Tracing the History of Your Ottawa House Prepared by Erika E. Barre, 2015 Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Searching for Ottawa Housing Records ...................................................................................... 1 Legal Description and Title Search................................................................................................. 1 City Directories ............................................................................................................................... 2 Search Tips.................................................................................................................................. 3 Assessment Rolls ............................................................................................................................ 3 Search Tips.................................................................................................................................. 4 Fire Insurance Plans and Maps ....................................................................................................... 5 Search Tips.................................................................................................................................. 6 Architectural and Construction Records ......................................................................................... 6 Search Tips.................................................................................................................................. 7 Newspapers ..................................................................................................................................... 7 Search Tips.................................................................................................................................. 8 Photographs..................................................................................................................................... 8 Search Tips.................................................................................................................................. 9 Other Archives Sources .................................................................................................................. 9 Manuscripts ................................................................................................................................. 9 Community Associations ............................................................................................................ 9 Outside Resources ......................................................................................................................... 11 Archives of Ontario................................................................................................................... 11 Land Registry Office................................................................................................................. 11 Library and Archives Canada ................................................................................................... 11 MacOdrum Library at Carleton University ............................................................................... 12 Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry ............................................................................. 12 Morisset Library at University of Ottawa ................................................................................. 12 National Air Photo Library ....................................................................................................... 12 The Ottawa Room at the Ottawa Public Library, Main Branch ............................................... 12 1 Introduction The City of Ottawa Archives is the gateway to exploring the history of your home and other Ottawa buildings. With records and archival materials pre-dating Confederation, information can be found about many houses and properties within the City of Ottawa, its former municipalities, and the surrounding rural areas. Whether you are looking for a house’s previous appearance, re-creating the lives of its previous occupants, dating its construction, or simply curious about a building’s past, the Archives provides the tools and resources for your search. This booklet will get you started researching the history of your home at the City of Ottawa Archives. City directories, assessment rolls, maps, and architectural records are the primary resources available in the Reference Room Library alongside newspaper, photograph, and estate collections. The Archives also provides access to online tools, such as newspapers.com, and can recommend other websites relating to community heritage. Searching for Ottawa Housing Records There are several moments in Ottawa’s built heritage that will affect your search for housing records; it is important to understand these events so that you will know where to look for information and what information you may not be able to locate. 1892 City of Ottawa began issuing building permits. 1925 The Province of Ontario implemented build code legislations whose statutes were enacted by all Ontario cities. 1931 After 1925, building records were stored at City Hall. However, in 1931 City Hall burned down, damaging or destroying all building records and many tax assessment records from the previous years. 1944 Copies of architectural drawings must be submitted to the City of Ottawa with the building permit for all new constructions or major alterations. 1964 Zoning by-laws were consolidated. Legal Description and Title Search Before starting your research, you will need to obtain a legal description of the property that you are exploring. A legal description is a set of property specifications that can be used to trace the location, sales history, and legal disputes relating to a lot; this information includes the lot number and dimensions, concessions number, and ward or subdivision alongside the current and previous street address. In essence, a legal description is more concerned with the land that a house was built on rather than the building itself or the people who lived in it. To obtain a legal description, you can go to the Land Registry Office (located in the Court House at 161 Elgin St.) or geoOttawa (maps.ottawa.ca/geoottawa). The Land Registry Office will be Prepared by Erika E. Barre, January 2015 2 able to provide the original and current legal descriptions whereas geoOttawa will only be able to provide the current legal description. You can also obtain a copy of your title search from your lawyer, as it is part of the documentation included when closing the sale of a house. To use geoOttawa to find a property’s legal description: 1. Go to the geoOttawa website located at maps.ottawa.ca/geoottawa. 2. Enter the current street address of the property into the search bar at the top of the page. 3. Select the “Property Report” link in the pop-up menu. 4. Consult the Ward Map on display in the Reference Room Library to determine the lot’s original ward. Example of a legal description: Address 145 Echo Drive Postal Code K1S 1M9 Plan No. 27 PT Lots 24 & 25 RP; 4R16486 Parts 2 to 6 PIN No. 041250181 Frontage 152 ft Depth 51.5 ft Ward No. 17, Capital (formerly Riverdale) Zone R5C H(18) Alternatively, you can discover a property’s legal description through the Archives’ collections with assessment rolls and the Land Registry Office copy books; however, this process is more time consuming than consulting the Land Registry Office directly or using geoOttawa. With a legal description in hand, you will be able to explore the history of your home through the city directories, assessment rolls, fire insurance plans, and other materials available within the Archives’ collections. City Directories A city directory is an annual publication listing the contact information for home owners and tenants, individuals, and businesses of the City of Ottawa and the surrounding areas. Information for city directories was collected each spring by a team of surveyors and distributed to the public the following autumn for free. Besides the street address and the name of the house owner and its tenants, the surveyors collected information on the residents spouses and older children’s occupations and places of employment. Prepared by Erika E. Barre, January 2015 3 While city directories offer great insights into who was living where in Ottawa during a specific year, they are not fully accurate. Since survey information was collected and distributed roughly six months apart, it is possible that tenants had moved or home owners had changed during the summer months. It was also a common occurrence for surveyors to gather information from neighbours if a resident was not home, causing some information to be incorrect. The Archives’ collections contain City of Ottawa directories from their first publication in 1861 to the present. All city directories are available in the Reference Room Library; early directories from 1861 to 1960 are on microfilm whereas directories from 1961 to 2000 are on the shelves in book form. Between 2001 and 2010, the city directories included only the street listing section; however, by 2011, the city directories returned to their original three section format. If you are looking for a directory prior to 1861, you will need to consult provincial or national scale directories which are available at Library and Archives Canada. Search Tips 1. Consult the Street Name Change