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

Ste-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.

---

After Myrand was appointed parish priest (curé) to Ste-Anne’s in 1903, he made the parish a central part of francophone and Catholic activity, not only in Lowertown and Ottawa but also in the wider provincial and national sphere. In addition to building the new rectory, he oversaw renovations to Ste-Anne’s church and the construction of a new Ste-Anne’s hall. Along with the ongo­ing religious focus, this complex of buildings provided space for ferocious political meet­ings and gentler cultural events. Education was a big issue for Myrand and he was a major participant in the protests against the Ontario provincial government’s Regulation 17 (Règlement 17) ordering that French as a language of instruction cease after the first two years of schooling.
It was in the rectory that Myrand provid­ed advice to parishioners on personal and church matters. This was where baptisms, marriages and deaths, as well as the success of the newly formed neighbourhood caisse populaire were discussed. It was also the place where he hosted visitors from outside the parish. Henri Bourassa, Quebec national­ist leader, visited before he gave an inflam­matory speech on the issue of Regulation 17 at Ste-Anne’s Hall. Lionel Groulx, well-known Quebec priest and historian, stayed at the rectory during Ottawa visits when researching the experience of francophones living outside Quebec. He described My­rand’s residence as “the echo chamber where all the political and ecclesiastical news rever­berated.”
In March 2015, with the assistance of ar­chitectural historian Shannon Ricketts, the Lowertown Community Association suc­ceeded in getting City Council approval for a heritage designation of this building. The Ste-Anne Rectory is described as “a two-and-a-half storey, rectangular plan, Beaux-Arts style building” with notable architec­tural features that include a “raised main façade, pedimented main entrance with a double-height portico and paired giant Co­rinthian columns, gable dormers, and an ar­caded balcony on the west facade.”
This landmark building survived the 1960s urban renewal plan that saw long-time parishioners forced out of the area. It is currently home to the National House of Prayer. The designation of the former rec­tory along with the earlier one for Ste-Anne church (now the home of the St. Clement parish) commemorate francophone tenac­ity in this eastern part of Lowertown. The particular story of this imposing building is also closely tied to the legacy of Joseph Al­fred Myrand, who lived here until his death in 1949 and made it a hub of religious, social, cultural and political thought.