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By Nancy Miller Chenier Water, water – all around us. Well, maybe not all around but with the Rideau River on one side, the Ottawa River on the other, and the Rideau Canal nearby, our bridges have facilitated the movement of workers, shoppers, merchandise, and even royalty. Through time, they connected federal, provincial, and municipal…
By Nancy Miller Chenier In 1980, the City of Ottawa gave heritage designation to the Mother House of the Sisters of Charity at the corner of Sussex Drive and Bruyère Street (previously Bolton and then Water Street). A plaque with the following inscription tells a small part of the story of this historic building, one…
By Nancy Miller Chenier In May 2025, the Heritage Impact Assessment and Conservation Plan for the proposed development at 168-174 Murray Street stated that it would include “the conservation and rehabilitation of both the two-storey brick clad frame building located at 174 Murray and the one and one half-storey log/frame building at 168 Murray.” The…
By Nancy Miller Chenier In 1987, the Champagne Bath at 321 King Edward Avenue was designated under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act. The heritage plaque on this building heralds the fact that the Champagne Bath is “a serious work of architecture, a significant social document, and a distinctive element in the King Edward…
Gwen Tuinman, Unrest, Random House Canada, 2024. By Nancy Miller-Chenier This historical fiction is focused on the unrest created by the Shiners, gangs of Irish immigrants that terrorized Bytown with extreme acts of violence between 1835 and 1845. Led by Peter Aylen, who later emerged as a successful lumberman, this period, known as the Shiners’…
By Sandra Milton and Nancy Miller Chenier, Adopters of Bordeleau Park After a brief disappearance earlier this summer, the much-loved dock at Bordeleau Park has made a welcome return to the Rideau River, thanks to the persistent efforts of city park staff and the local community. Installed originally around 2012, the floating wooden dock –…
By Nancy Miller Chenier This is the first in a new series that tells the stories of some of the 50+ individually designated heritage buildings in our community. The Ontario Heritage Act, first enacted fifty years ago in March 1975, allowed our municipality to designate individual properties for their architectural and historical value. When the…
By Nancy Miller Chenier Only a few three-storey apartments are left in Lowertown East from King Edward Avenue to Cobourg Street. In the late 1960s, the widescale demolitions as part of urban renewal greatly reduced their number. One notable exception is 285-287-289 Clarence Street, a red brick building with multiple balconies displaying pot belly railings….
By Nancy Miller Chenier A magnificent, repurposed church, St. Brigid’s Centre for the Arts, home of the National Irish Canadian Cultural Centre, and the ruins of Our Lady’s, a former Roman Catholic school, now serve as monuments to the Irish Catholic settlers of Lowertown. Along the south side of St. Patrick Street between Cumberland and…
By Nancy Miller-Chenier Max Finkelstein and James Stone, Paddling the Boreal Forest: Rediscovering A.P Low, Dundurn Press, 2004. This book has two Lowertown connections – Jim Stone, a co-author and current resident of Lowertown and Albert Peter (A.P.) Low, former employee of the Geological Survey of Canada located from 1881 to 1911 at 541 Sussex…