By Nancy Miller Chenier
Patrick Cassidy was born in Lowertown and grew up in a duplex at 288 Cathcart Street. His parents, Bernard and Beatrice, bought the house on the east of King Edward Avenue in 1959. They rented the upstairs apartment while the family occupied the ground floor.
For Patrick, many of his childhood memories involve outdoor fun with other neighbourhood children who lived around Bordeleau Park and near the Rideau River. Patrick recalls getting into trouble on several occasions for biking through the underpass of the former Bytown and Prescott Railway bridge, where homeless people took shelter. Most children were also forbidden to cross King Edward Avenue without an adult and jumping off the old railway bridge was only done when parents were not looking.
In the park, the neighbourhood games could be very creative, often making use of destruction and construction in the community. Patrick remembers playing on the trees cut down in Bordeleau Park as a result of Dutch Elm Disease. Also, while the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge was being built, the sand dug up by the road crew became a children’s play area. The kids even made a small profit from the bridge’s construction by scavenging for the crew’s empty soft drink bottles and returning them to the nearby store for 2 cents each.
The family was part of St. Brigid’s parish, where they attended the high mass at 11 o’clock every Sunday morning. This also meant that he walked to the nearby elementary schools for English Catholics, first at Our Lady’s from kindergarten to grade 4, and then St. Bridget’s for grades 5 through 8. His schooling ended at the University of Ottawa, where he specialized in Political Science and later studied Law.
His father, a former employee of the Ottawa Electric Railway Company, died while Patrick was still in elementary school, and Patrick and his mother were left to deal with the consequences of urban renewal. Though most of the early demolition was in other eastern areas of Lowertown, the Cassidy’s family property was eventually expropriated and the Cathcart house vacated in March 1978. The site of the house is now an entry lane for the Cathcart Mews, a townhouse complex built in the early 1980s.
Although the family house is gone, Patrick still lives in Lowertown. When he stopped work as a lawyer, he decided to use his time and abilities to give back to his lifelong community. He is now active with the Tenants’ Association at 380 Murray Street and with the Lowertown East Residents’ Committee. He was also asked to be the vice-chair of the board of the Good Neighbours Community House located on Beausoleil Drive. Patrick’s dedication and resolve to contribute to Lowertown provide another example of the community spirit that this neighbourhood generates in its residents.