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Who could have imagined that this raw frontier town, situated on the south bank of the Ottawa River, would one day become the capital of a new country.

In the spring of 1826, Colonel By was ordered to oversee the construction of the Rideau Canal. This artificial waterway was designed to link the Ottawa River with Lake Ontario to provide an alternative strategic route between Upper and Lower Canada.

Colonel By quickly established his base of operations at the present site of Hull, Quebec, near the headlocks of this canal. Phileman Wright, an American, arrived at this site in 1800, with his wife and a few other settlers. Wright eventually established a gristmill, a tannery, a blacksmith shop, and a bakery, and the community became known as Wright’s town or Wrightville, until 1875, when it changed to Hull.

It was the governor-in-chief’s wife, Lady Dalhousie, who lifted the first shovel of earth of this 200-kilometre-long (125 mile) canal project. News of this massive canal project attracted hundreds of Irish labourers from the cities of Montreal and Quebec. Although work was plentiful, housing shortages abounded. Hazardous working conditions meant there were numerous injuries and deaths from explosions, falling rocks, and trees.

In 1827 Colonel By turned his attention to establishing a townsite at the canal’s northern terminus, where some of the early settlers had put down roots. This new settlement was named Bytown, in his honour.

Jehiel Collins, a United Empire Loyalist, was actually the first to settle on the present-day site of Ottawa. He arrived in 1809 at a canoe landing on the south bank of the river below the Chaudiere Falls. In 1817 a civil engineer named John Burrows settled on 200 acres that is now the downtown core of Ottawa. The property was bounded in the north by present-day Wellington and Rideau Streets, on the south by Laurier Avenue, on the west by Bronson Avenue, and on the east by Waller Street. Burrows sold his property to Nicholas Sparks for the sum of 95 pounds.

When Sparks heard about the proposed Rideau Canal, he saw potential! Land meant money, and he quickly surveyed his own property and sold lots. He even designated a new street to be named after him. His wealth and generosity soon gained Sparks a tremendous influence in the political arena and the social circles of Bytown. He donated land for the first Methodist chapel, the Anglican Church, the courthouse, and the gaol. Bytown’s first town hall was situated on land owned by Sparks.

The early days of Bytown prompted building — houses, shops, stores and, of course, taverns. An outbreak of swamp fever in 1828 greatly reduced the pioneer population of French, Irish, Scottish, English, and American settlers. Work in Bytown ground to a halt. The first civilian cemetery appeared on land between the present Metcalfe and Elgin Streets. Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Roman Catholics were placed in separate burial sections. Life was so grim that the Royal Sappers and Miners, a contingent of soldier-labourers from England, deserted the fever-stricken settlement. Many Bytown workers turned to alcohol to ease their anxiety. Since law and order was yet to be established, street fights became a daily occurrence. No one was safe! The swamp fever epidemic eventually subsided, and by 1832, the Rideau Canal had been completed. Bytown began, once again, to flourish, this time as a lumber centre.

Colonel By, in the meantime, who had actualized the wishes of his superior British officers, was summoned to England. Perhaps he was to be commended or promoted for his loyal service. No one ever dreamed it would be to stand accused, by a parliamentary committee, of the misuse of funds.

Although Colonel By was exonerated, his spirit was broken. He never returned to Bytown. He was the man who saw the true potential of this place, the man once quoted as saying, “This land will be very valuable some day. It will be the capital of this country.” Colonel By died a very disillusioned man, on February 1, 1836, at the age of 53.

Rideau Falls, Ottawa, in the 1880s. Small wonder Colonel By understood the value of this land.

Archives of Ontario

By the 1850s Bytown was linked by rail to other larger centres and had become a community of new opportunities. In 1855 the town became a city and was renamed Ottawa. The population was nearing 10,000.

When the union of Upper and Lower Canada occurred in 1841, cities such as Quebec, Montreal, York, and Kingston had vied to be the capital. Kingston managed to be appointed as the capital for a short time, as did Montreal. Government officials then believed it was beneficial to alternate the seat of government every four years. The need for permanency became apparent, however, and in 1857 Queen Victoria was asked to choose the city that would become the long-serving capital.

Sir Richard William Scott, Ottawa’s member of Parliament, prepared an eloquent summation which cited the advantages of his city’s rail and water communication as well as its central geographical location to Canada East and Canada West by way of Union Bridge across the Ottawa River. On December 31, 1857, the Queen’s notice was contained in a letter from the desk of the colonial secretary. It read in part: “I am commanded by the Queen to inform you, that in the judgement of Her Majesty, the City of Ottawa combines more advantages than any other place in Canada for the permanent seat of the future government of Province.” A year later, in 1858, Ottawa became the capital of Canada.

Politicians needed to think about designing a building to house the seat of government in this new capital. On May 21, 1859, the Ottawa Tribune posted “Notice to Architects” specifying the budget for the buildings: “For Parliament House, $300,000; for Departmental Building $240,000.” The site chosen for the Parliament buildings was Barracks Hill, deemed the most desirable location, overlooking the Ottawa River.

The first sod was turned on December 20, 1859. The Centre Block took six years to complete. Delays followed one after the other due to instability in the underlying rock bed, the need to install water tanks in case of fire, and the transportation of the stone from the Nepean quarry, 12 miles away.

On September 1, 1860, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) laid the cornerstone of the original Centre Block of the Gothic-style Parliament buildings, comprised of three copper-roofed stone structures: the East Block, the West Block, and the Centre Block.

Architecturally, the Parliament buildings represented Canada’s best example of the developed, picturesque Gothic revival style. Features borrowed from medieval architecture included pointed arches, lancet windows with tracery, pinnacles with crockets, prominent exposed buttresses, and contrasting, variegated stonework, set off by brick trim. The Centre Block was first designed in 1859, reworked in 1863, and completed in 1866.

Disaster struck parliament hill on February 3, 1916, while the House of Commons was in session. Fire broke out and the Centre Block was gutted. The entire incident remains a mystery. The East and West Blocks and library were untouched. The Canadian poet, Duncan Campbell Scott, was witness to it all. “The fire was terrible and tragic; it was the most terrifying and beautiful sight I have ever seen ... I hope that the building may be restored without the practice of any vandalism, but I have my doubts. I hear talk of ‘a larger, more imposing, up-to-date building.’ The very phrases make one shudder. We had a building that was beautiful and harmonized with the site, and there will be some people who will want to destroy it because they can put up something more beautiful. If they can put up a more beautiful building, let them put it somewhere else. Let us preserve the beauty that we have.”

Picture of the corner of Rideau and Sussex Streets in 1865.

Library and Archives Canada

The damage was, as it turned out, too great and the building had to be demolished. For the interim, the government relocated to the Victoria Memorial Museum (now the Museum of Nature) at the foot of Metcalfe Street. Architect John A. Pearson’s Neo-Gothic design won the architectural competition, and the Centre Block was erected between 1916 and 1920. The new structure contained 490 rooms, including the House of Commons and the Senate Chamber. In 1919 the Prince of Wales laid the cornerstone of the Peace Tower, a majestic structure rising to a height of 88 metres (291 feet). With 53 bells that range in weight from five to 10,000 kilograms (10 to 22,400 pounds), the Peace Tower remains one of the world’s finest carillons.

In 1868 a distinct stone mansion was constructed by a prominent businessman named Joseph Merrill Currier. He chose a site overlooking Governor’s Bay and christened it Gorphwysfa (the Welsh word for “place of peace”). The property was later owned by lumber barons until the government of Canada expropriated the property in 1946 to be the official residence for the Prime Minister. Today, we know the house as 24 Sussex Drive.

Visitors to Ottawa cannot help but walk by or through the Chateau Laurier Hotel. This impressive building on Rideau Street was started in 1908 and finished in 1912 by architects Ross and MacFarlane. The design they chose was a chateau-style, which had become popular for railway hotels across Canada. As you enter the hotel, your first view is of the ornately carved wooden panelling in the front foyer. In 1911 tourist-guide comments included: “The corridors are divided into sections by means of fire doors to separate them in an emergency, although the hotel is absolutely fireproof, no wood, except frames for doors and baseboards, being used in its construction. The main corridors lead directly to fire escapes, iron balconies and stairways inside the building. All the windows and service floors will be screened with the best Canadian-made fly screens, and a special refrigerating room will be provided to freeze the garbage until it is removed from the building.”

It was Boston-born Bradford Lee Gilbert who won the design competition for the Chateau Laurier. Gilbert, for no known reason, was fired in 1908. Although his design had met with Cabinet approval a year earlier, the Montreal firm of Ross and MacFarlane replaced Gilbert.

The architectural design of the building also included an underground tunnel linking the railway hotel to Union Station, built in 1912, and now housing the Government Conference Centre. Many people at the time expressed concern for safety in an underground tunnel. People felt this tunnel might attract “not only pickpockets but gentlemen whose misdemeanours were of a far more serious nature.” Speculation still exists that tunnels were also built to Parliament Hill.

Looking at the building from the street level, you can see sheer sandstone walls reaching up to the top floors. The steeply pitched copper roofline is a dramatic feature. The castle-like atmosphere is enhanced by the corners, small towers that sport narrow slit windows as if for medieval archers.

The federal government remains the city’s largest employer and tourism is the second-largest source of income in the city. Visitors remember Ottawa for the millions of tulips in the spring and for the world’s longest skating rink, the Rideau Canal.

Colonel By and Queen Victoria could not have envisioned a more congenial place.