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Urban History Review Revue d'histoire urbaine

The Search for Heritage in 's 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 — to plan and control the embryonic townsite through land leasing. The British Board of Ordnance owned, outright, about half the land in early , 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.

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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

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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 , 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 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 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 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 , 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 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. The one to By in personally delivered followed the other only in the instructions at Wrightstown (Hull) 1840s. In the meantime, the on September 26, 1826. Dalhousie connection to imperial proposed that the crown properties considerations made local land be surveyed, laid off into lots of policies resistant to local needs two to four acres, and leased in and local demands. Unfortunately, perpetuity at a quit rent of 2 this detachment did not create shillings 6 pence per lot annually. stability. A number of The other requirements were that unpredictable actions by ordnance settlers clear the land and build a authorities in London, Quebec City, house within twelve months of and Bytown, for which there was no signing the lease. Furthermore, redress, also introduced half-pay officers and "respectable uncertainty into the local land people" should be induced to settle market. there.^

Such a climate was to retard By implemented the policy in the stable growth of the town. It principle, but made changes in also radically hindered the detail. He recounted these in two construction of substantial, letters to Sir James Kempt, the lasting buildings. Moreover, the administrator of the government of effects were not confined just to Canada, one letter dated July 18, the first generation, when the 1829 and another of unknown date, policy was in general operation, but probably written shortly after but subsequent generations suffered the first. In the first, By as well. Even after freehold recounted Dalhousie's suggestion of tenure was permitted in the 1840s, grants of two to four acres subject IT; ■■■

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Lt.-Col. John By's 1831 Map as traced in 1851 illustrates how distinctly separated were Upper Town (to the right) and Lower Town (to the left) by the Rideau Canal, Barrack's Hill, and the lands seized from Nicolas Sparks. (Source: National Map Collection, P.A.C.] 25 to a small quit rent. He found, of privileged speculators, most of however, that after subtracting the whom were members of By's "civilian land required for the Rideau establishment." service, the remaining section of the purchase was so insignificant By had denounced speculators that he had to lay the place out in in his letters of 1829 to Sir James smaller town lots of 66 feet wide Kempt, but at the time he was by 99 or 198 feet deep. These were writing, speculation by insiders subject to the same rental terms appears to have been rampant , and suggested by Dalhousie. not only his civil staff were Speculators with good contacts involved. There were also favored apparently grabbed up most of these individuals, like James Inglis, and sold the leases of the lots to whose brother-in-law was the those who would build. Montreal financier and politician, Scandalized, By received the Hon. John Young. Inglis had Dalhousie's permission to increase taken Lot E on Sussex Street west the rents and impose thirty year on May 1, 1827 at £ 8 per annum leases. Under this new system, By for the purpose of locating a granted 108 leases and spent general store. Sussex Street was £160 out of the collected rents to to be the chief commercial build a market place on George thoroughfare in Bytown because it Street. He also opened a new led directly from the canal wharves road. to the east-west axial road at . On the same date In the second letter, By Inglis also took lots 10 and 11 on stated that initially no one would the north side of York Street, take lots in Lower Town. But when about where the Byward Market he had established the Engineers' originally stood. The commercial Yard and workshop on the north west hub of Bytown was situated in this corner of Rideau and Sussex (see area, roughly covering all of Map) in the spring of 1827, it Sussex Street, the north and south became necessary to drain the swamp sides of Rideau Street as far as that covered the flat of Lower Town Dalhousie Street, and the wide and also to construct a wharf at streets of George, York, and the foot of St. Patrick Street. Clarence which ran east to The improvements made the Lower Dalhousie Street from Sussex and Town lots not only accessible, but were directly north of Rideau valuable. The first seven lots on Street. the north side of Rideau Street from Sussex Street were immediately As of May 1, 1828 Inglis had taken, but rents to be paid were increased his holdings to include set at the old level of two lots 10 and 11 on south Clarence shillings and six pence per annum. Street immediately behind those This prompted a general stampede which he held on York Street . On for the lots. Subsequent leases, May 1, 1829 he leased nine lots on however, were granted for the most south Clarence Street and eight part to the highest bidder at more on north York Street. varying rents, "agreeable to the By May 1, 1830, he completed his supposed value of the situation," control of this entire block by and on the thirty year terms. taking up seven additional lots on Two forms of tenure existed side by south Clarence Street and another side, but significantly the more nine lots on north York valuable tracts were in the hands Street.4 ..!':'.;

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Lower Town from Barrack's Bill, looking east across the Rideau Canal, 1855. At this period Lower Town Was the commercial centre Of Ottawa. (Source: Public Archives of Canada). 27

There were others too numerous to discern the results of these to mention here who also indulged rental practices. A brief account in this same practice, but it can by Eva Read, niece of James be noted that speculation was Fitzgibbon, describes Bytown in the especially common amongst By ' s own area of the Inglis property in the personnel. James Fitzgibbon, the 1840s as consisting of wooden Master Carpenter on the Canal houses, one and a half stories in Works, had quietly obtained the height, running to the north and rights to the Steamboat Landing at east as far as the eye could see. the foot of the canal. Fitzgibbon From these facts it is possible to was one of five mentioned in By ' s speculate that the North side of second letter as having obtained York Street and the south side of the first seven lots under the Clarence Street contained nothing early, favourable terms, and his more than rows of wooden houses property was located at the.corner much like a few that dot the area of Rideau and Sussex Streets, the today (see photo on following very heart of commercial Bytown. page). The account also suggests This is an area which is today that the low grade residential still part of the core of downtown development of James Inglis Ottawa. On April 1, 1828, severely restricted commercial Fitzgibbon subdivided his 198 foot development on south Clarence lot and offered for sale the Street and north York Street to the northern half. The buyers were first seven or eight lots abutting Joseph and Remi Miville, who were Sussex Street. Another problem to receive 66 feet on George Street raised by the rental situation was and 66 feet along Sussex Street for the difficult time By had the astounding price of £ 200. maintaining respect for the Fitzgibbon had only to pay the authority of the military and minimum rent of 2/6 per annum for ordnance regulations. The the whole lot to ordnance disparity of rents and the fact authorities to maintain the right that the land was not sold at all to the land in perpetuity. were the roots of this difficulty. Although the Mivilles were paying a high price for the right merely to One outraged tenant took sit on leased land, Fitzgibbon personal action. Charles Friel, a demanded that they "...cause to be shopkeeper, refused to pay the built a good house on the aforesaid £4 rent demanded of him, after front or parcel of ground and which realizing that some men paid only said house and ground is to be held 2/6 for lots, leased in perpetuity. as a pledge and security to the Friel1s more expensive lease was aforesaid James Fitzgibbon, his for thirty years. By swore a heirs or assigns, until they. . . landlord's warrant and had Friel's Joseph and Remi Miville do goods seized for the amount of the 3 pay...." In actual fact, all they rent. Friel paid his rent but wanted to do was to open a charged By with break and entry, tavern. conveying away goods, shoplifting, and disturbing the peace. Friel If Fitzgibbon was charging lost his case but kept his such staggering prices, one wonders lot.7 what the army of other speculators were getting for their lots and Despite the dissatisfaction what they were asking for lots with there was a good market for houses or tenements. It is easier tenements. Most of the population Low grade residential buildings in Ottawa's Lower Town. Many have now d.isapipeared. (Source: Canadian Inventory of Historic Buildings) 29 living in Lower Town were labourers Even the most senior members on the canal and as such were of Bytown's military establishment earning piece work wages by the fell victim to the arbitrary day. Work on the canal was mainly actions of Ordnance rule. seasonal, creating long periods of Lt.-Col. By and his unemployment during the winter second-in-command, Lieutenant months when it was difficult to Pooley, believed they were the keep day labourers on the payroll. owners of Major's Hill Park, part This remained true even after of Dalhousie's original purchase. completion of the canal. This This belief was reinforced by group of labourers had to face many extensive improvements which they problems. A good number were made to the lands. Before his illiterate and mainly dependent recall in 1832 By had built a upon the work on the canal and magnificent stone house along the later in the timber trade for any bluff overlooking the canal and the money they could get. Those Ottawa River, at a cost of £ 700, earnings were occasionally enough an amount that did not include the to allow them to buy property from "considerable sums" laid out for the private holdings of Louis the creation of a garden. Besserer or Nicholas Sparks, the Furthermore, By had paid £ 183 to two major owners of land beyond the Lieutenant Pooley for the adjacent ordnance holdings. Otherwise, they lot upon his subordinate's leased lots from the Ordnance departure in 1828.8 On September 9, Office, or if they were less lucky, 1833, By wrote to the Master they were unable to obtain land at General of the Board of Ordnance all. To service this latter asking for the right to sell his unfortunate group, speculators in property. Dalhousie wrote the the government service and private Board of Ordnance on September 21, individuals built cheap housing 1833 that he had indeed granted for lease. In this way, Lower Town lots to By and Pooley on which to began its century-long role as a build homes, but he hedged his locale for tenant housing, poorly opinion on the question of trading maintained by somewhat these lots: irresponsible landlords. So far as my authority LAND ALLOCATION extended I consented to give these officers lots to build Any inhibitions to building upon, as to reselling them or and development attributable to the trafficking them as property, leasing system and its attendant I have no concern in them nor speculation were compounded by the can I establish any other air of uncertainty created by the right to them, than what these actions of senior ordnance officers may show under the officials, especially the hand and seal of the re-appropriation and expropriation Government of . of land. For instance, the Ordnance Office appropriated lot I granted no lots of land, letter "0" in the northeast corner that had been purchased for of the townsite. Though remote public service. 0 from the centres of settlement, it embraced half the , and Neither By nor Pooley could produce it had considerable potential as a deeds from the Government of Upper milling and manufacturing site. Canada, and there was no evidence 30

apart from occupancy to support east of the canal behind Rideau their claim. The Treasury Chambers Street was also taken by ordnance in London informed the Board of officers for the construction of a Ordnance by letter on December 31, lay-by and bywash, a development 1833, that By had no title to the which effectively thwarted the land which should, therefore, logical development of Sandy Hill revert back to the Ordnance Office and Louis Besserer's property. control. 1 On January 6, 1834, Development of freehold land at it was decided that By was entitled Bytown was thus restricted to a to a "partial remuneration" for his small area of land running west of improvements, but on January 27, to the Chaudière 1834, without explanation, this Fal1s- area. This decision was reversed and the latter area of land was jealously statement made that "the lands guarded by Livius Sherwood and ought to be resumed without Captain John LeBreton because it granting any Compensation to divided Bytown lying west of the Lieutenant-Col. By for the Houses canal (Upper Town) from the power in question. "*■*• of the Chaudière Falls. It remained underdeveloped until the There was no appeal. Ordnance 1880s. officials acting on behalf of the crown, it was clear, had right of By and his personal activities eminent domain over most of the incidentally restrained growth to populated area of Bytown, and it the south. Noting the rise of was now clear that this right would expectations connected with the be exercised. Thereafter nothing sale of the Sparks property, he would or could overcome the acquired an estate in 1832 from hesitation of capitalists, William McQueen for £ 1200. It lay merchants, and investors skeptical south of the Sparks and Besserer of ultimate government ownership of properties and stretched from the leased lands susceptible to seizure on the east to present at anytime for military or other day abutting the purposes. Instead, many potential LeBreton property on the west. By land owners purchased freehold land had the property surveyed into - sometimes at between £ 200 and lots, and he rented most at low £ 400 for 1/7 of an acre by 1836 - prices, replicating in some ways from Nicholas Sparks or Louis the Lower Town syndrome, ^ but also Besserer who controlled the lands monopolizing freehold development directly south of the crown to the south. ordnance property. 3 Ironically these transactions also produced REACTION AND RESOLUTION bitter fruit for the investors involved. Reaction to the land imbroglio came as early as the summer of On November 17, 1826, Sparks 1829. On July 9 about 65 had unwittingly allowed Lt.-Col. By leaseholders from the Lower Town to appropriate much of his estate (it is interesting to note that between the Rideau Canal and there were none from the upper present day Bank Street "for the village) endorsed a petition to Sir purpose of constructing the Rideau James Kempt. In it they explained Canal" within the terms of the their reasons for settling at Rideau Canal Act.1Zf Furthermore, Bytown "for the purpose of an enormous chunk of Sparks' land meliorating their own circumstances 31 and contributing to promote the them at high prices. Threats were progress of the public works as directed towards By for holding the well as to redeem a portion of the land for the government. There country from a state followed a second petition by of wilderness in which it was at the citizens to Lord Aylmer, the the time. .16 They went on to new Governor-in-Chief, in which the endorse Lt.-Col. By's use of the language became tougher and the revenue from rents to improve names of certain leaseholders were streets and to erect a market. mentioned. The basic demand They were, however, less satisfied became: with By's administration of land matters. Since tenants were WE DO DESIRE TO PURCHASE responsible for clearing the land THEM, and have free possession and erecting a house within six that we may as freeholders months of receiving their lot , the enjoy the privilege of the petitioners believed that the rents Elective Franchise. 1 j should not be exacted on demand. This petition noted that they felt A document found in the Ordnance cheated. They believed their land Office papers showing the rent roll was of less value when compared for 1835, reveals that the rents with the initial grants at 2/6. went unpaid until late 1835, Bytown, they noted, held the suggesting that citizens had agreed greatest portion of the population not to pay the rents until the of the District of Bathurst and was grievances had been rectified. In quickly growing in wealth and effect, they had launched a prosperity. It was, therefore, tenants' strike. ^ The issue important that a revision of the became an enduring source of rents, if not a wholesale grant to dissatisfaction. In an editorial the leaseholder of title to the of September, 1836, Dr. Christie, lots, be effected. Finally the proprietor of the Bytown Gazette^ petitioners noted one additional seized on the issue of the ordnance disadvantage of the current system: rents as a cause of grievance. In 1841 another petition by the That by the tenures u,pon citizens of Bytown to Lord Sydenham which the occupants of Lots in about the ordnance rents clearly Bytown (upon which a great detailed the sentiments and fears majority of them have expended that were held at that time about far more capital than would be the rental situation: required to purchase a freehold qualification) hold The tenures by which the their position utterly lots are held in Bytown, i n deprives them of the power of additiotion to its Isic[sicJ otheother r voting for a representative in i mp e rfecf ions, by being held the provincial Parliament and in feu or by lease has had a thereby goes to exclude them material effect in retarding from their right of Elective the improvements being made franchise.... upon these lots. At the first settlement of the place when Protests of the tenants the ground on which Bytown now reached more serious proportions by stands was covered by the the following spring. Attempts native forest of the country, were being made forcible to take the dispatch necessary to possession of the lots and to sell procure a shelter, compelled 32

many, (almost all) of the set the price for the lots which earliest settlers to erect would not be needed for canal or wooden buildings, they being military purposes. The local more quickly made habitable Tories were pleased with this than those of other materials. prospect since it would place them The temporary manner in which in the position of being able to many of these were bui It, and influence their Ordnance Office the unavoidable tear and wear friends as to who should receive of time (it being now about freehold tenure and who should not. fifteen years), has left many They were also aware that the of these houses in a Ordnance Office would not willingly dilapidated state. But their give up Barrack Hill, Major's Hill, [sic] can be no doubt their , and Lot 0 along the owners, had they their lots on Ottawa River between the canal and a more secure and favourable the Rideau River, thus hemming in tenure, they would not the Catholic Lower Town and hesitate to replace them by containing its growth. On the splendid and substantial stone other hand they were reasonably buildings, the best of confident that those lands which materials for which are to be had been seized from Nicholas found on the spot.... ^ Sparks between the canal and Bank Street would be returned to him and The question of the franchise that Sparks would be able to sell may not have been merely a discriminately to supporters of by-product of the land question. the Tory party. Furthermore, they Members of the Ordnance Office were knew that Sparks would ask a well aware that any citizens commanding price for his land which becoming freeholders would be in a would tend to ensure that a position to challenge the control professional, gentry class, such as of the military. A large group of themselves, would inhabit the place enfranchised landowners might be and outstrip the Lower Town. A able to wrest control of the surprise, however, awaited the Barracks Hill lands from ordnance Tories. administration, as well as taking back the lands expropriated from The government at Kingston in Nicholas Sparks and the area to the October, 1843, passed a Vesting Act north of Lower Town fronting on the which decreed that the ordnance Rideau and Ottawa Rivers. In administrators had to sell the lots addition the Irish and French in Lower Town, but the law omitted Catholics among them might very any reference to releasing Sparks' well add their votes to the reform land back to him. The Tories side in the current political reacted quickly. Stewart disputes. Thus the land question Derbishire, the Tory M.P.P. for was in part an acting out of wider Bytown, introduced an amendment political issues. that did not mention Sparks by name, but which laid bare their In the summer of 1843 the interests in the matter. He Ordnance Office in Canada began to proposed : lobby the government for an act that would place the crown lands ...that all lands taken from at Bytown under the direct control private owners at Bytown under of ordnance officers, including the the authority of the Rideau right to sell those lands and to Canal Act for the uses of the 33

Canal, which have not been but a waste weir is used for that purpose be continually running, and so restored to the party or little did Col. By really parties from whom the same believe in the failure of 2 1 were taken.... ' water, that he let a mill site, and recommended the With the passing of this erection of expensive mills to amendment, the Tories knew they had be turned by the never-ending the ordnance officials cornered. supply of the waste water of The Ordnance Office could only with the Canal at Bytown. The great difficulty justify holding timber upon the banks of the Sparks' land for canal purposes, Canal becomes less, instead of especially when it was releasing more every year; no want of other land in the area. Ordnance space in the existing Basin officers felt, however, that they has ever been felt. The had a chance of retaining the passage of vessels by the lands, and indeed, fought on for Rideau is not likely to another two years before conceding increase, but on the contrary defeat. As a first step, ordnance to diminish, after the St. administrators had the Vesting Act Lawrence Canals come into reserved by Governor Metcalfe. operation. But the They then argued that Sparks' land imagination of a maniac only had to be kept in order to build an can realize the anticipation enormous canal basin for trade of a Basin or Dock, covering purposes. Elaborate plans to this 88 acres at Bytown. Upon end were presented to prove their reference to authentic contention. On March 4, 1845, a sources, I find that the committee, on the petition of celebrated St. Catherines Nicholas Sparks, was established to Docks of London, cover only 24 arbitrate the dispute. Stewart acres, including quays, Derbishire, the former M.P.P. for warehouses, offices and Bytown was one of those called upon buildings of every to testify, and it was his description. The water area testimony which effectively gave covers a space of only 1 1 5 the lie to the ordnance officials' acres. The Great London Docks position: have but 30 acres of water area.... It is too obvious to The necessity of its need further illustration that appropriation by the the 88 acres they have taken Department has been justified from Mr. Sparks wi I I real ly be by its Officers, upon the wanted, or ever be applied to pretext of its being wanted the benefit of the town. 22 for fortifications, for a rampart, and...ditch for a Derbishire's argument effectively reservoir to supply the Locks won over the members. But even if at Bytown, if the water should the ordnance officials had won ever fail, and finally for a their case, it would have been Basin to accommodate the physically impossible to have growing trade of the completed their projected place. ...The Rideau Canal has undertaking, or it would have been been in full operation for a magnificent testimonial to fourteen years, and there has British engineering because Sparks' been no dimunition of water, land was totally uphill from the 34 canal, thus forcing water to run his deed. Today, the building uphill to fill an eighty-eight acre houses a popular watering hole basin. "Stoney Mondays." Further east on York Street is the Lafayette Hotel, And so the reserved Vesting constructed in brick in 1849 by Act with its amendments, plus a Francis Grant after purchasing the petition from Sparks and other property from ordnance officials in Bytonians praying for the Queen's that year.25 On St. Patrick assent to the Act, was sent to Street, between Dalhousie and London by Governor Metcalfe in Cumberland Streets, stands a two July, 1845. This sanction was and a half story "maison québécois" granted shortly thereafter and in with large dormers and casement September, 1846, further windows, constructed in 1846 by arbitration between Sparks and the Thomas Brule, a blacksmith.2" ordnance officials began. It was concluded on March 23, 1847. The Of greater importance, Ordnance Office was left with the however, was the security, which option of paying Sparks £ 25,000 or private ownership offered to the returning his land before June 11, sponsors of much needed public 1847. Sparks received his service institutions. In 1850, the land, J and the leaseholders soon Sisters of Charity under Elisabeth afterwards got their freehold Bruyère were able to erect a deeds. permanent General Hospital on the corner of Bruyère and Sussex CONCLUSION Streets in the heart of Lower Town; in 1851 Bishop Guiges had a Construction in stone or brick permanent home for the Collège de was rare in Lower Town until after Bytown constructed of stone at the 1843 and the passing of the Vesting corner of Guiges and Sussex Streets Act which permitted the freehold south of the General Hospital. The sale of ordnance lots in Lower college was to be the future Town. The impact on building that nucleus of the Université resulted from the change to d'Ottawa. ' As well, private freehold tenure was immediate and ownership aided the commercial and dramatic. Even before the Vesting economic viability of the town. Act had received Royal Assent, Bytown was incorporated in 1847, ordnance officials had begun but, without the ability to granting deeds in Lower Town, some purchase property, the new as early as 1844. Shortly municipality would never have been thereafter substantial buildings in able to provide a whole range of stone, brick, or solid wood were important civic facilities, not the constructed, and they have remained least of which was the By Ward with us to this day. The Thomas Market. Located between York and Donnelly house on Sussex Street was Clarence Streets, the market was constructed in 1844 when Donnelly established on land purchased in received his deed. ^ It is a large 1848 and is today one of the oldest Georgian style house which, until continuously operating open-air recently, contained the Office of produce markets in . ° the Minister of State for Urban Affairs. On York Street is the A legal portrait of early large stone bakery and inn of Bytown provides some of the answers George Shouldice, constructed in for the lack of early structures in 1846, two years after he received Lower Town, but there were other 35

The Thomas Donnelly house, c. 1843-45, . This was one of the first "substantial" or stone residences built in Bytown after the Vesting Act of 1843 was passed. Th.e house served as a resid.ence for Les Pères Oblats and as the Bishop's Palace of Msgr. Guiges before a larger residence was built on St. Patrick Street. During the 1970s the house was restored by the federal government and used, as an office. (Source: National Capital C o mm i s s i on ) .

constraints upon proprietors as the "Shiners War" between Irish well. The world-wide economic workers, formerly employed on the climate during the 1830s was canal, and French-Canadian raftsmen working against the new village. A for control of the rafting trade on series of depressions in the decade the river terrorized Bytown slowed the timber economy of the throughout the decade. The early region and created uncertainties. years of the 1840s brought great These were aggravated by the prosperity to Bytown after the politics of rebellion in both Upper timber trade improved, but the and Lower Canada, which left Bytown positive effects of the Vesting Act relatively untouched but were partly eclipsed by the repeal contributed to a more cautious of the preferential timber tariffs attitude amongst the inhabitants. by the Peel Government later in the Cholera epidemics also swept the decade. Again Bytown was thrown village twice in the mid-1830s, and into depression, and construction 36 was brought to a halt until yet By, R.E., to Captain Airey, another recovery at the end of the Acting Military Secretary, decade. n.d., but probably 1829. 3 PAC, Hill Collection, vol. 18, It could be said that the pp. 4459-4460, Lt.-Col. John heritage structures which do exist By, R.E., to Sir James Kempt, in modern Ottawa are mostly related July 18, 1826. to the designation of the city as 4 PAC, Hill Collection, vol. 28, the capital of the Province of pp. 6 730-6 735, List of Leases Canada, for the choice seems to of Lots in Bytown granted by have provided the security that the Col. By, 1826-1832. citizens felt they needed to invest 5 PAC. , Hill and Hill Papers, in the place. Still, a closer vol. 4, file 82C, Indenture investigation of the brief period between James Fitzgibbon and between the Vesting Act of 1843 and Joseph and Remi Miville, April the selection of the city as the 29, 1828. Witnessed by Thomas capital has begun to produce Burrows and Thomas Burges I?]. evidence of a burgeoning provincial 6 Eva Read, "Early Days in culture. Ottawa has been a Ottawa," Women's Canadian frontier boom town and a mecca for Historical Society of Ottawa, raftsmen as well as a national Transactions j vol. i (1901), capital and a resting place for p. 45. transient politicians. In addition 7 PAC, Manuscript Group (M.G.) to the splendour of Parliament Hill 13, War Off ice (W.O. ) 55, vo I . and the mirrored vivacity of the 1618, pp. 449-458; reel B-2837. Mall, there can be found glamorous, 8 PAC., M.G. 13, W.O. 44, vol. stirring examples of this previous 15, pp. 354-356; reeI B-217, fleeting moment in time. It is Lt.-Col John By to Master this evidence of Ottawa's early General and Board of Ordnance, built environment that will provide September 9, 1833. some of the data required for 9 Ibid. future research. As the city's 10 PAC, Hill Collection, vol. 18, physical past is gradually pp. 4588-4590, Lord Dalhousie recovered, a new interpretation of to the Hon. Board of Ottawa's early development may be OrdnanceC?), London, September made more complete. Then the 21, 1833. nation's capital will be able to 11 PAC, Hill Collection, vol. 18, contribute its own pp. 4633-4634, Hon. J. Stewart non-governmental, genuinely to R. Byham, December 31, 1833. indigenous colour to the panorama 12 PAC, Hill Collection, vol. 19, of Canadian history. p. 4651, Hon. J. Stewart to R. Byham from Treasury Chambers, January 27, 1834. 13 , County of NOTES Carieton, Land Registry Abstract j known as City 1 Public A r chives of Canada Book, January 1, 1866. (hereafter PAC.), C Series, 14 PAC, Hill Collection, vol. 21, vol. 42, p. 97, George Ramsay, p. 5336, Nicholas Sparks to Earl Da I housie to Lt.-Col. John Lt.-Col. John By, November 17, By, September 26, 1826. 1 826. 2 PAC, Hill collection, vol. 28, 15 A.H.D. Ross, Ottawa Past and pp. 6730-6735, Lt.-Col. John Present (Ottawa, I927), pp. 37

23-24. Canalâ Part III, 1847. 16 PAC, Hill Collection, vol. 18, 2 5 Ibid. pp. 4459-4460, Petition of the 2 6 ibid. Inhabitants of Bytown to Sir 2 7 Ibid. James Kempt, Bytown, July 9, 28 City of Ottawa, County o f 1829. Carieton, Land Registry 17 Ibid, j PP- 4459-4460. Abstractj and known as City 18 PAC, Hill Collection, vol. 22, Bookj January 1, 1866. pp. 5579-5581, "Petition from the Inhabitants of Bytown to Matthew, Lord Ay I mer, Governor- in-Chief, Bytown, June 18, 1830. " 19 PAC., M.G. 13, W.0. 44, vol. 22, pp. 135-138; reeI B-1297, Statement of the Rents Due on the Bytown Lots to the 30th April, 1835, anon., dated August 26, 1835. 20 PAC, Hill Collection, vol. 24, p. 5933, "A Petition of the Inhabitants of Bytown to His Excellency Lord Sydenham, for changing their Leases to Deeds, June 4, 1841." 2 1 PAC , M.G. 13, W . 0. 44, vol. 35, pp. 1 89-1 94; ree I B- 1 305, Major J.Elliott, Kingston, C.W., to the Hon. Board of Ordnance, December 9, 1843. 22 PAC, M.G. 13, W.O. 44, vol. 35, p. 268, Report of Special Committee on the Petition of N. Sparks and Others, 1st Session, 2nd Parliament, 8 Victoria, 1845, The Committee Room, March 4, 1845, p. 2. 23 PAC , M.G. 13, W.O. 44, vol. 35, pp. 132-134, "The Commanding Royal Engineer in Canada to the Inspector General of Fortifications, Relative to the amount of | 25,000 Currency, Awarded by the Arbitrators approved to determine the Value ... of the Property of Mr. Sparks at Bytown ... Royal Engineer's Headquarters Office, Montreal, March 23, 1847." 24 PAC , M.G. 13, W.O. 44, vol. 3 5, Annual Rent Roll of Ordnance Property3 Rideau