The Glebe

First Ave Public School

Glebe Collegiate Institute

The area is called the Glebe because in the initial 1837 survey of Ottawa the area of 178 acres was deeded by the Crown to St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church as Clergy Reserve.[5] The word "glebe" means church lands, and the area was originally known as "the glebe lands of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church". When the area was opened for development in 1870, real estate agents began to refer to it simply as "The Glebe". The initial area was bounded by Carling Avenue and Fifth Avenue on the north and south sides, and Main Street and Bronson Avenue as the eastern and western limits. The original city limits on the south side had been set at Gladstone Avenue when the city was incorporated. Annexation in 1889 extended the new limits to the Rideau Canal. By Act of the Provincial Legislature, the Glebe became part of a small but growing city. By the late 1960s, the Glebe was bounded by the Queensway on the north side, by the Rideau Canal on the east and south, and with Bronson Avenue as a western boundary.[5]

The Glebe was one of Ottawa's first suburbs.[6] In 1871 James Whyte, one of the leading merchants of the town, built a large residence on the Canal Road on the north side of the waterway at midpoint between what is now Bank Street and Bronson Avenue, which served the Basilian Fathers in the 1960s. In 1872, James Whyte moved into a new home on Bank Street near Holmwood Avenue, which served the community in the 1960s as a residence for older people. In 1882 the creation of Central Park and the construction of the new Canada Atlantic Railway terminal on the west side of the Rideau Canal at the end of the Glebe encouraged the development of the southern section of the city.[5]

In June 1891, the first electric street car set off down Bank Street for the Exhibition, which opened at Lansdowne Park in 1888. First Avenue Public School and St. Matthew's Anglican Church, then a small frame structure, opened their doors about the same time in 1898. Mutchmor Public School on Fifth Avenue was built in the 1890s with additions in 1911 and 1920 as housing density increased and new families moved into the district. The separate school, Corpus Christi, also dates from this early era. Roman Catholic families attended Mass for some years to a temporary chapel on the south side of Fourth Avenue near Percy.[5] In 1900, the Ottawa Electric Street Railway was established, with one of its first routes running south along Bank Street. The Drive way, from Elgin Street and Laurier Avenue over the route to the Experimental Farm, was built between 1900 and 1903, providing added impetus to city growth on the south side. Most Glebe houses (which were largely built before 1914) date from this era, and the area became home to many middle-class workers. As housing went up on the avenues, corner stores and other commercial properties began to appear on Bank Street. The electric street car allowed workers to live in the Glebe and take the street car to work. As part of this building program, Clemow and Monkland Avenues were laid out and Clemow Avenue was paved west from Bank Street. From 1903-1904, a large low-lying area between Second and Third Avenues was filled in with sand taken from the land along Carling Avenue.[5] Growth was slower on the blocks west of Bank Street, and housing did not extend much beyond Kent Street.

Between Powell and Carling Avenues, a transformation gradually took place since an address in this part of the Glebe showed that the owner had property or position, probably both. A series of distinctive homes, both east and west of Bank Street, were indicative of style and wealth of the owners. A number of the more upscale residences were designed by renowned Canadian architects W.E. Noffke and David Younghusband, while others were pattern-book homes built by local builders based on catalog designs similar to foursquare architecture elsewhere in North America.

Blessed Sacrament Parish was formed in 1913; however, the church was constructed 19 years later. The Methodist Congregation worshiped originally in Moreland's Hall, on Bank Street, however Glebe Methodist Church was organized in 1913. At the time of church union in the 1920s, Glebe Methodist Church became St James United Church on Second Avenue, now known as Glebe-St. James United Church.

Glebe Collegiate Institute opened in 1922 (originally as a branch of the Ottawa Collegiate Institute, now Lisgar Collegiate), under Principal McDougall. The adjoining High School of Commerce opened in 1929. Ottawa Ladies' College, a private school specialising in the education of young women, operated on First Avenue from 1914 to 1942. During the Second World War years, the Ladies College facilities were used by the Canadian Military. Later as Carleton College, the premises played a vital part in the establishment of Carleton University. The Ava Theatre, a spacious cinema opened in 1928 at the corner of Bank Street and Second Avenue.[5]

After 1945, postwar housing filled in the remaining acres, particularly on those streets just off Bronson Avenue where house construction had declined in the years after 1930. Side yards and vacant lots disappeared in the final stages of development.

Elsewhere in the Glebe, house construction at the time was unplanned and erratic, with housing standards lower and development haphazard. After World War II, however, these areas were largely removed or rehabilitated so that by the late 1960s, generally speaking, the Glebe possessed housing stock suitable for both upper and middle income groups.[5] The Ottawa Improvement Commission, the forerunner of the National Capital Commission, beautified the area with special attention to sidewalks, trees and shrubs, and street lights.[5]

In the middle part of the century the Glebe changed as the middle class moved to more distant suburbs such as Alta Vista and Nepean, and the Glebe became transformed into a predominantly working-class neighbourhood with the houses subdivided into multiple apartments or turned into rooming houses.

The neighbourhood began to change again in the 1970s when it underwent significant gentrification and became one of Ottawa's elite neighbourhoods. These changes are obvious in the census. From 1971 to 1996 the percentage of the population with university degrees rose from 10 to 60 percent. White collar employment grew from less than half to some 95%. While in 1971 Glebe residents were 14 percent poorer than the average citizen of Ottawa, in 1996 they were 18 percent wealthier.

The 5 metre wide and 123 metre long CAD 21 million[7] Flora Footbridge, which connects the Glebe to Old Ottawa East, opened to pedestrians and cyclists in 2019.[8]

• George Walker Wesley Dawson, politician (until his death)
• Catherine McKenna, politician[9]
• James Strutt, architect
• Charlotte Whitton, mayor of Ottawa[10]

• Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church
• Glebe-St. James United Church
• St. Giles Presbyterian Church
• St. Matthew's Anglican Church
• Fourth Avenue Baptist Church

Elementary schools:

• First Avenue Public School
• Corpus Christi School
• Mutchmor Public School

Secondary schools:

• Glebe Collegiate Institute
• The Element High School

• List of Ottawa neighbourhoods

Bibliography

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Glebe.

• The Glebe - Evolution of an Ottawa Neighbourhood
• The Story of the Glebe
• The Glebe Community Association
• Flickr Photos of The Glebe
• Glebe history: Virtual Museum of Canada Exhibit