Reflecting on Old Ottawa South’s Built Environment, Past and Present (cont.)
Although Old Ottawa South only houses about half a dozen of Ottawa’s municipally designated heritage structures (another approximately 300 structures of the area are included on Ottawa's heritage reference list, and thus potentially considered for legal protection), its mosaic of over 3,200 residences and the family histories they contain provide a rich register of the history and evolution of the Ottawa area, dating as far back as the first half of the nineteenth century and extending to the present. The earliest surviving house in the area is the Williams House on Southern Drive, parts of which were built in the 1820s. Its original owner, Lewis Williams, built the house on the 200-acre farm that he established at that time.
In addition to covering a relatively long chronological span, the area’s private residences also reflect considerable diversity in their stylistic characteristics and also in the socio-economic backgrounds of those who lived in them. On the one hand, Old Ottawa South includes residences such as the rather simple and modest late nineteenth-century Hunt House on Hopewell Avenue, which is an example of a working-class residence from that period. At the other end of the spectrum are stately mansions such as the 1860s Echo Bank House (currently the Echo Bank Bed and Breakfast) on Echo Drive along the canal, built for Colonel George Hay, a prominent businessman and public figure in the city. Colonel Hay was a major hardware merchant, president of the Bank of Ottawa, and one of the city’s first aldermen.
The houses of Old Ottawa South feature different formal characteristics and materials. These include traditional structures made of wood, brick, and stone, topped with just about every imaginable roof form. The front porch is a standard feature in many of them, providing an element of social interaction between residents and neighbors walking along. Moreover, one finds in Old Ottawa South simple wood or masonry gabled houses with front porches dating back the 1920s alongside contemporary flat-roofed houses punctured by corner windows and sheathed with corrugated metal surfaces.
Although many of the area’s houses are interesting in their own right, and although each of them is a repository of a wealth of information about the architectural as well as socio-economic evolution of this part of Ottawa, much of their value also lies in how they come together collectively, making up the pieces of the mosaic that is Old Ottawa South.
Of course, a few structures do stand out as individual monuments to which considerable resources have been devoted. Some are private residences that are testimonies to personal wealth, as with the Echo Bank House. There also are the public buildings. On a certain level, these belong to the community as a whole, and they take on a role of symbols of civic pride. The area features a good number of these buildings. They include the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons along Echo Drive, completed in 1923, and which previously served as the Monastery of the Precious Blood. Along with the nearby 1931 Southminster United Church facing Bank Street, these two public buildings are the primary visual markers that greet those walking or driving into Old Ottawa South as they cross the Rideau Canal along the Bank Street Bridge. The six-arched bridge, completed in 1912, and restored in 1993, is an elegant example of public infrastructure. It replaced the latest of a series of preexisting swing bridges that had existed on the site dating back to the 1860s, and played a major role in allowing Old Ottawa South to grow into an important district of Ottawa as it provided easy and full accessibility between the city and this newly emerging area. It also is one of Ottawa’s first reinforced concrete structures.
Other public buildings include the Hopewell Public Elementary School, one of the oldest continuously functioning public schools in Ottawa, and an important source of pride for the community. The oldest part of the current school complex dates back to about 1910, and consisted of an austere symmetrically-arranged two-story brick structure. It underwent a major 14-million dollar expansion and renovation project in 1996 – 1997 that included constructing a modern extension along Bank Street.
In addition, there is the cherished Old Firehall Community Center, built in 1921. As the name indicates, it originally functioned as a firehouse before it was converted to take on its present role as a community center in 1977. The structure is one of the very few Spanish Colonial revival structures built in Ottawa. In spite of its public function, its modest scale has allowed it to fit in very comfortably within its residential surroundings. It also provides a very good example of adaptive reuse. Interestingly enough, it housed activities for the community long before its conversion into a community center. Movies were shown in it before the Mayfair Theater (another structure showing Spanish Colonial Revival influences) was built along Bank Street in 1932.