CityScapes: Ottawa

On this page

• Early Days
• Growing Pains
• Coming of Age
• Image Gallery
• References

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Early Days

The Ottawa River was part of the Aboriginal trading route and although there were minor fur-trading posts around the Ottawa Valley, the first permanent settlement in the region was on the northern side of the Ottawa River. Wrightville (or Wrightsville or Wrightstown, as it was sometimes called) was established by New Englander Philemon Wright in 1800 and quickly became an agricultural community involved in the timber trade. Wrightville was later renamed Hull, and is now part of the City of Gatineau.

Among the earliest settlers to live on the south side of the river was a woman named Lamira Dow Billings. Lamira Dow was born in Vermont in 1796 and came to Upper Canada with her parents in 1801. The family settled in Merrickville, where Lamira became a teacher. Her salary was $7.00 a month plus room and board. At the end of the school term, she found that she was to be paid in wheat receipts that would be honoured by a storekeeper in Brockville. After making the 20-mile journey on foot, she was told that the receipts would not be accepted for credit unless the wheat itself was brought to the store. Miss Dow returned to Merrickville, borrowed a team of horses and delivered the wheat. Lamira Dow married Braddish Billings in 1813. That same year the couple moved to a farm in Gloucester Township south of the Rideau River (now part of the city of Ottawa). For seven years, they were the only settlers in the area. The Billings helped to build the first bridge, school and church in the area.

The Rideau Canal

The founding of what would become Ottawa began with the Governor-in-Chief of British North America, Sir George Ramsay, the Earl of Dalhousie. He travelled to the area in 1823 and arranged to purchase land along the Ottawa River, including what is now Parliament Hill. Three years later Britain approved the construction of the Rideau Canal, deemed an essential alternate route between Montréal and Lake Ontario in the event of an American attack. Dalhousie was able to use his land for the canal and for the community that would spring up on either side. A construction camp was set up in 1826 with hundreds arriving at the canal site by the end of the year.

Accompanied by Scottish masonry contractor Thomas McKay, canal designer Colonel John By examined the shoreline for a suitable entranceway to the canal. In consultation with the Earl of Dalhousie, they decided the entranceway should be located in Sleigh Bay (later Entrance Bay) between what is now Major's Hill and Parliament Hill.

Dalhousie visited in 1827 and 1828 to follow the progress of both the canal and the developing town. With his approval the town was named Bytown in 1827 in honour of Colonel By, who was in charge of both the design and construction of the canal as well as the development of the adjacent community.

Construction of the Rideau Canal, through swamps and rocky headlands, was achieved largely by Irish labourers, Scottish stonemasons and the Royal Sappers and Miners who had been brought from Britain for this task. Working conditions were dangerous, and many lives were lost to swamp fever and accidents. The Rideau Canal opened in 1832, a huge undertaking and engineering marvel. Many of the nearly 1000 inhabitants of Bytown were on hand to welcome Colonel By and officials as they travelled through the locks on the steamer Rideau on May 29.

To link the canal site with Wrightville, the 640-foot Union Bridge was built below the Chaudière Falls using the rock outcroppings as abutments in a series of bridges that made up the whole. This wooden truss bridge was used until it collapsed in 1836. A ferry service was then provided until a wire suspension bridge opened in 1844.

Growing Pains

At the Earl of Dalhousie's request, Colonel By laid out the town's grid. The Rideau Canal bisected the community, which was served by two main roads: Rideau Street in Lower Town and Wellington Street in Upper Town. Lower Town, to the east of the canal, was populated by Roman Catholics, both Irish and French; Upper Town, to the west, was made up largely of Protestants, both English and Scottish. Barrack's Hill (now Parliament Hill) was home to soldiers. Along the canal embankment, By allowed canal labourers to "squat" in sod or log shanties. This area became known as Corkstown, after County Cork in Ireland where many of the labourers were from. Once the canal was finished, the Corkstown inhabitants left Bytown or moved into Lower Town.

Roads

In 1845, the first continuous plank sidewalk was laid on Rideau Street. By 1854 there were ten miles of boardwalks to help pedestrians avoid the terrible roads - muddy in rainy weather and dusty in dry spells. Upon his arrival in 1866, Governor General Monck was so horrified by the state of the road leading from his residence at Rideau Hall to his office in the East Block, he arranged for a six-oar cutter with a Royal Navy crew to row him down the Ottawa River. Streets were not paved until much later; the first street to be paved was Sparks Street in 1895. Streets were first lit by whale oil lamps. These lamps were replaced by gaslight on December 31, 1855 but still had to be lit by a lamplighter with a ladder each night. Electric arc lights were installed in 1885, despite letters to the newspaper complaining that residents might not be able to sleep, as night was being turned into day.

Lumber Industry

In 1830, Jean-Baptiste Saint-Louis erected the first sawmill in Bytown. Many followed his example at strategic points near the Rideau and Chaudière falls, including Thomas McKay, who opened the first grist mill, as well as a sawmill.

The first timber slide was built in 1829 by Ruggles Wright, son of Philemon Wright, on the north side of the Ottawa River, allowing logs to safely bypass the Chaudière Falls. Bytown's first timber slide opened in 1836. Expert raftsmen steered cribs - rafts made of squared timbers tied together - down the slides. Watching the cribs go down the slide became a popular activity with visitors, and many, including royalty, were even given rides down the chute. The expression "ride the Bytown slide" gained widespread popularity in the mid 1800s as a result of this exhilarating activity.

In 1850, Bytown was incorporated as a town and had a prosperous lumber industry. In 1902, the town's lumber output reached 613 million board feet. It declined in later years as the region's nearby forests became depleted.

Capital City

Ottawa's development was also in large part due to its eventual status as the capital of the Province of Canada. In 1855, Bytown not only achieved city status, but also changed its name to Ottawa. Many thought that such a change might improve the city's chance of becoming the capital. The question of where the capital might be permanently located was put to Queen Victoria in 1857.

Of the proposed choices for the capital: Québec, Montréal, Toronto, Kingston and Ottawa, the latter was the Governor General's preference. On New Year's Eve 1857, Governor General Sir Edmund Head received a message announcing that the Queen had chosen Ottawa.

In 1859, a competition was announced for the design of three buildings - a Parliament building and two departmental buildings - to be erected on Barrack's Hill, now called Parliament Hill. The chosen design was in the Gothic Revival style. The cornerstone was laid in September 1860 by Edward, the Prince of Wales. Work on the buildings came to a halt in 1861 due to cost overruns, throwing labourers and skilled craftsmen into unemployment. Construction resumed in 1863 and the first session of Parliament was held in the unfinished Parliament building on June 6, 1866.

Disaster was to strike the much-admired architecture. A fire in 1897 damaged the West Block. In February 1916 a major fire started in Centre Block, destroying all but the Library of Parliament. A newly designed Parliament building was built in 1917.

Coming of Age

Transportation

The people of Bytown/Ottawa had always travelled by horse and buggy, by boat, or on foot. With the title of "Capital," however, came the need for improved transportation. The city was excited to see the first train arrive on Christmas Day 1854. The Oxford steamed into New Edinburgh on rails made from maple hardwood. (The money for iron rails had run out before finishing the last stretch from Billings Bridge.) Ottawans would have to wait some 15 more years for public transportation, however. In 1870 the Ottawa City Passenger Railway Co. began to operate 20 horse-drawn passenger tramcars along city streets. These tramcars were replaced by sleighs in the winter. Electric streetcars were introduced by the Ottawa Electric Street Railway Company in 1891.

Tragedy struck in the early 1900s when a young boy on his way to school was hit and killed on Albert Street by the number 37 streetcar. It is said that his mother became distraught every time she saw the number seven on a streetcar and in hearing this, Thomas Ahearn, a partner in the Ottawa Electric Railway Company, ordered that the number seven be removed from all Ottawa streetcars.

The Telephone

It was also Thomas Ahearn who arranged to have a telephone switchboard installed in the Parliament buildings in 1882, with 50 lines to various offices. A temporary telephone linking Government House with the Public Works Department had been put in in 1877. After experiencing recurring failures with the telephone, Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie asked that it be taken out. As the story goes, Lady Dufferin, wife of the governor general, asked to be given a private line so that a talented employee in the Marine Department could continue to serenade her guests via the telephone.

Ottawa's first telephone directory came out in 1879 and listed 8,550 subscribers. Before this, residents' addresses and businesses could be found in the various city directories that had been published since 1861.

Police and Fire Services

Fed up with the thefts, fights and riots that gave Bytown its rough and rowdy reputation, residents formed the Bytown Association for the Preservation of the Public Peace in 1835, comprised of 200 voluntary constables. A regular police force was not established until 1863. Police Chief Thomas Langrell and his 10 constables were paid according to the number of arrests made. In 1865 they were placed on salary, receiving uniforms the next year.

Fire services were provided by insurance companies that would confirm that a property was insured by them before a fire would be put out. In 1836, the residents of both Upper and Lower Town bought their own fire engines and these were operated by whichever citizens happened to be available. An official volunteer fire brigade was formed in 1837, followed by a municipal fire department in 1849. The first three fire stations were built in 1853 and equipped with three new fire engines.

In 1860, Upper and Lower Town were each equipped with a 2,340-pound hook-and-ladder cart. The municipal budget did not allow for horses, so the carts had to be pulled by 20 men. In 1864, there was a fight over which hook-and-ladder team would be named Number 1 Company. To settle the dispute, a race was held on Rideau Street, between Sussex and Wurtemburg streets. The Lower Town team won the race and the title.

It was not until 1874 that a professional fire brigade was established. Fire Chief William Young oversaw 18 professional firefighters at five stations. Each station had one two-wheeled reel, holding 500 feet of hose and pulled by one horse.

As a result of several fires in the dry summer of 1870, along with the great Chicago fire of 1871, the need for waterworks became more pressing. A waterworks system was approved. Construction commenced in 1874 and Ottawa homes received their first tap water, drawn through a wooden pipe from the Ottawa River. Prior to this, residents carried their water from the Ottawa River, from community wells, or paid a water carrier to deliver it wooden barrels.

On April 26, 1900 a seemingly innocent home fire across the Ottawa River in Hull was to result in catastrophe. Winds quickly spread the fire, leaving much of Hull in ruin. The fire continued its way along the wooden bridge over the Chaudière Falls, igniting huge lumber piles and the J.R. Booth sawmill. The fire swept southward, taking seven lives and nearly 2,000 homes (leaving 8,000 homeless) as well as most of the Chaudière mills before it was extinguished.

The rebuilding of Ottawa began immediately, resulting in 750 new buildings by the end of the year. In the following years, Ottawa continued to prosper and grow as a government city.

Image Gallery

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References

• Brault, Lucien. Ottawa: Old & New. Ottawa: Ottawa Historical Information Institute, 1946.
• Cook, Fred. The Struggle for the Capital of Canada. [Ottawa: Ottawa Evening Journal 1938].
• Craske, Peter. Fire Fighting in the Early Days of Ottawa. Ottawa: Historical Society of Ottawa, 1991. (Bytown Pamphlet Series; 38).
• . Law & Order in the Early Days of Bytown/Ottawa: Extracts from A History of the Ottawa Police Force Written by "The History Collaborative" of Carleton University. Ottawa: Historical Society of Ottawa, 1992. (Bytown Pamphlet Series; 41).
• Dewar, Anne Forbes. The Last Days of Bytown. Ottawa: Historical Society of Ottawa, 1989. (Bytown Pamphlet Series; 32).
• Haig, Robert. Ottawa: City of the Big Ears: The Intimate, Living Story of a City and a Capital. [Ottawa : s.n., 1969?].
• Hendricks, David, and Paul Philpott. Ottawa Transportation, from Horses to Buses. Ottawa: Historical Society of Ottawa, 1985. (Bytown Pamphlet Series; 13).
• Mika, Nick, and Helma Mika. Bytown : The Early Days of Ottawa. Belleville, Ont.: Mika Pub., 1982.
  "Ottawa," "Rideau Canal" and "Parliament Buildings." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Edited by James H. Marsh. Edmonton: Hurtig Pub., 1985. 3 vol.
• St. John, Edward S. The Great Fire of Ottawa, 1900. Ottawa: Historical Society of Ottawa, 1983. (Bytown Pamphlet Series; 9).
• Taylor, John H. Ottawa: An Illustrated History. Toronto: James Lorimer, 1986.
• Welsh, Edwin. Sights and Surveys: Two Diarists on the Rideau. Ottawa: [Historical Society of Ottawa], 1979. (Bytown Pamplet Series; 1).
• Woods, Shirley E., Jr. Ottawa: The Capital of Canada. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1980.