Ellwood is a neighbourhood and former railway point in
River Ward, in the south end of
Ottawa, Ontario
Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
. It is bounded by
Walkley Road on the north, the
Transitway on the west, Albion Road on the east, and Ledbury Park on the south. The population of this area is approximately 2908 (2011 Census).
Railway junction
Until the 1970s, a
railway junction
A junction, in the context of rail transport, is a place at which two or more rail routes converge or diverge. The physical connection between the tracks of the two routes (assuming they are of the same gauge) is provided by turnouts (US: switc ...
existed behind the
LCBO
The Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO, ) is a Crown agency (Ontario), Crown agency that retails and distributes alcoholic beverages throughout the Provinces of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. It is accountable to the Legislative Asse ...
warehouse on Bank Street. From the 19th century until c. 1950 it was named
Chaudiere Junction,
[Ottawa, Ontario. 1:63,360. Map Sheet 031G05, d. 17 gridded, 1948; Open Data; Producer: Geographical Section, General Staff, Department of National Defence; Date published: 1948-01-01 (publication), 2016-01-01 (publication)] at which point it was renamed Ellwood Junction.
Post office
In 1906, a
post office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...
was established and was named Ellwood after two men who were instrumental in its development, Charles O. Wood and William Ellis. The post office was located just south of Ledbury on Bank Street
and was operated by Jane Cutts (1846-1923) in the
general store
A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...
that she and her son George ran, which dated back to the 1870s. The post office closed in 1943.
School
A
school house, Gloucester School Section 3, was built in 1856 and was located on the site of an
apartment building
An apartment (American English, Canadian English), flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), tenement ( Scots English), or unit (Australian English) is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) ...
on Bank Street just north of Ledbury Avenue.
It served Gloucester students of the area until 1956 and
Ottawa Public School Board students for a year or two beyond that. It was used for private businesses until it was demolished in the 1980s.
Railway station
A small
railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
existed on the north side of
Walkley Road, west of
Bank Street where a shopping centre now stands. Passenger service was provided by the
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...
until October 1957. The station was the scene of a four-car derailment on January 21, 1922 which claimed the life of engineer Howard Edward White and left twelve passengers hospitalized.
["The Village of Ellwood Lost to The Greber Plan" by Glenn Clark, Historic Gloucester, Vol 14, No 4 2013, pgs. 8-9]
Housing
During the pre–
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
land boom,
subdivision
Subdivision may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Subdivision (metre), in music
* ''Subdivision'' (film), 2009
* "Subdivision", an episode of ''Prison Break'' (season 2)
* ''Subdivisions'' (EP), by Sinch, 2005
* "Subdivisions" (song), by Rush ...
s were registered covering the area between Walkley Road and Ledbury Avenue and between Bank Street and Albion Road. These were named Ridgemont Park and Paardeburgh Park (in honour of a
Boer War
The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic an ...
battle). Only a small number of houses were built.
Power
During the early 1930s,
transmission tower
A transmission tower (also electricity pylon, hydro tower, or pylon) is a tall structure, usually a lattice tower made of steel that is used to support an overhead power line. In electrical grids, transmission towers carry high-voltage transmis ...
s were built between Kitchener Avenue and Ledbury Avenue.
Hall
Around the start of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, a dance and reception hall named the Right Spot Inn was built on the corner of Ledbury Avenue and Bank Street and lasted for about 10 years.
Development
As a result of the
Greber Plan, the original village was expropriated in 1949 and 1950 to make room for the Walkley Railway Yards, the Bank Street overpass and a never built
federal parkway. All the houses and other buildings with the exception of the school were either demolished or moved.
About this time, many houses began to be built in the earlier mentioned pre–World War I subdivisions except in the hydro and parkway corridors. This gave the community its current general appearance.
References
{{authority control
Neighbourhoods in Ottawa