37. Rosemount Branch, Ottawa Public Library

Located at 18 Rosemount Avenue in Hintonburg, this library branch is the only remaining Carnegie Library in Ottawa and our oldest public library building. Originally known as the West End Branch, it received a Carnegie Foundation grant of $15,000 in 1917, the final year that grants were awarded for branch library construction.

In 1910, two years after Hintonburg was annexed to the City of Ottawa, a branch library was established in a room at the Rosemount Avenue Public School. A few years later, the branch was moved to a rented store in the newly constructed Iona Mansions at 1124 Wellington Street, where it remained until the West End Branch opened in November 1918.

From August to November 1917, the City and the Library Board struggled to agree on a site for the new branch. The Ottawa Citizen and The Ottawa Journal chronicled a series of options ranging from the site of the old Hintonburg Pump House (on the road to Lemieux Island), the former Nepean Town Hall on Parkdale Avenue, a land swap with the West End Glee Club at the corner of Parkdale and Tyndall avenues, or a lot at 18 Rosemount Avenue.

Finally on March 30, 1918 the City acquired the Rosemount Avenue lot, then owned by the Rosemount Methodist Church. The new library was opened on November 29, a mere eight months later.

The Rosemount Library is a classically inspired Beaux-Arts building, designed by Ottawa architect John Pritchard MacLaren, who also designed the 1932 addition.

Steps lead up to a simple portico with Ionic columns. Above the portico is a stone name plaque protected by a bracketed pediment. The round arched windows give the library a quiet elegance. Inside, the rectangular reading room on the main floor follows a standard Carnegie floor plan with wood shelving built along the walls under the windows.

Renovations were undertaken in 1982 to make the building accessible, resulting in the removal of the steps and the portico although the plaque and pediment remain.

The most recent intervention in 2021 by +VG Architects resulted in a more welcoming and prominent entry to the branch and a second floor reading room in a ‘lantern’ above it. The building now meets building and accessibility codes, and includes sustainability features, greater natural light, and two meeting rooms. As part of this renovation, key heritage elements such as the original 1918 wooden beams and original wood shelving were retained and restored. The upper west windows, blocked by suspended ceiling tiles installed in 1982, were uncovered, restoring the original intent of the architect to provide lots of natural light.

According to Ottawa Public Libraries, the branch has the highest circulation of materials per square foot of all its branches. It is well-used and well-loved by the community.

PHOTOS: Right and lower left, courtesy of Peter Coffman.

Sources

"Ottawa’s Only Carnegie Library Rejuvenated: The Rosemount Branch reopens with

enhanced heritage features,” Heritage Ottawa Newsletter (vol. 49 no. 1 ) February 2022.

Beckman, Margaret. The Best Gift: a Record of the Carnegie Libraries in Ontario. Toronto: Dundurn Press Limited, 1984.