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 grant for his services in what is now known as Vankleek Hill.

A mural depicting 19th-century life in the town is painted on buildings on Home Street. Further along this street is the entrance to the Higginson Tower.

Many of the buildings display the craftmanship which is the source of the Gingerbread reputation earned for the town. Several beautiful gardens and trees enhance the beauty of the area.

We had lunch at Herb’s Travel Plaza on the 417, ordered from a preset menu which offered eight choices.

Then we proceeded to the Macdonell-Williamson House located at the Ontario-Quebec border. Also known as Poplar Villa, it is located on the banks of the Ottawa River in the town of PointeFortune.

The afternoon was spent at the historic house, an exceptional example of Georgian architecture in the Palladian style.

We were again split into two groups so half could enjoy their tea and scones in the formal dining room of the 200-year-old house, while the other half were guided through the building, which was expropriated to make way for construction of the Carillon Hydro Electric Dam in 1961-62.

Due to geological anomalies, the location of the dam was moved 200 metres farther upstream and the house was allowed to deteriorate until it was taken over by the Ontario Heritage Trust in 1978 to save it from demolition.

The house was built between 1817 and 1819 by fur trader John Macdonell for his Métis wife, Magdeleine Poitras, and their six children. The family expanded to 12 children but unfortunately few of the children survived to adulthood. Some unique features are a cooking hearth, 12 fireplaces, bed closets and a second floor ballroom. It served as a centre for Macdonell’s milling, general merchandising, warehousing and freight-forwarding business.

According to a plaque erected by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, the house’s “impressive stone exterior and exquisitely detailed interior proclaimed Macdonell’s position as a major business and political figure along the Ottawa River.”

The Williamson family purchased the home and property in 1882. Over the years, they made several changes, including the construction of a verandah on three sides of the house.

Boundary marker placed by surveyor Da- vid Thompson, circa 1823, marking the line between Upper and Lower Canada near Macdonnell-Williamson House.Owner William Williamson ran a general store in the house and later founded the Laurentian Lumber Company.

Under the Heritage Trust, the house was opened to the public in 1995. Work is ongoing to have the site restored as a Cultural Centre for local and early Canadian History.

Just east of the house is a plaque commemorating David Thompson, the surveyor who, circa 1823, marked the boundaries between Upper Canada (now Ontario) and Lower Canada (now Quebec).

Thompson (1770-1857) is described as “The Greatest Map Maker of North America” on a plaque near the site, which was erected in 2007 by the Friends of the Macdonnell-Williamson House.

The Vankleek Hill museum, left, and historic mural on Home Street depicting scenes from 19th-century life are among the attractions in the “Gingerbread Capital” of Ontario.
Photo by Evelyn Burke

Most of our meetings don’t start with a sing-along, but then the guest speaker for our November 2019 meeting is no ordinary presenter.

Phil Jenkins is an author and historian but he’s also a musician who, in addition to his own songs, performs songs by the Beatles — which is fitting considering that most of Phil’s life not lived in Ottawa was spent in Liverpool.

In Phil’s own words, he lived in Ottawa in two shifts. His first was as a child, from 1952 to 1962. He returned to the city in 1978, and has lived in the Ottawa area ever since.

After welcoming the audience, Phil picked up his guitar and started the show by singing a song about the first voyage on the Rideau Canal in 1832, as seen through the eyes of Colonel John By’s 11 year-old daughter, Harriet.

Childhood was the theme of Phil’s presentation. He remembers downtown Ottawa in the 1950s when trains still stopped at the station across from the Château Laurier, and the tallest building was the Peace Tower.

Phil remembers when Rideau Street was “alive with action”. Now he laments that Rideau, after a period as a failed transit mall, has become “homogenized”. The buildings used to have their own individuality. Now they all look the same.

Author and musician, Phil Jenkins was the HSO's guest speaker on November 14, 2019.
Penguin Random House Canada.Sparks Street has met a similar fate. Phil remembers when it was first turned into an innovative pedestrian mall, when he was a child. When Phil returned to Ottawa in his late 20s, the mall had lost its vitality.

Not that he dwells on the negative. He does comment on how we could have done better, and warns us not to repeat past mistakes, but his presentation was very much a positive one.

One change for the better is Ottawa’s growing diversity. Phil observed “Ottawa was very British” when he was young. Now, judging by the variety of restaurants alone, Ottawa has become a better place because of its diversity.

But diversity is not new. Phil reminded us that Ottawa has always been more than just English and French, but that we lost diversity along the way. To emphasize this point, he told us of an Algonguin hunter, Constant Penency, who in his later years had to plead to retain hunting lands sold without his consent. The story is told in more detail in Phil’s book An Acre of Time.

On a more recent topic, Phil took a wry look at our recently-opened Confederation Line and its short, troubled history. Light Rail Transit is not Ottawa’s first streetcar line, he noted. Phil remembers riding the orange-hued streetcars, and told the story of the time as a young lad when he thought he was boarding the trolley back to LeBreton Flats only to wind up in New Edinburgh.

We won’t tell too many of Phil’s stories here. Better to read them in Phil’s own words in his books. In addition to An Acre of Time, Phil has published Beneath My Feet, Fields of Vision, and River Song.

Phil’s history is really a collection of memories of life. An Acre of Time focuses on his recollections of Ottawa; some good, like the aqueduct at LeBreton Flats where he played as a young boy, and some not so good, like the demolition of many historic buildings and the uninspired towers that are now replacing them.

Phil has a skill for conjuring memories. Many hands were raised when he asked how many people remember riding the streetcars, or going to Rasputin’s on Bronson Avenue. The coffee house was the best place in the capital to enjoy folk music.

A lover of folk music, Phil ended the evening with another song; this time about the Great Fire of 1900. The song is not about the details of the event. It’s more about how the fire affected the families in LeBreton Flats and how they rose, so to speak, from the fire’s ashes.

Phil’s songs and stories are a reminder that even in Ottawa, people make history, not politicians.

The Historical Society of Ottawa’s October 9, 2020 meeting was our first evening gathering at the main branch of the Ottawa library. We had many first-time attendees. Maybe the new time and location are the attraction. Or it may have been our guest speaker, who is well known in Ottawa for his passion for history.

Neighbourhood historian François Bregha, described many prime ministerial homes during his Oct. 9 evening presentation.Sandy Hill is more than just a passing interest for François Bregha. He has lived in Sandy Hill for 34 years. In this time, François has undertaken research on ten prime ministers who have lived in his community, in over a dozen different homes. Many of these homes are still standing, and have become regular stops on François’ community walking tours.

Some of Sandy Hill’s prime ministerial homes are well known, like Stadacona, the Strathcona Apartments and Glensmere. The last of these three was the home of Canada’s eight prime minister, Sir Robert Borden. Built in 1894 for Indian Affairs superintendent Hayter Reed, Borden moved into the home in 1907, giving it the name Glensmere.

After prime minister Borden’s third son, Henry Clifford Borden, moved out in 1941, the home served for 27 years as the Chinese legation, back when the Canadian government considered Taiwan to be “China”. When the much bigger China came to be recognized as the proper “China” in 1972, they established an embassy at the former Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd convent and Glensmere, suddenly empty, was demolished.

Sad, but everyone in attendance for François’ talk at least got a good laugh at the photo he showed of the towering monstrosity that replaced Borden’s elegant abode. Fortunately, Stadacona (Sir John A. Macdonald’s third Sandy Hill home) and the Strathcona Apartments continue to provide architectural dignity on Laurier Avenue East.

Probably the best-known home is Laurier House, built in 1878. Canada’s seventh and tenth prime ministers lived here, although it’s probably less well known that the museum that now honours Sir Wilfrid Laurier and William Lyon Mackenzie King was originally named Kininvie by the home’s first owner, jeweler John Leslie. Leslie named his Sandy Hill home after Kininvie Manor in Banffshire.

This Scottish castle has been in the possession of the Leslie clan since 1521. King renamed the home Laurier House in honour of his mentor, in 1923.

François did some considerable research to dig up information on the many less well-known homes in Sandy Hill. The 13th prime minister, John Diefenbaker not only lived in the Strathcona Apartments, he later rented a small apartment in a house on Wilbrod Street. Our 15th prime minister, Pierre Trudeau, rented an apartment on Besserer Street in the early 1950s, in a home built in 1896 for broker A.M. Sutherland. The home had just been converted to apartments when Trudeau moved in.

Future prime minister Charles Tupper lived at 274 Daly Ave. in 1872
Source: Library and Archives CanadaTrudeau’s predecessor, Lester Pearson, seems to have had a particular penchant for Sandy Hill. He lived in three homes in the neighbourhood. Sadly the last of these – the apartment he was living in when he won the Nobel Peace Prize – is slated for demolition. The Ugandan High Commission, which has occupied the building since 1985 has allowed the historic landmark to fall into disrepair.

During the Q&A session with François, special attention was drawn to Canada’s sixth prime minister Sir Charles Tupper who, while on his morning walk to the office at Parliament Hill took a daily diversion to meet up with a lady-friend on Chapel Street. François had hoped to exercise some discretion concerning the affair but was cajoled by the audience to offer some details.

Tupper is unique in having lived in two homes that had also been the home of other prime ministers.

Tupper’s 1872 home at 274 Daly Avenue was converted into apartments in 1982.

More than a century later, the home was converted into apartments and another future prime minister, Paul Martin, lived there from 1994 to 2003.Paul Martin (our 21st prime minister) lived in one of these units from 1994 until 2003, when he was able to move into 24 Sussex Drive.

As for Sir Charles, he later moved to a home named Cliffside, just west of the Parliament Buildings.

This same residence had earlier been the home of Canada’s second prime minister, Alexander Mackenzie. Cliffside was demolished in 1929.

If you’re interested to learn more about Sandy Hill’s many magnificent historic homes, visit the Sandy Hill History website.  Here François has more stories, not just of prime ministers, but of business people, war heroes, architects and artists who called Sandy Hill home.

An elaborate public art installation at the new Lyon Street light rail transit station in downtown Ottawa is sharing the origin story of the HSO with thousands of daily commuters.

The undulating stainless steel sculpture commemorates and celebrates the 1898 founding of the Women’s Canadian Historical Society of Ottawa — later opened to men and renamed the Historical Society of Ottawa — and incorporates the entire 5,000-word text of a society-published pamphlet about the city’s early history.

Individualized silhouettes representing the 32 women who were present at the first meeting of the society in June 1898 adorn the top of the two-metre tall sculpture, which is fully reproduced in French.

The artwork covers a 14 x 4 metre area along a main public concourse, even snaking around one of the station’s support pillars.

The title of the artwork, With Words As Their Actions, is incorporated in a message that appears in large letters across the top of the sculpture: “These Women Built Bytown And Ottawa With Words As Their Actions.”

Along the bottom edge of the steel curtain of text, another message in large letters details the historic gathering that brought the society into existence more than 120 years ago: “Lady Edgar invited thirty-one ladies to her drawing room on 3 June 1898 to consider the formation of a Women’s Historical Society.”

The same messages appear in the French-language half of the art-work, titled Par la Force des Mots.

In March 1950, the Ottawa Citizen covered the appointment of the directors of the Women’s Canadian Historical Society of Ottawa, which would soon admit male members and rename itself the Historical Society of Ottawa. She added: “With Words as Their Actions pays tribute to the women who kept Bytown alive long after its transformation into Ottawa . . . Here were these women who were saying, ‘We are going to start losing history if we don’t start saving it.’ ”

The installation was created by the Toronto-based firm PLANT Architect Inc., which was awarded the commission after a public art competition held in 2015. The company previously created the Canadian Firefighters Memorial on LeBreton Flats.

As part of the contract for construction of the LRT system, one per cent of the overall construction cost was set aside for displays of artwork at each of the 13 light rail stations.

PLANT Architect’s tribute to the founders of the WCHSO and their work as preservers and promoters of the city’s history cost $200,000.

The silhouetted figures are arrayed in pairs of women facing each other, “representing the society’s founders gathered in conversation” and “passing their knowledge from one another, and to the viewer,” the creators explained.

“This historical society was Ottawa’s first, and from the late 19th century until after World War II, all of its members were female,” PLANT partner Lisa Rapoport, the project’s design lead, told the Daily Commercial News in an interview earlier this year. “While their husbands were building with wood, stone, rail ties and financial capital, the society’s members were building an edifice of words and stories.”

Society member Anne Forbes Dewar, top left, authored a 1954 paper titled “ The Last Days of Bytown ,” republished by the HSO in 1989. The entire 5,000-word text of the pamphlet — in English and French — has been incorporated in a steel sculpture installed at the Lyon LRT station that celebrates the role of the WCHSO in preserving and promoting Ottawa’s history.

The design, states a PLANT over-view of the project, “celebrates women as keepers of history — and in particular, the 32 women who, in 1898, founded the Ottawa chapter of the Women’s Canadian Historical Society (now the Historical Society of Ottawa).”

The bulk of the sculpture is comprised of alternating English and French lines of text from a presentation titled “The Last Days of By-town,” written in 1954 by society member Anne Forbes Dewar and published in 1989 as No. 32 of the HSO’s Bytown Pamphlet series.

There are now more than 100 published papers in the Bytown Pamphlet series, most of which are available for download at the HSO website — including Dewar’s essay — and all of which are available through the Ottawa Public Library. In a brief introduction to the Dewar pamphlet, the author was described as “an early and active member” of the WCHSO, which she also served as a board member: “She loved history and was extremely knowledgeable and well-read, especially about local history.”

Dewar, who died in 1964, had prepared her 1954 research paper by poring over old Ottawa newspapers, consulting local history books and tapping a variety of other sources to paint a portrait of Bytown as it exist- ed 100 years earlier, in 1854 — the year before the city was officially renamed Ottawa on Jan. 1, 1855.

“This is an amazing document,” Rapoport said in the DCN interview, referring to Dewar’s painstaking reconstruction of 1854 Bytown, on the eve the change to the City of Ottawa. “We thought it would be great for everybody to read it.”

Among the most noteworthy passages in Dewar’s pamphlet — especially now that her words have been laser-cut in steel into a permanent artwork at a downtown train station — were her observations about the December 1854 inauguration of the Bytown and Prescott Railway.

It was a landmark event in Ottawa history and marks the birth of rail transportation in the city.

In recounting the arrival in By-town of the first-ever trainload of passengers from Prescott on Christmas Day 1854, Dewar commented that a celebratory banquet following the event “provided the appropriate jollification.”

She then offered further thoughts on the railway’s launch that should offer some solace to present-day city officials who have faced sharp criticism over the LRT’s bumpy rollout throughout the fall and early winter of 2019.

“The railway had been a great accomplishment,” Dewar wrote of the launch of train service in 1854. “As might have been expected in the early days of operation, unlooked for difficulties arose . . . (but) before long the Bytown and Prescott was generally acknowledged to be the safest and smoothest railway line on the American continent.”

The silhouettes of Lady Matilda Ridout Elgar, host of the inaugural meeting of the WCHSO, and found- ing member Gertrude Kenny appear to engage in conversation atop the massive art installation at the Lyon Street LRT station.
Photo: Randy BoswellSeveral HSO members, including past president George Neville and former board members Don Baxter and Bryan Cook, were consulted during the design of the Lyon Station artwork.

The impressive LRT tribute to the matriarchs of the present Historical Society of Ottawa joins a host of other landmarks around the capital attesting to the HSO’s enduring impact since its founding near the end of the 19th century.

These include the Bytown Museum beside the Rideau Canal head-locks and the statue of Lt.-Col. John By in Major’s Hill Park, both of which were society initiatives.

“No longer will only society members be familiar with our beginnings as the WCHSO,” said Karen Lynn Ouellette, president of the Historical Society of Ottawa. “This stunning artistic installation invites all LRT travellers to learn about our society’s contributions to saving and sharing our local heritage.”

She added: “I am so proud to be part of this legacy of women helping to preserve our city’s history.”

The curving, curtain-like sculpture (below), a tribute to the female founders of the historical society, invites passersby to sample bits of early Ottawa history inscribed in steel.
Photo Randy Boswell