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Given rising international tensions, sixteen members of the Historical Society of Ottawa’s Museum Club sought shelter in the Diefenbunker, Canada’s Cold War Museum, on the afternoon of Sunday, June 29th, 2025. Our guide informed us that the facility had been commissioned by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker in 1959, though he never visited it, and that it became fully operational in 1962. Designed to protect 535 senior government and military officials, all men, it could survive a blast from a 5-megaton atomic bomb at a distance of 1.8 km. A full-scale…
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The Historical Society of Ottawa’s Museum Club began its 2025 season on Friday May 2nd, 2025. On that afternoon, fifteen members and guests received a private guided tour of the Bytown Fire Brigade Historical Society facility at 2880 Sheffield Road, by their President, Peter McBride. Peter kept us all enthralled and entertained for 1 ¾ hours. The Bytown Fire Brigade Historical Society was formed in the early 1980s, being incorporated as a non-profit in 1983. Its mission is to collect, preserve, conserve, restore, and display the artifacts and apparatus that…
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Our final Museum Club outing for 2024 took place on the morning of Wednesday, November 20, and was a private tour of the National Research Council of Canada’s facility at 100 Sussex Drive. Thirteen of our members were greeted by Steven LeClair, Chief Archivist of the NRC. We were surprised to learn that apart from Library and Archives Canada, the NRC is the only federal agency that is permitted to operate an archive. All others must send their documents and artifacts to the LAC, but due to the need for…
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Under threatening skies, the Museum Club visited Dickinson Square in Manotick on Sunday, August 18, 2024, for a guided tour of Watson’s Mill and Dickinson House. Eighteen of the twenty registered participants took the chance and were rewarded with a wonderful experience. After we gathered and were welcomed by our host Avery Geboers, we split into two groups, one starting in Watson’s Mill and the other in Dickinson House. Inside Watson's MillWatson’s Mill was built by Moss Kent Dickinson and Joseph Merrill Currier, one of four mills to be constructed…
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The third Museum Club outing took place on Thursday, July 18, 2024, when a dozen registered participants, and two “foundlings” received a guided tour of the Merrickville Blockhouse Museum from our host, Jane Graham, who is the President of the Merrickville & District Historical Society (MDHS). Jane explained that the Blockhouse was built in 1832 to defend the Rideau Canal but never served in its original role. Instead, it became the home of the first lockmaster, Sgt. Johnston, his wife and children. Over the years the Blockhouse has had many…
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On Saturday June 3, 2023, members of the Historical Society of Ottawa accompanied the Gatineau Valley Historical Society on a bus trip to the Kitigan Zibi Pow Wow. Departing from Chelsea, Quebec, the bus trip stopped at the Centre Wakefield La Pêche for more pick-ups and proceeded to make its way through the vast Quebec wilderness along the Gatineau River. Upon our arrival at the Pow Wow, we were delighted to see a very large turn out. Vehicles parked along the roads and in yards and parking lots. It was a…
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Reception & Lunch, Plus Music by Paul Weber The Historical Socidety of Ottawa was blessed with exceptionally good weather for this event as the Society Members and other attendees arrived, registered and chose their seats in “Borden Hall” (in its previous incarnation, the church’s “nave” or main area). The dining area, its pews long since repurposed elsewhere and replaced by tables and chairs, was copiously illuminated by the sunlight shining through the hall’s many tall stained glass windows. A sumptuous buffet of sandwiches and soup, accompanied by a beverage service,…
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On Sunday, Sept. 15th, 2019, forty-two HSO members and their guests boarded a coach and headed out to Vankleek Hill, where they visited the local museum — housed in a recently restored 19th-century general store. Participants were then split into three groups for a leisurely walking tour of Ontario’s “Gingerbread Capital” guided by Denis Séguin, the architect responsible for the restoration, the town’s ex-mayor and a well-informed resident whose family has lived in Vankleek Hill for five generations. In 1797, Simeon Van Kleeck, an United Empire Loyalist, received a land…
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On Friday, June 14, 2019, eighteen society members took part in the society’s spring excursion to Tucker House, a well-preserved historic estate in rural Clarence-Rockland, just beyond the eastern boundary of the City of Ottawa. The trip was a great success, including a delightful tea and lunch, and an informative presentation from local historian Gilles Chartrand. Tucker HouseHSO member, Mary Edwards, at Tucker HouseThe HSO gang having lunch at Tucker House after a fascinating presentation by local historian Gilles Chartrand (far left)
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