Join Heritage Ottawa at Lansdowne Park for Doors Open Ottawa June 5 and 6, 2010

Join Heritage Ottawa on June 5th and 6th at the Horticulture Building and the Aberdeen Pavillion at Lansdowne Park for Doors Open Ottawa 2010.

Please visit the City of Ottawa's website for details and for more information on sites participating in this year's Doors Open events.

Heritage Ottawa is proud to host the Doors Open events for the Horticulture Building and the Aberdeen Pavillion at Lansdowne Park. Continue reading for more information on these important heritage sites.

The Horticulture Building

The Horticulture Building was used for the first time in 1914 and was officially opened by the Honourable Martin Burrell, Dominion Minister of Agriculture. The Horticulture Building was designed by the Ottawa architect Francis Conroy Sullivan (1882-1929), the only Canadian pupil of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Sullivan brought Wright’s modernist Prairie-style of architecture to Canada.

The Horticulture Building is made up of two sections. The back section served the dual purpose of being an exhibition area and a curling rink. Red brick walls surround massive steel supports that rise up from the foundation and then curve inwards to provide a high spacious ceiling, and large windows are placed evenly along the length of each side. This would have provided as much natural light to enter the building as was possible. Though now covered up, these original windows could easily be uncovered. The unpainted back wall facing Holmwood Avenue shows off the attractive red bricks, which make up the rest of the structure, along with the stone corbels near the roofline. There is also the outline of a large window that would add to the overall visual effect if it were uncovered

The front section retains most of its original architectural elements. This two-story section with basement housed the entrance hall, a banquet room, mechanical room, washrooms and administration facilities. The Prairie style is noted for its sharp square angles, symmetry of window locations, and flat rectilinear projecting roofs. The front section has all of these features. In recent years, the exterior brick has been painted yellow but this could be removed during restoration.

The second floor has wonderful hardwood floors as well as spare wood finishing on doors, baseboards, railings and banisters. The banquet room is spacious and retains most of its original casement windows with their unusually patterned latticework. These windows provide a wonderful view of the larger Aberdeen Pavilion and the rest of Lansdowne Park. A cantilevered viewing balcony at the rear of the second floor permits a marvelous view of the building’s massive interior space. The upstairs interior could easily be restored and function as a large and attractive special event room.

Although designated in 1994 under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act by the City of Ottawa, the condition of the building’s nonstructural elements has suffered due to a lack of ongoing repair
and maintenance. Currently, the large rear space is used only for equipment storage for Lansdowne Park and the front is largely unused.

There are no photographic or video restrictions. However, visitor access in the main interior space is restricted for safety reasons to a defined area that is free of stored equipment and maintenance materials. Access to the second floor is restricted to small groups for safety considerations. Washrooms are available in the nearby Aberdeen Pavilion.

Written by Heritage Ottawa member, Andrew Elliot, for the Heritage Ottawa Newsletter, spring edition, 2010.

The Aberdeen Pavilion – “Cattle Castle”

The area bounded by Bank Street, the Glebe and the Rideau Canal was purchased in 1868 to hold agricultural exhibitions, and in 1888 the City bought the land to become the home of the Central Canada Exhibition. The site has a one-and-a-half-century history as a centre for agricultural shows, fairs, sports, recreation, farmers’ markets and as the public space linking the Canal and the main street activity of Bank Street, the Glebe and Old Ottawa South.

The Aberdeen Pavilion, dubbed the “Cattle Castle”, was opened on the site in 1898 and has always been the centrepiece of Lansdowne Park and a landmark of the city skyline with its fanciful domes and imposing structure.

The Pavilion, named for the seventh Governor General of Canada and nicknamed for the exhibitions it housed celebrating progress in agriculture and livestock, was designed by Moses C. Edey. It was inspired by London’s Crystal Palace and built by the Dominion Bridge Company in just two months.When the building had fallen into disuse and disrepair, City Council voted in 1991 to demolish the building. After a vigorous campaign by Ottawa citizens who refused to lose such a historic and splendid building, the Council vote was reversed in 1992, the Aberdeen Pavilion was refurbished, and it reopened in 1994.

The Aberdeen Pavilion is now a national historic site that boasts a proud history, serving as one of Ottawa’s first community skating rinks and hosting the 1904 Stanley Cup won by the Ottawa Senators, to housing troops during the Boer War, World War I and II, and more recently as the home of the Cameron Highlanders and Princess Louise Dragoon Guards.

The wonderful reach and height of the structure was an engineering feat of its time, with no centre supports – only the grandeur of 3000 square metres of voluminous column-free space. According to conservation architect Julian Smith, who supervised its refurbishment, there are critical wood elements all through the roof because in the 1890s, engineers were just experimenting with steel trusses and they didn’t yet know how to connect steel to steel.

The Aberdeen Pavilion, the last remaining example of 19th century exhibition hall style in Canada, is a federally designated national historic site. Its refurbishment was funded by a federal-municipal cost-share agreement that requires the City to retain the building in
its restored condition without significant modification for a period of 42 years. The Pavilion is also covered by an easement with the Ontario Heritage Trust, which in perpetuity protects the heritage attributes of the building and its features.

Written by Heritage Ottawa Board Member Brigid Phillips-Janssen