Ottawa Cultural Centres

One of the most active community centres in the downtown core is the Glebe Community Centre. Originally called Abbotsford House, built in 1867 by Alexander Mutchmor, it had a few incarnations as a church before finally being sold to the City in 1974 to become the Glebe Community Centre. A centerpiece of the family-oriented neighbourhood, the main hall is a great place for kids and offers child-related
events throughout the week during the day (including a small kitchen for lunches) and a series of community and craft fairs on the weekends. The entire building was closed for renovation for a year and reopened again in 2005, and you can easily get lost in the maze of stairs and little tiny rooms throughout. 175 Third Ave., 564-1058

Centres of Culture

A highlight of Chinatown (or “Somerset Heights”) is the Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre (381 Kent St., 235-1032), established in 1975 to advance the social and economic integration of people of Chinese descent into the mainstream society in Ottawa. The facility assists with settlement, counselling, language training, and community development.
Other community centres in Ottawa providing similar services for other communities across the region include the Italian Canadian Community Centre of the National Capital Region (101-865 Gladstone Ave., 567-4532), the Soloway Jewish Community Centre (21 Nadolny Sachs Private, 798-9818), the Ottawa Hungarian Community Centre (43 Capital Dr., Nepean, 225-8754), and the Somali Centre for Family Services (1719 Bank St., 526-2075). Not exactly a community centre, but along the same lines, there’s always the Irish Society of the National Capital Region, providing information on scholarships, genealogy, and various cultural events, including its annual Irish Week in March, when it hosts of the St Patrick’s Day parade.

The Diefenbunker

In 1959, when the Canadian government began digging a massive hole in a farmer’s field near Carp just west of Ottawa, it claimed that it was for an army signals installation (no one believed them); in actual fact, it was a four-level, underground emergency government headquarters. Opened in 1961 as an emergency shelter in the event of a nuclear war, it was designed to resist an indirect five-megaton blast (probably why it is out of town), and was built on a five-foot-deep gravel pad that would allow the whole building to shift during the explosion (even the boiler and the air conditioner were mounted on top of giant shock absorbers).

Once it became public, it was informally dubbed the “Diefenbunker” by the media in honour of the presiding Prime Minister John Diefenbaker. It stood at the ready for more than 30 years, a 100,000-square-foot outpost complete with hospital, morgue, Bank of Canada vault, and CBC studio. In its 30 years of operation, the only PM who ever visited it was Pierre Trudeau.

The shelter was decommissioned in 1994 and became the Cold War Museum in 1998; museum guides, many of them former bunker workers, take visitors on a 90-minute tour of the site. Other events have included exhibitions of Cold War-themed art (including work by Ottawa artist Adrian Göllner), a film club, and a lecture series. No cameras. Visits by reserved, guided tours only. Check website for hours and tour start times. 2911 Carp Rd., 839-0007 or 1-800-409-1965

Canada Aviation Museum

The Canada Aviation Museum holds the most extensive aviation collection in Canada and one of the best aviation museums in the world. Plans are currently underway to celebrate 100 years of Canadian flight in 2009. 11 Aviation Pkwy, 993-2010 Canada Science & Technology Museum Includes rockets, trains, and everything that sparks, shines, or lights up. 1867 St Laurent Blvd., 991-3044 or 866-442-4416 Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography Part of the National Gallery of Canada, the CMCP (1 Rideau Canal, 990-8257) sits in part of the original Ottawa train station between the Rideau Canal and the Fairmont Château Laurier. The attractive gallery – with a few too many stairs! – houses a collection of over 160,000 photographic works from the past 40 years. Open Wednesday to Sunday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Thursday to 8 p.m. (Note: at the time of publication, the CMCP was closed for major renovations, so it is best to call or check the website prior to your visit.)

Canadian Museum of Civilization

Across the river in Gatineau (just across from Nepean Point and the National Gallery of Canada) is the Canadian Museum of Civilization (100 Laurier St., 819-776-7000 or 800-555-5621), established to illustrate Canada’s history and heritage over 1,000 years of settlement. Some of the permanent attractions include the Children’s Museum; the world’s first convertible IMAX/Omnimax theatre; the Canada Hall, a setting for many life-size reconstructions from Canada’s past; and the Grand Hall, an expansive space housing six Pacific Coast indigenous houses and hosting a variety of demonstrations, First Nations ceremonies, and participatory activities. Other Museums & Historic Sites The Billings Estate Museum & Billings Bridge See Ottawa history depicted through the lives of two of the original (and two of the most important and successful) founding settlers of the city, Braddish and Lamira Billings, who established a community circa 1813 near what is now Billings Bridge. 2100 Cabot St., 247-4830

Bytown Museum

Toward the locks, just down from the Fairmont Château Laurier and the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography is the Bytown Museum (234-4570), run by the Historical Society of Ottawa. Built during the winter of 1826–27 as the treasury and storehouse during the construction of the Rideau Canal, the museum is located in what is considered the oldest existing building in Ottawa, formally presented by the city to the Women’s Canadian Historical Society (precursor to the Historical Society) by Mayor Charlotte Whitton in 1951. The Historical Society, which currently meets monthly at the Routhier Community Centre in Lowertown, maintains over 1,500 volumes on early Bytown and Ottawa history in the museum. The reference library is available to the public, and open every Wednesday and Thursday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.– it is advised that you call ahead to confirm the librarian is available. The museum itself hosts regular programming throughout the year, including Winterlude events, Haunted March Break, and Canada Day tours; the website grants users a virtual tour if you can’t make it there in person.

Canadian War Museum

In its new building just off LeBreton Flats that opened in 2005, the Canadian War Museum features an array of items, including one of Hitler’s cars, 19thcentury artillery pieces, tanks, and a variety of other artifacts. The museum showcases not only Canada’s military history during times of war, but also how the military helped shape the country itself. One of the highlights of the new building is Memorial Hall, designed to directly illuminate the headstone of the Unknown Soldier with sunlight each Remembrance Day at 11 a.m. A few weeks before the new building opened, one of its War of 1812-era guns – a Henry model 1808 Contract pistol – went missing from an open display case. After some media attention suggested an inside job, and the director of the museum encouraged the thief to return the item, “no questions asked,” the gun mysteriously reappeared a week later, hidden in a crate of other materials. As the police fingerprinted all the staff, working through more than 150 suspects who had access to the area, a couple of out-of-town workers simply never showed up again, not even to collect their last paycheques (who can say if any of this is related). Not that it would have been an easy item to get rid of. Worth up to $5,000, a flintlock pistol isn’t something you can drop off at the pawnshop. 1 Vimy Pl., 819-776-8600 or 800-555-5621

Canadian Museum of Nature

Housed in the Victoria Memorial Museum Building (VMMB) on the corner of Metcalf and McLeod Streets, the Canadian Museum of Nature (240 McLeod St., 566-4700 or 1-800-263-4433) was built on top of a 140-foot-thick layer of clay. It has been plagued with problems since its inception – most notably, the lack of a firm foundation caused the building to settle almost immediately after construction began (causing many of the labourers to refuse to work in the basement). The building contractors knew of the unsuitability of the location, but the government insisted they continue. Painstakingly built over the course of seven years, the museum was officially opened in 1912. When fire destroyed the original Parliament buildings in 1916, the VMMB was used to convene the House of Commons and Parliament for the five years before the opening of the rebuilt Parliament Buildings.

The VMMB was also the only building to suffer any significant damage during the Ottawa earthquake of 1925, when the arches on all four floors cracked at their apexes, and plaster fell from the ceilings. Considering the years the museum has spent constructing interior structural barriers to keep such an event from shaking the old building apart, staff and visitors should consider themselves lucky the whole structure didn’t fall in on them at the time. Director of Exhibition Services Monty Reid has suggested, with more recent excavation uncovering some bricked-in doorways, that the rumours of tunnels running from the museum’s subbasements heading north (connecting to an unknown and long-forgotten end) might have some basis in fact.

Over the past few years, the museum – with many life-size displays of wild mammals, birds, and dinosaurs (both full-sized skeletons and “fleshed-out” versions) – has embarked on an extensive renewal project that will continue until 2010, with a completely renovated building and new galleries. The best time to visit is on a Tuesday afternoon, when the space is relatively empty of visitors, and you can let smaller children run around. The woolly mammoth outside is always a favourite, or you can check out the upper floors, and see if you can catch a sighting of the ghosts that reputedly haunt the space. Free admission on special days; tour rates are also available, including guided and unguided, with reservations. Winter hours (September 4–April 30) Tuesday to Sunday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Thursdays until 8 p.m. and Mondays closed (with holiday exceptions); summer hours (May 1–September 3) open daily 9 a.m.– 6 p.m., Wednesdays and Thursdays until 8 p.m. Another part of the Canadian Museum of Nature is the Natural Heritage Building, which houses the museum’s collection, library, and most of its administrative offices (1740 Pink Rd., Gatineau). Although only the library is open to the public, the website includes an online catalogue. It rightly boasts one of the oldest natural history collections in Canada, tracing its beginnings to 1842 with the formation of the Geological Survey of Canada.

With more than 35,000 titles, 2,000 periodical titles, and a rare book collection, the library also includes museum publications, cartographic materials, manuscripts, and much, much more. Open Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m.– 4:30 p.m. (closed Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays).