Bytown Bicentennial Bytes
To help celebrate the 200th anniversary of the founding of Bytown in 1826 and the beginning of the construction of the Rideau Canal, we have created a series of BICENTENNIAL BYTES about some of the key places — buildings, structures and landscapes — that help capture some of our shared history.
Bytown 200
11. Thomas Brûlé House
For much of the 19th century, small wooden houses dominated the landscape of Lowertown. This charming double at 288-290 St. Patrick Street was built by local blacksmith Thomas Brûlé around 1846, and has survived intact…
Bytown 200
12. College of Bytown | Bishop’s Palace
Ottawa’s first bilingual school for boys, the College of Bytown dates to 1848. Founded by the first Catholic bishop of Bytown Monseigneur Guigues, the stone structure at 373 Sussex Drive was completed in 1853, replacing…
Bytown 200
13. Grey Nuns Mother House
Located at 9 Bruyère Street at the corner of Sussex Drive, the Mother House is a landmark in Lowertown dating back to 1849. Its story begins with the arrival of four nuns from Montreal in 1845, the Grey Nuns of the…
Bytown 200
14. Maplelawn House
This elegant residence was the centrepiece of an early 19th-century country estate in Bytown. Today it stands on generous grounds that include a rare walled garden and forms part of the mixed residential and commercial…
Bytown 200
15. Maplelawn Garden
In 1993, under the leadership of Ann Faulkner and Nancy Smith, a volunteer group was formed to look after the neglected garden at the Maplelawn Estate in Westboro. In a partnership that continues to this day, the…
Bytown 200
16. Richmond Lodge – Armstrong House
This handsome but simply designed Neoclassical house at 35 Armstrong Street in Hintonburg was the home of Carleton County’s first judge. It stands on a slight elevation and its once picturesque setting included a…
Bytown 200
17. McKellar-Bingham House
The history of this elegant house at 635 Richmond Road bears witness to the era of westward agricultural expansion along the Ottawa River in the early 19th century. As farmers prospered, their early log houses were…
Bytown 200
18. Aylen-Heney House
The stone cottage at 150 Richmond Road is a link to the colourful world of Bytown’s lumber industry in the early 19th century. Peter Aylen (1799-1868), "a man of insatiable ambition" according to his biographer Michael…
Bytown 200
19. The Old Forge
Built in the early 1830s as a blacksmith shop by George Winthrop, the Old Forge is a rare example of a log structure from the early settlement period to survive on its original site, some 8 km from Bytown at the…
Bytown 200
20. The Bayne House
This handsome stone house is a profile of Ottawa’s beginnings in the early 19th century, before Bytown was even Bytown. The land in Nepean Township was purchased by one George Bayne for his sons Robert and John. George…
