bout de papier, Vol. 29, No. 3 (2016), pp. 27–28
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When my family returned to Ottawa from our most recent posting in Geneva in 2012, life in Europe had convinced us of the link between urban, walkable, complete communities and high quality of life. So it didn’t take long to sell us on a new home in Sandy Hill and the familiar lifestyle that came with downtown living. But while we loved the stories of our Confederation-era house — which had once served as the workshop for a pair of entrepreneurial fur-trading brothers in the late 1800s — we knew little about the history of the area itself.
I began to question neighbours about some of the spectacular architecture of surrounding houses and was amazed to discover that my daily commute alone took me past the former homes of Lester B. Pearson, Sir Charles Tupper and Sir John A. Macdonald. I had no idea this national history was — quite literally — in my backyard, and I was fairly certain most fellow Canadians didn’t either. That turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg.
At the time, I had recently joined a grassroots community group called Save the Saints (co-led by fellow Foreign Affairs colleague Susan Young) which had formed in response to the Anglican Diocese putting All Saints Church on the market. Save the Saints was working to ensure that any potential buyer undertook to respect the needs and desires of Sandy Hillers in the development of this unique property. Part of this exercise included an historical survey of the church and its surrounding streets.
We were floored to discover that not only had the area been home to the “Father of Medicare” Tommy Douglas, CPR magnate Sir Sandford Fleming, Confederation poet Archibald Lampman, Canada’s first female Senator Cairine Wilson and WWI flying ace Billy Bishop, it had also served as residence to lumber barons, Governor Generals, Chief Justices of the Supreme Court, Cabinet Ministers, Lieutenant Governors, Clerks of the Privy Council, and heads of national institutions. Moreover, multiple fathers of confederation and prime ministers lived on or within a Suneeta Millington
few blocks of Laurier Avenue East and cele a number of those homes still remain Ou standing, including Macdonald’s bui Stadacona Hall, Diefenbaker’s abode at stoi The Strathcona, Laurier’s Laurier House, suc where Mackenzie King also resided, Cai Tupper’s Daly Street residence, Pearson’s con Augusta Street Cottage and (according to urban lore) Trudeau’s suite on King nat Edward Avenue’s Martin Terrace.
I began to question neighbours
about some of the spectacular architecture of surrounding houses and was amazed to discover that my daily commute alone took me past the former homes of Lester B.
Pearson, Sir Charles Tupper and
Sir John A. Macdonald.
Through this discovery, the Prime Ministers’ Row Initiative was born. Prime Ministers’ Row seeks to transform Laurier Avenue East from King Edward Avenue to Strathcona Park into Canada’s first street museum, dedicated to commemorating the legacies of all former Prime Ministers and ebrating other significant nation-builders. ir hope is to leverage the extraordinary ilt heritage assets of this area to tell the ries of these nation-builders — both their ccesses and failures — and to bring nadians together to debate and discuss a temporary governance issues of the day. Specifically, this is a large-scale, tional legacy project with four main mponents:
» Street Museum: We will leverage the
extraordinary architecture and history of this area to create an innovative, interactive, multi-block, multi-media outdoor ‘street museum’ that will offer Canadians a place to reflect on questions of governance, identity,
culture, values and history.
» Physical Transformation: Through
infrastructure improvements to the streetscape and the addition of a number of structural components, the physical environment of Laurier Avenue East will be transformed into a grand and dynamic space befitting the nation’s capital. The streetscape will benefit from: the addition of public art installations representing all 10 provinces and three territories as
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 29, No. 3 (2016), pp. 27–28. Read the rest of this issue →
