On January 9, 2006 Westboro Beach Community Association launched a 250 page book Early Days in Westboro Beach – Reflections and Images by Bob Grainger that transports readers via voyageur canoes, railway cars and suburban streetcars on a journey of inner city exploration and reflection.
Early Days in Westboro Beach – Reflections and Images by Bob Grainger
“The key to maintaining a sense of community is in knowing your past. It is in that spirit, the Westboro Beach Community Association has worked for 10 years to bring the past to the present.”
The Book
The story begins with the history of the Ottawa River in the 17th and 18th centuries when the European explorers used it as their highway into the continent, as First Nations peoples had done for thousands of years before. Then arrived the “coureurs des bois” engaging in the fur trade; followed by the lumbermen sending tall pines down the river to Montreal.
By the late 1800’s Westboro Beach was known as “Skead’s Mills”, after the steam-driven sawmill built by Senator James Skead. The book examines the residential development of the Village when Westboro and Westboro Beach were developed as “streetcar suburbs”. As well, life in the neighbourhood is covered during the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s.
Robert Grainger, Ph. D., has been the Chairperson of the History Committee of the Westboro Beach Community Association for the past ten years and was the lead in authoring a book on the history of our community. After a career as a statistical analyst and manager for Statistics Canada, Mr. Grainger retired four years ago to focus more time and attention on the collection of information relating to the history of the Westboro Beach neighbourhood. Mr. Grainger also brings editorial skills to this project – he is a former Editor of the “Anglo-Celtic Roots”, the quarterly journal of the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO).
Westboro Beach has been a swim site for over 100 years, although never as popular as Britannia Beach. The first formal recognition of the site being used for swimming occurred in the 1910 Clarella subdivision plan which designated three small parcels of land for public swimming. In1926, the Westboro Board of Trade supported public swimming at the beach, although the land was privately owned.
Westboro Beach from the past to the present. Pictures from the 1930s and ’40s.
The following articles describe the historical points of interest identified on the map. (The red circles are not clickable.)
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Skead’s Mills was one of several industrial villages that developed along the new Canada Central Railway which opened in September of 1870 between LeBreton Flats and Carleton Place. In 1869 Senator Skead bought from the Thomsons, who owned Maplelawn, an extensive block of land between the railway (the present transit route) and the river and adjoining his extensive farm which was located in the present Kirkwood – Richmond Rd area.
A 1950′s view of the treed area behind the beach in the vicinity of the current parkway, the Quebec shoreline can be seen through the trees at the right side corner of the house. The house was located on the Ottawa Improvement Commission Driveway but was moved to its existing location at 267 Kirchoffer Ave in the early 1960s.
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The opening of the streetcar line from Ottawa to Britannia on the south side of Richmond Rd in 1900 stimulated land development along the route. One of these subdivisions was the area bounded by the current rapid transit route to the river and eastward to include a few lots on the east side of Churchill. With the exception of the east side Churchill lots the subdivision was known as Clarella Park.
When mail service was extended from Ottawa into some areas south of the CPR tracks in 1942, the Canadian Post Office Department required that streets with conflicting names be re-named. Consequently, wartime patriotism showed in the new names, Main became Churchill, Victoria became Roosevelt and Tweedsmuir was also named. However, the Post Office refused to deliver north of the tracks until sometime later than 1947. (page 238, The City Beyond)
