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Vignette du village: Wallis House

2/23/2021

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PictureParade to Parliament Hill on first WECNS anniversary July 1943
Sandy Smallwood Preserves Wallis House and Women’s Military History
November 11th in Ottawa is a day of ceremony aimed at remembering the men and women who have served during times of war, conflict and peace. For residents of Lowertown, Wallis House serves as a daily reminder of a military presence in the community that spanned more than fifty years. While its first 75 years were dedicated to health care, after decades with the Department of National Defence, the building itself was in need of serious healing.

Wallis House at the corner of Rideau and Charlotte streets, pictured here in the 1940s, was built in the mid-1870sEnter Sandy Smallwood and his company, Andrex Holdings. In 1994, Public Works put the building up for sale to the highest bidder. Smallwood’s first bid of $1 was rejected and Public Works decided to demolish. However, supported by community groups, Smallwood had a chance to make a second bid of $320,000 – approximately $100,000 more than the $203,000 paid by National Defence Naval Service in 1943.
He recalls that the original multi-year plan to sell the units in phases turned into pandemonium when the first units went up for sale. “By lunch, they had sold out the first phase, which we had expected to take a year,” he says. “By the end of the weekend the whole building was sold out.”



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Lowertown Lost and Found: Former Ste-Anne’s Rectory receives heritage designation

2/23/2021

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PictureSte-Anne’s Rectory beside Ste-Anne Hall, 1968
When constructed in 1921, Ste-Anne’s Rec­tory at 17 Myrand Avenue was the most elaborate building in this Lowertown Ro­man Catholic parish. It was designed by Ottawa architect Werner Ernst Noffke (1878-1964) for Monsignor Joseph Alfred Myrand, the priest who served Ste-Anne’s parish for fifty years. For Noffke, who later designed the Central Post Office, it was the first of multiple contracts with the Roman Catho­lic community in Ottawa. For Myrand, this large rectory signalled a strong francophone religious presence in the community, besides providing comfortable housing for him, his assistants and numerous visitors.

Father Myrand’s connection to Low­ertown started in a house on St. Patrick Street, near the Cathedral. His father, Jean Baptist Myrand, worked as postmaster with the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada and after Confederation performed the same tasks with the Senate of Canada. Myrand took great pleasure in telling peo­ple that he was ordained in the same place where he was born, the building having be­come, by 1892, the Monastery of the Sisters of the Precious Blood.


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Lowertown lost and found: Cornering St. Patrick and Cumberland

2/23/2021

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PictureKind-Edward to St-Patrick, looking west
Built between 1878 and 1888, the distinc­tive brick house on the southeast corner of St. Patrick and Cumberland housed one of the four businesses of this intersec­tion – a business at each corner. Although situated at the outer edge of the main commercial part of Lowertown, residents near this junction had everything within reach, from meat, groceries and liquor to painted signs.
Regrettably, this last of the original buildings that once stood at this cross­road is now facing the prospect of being surrounded by a proposed four-storey apartment development that would ex­tend along Cumberland, from Murray Street to St. Patrick Street.
Like many Lowertown corner build­ings, the house has already experienced physical changes and varied uses over its lifetime. The story of some of the oc­cupants and their enterprises reveals a little background on its evolution and the eventual acquisition of two addresses – 320 St. Patrick Street and 277 Cumber­land. 

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What’s in a Name: Heney Street

2/23/2021

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PictureJohn and Mary Ann Heney with children, 1879
Pronounced HEEney, this street was laid out in early surveys but was not named until after the four cemeteries were closed. Early reminiscences talk about the heap of sand that remained there after the bodies had been taken out for burial elsewhere. City and private contractors apparently used the sand for road-making purposes.

John and Mary Ann Heney with children, 1879The street is named after John Heney (1821-1909), a man with a long association with Lowertown.
He was married in 1849 at Notre Dame on Sussex and attended the meeting convened to create St Brigid’s Parish in 1888. Over the decades, he built a reputation as a prominent local entrepreneur. On arrival in Bytown in 1844, he produced shoes and boots in the York Street workshop of the Protestant John Heney. By 1849, he had his own business, eventually with a shop and a house on Sussex Street. In 1868 he started supplying cordwood to heat the Parliament Buildings and built a company that supplied coal and then oil for furnaces up to the 1970s. No surprise that he became an alderman for the City of Ottawa in 1857 and served in this capacity until 1887

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What’s in a name?  The Garry J. Armstrong Home

2/23/2021

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PictureGarry J. Armstrong Long-Term Care Home. Google Maps
The Garry J. Armstrong Long-Term Care Home is situated on historic Porter’s Island and offers spectacular Rideau River views. It resulted from a public-private partnership (P3) to replace 1960s housing for seniors on the island initiated by then Mayor Charlotte Whitton.  The principal consultant on the building project was J.L. Richards & Associates Limited of Ottawa, with design support from Mill & Ross Architects Inc. of Kingston. This Lowertown facility has 180 beds and is managed by the City of Ottawa.


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What’s in a Name: Pestalozzi College

2/23/2021

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PicturePestalozzi College at Rideau and Chapel 1972. Russell Mant

For some Lowertown residents, the tall apartment building at 160 Chapel will always be associated with an era of hippies and “sex & drugs &  rock & roll.” But when construction of the 22-storey cooperative college and residence was announced in 1969, it was promoted as a positive social and educational experiment.
Named after Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827), a Swiss educational reformer whose motto was “Learning by head, hand and heart”, the college’s aim was to support development of all aspects of a person. The emphasis was on group learning through participation in activities that supported intellectual, moral and physical improvement. In addition to providing housing, the facility provided spaces for subject matter such as history, literature and philosophy as well as artistic activities including photography, dance, ceramics, video and music.


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Links to Heritage Articles in the Echo

2/23/2021

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Many stories of Lowertown's rich heritage can be found in the community newspaper The Lowertown Echo de la Basse-ville. At last count, there were 147 stories listed under the Heritage category.
As well, we will be posting links to other useful projects you can do to help tell the story of Lowertown to present and future generations. These will appear in the Archives and be searchable by category. 

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    Heritage

    Go here for a brief outline of historic Lowertown and the mandate of the Heritage committee.  

    More stories of Lowertown's rich heritage can be found in the community newspaper The Lowertown Echo de la Basse-ville. 

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