Firehall Fest a Smashing Sunfilled Success - Old Ottawa South

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The th Page 24 OSCAR - OUR 36 YEAR JUL/AUG 2008 A Tree for Every Household: The Greening of Old Ottawa South By Amanda Sterczyk Did you know there’s a tree with your family’s name on it? Under the City of Ottawa’s TREE program, every household is eligible to receive a potted tree from the city. The Trees, Reforestation and Environmental Enhancement (TREE) Program is a four-year initiative that aims to enhance the City of Ottawa’s urban and rural forests through the planting of 100,000 trees between 2007 and 2010. The TREE Program empowers Ottawa residents, businesses, community groups and schools to participate in planting trees to enhance and maintain the city’s forest cover and combat climate change. Most yards in our neighbourhood are not large enough to welcome another Sue Ironside Women at Curves are amazing! It’s well known in the Curves community, but once again this Spring in Old Ottawa South we were blown away amazed by the artistry of one of our members. Last summer when owner JoAnn Patenaude gave the Club a makeover one blank wall just screamed for some artistic intervention. Early morning Curves member, Dianne Borg, a civil servant by day, and artist by night (or weekend) offered to tackle our wall and attempt her first ever wall mural. Dianne, who lives with her husband and 3 kids in OOS, envisioned a streetscape of our neighbourhood as her subject for the wall painting. Monday mornings became an exciting time on the circuit for our Curves members because Dianne had been into the Club over the weekend and had worked wonders with her paints on our wall. Over the period of 5 months the 22 foot wall was tree. That’s where the community enrichment portion of the TREE program comes into play. Community associations or local interest groups can apply for grants to have trees planted in City-owned parks and greenspaces. While households are only eligible for one tree during the four-year program, the community enrichment request can happen every year. As a result of three separate requests from OOS residents, 47 new trees were planted on public space in OOS. The requests originated from: Brenda McCoy, as the Brewer Park Representative for OSCA; Amanda Sterczyk, on behalf of the Brewer Gate Homeowners’ Association; and Glenda Blacker & Chris Flower. The planting took place the week of June 2 nd . The species ranged from Sugar Maple to Colorado Spruce. transformed from plain and boring into a magical rendition of our amazing neighbourhood, complete with special OS buildings, bridges, the canal and river. She even gave us swans. No Photo By Greg Strahl New trees line the path from Bronson Place to the Bronson Avenue bus stop. Photo by Amanda Sterczyk Our Street On View At Curves matter what the weather outside, exercising became an opportunity to visually escape into a beautiful and magical neighbourhood. I think our Curves’ members would be the first to For more information on the TREE program, visit the City of Ottawa website: http://ottawa.ca/residents/ healthy_lawns/forestry/tree_program/ index_en.html. To request your tree, call the City at 311. Trees Planted in Old Ottawa South: Along Brewer Pool: 3 Flowering Crabapple 1 Linden 1 Sugar Maple Around Brewer Playground: 1 Hackberry 6 Sugar Maple 8 Silver Maple 6 Red Maple Along Sloan Avenue: 3 Colorado Spruce 6 Potted Elm Along Bronson Place: 3 Red Maple 2 Colorado Spruce 7 Potted Elm say,”Dianne, give up your day job!” We’re willing to share Dianne’s talent, so drop by Curves at 1185 Bank Street to have a look at some truly amazing local art. Thanks Dianne!
The th JUL/AUG 2008 OSCAR - OUR 36 YEAR Page 25 This month’s contribution to the Ottawa South History Project comes from guest columnist Robert W. Passfield. On March 6, 1894, John G. Haggart, the Minister of Railways and Canals, received a petition from the citizens of Ottawa and residents of the Township of Nepean, Carleton County, requesting the erection of a bridge across the Rideau Canal near its outlet into Dow’s Lake, on a line with Concession Street (Bronson Ave.)in Ottawa. The petition stated that there was a considerable amount of traffic from south-western Ottawa and the Townships of Nepean and Gloucester traveling north on Concession Street to the manufacturing establishments at the Chaudiere Falls; and that traffic was much impeded as the closest bridge crossing was at Bank Street, which involved a 1-1/2 mile detour. The petitioners further stated their belief that once the canal was bridged, the County of Carleton intended to bridge the Rideau River on the concession line, and to open up and improve the roads south of the canal to connect with Concession Street. In response to the petition the Department of Railways and Canals initiated a study of the proposed OTTAWA SOUTH HISTORY PROJECT Bronson Avenue Canal Bridge Concession Street bridge site. Although there were high banks on both sides of the canal cut, it was decided that a low-level swing bridge would be much less costly to construct than a high level bridge. Ultimately, it was decided to postpone the construction of a swing bridge over the canal until the County erected a bridge across the Rideau River on the concession line to provide access to the proposed canal bridge site from the south. With the change of government in the General Election of June 1896, other matters came to the fore. The new Liberal government, under Wilfred Laurier, was committed to improving the canal lands as part of a broader effort to make Ottawa an attractive capital city - “the Washington of the North”. To that end, the new government established the Ottawa Improvement Commission in 1899; and engaged Frederick G. Todd, a Montreal landscape architect, to prepare plans for the beautification of the city through the establishment of public parks, broad avenues, and scenic drives, and the cleaning up and landscaping of the canal lands within the city. In that endeavour the Ottawa Improvement Commission converted the canal lands into a linear urban park, and constructed a scenic driveway (Queen Elizabeth Drive) and a walkway along the west bank of the canal from New Edinburgh to Dow’s Lake. Picturesque rustic pavilions and trellised arches added to the park setting, as did the ornamental Minto Bridges erected over the canal just upstream of the Rideau Falls. In 1903 with the new driveway approaching completion, the Department of Railways and Canals decided to construct a swing bridge on Concession Street to provide an alternative route to the Hog’s Back from the new driveway, and to serve farmers from Nepean and Gloucester townships, who were bringing produce to market in west Ottawa each week. The following year a steel pony truss swing bridge, on stone masonry piers, was erected across the canal on Concession Street. Thomas McLaughlin of Ottawa constructed the masonry substructure, and the Dominion Bridge Company of Montreal erected the swing bridge superstructure. It was an unusual swing bridge in that it was built on a skew, at an angle to the canal channel. Sometime thereafter Concession Street was re-named Bronson Avenue. The original steel swing bridge remained in service until 1938 when it was replaced by a new electrically-powered steel plate girder swing bridge with a wider deck to meet increasingly heavy traffic demands. The new bridge was erected on the same alignment, and on widened piers, by the Dominion Bridge Company. In September 1958 an agreement was made between the City of Ottawa, the Federal District Commission (successor to the Ottawa Improvement Commission) and Her Majesty’s Government, whereby the City agreed to undertake the construction of a high-level, fixed bridge over the Rideau Canal on Bronson Ave. in return for a financial contribution from the federal government. The new reinforced-concrete bridge was erected in 1959 on a straight alignment, beside the existing plate girder swing bridge which served as a pedestrian bridge until February 1961 when it was removed. Robert W. Passfield is a public historian working in the fields of technology and industrial archaeology. He had a 30 year career in the federal public service. Most recently he was a Senior Historian, Historical Services Branch, Parks Canada. Mr. Passfield can be reached at www.passrob.com. In 2008 and 2009 the City of Ottawa is undertaking a major rehabilitation of the modern day high-level reinforced-concrete bridge to upgrading the structure for code compliance and extending the service life of the bridge (http://www.ottawa. ca/residents/major_projects/bronson/ index_en.html). Contact the Ottawa South History Project at HistoryProject@ OldOttawaSouth.ca or visit us online at www.OldOttawaSouth.ca/ HistoryProject. LAC a009969 - Along Driveway at Bronson Ave. Bridge, ca 1911 - William James Topley, Courtesy of Library and Archives Canada
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Firehall Fest a Smashing Sunfilled Success - Old Ottawa South

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