The Search for Heritage in Ottawa's Lower Town Michael Newton
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Document generated on 09/25/2021 8:16 a.m. Urban History Review Revue d'histoire urbaine The Search for Heritage in Ottawa's Lower Town Michael Newton Aspects of Urban Heritage Article abstract Volume 9, Number 2, October 1980 Few buildings survive the first generation (approx. 1826-1850) of urban growth in the Lower Town portion of present-day Ottawa, even though most of the URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1019334ar commercial activity and population was concentrated there. Most are DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1019334ar unprepossessing, as is much of the contemporary area. An explanation lies in the determination of Governor Dalhousie and the British Board of See table of contents Ordnance — builders of the Rideau Canal — to plan and control the embryonic townsite through land leasing. The British Board of Ordnance owned, outright, about half the land in early Bytown, including all of Lower Town. Prospective builders were leased town lots, usually on a 30-year basis. Legitimate builders Publisher(s) were thus reluctant to invest in substantial structures, as were speculative Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine builders, constructing instead temporary, ramshackled edifices. The first buildings of substance date from the latter 1840s when conversion to freehold became possible. The option of leasehold persisted, however, until at least the ISSN 1870s, and the mixture of tenures sustained the impulse for temporary 0703-0428 (print) structures. In the case of Lower Town, proprietal relationships were 1918-5138 (digital) fundamental in the evolution of the urban landscape. Explore this journal Cite this article Newton, M. (1980). The Search for Heritage in Ottawa's Lower Town. Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine, 9(2), 21–37. https://doi.org/10.7202/1019334ar All Rights Reserved © Urban History Review / Revue d'histoire urbaine, 1980 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ THE SEARCH FOR HERITAGE IN OTTAWA'S LOWER TCMJ Michael Newton Résumé/Abstract De nos jours, Ottawa corrpte peu de bâtiments qui datent de la première phase de la croissance urbaine qu'a connue la Basse-Ville entre 1836 et 1850 environ, même si la plus grande partie des activités commerciales et la majorité de la population y étaient concentrées. La plupart de ces constructions ont aujourd'hui piètre apparance, comme d'ailleurs la majeure partie du quartier. Ceci s'explique par le fait que le gouverneur Dalhousie et l'intendance britannique, constructeurs du canal Rideau, avaient résolu de planifier et de réglementer la ville embryonnaire par la location à bail des terrains. L'intendance possédait de plein droit à peu près la moitié de Bytcwn à l'origine, y compris toute la Basse-Vil le. Aux entrepreneurs éventuels, on louait des parcelles, habituellement pour trente ans. C'est pourquoi les constructeurs sérieux, ainsi que les spéculateurs, hésitant à investir dans des bâtiments solides, en construisaient plutôt de provisoires et branlants. Les premières constructions en dur remontent à la fin des années 1840, date à laquelle l'accession à la propriété fut possible. Cependant, la location à bail ne disparut pas complètement avant les années 1870 et la combinaison des deux régimes fonciers prolongea la tendance à construire des bâtiments provisoires. Dans le cas de la Basse-Ville, les relations concernant la propriété furent fondamentales dans l'évolution du paysage urbain. Few buildings survive the first generation (approx. 1826-1850) of urban grcwth in the Lcwer Tcwn portion of present-day Ottawa, even though most of the commercial activity and population was concentrated there. Most are unprepossessing, as is much of the contemporary area. An explanation lies in the determination of Governor Dalhousie and the British Board of Ordnance - builders of the Rideau Canal - to plan and control the embryonic tcwnsite through land leasing. The British Board of Ordnance owned, outright, about half the land in early Bytown, including all of Lcwer Tcwn. Prospective builders were leased town lots, usually on a 30-year basis. Legitimate builders were thus reluctant to invest in substantial structures, as were speculative builders, constructing instead tenporary, ramshackled edifices. The first buildings of substance date from the latter 1840s when conversion to freehold became possible. The option of leasehold persisted, hcwever, until at least the 1870s, and the mixture of tenures sustained the impulse for temporary structures. In the case of Lower Town, proprietal relationships were fundamental in the evolution of the urban landscape. * * * 22 INTRODUCTION inception of the town. The key to Lower Town's secrets, including its In 1976, the Heritage Section current make-up of tenements, of the Architectural Division of apartments, and double houses, lay the National Capital Commission in the activities of Lt.-Col. John undertook a search to locate the By, Lord Dalhousie, the earliest buildings in Lower Town Governor-in-Chief of Canada, and 1 West, Ottawa s oldest section and a the policy of the Imperial nucleus of the modern city. It was Government at Westminster at the hoped that the search would unearth time of the construction of the domestic and commercial Rideau Canal. architecture dating back to the time of Lieutenant-Colonel John By The founding of Bytown was a and the construction of the Rideau significant element of British Canal (1826-32), or at least some imperial and commercial policy in buildings from the developing years relation to the Canadas after the of the 1830s and early 1840s. It War of 1812. Most important was was widely believed that beneath the projected role of Rideau the late nineteenth century brick Waterway and its chief town in the veneers and the application of maintenance of the colonial economy "insul-brick" lay log structures or that was tied to the St. solid stone buildings dating from Lawrence-Great Lakes trade route. this early construction period. An important sidelight was the role The belief was misplaced. of such a town on the Ottawa River route to the North-West. Both The perplexing question which routes offered facilities for the Heritage Section then faced was settlement, exploitation, and how could such a long-settled area trade. Military considerations bear more resemblance to the were also important, but probably post-Confederation capital than the have been exaggerated by later pre-Confederation canal-side commentators and historians. settlement. The few houses on the rear residential streets of Lower Given the political, military, Town only served to unmask the and economic importance of the deceptive charade of the later Rideau Canal, the British nineteenth century streetscape. authorities, from the outset, Initial research efforts in city sought to control both the assessment rolls turned up nothing, allocation and disposition of town since most had burned in a land in order to maintain control disastrous fire that destroyed of the site. To this end, Lord Ottawa's city hall in 1931. A Dalhousie in 1823 purchased some search in the voluminous land 400 acres of land near the registry abstracts of the City of Chaudière Falls. The purchase Ottawa showed the deception to be embraced all of what is now more complex than originally Parliament Hill, then known as anticipated. Registry records for Barracks Hill, and all of Lower Bytown dated from the 1840s, but on Town. In addition, some adjacent the lots in the Lower Town section, parcels were appropriated from patents from the crown dated only private holders and attached to the from the 1870s, even though many original purchase. None of this lots had been built on for a land was to be sold. Critical generation before. Some were sites parts of the purchase were reserved of buildings dating from the outright for military and canal 23 purposes. Portions of these land the option to lease continued. acquisitions were eventually made Rents remained at such a moderate available for a "considerable level on these 21 or 30-year leases town." But they were leased, not that they became an invitation to offered for sale. economize, not only to those of modest means but also to sharp The general policy was worked entrepreneurs who could see an out by Dalhousie and the imperial avenue for making quick, easy authorities before Lt.-Col. John By money. Crudely built tenements and his corps of Royal Engineers designed to last only the length of arrived in 1826 to construct the the lease resulted from this Rideau Canal. By and his process. Indeed the mixture of successors as Chief Ordnance freehold and leasehold appears to Officer at Bytown were only the have had somewhat the same immediate instruments of the more depressing effect on construction general policy. Though there was and more general development of the considerable flexibility in their Lower Town as had the original instructions, and By was even policy of leasing alone. Above accused of stretching them, the all, the consequences of the first ordnance officers were only keepers generation could never be overcome. of the land policy, not the makers of it. Land policy at Bytown was LEASING PATTERNS AND PROBLEMS an aspect of more general imperial and commercial concerns. Change in The leasing scheme appears to imperial policy, in this sense, was have had its origins with Lord a necessary preliminary to a change Dalhousie and was conveyed by him in local land policy.