Heritage Ottawa Member Invitation
Our Annual General Meeting will be held on Thursday, May 15, 2025 at 7:00 pm via ZOOM.
Pre-registration is required. Please CLICK HERE to pre-register.
If your membership is soon to expire and/or you recently received a renewal notice, please RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP before pre-registering for the AGM.
New members are always welcome. JOIN HERITAGE OTTAWA today!
On confirmation of your membership, you'll receive a link to access all AGM-related documents on a members-only section of the website and the ZOOM invitation linking you to the meeting.
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AGM business will be followed by a special illustrated presentation:
James Mather: ‘Doyen of Ottawa Architects’
James Mather (1833-1927) was a Scottish-born and trained architect, who came to Ottawa in 1872 to join his brother, lumber and grain entrepreneur John Mather. He became the "Doyen of Ottawa architects" and his prolific output of over 60 buildings included such iconic sites as First Baptist Church, the original Lansdowne Park buildings, the third Byward Market building, the first YMCA, the second Rideau Club and Roxborough Apartments (both in partnership), Laurier House, and Ottawa’s most recent heritage designation, the J.W. Woods Building at 66 Queen Street.
Mather’s versatility as an architect was evident in the range of his designs from the Second Empire and Queen Anne styles to Gothic Revival and more. He maintained an office in Ottawa for 50 years.
Our presenter David Jeanes will review James Mather’s formative years in Scotland, the buildings he designed (those that are lost and those that survive), his relationships and clientele, and the breadth of building types and styles he created.
GUEST SPEAKER: David Jeanes has been interested in architecture since the age of seven, when he grew up surrounded by classical, Jacobean and Gothic buildings and the works of Sir Christopher Wren and Inigo Jones in Greenwich, England. He is a retired professional engineer who pursued a career in data communications in Ottawa. On retirement, he joined both Doors Open and the board of Heritage Ottawa, to pursue his architectural interest. Over the years David has given many walking tours, coach tours and lectures and has also published articles on railway history, heritage architecture and genealogy. He has been president of Heritage Ottawa and the advocacy organization Transport Action. He is a member of and volunteers for a number of other railway, historical and genealogical societies. He first learned of James Mather as one of the architects of his school, Lisgar Collegiate in Ottawa.