outrage before its doors even opened.

“The largest scandal in Canadian political history revolves around the construction of this building,” Albo said. “In 1914, the government was found in collusion with the general contractor for embezzling $1 million and we’ve never recovered those funds to this day.

“As a result of that scandal, the architect was forced to make $1 million in alterations. (In today’s currency) that would be about $200 million. Imagine if we found our government had its hand in the cooking jar for $200 million.”

The general contractor went to prison in Stony Mountain Institution for three years and then made his fortune all over again in Hollywood, Albo said.

Simon was found innocent of the scandal, but the building proved to be his final work, Albo said, and we are fortunate to have it.

“We luckily -- among any other city in North America -- have the most pristine example of the greatest Hermetic temple ever constructed,” he said.

“I’m certain of it. I think this in fact a world heritage site … what we’re sitting on is like an uncelebratedDa Vinci masterpiece.”





More to discover

Frank Albo is certain there are more architectural secrets waiting to be discovered in Winnipeg.

Albo has caught his wind after breaking the code behind design of the Manitoba Legislative Building and is eager for more. He believes there was a master plan “hidden in plain view” behind the facade of our most cherished buildings, parks, monuments and streets.

Last month, Albo took the first steps of his next project, called The Heart of Canada, which aims “to tell the untold story about the liveliest and most ethnically diverse city in the country.”

The research will take a couple of years to complete, but it will result in a “vital resource for schools, universities, urban planners, tourism and economic development.”

Albo, who was recently appointed Adjunct Professor at the University of Winnipeg, has spent more than 10 years studying our city’s urban development, from the earliest Indigenous settlements to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

The Heart of Canada will encompass 6,000 years of rich Winnipeg history, he said. It will begin at “the most unlikely and virtually unknown place in the province,” Tie Creek, home to “Canada’s very own Stonehenge – the largest and possibly oldest petroform site in North America.”

Within Winnipeg’s environment is “a long forgotten record of colonial architecture, European Revivalism and the City Beautiful Movement, an urban design philosophy that used beautification and monumental architecture to inspire civic pride,” Albo said.

“Its urban fabric contains an unexplored blueprint to the architectural history of the world and ideas of city planning that inspired Rome, Paris, Washington, D.C., and Chicago.”

To learn more about the project go online to frankalbo.com and click on the Heart of Canada link.

Some facts about the Manitoba Legislative building:

-The Manitoba Legislative Building was constructed over seven years from 1913 to 20.

-It opened July 15, 1920.

-The current replacement value of the building is more than $1 billion.

-The building’s original budget was $2.5 million.

-In 1914, the government was found in collusion with the general contractor for embezzling $1 million, resulting in $1 million in alterations.

-Many of the masons worked 12- to 14-hour days constructing the building for 35 cents an hour, a severely reduced rate due to the $1 million shortfall.

dlunney@postmedia.com

Twitter: @dougatwpgsun