On July 3rd 2026, the Museum Club visited the Billings Estate National Historic Site. Our guide Aiden led us through a detailed tour of the estate that went over the contributions of the five generations that lived in this house, on the property and to the surrounding community.

The home had been built by Braddish Billings, after his wife Lamira Dow didn’t like the home that he had on the shores of the Rideau River. We began the tour in what used to be the family kitchen, with the original stove still installed. The family later installed a second kitchen (where the lobby of the estate now is), to be used during the summer, as the stove would get too hot to use. Eventually the stove was boarded over, to be found later and the summer kitchen was the only one in use. The room also contained the complete family tree of the Billings family with details about their life. Braddish and Lamira had 9 children, 7 of whom reached adulthood. 

Here we got our first insight into the contributions of the Billings family to their community, as we learned that Lamira had been a schoolteacher who was heavily involved in education so her children were quite well educated and the Billings family built the first schoolhouse in Ottawa. Braddish also made contributions with his ice business and by selling goods to lumber workers for the Rideau Canal. 

In the second room we went into there were numerous artifacts on display and we learnt a bit more about two of Braddish and Lamira’s children, Sabra and Sally Billings. Braddish had gone against the societal norms with the ownership of his property as he left the home to his two eldest daughters rather than his oldest son. The daughters continued the Billings family style of contributions to their community with both of them helping with the dairy business and helping with the fruit and vegetable gardens on the property whose goods were sold in the Byward Market. The sisters ended up splitting the house, with each of them getting a half. This led to the addition of another room which was Sally’s dining room (now used to display information about the dairy business that the Billing’s had), which still has its original windows to this day. 

The last room that we went to on the first floor was one that served multiple purposes over the years. It was initially built for Lamira and Braddish as they grew too old to go up the stairs, then it was used as Sabra’s music room, and later it was used by Sally and Sabra’s nephew Charles Murray Billings as an office. 

Our tour continued upstairs as we entered what was referred to as “the green room”. The room has had multiple uses over the years and its wallpaper demonstrates the care that the Billings Estate has taken to preserve its historical accuracy. The wallpaper colour was determined by taking paint chips from around the house to figure out what the most used colour was, resulting in the green colour visible in the room. There were also maple leafs on the wallpaper to represent the contributions that the Billings family had on Canada. Currently this room is serving as a temporary exhibition called “Beyond the Brim: Tales Told Through the Hats We Wore” which has numerous hats on display with the stories of the individuals who wore them and their impact on Canada. Using this room as an exhibition room was another way of giving back to the community the same way that the Billings Family did. 

The final room that we went into had been Beatrice Lindsay Billings’ (wife of Charles Alexander Billings). The room has two key pieces to it that showed the historical touches still present in the house. One of them is the original flowered wallpaper that was kept in one area behind a door in the room (pictured below). The other connects the generations together, it’s the ceramic doorknob leading to the room. One side is from Beatrice’s time, and the other side contains the Cypher of William, showing that it was from the first generation of this house. 

The preserved wallpaper at the Billings Estate. Photo by Emma Kent.

A big thank you to our tour guide Aiden, and to the Billings Estate for having us. Our tour was so popular that it sold out, but there is another opportunity to see this amazing property with the Museum Club on August 7, 2026!