The new "City Hall and Market Buildings" would house not only the council but also a grand meeting hall and space for what must have been one of the first indoor shopping centres in Canada; the Market Shambles. In 1847, an act to "Regulate the Public Market in the City of Kingston" reflected the need to better manage this new and expanded facility. To accommodate the increased number of traders, the City built wooden stalls along the sides of the shambles to provide more rentable covered space. Also, a new public amenity was provided there: water was pumped to the public well which was also located in the middle of the Market Square. Nor is it surprising that the railway-boom of the mid-nineteenth century also looked downtown. Rail companies wanted their stations as close to urban centres as possible and soon all tracks passed between City Hall and the water. The terminal building of the Kingston and Pembroke Railway still exists directly across Ontario Street from Market Street, as does the Grand Trunk Station, only a block away. New hotels were built on the square and several existing buildings were converted to hotels or saloons. Some would have it that most of these were patronized by Sir John A. Macdonald as he nurtured the seeds of Confederation and met with community leaders to discuss his ideas about nation building and economic expansion. Certainly, economic prosperity resulted in industrial and commercial development dominating the waterfront section of the Market Square and expanded in both directions as coal docks, wharves, and factories were constructed. Nevertheless, a great range of retailing of consumer goods and food products continued to be sold in the public space on the King Street side of City Hall. By the middle of the nineteenth century, a weigh-scale was in place, allowing the official monitoring of weights of hay and livestock prior to sale. By 1865, however, many former open-air marketers were moving to larger and permanent indoor retail quarters elsewhere in town, thus easing the demand for space in the Market Building. When the shambles burned, the large Green Garden portion at the King Street end was not restored. However, the demand for space in the Market Square did not abate and, on market days, stalls spilled up Brock Street and along King Street. Indeed, the Market Square was still the dominant social centre of the community. On 1 July 1867, it was only natural that Confederation was proclaimed in the shadow of City Hall. Central it may have been, but salubrious it was not! The space was probably layered with mud and decaying manure and the accompanying smells were equally appropriate to its dominant function. But there were signs of progress: boardwalks now fronted most of the buildings; the most used paths had been cobbled; with electricity came hydro poles, a few electric street lamps, and the Electric Street Railway. Pedestrians began to get used to stepping out of the way for the "cars" and Sir John A.'s funeral in 1891 may have been the last major occasion when horse-drawn wagons dominated the procession.