Designation of the Soeurs de la Visitation d’Ottawa Monastery, 114 Richmond Road, under part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act

Designation of the Soeurs de la Visitation d’Ottawa Monastery, 114 Richmond Road, under  part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act

Heritage Ottawa supports the heritage designation of the Soeurs de la Visitation d’Ottawa Monastery at 114 Richmond Road.

We agree with the information in the Statement of Cultural Heritage Value and the Description of Heritage Attributes. We have met with the City’s heritage planners and the community and appeared at the Ottawa Built Heritage Advisory Committee and the Planning and Environment Committee. We support the recommendations adopted by both Committees,

In the Citizen, Becky Rynor’s article “When is a heritage site not a heritage site?” missed many reasons why the heritage of the Soeurs de la Visitation Monastery site and the village development, along Richmond Road, rooted in its history, are important.

In 1853 Richmond Road effectively became a desirable residential suburb, due to macadamization of the road, which gave it an all-weather surface from the city limits to Richmond. It soon became a popular place for the mansions or villas of prosperous businessmen. With their own carriages, (predecessors to the private automobile), they could commute to Ottawa and be part of society along the road.

In 1881 Richmond Road was considered one of ten suburbs of Ottawa, together with Archville (Ottawa East), Bank Street (Ottawa South), Billings Bridge, Hull, Janeville (Vanier), New Edinburgh, etc. It was not until 1900, when the streetcars came, that the length of the road between Ottawa and Britannia developed as a white-collar suburb for commuters, who previously had to live within walking distance of their city jobs.

Part of the Visitation Monastery is one of these mansions, built around 1864 in the Gothic Revival style which had been inspired by the Parliament buildings. One reason for heritage designation of the property is that it includes “an excellent example of a large Gothic Revival house”. The Parliamentary architect, Thomas Fuller, then lived two houses to the west and was responsible for Westboro’s Gothic Revival All Saints Church.

In fact there are few examples of such houses in the west end and none have yet been designated. Similar Gothic Revival houses on Bank Street, and in Sandy Hill and New Edinburgh have been designated. The house is also the only surviving mansion or villa from the 1860’s and 1870’s building boom along this part of Richmond Road.

The successive owners of the mansion site were all prominent in Ottawa industry, business, politics or agriculture. They also had professional relationships with each other and their families intermarried with leading families along Richmond Road.

Two who died while at the house were George Washington Eaton and the Hon. James Skead, both major players in the early lumber industry, active in agriculture, and instrumental in the creation of Lansdowne Park. As a sawmill owner in Westboro, Skead actually gave his name to the village and its post office for over 25 years.

Senator James Skead was also the member of the pre-Confederation Legislative Council for Rideau District, (Ottawa, Russell, Carleton and Renfrew), as was his predecessor who had owned the site in the 1850s, Philip Michael VanKoughnet. Skead was also previously an Ottawa Alderman and director or president of numerous companies and societies.

The Monastery, which was created on the same property in 1910, has also played a role in the neighbourhood. Despite their quite cloistered existence inside the walls, the sisters always welcomed the community to worship in their beautiful chapel, and it was actually used as the church for a time when St. George’s was founded in 1923.

Like other church or school properties, the land was zoned “minor institutional” to minimize impact on the surrounding residential neighbourhood. The controversial rear part of the property has only had single-family homes and a school as immediate neighbours.

The city and the neighbours accept that the entire property (which has been a single unit since 1860) is to be rezoned for greater density and multiple uses, but this is not part of the heritage designation process. In fact designation will not prevent future development according to whatever the planning and zoning process and ultimately City Council decides. It is just that the heritage planners and built heritage advisory committee will be at the table during that process.

This is also the case for the front part of the property, which is part of the heritage designation recommended by city staff and is intended for mixed use intensification along the evolving Richmond Road mainstreet. In fact it is the gradual extension of the village atmosphere of Westboro towards Island Park Drive, that makes this an attractive development property for Ashcroft Homes, and they have acknowledged this.

David L. Jeanes, P.Eng.

Vice-president, Heritage Ottawa