In recent years we’ve enjoyed many presentations by Phil, where he has brought a joyful presence to Ottawa’s past, in story and song, but Phil has a special passion for the old neighbourhood of LeBreton Flats, and it’s hard to tell the story of this community without diving into the troubled waters of this troubled land. Vacant since the late 1960s, there’s a generation of Ottawa residents unaware that a close-knit community once thrived here before it was removed as part of something called “urban renewal”.

Phil has many stories to tell of LeBreton, and he has gathered them together in his iconic book titled An Acre of Time.  

LeBreton Flats may not have been some people's idea of a paradise but Phil shares many endearing stories from that lost community, lamenting the missed opportunities to save the neighbourhood, and to warn us of the possible mistakes that could be made in the LeBreton’s future. 

Also very enjoyable is Phil's latest book, As I Walked About which you will find on his website, at philjenkins.ca.

Watch the video from Phil Jenkin's HSO presentation on April 14, 2021, via this link.

Michael Molloy & Robert Shalka, co-authors of "Running on Empty", plus Rivaux Lay, a former Cambodian refugee, spoke on June 16, 2021 about the efforts to welcome Indochinese refugees to the City of Ottawa in the 1970s.

At our May 12th 2021 meeting, James Powell, HSO director and author of the popular blog "Today in Ottawa's History", took the audience back in time to the assassination of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of the Fathers of Canadian Confederation.

Amateur film of from Maitland Avenue along the Queensway to downtown, around Parliament, to Champlain point, along the Ottawa River, Dows Lake and many other places in town.

When Ottawa's Byward Market was a real market.