Ottawa Technical High School, known as Ottawa Tech, was a

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

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 ...

, Canada that specialized in vocational programs. The school opened in 1913 as the second public secondary school in Ottawa, and closed in 1992. It was located on Albert Street in the western part of

downtown Ottawa Downtown Ottawa is the central area of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is sometimes referred to as the Central Business District and contains Ottawa's financial district. It is bordered by the Ottawa River to the north, the Rideau Canal to the ea ...

History

The building was previously home to a women's college, and Ottawa Tech moved there in 1916. The school originally offered both standard high school programs and courses in auto mechanics, electricity, drafting, computers, and graphic arts. The original building was expanded several times and a new structure was built across the street in the 1960s, with a bright orange walkway connecting the buildings over

Slater Street A slater, or slate mason, is a tradesperson who covers buildings with slate. Tools of the trade The various tools of the slater's trade are all drop-forged. The slater's hammer is forged in one single piece, from crucible-cast steel, and ha ...

. The school expanded its range of courses in the 1950s and 1960s under principal Leo McCarthy, and at its peak in this era had around 1,600 students, attracting students from around the city of Ottawa. The school dropped the compulsory study of Latin and offered pre-engineering courses combining high-level academic courses with technical courses such as electronics and machine shops, as well as the option for intensive music studies. After winning provincial and national honours at the

Kiwanis Music Festival The Kiwanis Music Festival movement consists of regional music competitions. These festivals are named after the Kiwanis Kiwanis International ( ) is an international service club founded in 1915 in Detroit, Michigan. It is headquartered in In ...

Band Competitions in Toronto, Ontario, in 1962, the Ottawa Technical High School band recorded an album, and became the first Canadian high-school band to embark on a European Tour in the summer of 1963, funded by KLM, Royal Dutch Airlines. Beginning in the 1970s, with the growth in population of the City of Ottawa and the accelerating decentralization of education drawing students to the newer suburban schools, Ottawa Tech, along with several other schools in the city centre, began to drop in enrollment. Although the school continued training students in skilled trades, during the 1970s the academic side diminished, until only 10% of students were continuing to university. Due to the expansion of immigration into Ottawa, some 30% of the students enrolling at Ottawa Tech were studying

English as a Second Language English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages. Language education for people learning English may be known as English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EF ...

. As in the surrounding community, Ottawa Tech experienced linguistic and racial divisions within its population, which further reduced enrollment. In the early 1980s the school was heavily renovated, and in 1984 the High School of Commerce was closed and its business programs were transferred to Ottawa Tech. However, these changes did not reverse declining student numbers; by the early 1990s enrollment fell to 450 students and the 1991–1992 school year saw only 40 new students. The

Ottawa Board of Education The Ottawa Board of Education (OBE) was the public school board for Ottawa from 1970 to 1998. The board was created as part of a province-wide reorganization of the public education system. Previously, elementary schools had been supervised by the ...

decided to close the school in May 1992. The five-acre (20,000 m²) campus now houses many different tenants offering training and 2 high school programs. The

TFO TFO is a Canadian French language educational television channel and media organization serving the province of Ontario. It is owned by the Ontario French-language Educational Communications Authority (OTELFO), a Crown corporation owned by the ...

series ''

Science Point Com Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

'' is filmed in the empty classrooms. Despite pressure to sell the buildings, which in 1999 were valued at over $10 million, the site is still owned by the board of education. On June 9, 2009, local media reported that the site may be chosen as a location for a new downtown branch of the

Ottawa Public Library The Ottawa Public Library (OPL; french: Bibliothèque publique d'Ottawa) is the library system of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The library was founded in 1906 with a donation from the Carnegie Foundation. Services * Information and reference servi ...

References

*Keith, Janet. ''The Collegiate Institute Board of Ottawa: A Short History, 1843-1969.'' Ottawa: Kent, 1969. *Universite d'Ottawa, S.O. 1965, C. 137, Part II, paragraph 9(b). {{Authority control Defunct schools in Ottawa Educational institutions established in 1913 Educational institutions disestablished in 1992 1913 establishments in Ontario 1992 disestablishments in Ontario