Alta Vista is a

neighbourhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural are ...

Alta Vista Ward Alta Vista Ward (Ward 18) is a city ward in the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada represented on Ottawa City Council. Alta Vista Ward was created prior to the 1966 election when Gloucester Ward was split in half due to population growth in the Alta ...

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. Its boundaries according to the Alta Vista Community Association are that part of Alta Vista Ward south of

Smyth Road Smyth Road () ( Ottawa Road #72),http://www.gloucesterhistory.com/Historic%20Gloucester%20Volume%2016%20No%204.pdf is a main road in eastern Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It runs from Riverside Drive to St. Laurent Boulevard. This residential area w ...

in the north, north of

Walkley Road Walkley Road ( Ottawa Road #74) is a major road in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It runs from Riverside Drive to Ramseyville Road (formerly Baseline Road). It is mostly a four-lane divided road which runs through both residential and industrial area ...

and east of the

Rideau River The Rideau River (french: Rivière Rideau) is a river in Eastern Ontario, Canada. The river flows north from Upper Rideau Lake and empties into the Ottawa River at the Rideau Falls in Ottawa, Ontario. Its length is . As explained in a writin ...

(and Bank Street), and west of the "greenspace underneath Haig Drive". However, the name is ambiguous, as there are several sub-neighbourhoods in this area, (see list below), as the neighbourhood could refer to the ward as a whole, down to thecore Alta Vista area, (which could be defined as south of Pleasant Park Road, north of

Heron Road Heron Road (Ottawa Road #16) is a major road in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It runs from Walkley Road at an angle to the Rideau River, where it turns into Baseline Road. Heron is home to the Public Works and Government Services Canada headquarters, t ...

, and west of the eastern greenspace corridor), centred on Alta Vista Drive. Alta Vista Drive is a major street running through the neighbourhood, and shares its name. Both are named for their relative height, as the neighbourhood is generally higher than most of the city. Alta Vista is a highly

residential A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family residen ...

neighbourhood with a strong

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

, several schools, religious buildings of many faiths, and community centres. It also has a vast amount of greenspace and parks, much of which is part of the Alta Vista Transportation Corridor Environmental Assessmen

The

OC Transpo OC Transpo, officially the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Transit Commission, is the public transit agency for the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It operates an integrated hub-and-spoke system including light metro, bus rapid transit, conventional ...

Transitway Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...

also runs through Alta Vista, with two stations in the neighbourhood itself ( Pleasant Park and

Riverside Riverside may refer to: Places Australia * Riverside, Tasmania, a suburb of Launceston, Tasmania Canada * Riverside (electoral district), in the Yukon * Riverside, Calgary, a neighbourhood in Alberta * Riverside, Manitoba, a former rural m ...

) as well as two just outside (

Billings Bridge Billings Bridge is a bridge over the Rideau River in Ottawa. Bank Street passes over the river by way of this bridge. The bridge was named after Braddish Billings, who settled in this area and established a farm nearby in 1812. The first bridge, ...

and

Smyth Smyth is an early variant of the common surname Smith commonly found in Ireland.Citation: Bardsley, 1901 Shown below are notable people who share the surname "Smyth". Notable people sharing the Smyth surname Listed here are people who share the ...

), serving as a vital transit link to the rest of the city. The General Campus of the

Ottawa Hospital The Ottawa Hospital (french: L'Hôpital d'Ottawa) is a hospital system in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The system was formed through the merger of the former Grace Hospital, Ottawa Riverside Hospital, Ottawa General Hospital and Ottawa Civic Hospital. ...

, and The

Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario CHEO is a pediatric health-care and research centre located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. CHEO is also a tertiary trauma centre for children in Eastern Ontario, Nunavut, Northern Ontario and the Outaouais region of Quebec and one of only seven Le ...

are located just on the north side of Smyth Road, in Riverview, while the Riverside Campus of the Ottawa Hospital is located at Smyth and Riverside Drive. There are two

shopping malls A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

in and around Alta Vista: the

Billings Bridge Plaza Billings Bridge Shopping Centre is a shopping mall located in the Billings Bridge neighbourhood of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is a medium-sized community mall with 83 stores and services. Roughly 7.5 million people visit the mall every year and s ...

Shopping Centre at Bank Street and Riverside and the Elmvale Shopping Centre at St. Laurent and Smyth. Alta Vista had a population of about 20,615 as of the

Canada 2016 Census The 2016 Canadian census was an enumeration of Canadian residents, which counted a population of 35,151,728, a change from its 2011 population of 33,476,688. The census, conducted by Statistics Canada, was Canada's seventh quinquennial census ...

(Community Association borders). Kilborn Allotment Gardens

History

The first subdivision in the area was built in 1892 and was known as Rideau Park. The area was part of the Billings Estate and was for market gardeners. Much of what is now Alta Vista was owned by the Billings Family and was part of their estate. An earlier subdivision known as Gateville was established in 1874 but disappeared in the 1920s. The Alta Vista name dates back to at least 1939 as a separate subdivision from Rideau Park. At the time, the area was part of

Gloucester Township Gloucester Township is a township in Camden County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the township had a total population of 64,634, reflecting an increase of 284 (+0.4%) from the 64,350 counted in the 2000 census. The township ranke ...

, but was annexed by Ottawa in 1950. Alta Vista began to be suburbanized in the 1950s, with Rideau Park expanding, and the new subdivisions of Faircrest Heights, Applewood Acres being built in the north, Ridgemont in the south and Elmvale Acres in the east. In the 1960s, the subdivision of Urbandale Acres was built between Elmvale Acres and the rest of Alta Vista.

Sub neighbourhoods

The Alta Vista area encompasses many smaller neighbourhoods: * Applewood Acres *

Billings Billings is the largest city in the U.S. state of Montana, with a population of 117,116 as of the 2020 census. Located in the south-central portion of the state, it is the seat of Yellowstone County and the principal city of the Billings Metrop ...

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

* Faircrest * Guildwood Estates *

Heron Gate Heron Gate or Herongate is a neighbourhood in Alta Vista Ward and Gloucester-Southgate Ward in the south end of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is defined by the Herongate Tenant Coalition as being bounded on the north by Heron Road (Ottawa), ...

* Playfair Park *

Rideau Park Rideau Park is a residential neighbourhood in southwest Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The name Rideau means curtain in the French Language. The neighbourhood is bounded on the west by 111 Street, on the east by Calgary Trail, on the north by Whit ...

* Ridgemont * Urbandale Acres

Schools

There are several schools in the area, including: Public elementary schools *Alta Vista Public School *Arch Street Public School *Featherston Drive Public School * Pleasant Park Public School Public secondary schools * Ridgemont High School Catholic schools *St. Gemma Catholic *Ste-Geneviève Catholic School * St. Patrick's Intermediate * St. Patrick's High School

Demographics

Using the community association border, Alta Vista corresponds to Census Tracts 5050005.00, 5050006.00, 5050007.03, 5050007.01, 5050007.02, and 5050009.00 which have has a combined population of 20,615 (2016 census). Census Tract 5050007.02 corresponds to

which had a population of 4,681 Census Tract 5050007.01 corresponds to Playfair Park which had a population of 2,230 Census Tract 5050007.03 corresponds to the Featherston Drive area ( Guildwood Estates and Urbandale Acres) and had a population of 3,731 Census Tracts 5050006.00 and 5050005.00 make up the remaining core of Alta Vista, west of the greenspace running from Smyth Road to Walkley Road. These two census tracts had a combined population of 9973. Of those 9973, 1884 live in Ridgemont, which is south of Heron Road and west of Heron Gate. This corresponds to Dissemination areas 35061702, 35061701 and 35061700.

References

External links