First City Hall (Ottawa)

Last updated
The first city hall in a converted market First City Hall, Ottawa.jpg
The first city hall in a converted market

The first city hall for the city of Ottawa, Ontario, was built in 1849 on Elgin Street between Queen and Albert Streets.

Originally known as the West Ward Market Building on Elgin Street, the building was one of two markets in Ottawa, then called Bytown. The market did not last, facing competition from the Byward Market in the Lower Town and closed in that same year.

The site was then donated to Bytown by town councillor Nicholas Sparks in 1849 for conversion to a town hall. The first meeting of the Ottawa Horticultural Society was held here on March 9, 1854. [1]

Inadequate to the needs of the growing community, it was replaced in 1877 by the Second City Hall, built next to this site. Today the site is the National Arts Centre.

The wooden building, with a bell tower, had two floors with the first floor as a fire hall/police station and upper floor as town offices.

See also

Related Research Articles

Bytown is the former name of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was founded on September 26, 1826, incorporated as a town on January 1, 1850, and superseded by the incorporation of the City of Ottawa on January 1, 1855. The founding was marked by a sod turning, and a letter from Governor General Dalhousie which authorized Lieutenant Colonel John By to divide up the town into lots. Bytown came about as a result of the construction of the Rideau Canal and grew largely due to the Ottawa River timber trade. Bytown's first mayor was John Scott, elected in 1847.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lansdowne Park</span> Exhibition grounds in Ottawa

Lansdowne Park is a 40-acre (16 ha) urban park, historic sports, exhibition and entertainment facility in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, owned by the City of Ottawa. It is located on Bank Street adjacent to the Rideau Canal in The Glebe neighbourhood of central Ottawa. Lansdowne Park contains the TD Place Stadium and Arena complex, the Aberdeen Pavilion, and the Horticulture Building.

Nicholas Sparks was an early landholder of Bytown, Upper Canada who owned most of the lands in the present day commercial core of Downtown Ottawa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ByWard Market</span>

The ByWard Market, is a retail and entertainment district in the downtown core of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located east of the government and business district. The Market district includes the market buildings and open-air market along George, York, ByWard, and William street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ottawa City Hall</span> City hall of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

The current Ottawa City Hall is the city hall of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The downtown complex consists of two connected buildings: a modern wing located on Laurier Avenue and a 19th-century heritage wing located on Elgin Street. Although City Hall has frontage on two major streets, the main entrance is on Laurier Avenue, and the municipal address is 110 Laurier Avenue West.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transportation Building (Ottawa)</span>

The Transportation Building, 10 Rideau Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada is a historic Gothic revival/Chicago school office tower. The building stands at the intersection of Sussex Drive and Rideau Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ottawa Normal School</span>

The Heritage Building is today part of Ottawa City Hall. It was originally built in 1874 as Ottawa Normal School and served as a teacher's college. The Gothic Revival building stands at Elgin Street and Lisgar and several extensions were added to the rear of the building.

The Bytown and Prescott Railway (B&PR) was a railway joining Ottawa with Prescott on the Saint Lawrence River, in the Province of Canada. The company was incorporated in 1850, and the first train ran from Prescott into Bytown on Christmas Day, 1854. The 84 kilometres (52 mi) railway, Ottawa's first to outside markets, was initially used to ship lumber collected on the Ottawa River for further shipping along the St. Lawrence to markets in the United States and Montreal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John G. Diefenbaker Building</span> Office building in Ottawa, Canada

The John G. Diefenbaker Building is a building in the New Edinburgh neighbourhood of Ottawa, Ontario. The building served as Ottawa's city hall from August 2, 1958, to January 1, 2001, and afterward was commonly known as Old City Hall. Purchased in 2003 by the Government of Canada, it was known by its municipal address, 111 Sussex Drive, until September 2011 when it was renamed after Canada's 13th prime minister, John Diefenbaker. The building is located on Green Island where the Rideau River empties into the Ottawa River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry J. Friel</span> Canadian politician

Henry James Friel was mayor of Bytown in 1854 and then of Ottawa in 1863 and 1868–1869.

The Stony Monday Riot took place in Bytown, Ontario on Monday September 17, 1849.

Nepean Township is a former incorporated and now geographic township in Eastern Ontario, Canada, now part of the City of Ottawa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bytown Museum</span> Museum in Ontario, Canada

The Bytown Museum is a museum in Ottawa located in the Colonel By Valley at the Ottawa Locks of the Rideau Canal at the Ottawa River, just below Parliament Hill. Housed in the Commissariat Building, Ottawa's oldest remaining stone building, the museum provides a comprehensive overview of the origins of Bytown and its development and growth into the present city of Ottawa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billings Estate Museum</span> House museum in Ontario, Canada

The Billings Estate National Historic Site is a heritage museum in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located at 2100 Cabot St. in the former home of one of the region's earliest settlers. The oldest wood-framed house in Ottawa was built in 1827-9 by Massachusetts-born Braddish Billings. It became the home for the following four generations of the Billings family. It is Ottawa's oldest surviving house, though the Bytown Museum building is older. Billings had moved to the area in 1812, and was the first settler in Gloucester Township.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second City Hall (Ottawa)</span>

Ottawa, Ontario's second city hall was built in 1877 on Elgin Street between Queen and Albert Streets and next to Ottawa's First City Hall, built in 1848.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ottawa Courthouse</span>

The Ottawa Courthouse is an courthouse in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is the main provincial court for the Ottawa area, and as such handles most of the region's legal affairs. The building is home to the civil, small claims, family, criminal, and district branches of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. It is also home to the local land registry office. Some 1,000 people use the nine storey building each day.

The Plaza Bridge in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, is an automotive and pedestrian bridge that crosses the Rideau Canal just south of the Ottawa locks. It joins Wellington Street and Elgin Street in the Downtown core to the west with Rideau Street to the east. The Chateau Laurier abuts the bridge at the east end, while Parliament Hill is just beyond the west end. It is the northernmost bridge over the canal, just north of the Mackenzie King Bridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Confederation Square</span> Square in Ottawa, Canada

Confederation Square is an urban square in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and is considered the second most important ceremonial centre in Canada's capital city, after Parliament Hill. Roughly triangular in area, with Canada's National War Memorial at its centre and the Valiants Memorial at its periphery, the square is bounded by Wellington Street to the north and branches of Elgin Street to the east and west.

This is a timeline of the history of Ottawa.

The history of Ottawa, capital of Canada, was shaped by events such as the construction of the Rideau Canal, the lumber industry, the choice of Ottawa as the location of Canada's capital, as well as American and European influences and interactions. By 1914, Ottawa's population had surpassed 100,000 and today it is the capital of a G7 country whose metropolitan population exceeds one million.

References

  1. "Minute book of the Ottawa Horticultural Society" (PDF). 1854. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-05-13. Retrieved 2009-02-17.

45°25′22″N75°41′40″W / 45.4229°N 75.6945°W / 45.4229; -75.6945