Origins of Ottawa General Hospital

In June 1847, a typhus epidemic broke out in Ottawa’s Lowertown very soon after the Sisters of Charity constructed the building that would eventually become Ottawa’s first General Hospital (being little more than a wooden house on St. Patrick Street at the time). The disease was thought to have been brought over with the thousands of Irish immigrants fleeing the Potato Famine. By the following May, 167 of the 619 people afflicted had died. The overflow of patients was quarantined on the west side of the Rideau Canal in wooden sheds, under boats, and in tents. Unfortunately, with all the fear of infection from typhus and smallpox, the last thing any of the residents of Sandy Hill wanted in their neighbourhood was a hospital of any kind, and as late as 1879, a couple of them were even burned down by locals. After the typhus epidemic had subsided, the Sisters purchased six lots at what is now Sussex Drive and Bruyère Street (previously Water Street) to build a new General Hospital, which was finally opened to patients in 1866.

1900 Ottawa Fire

Though a blaze that raged through town in 1900 is generally referred to as the “Great Ottawa Fire,” the city has been plagued by a multitude of infernos throughout its history. (And what else would a great lumber town fear in the 1800s but the fiery ravages?) Settled long before Ottawa, the city of Hull (now called Gatineau) would have been much larger now, it is often said, if it weren’t for the fires that kept taking most of the city during the 1870s and 80s. As for Ottawa, it didn’t help that, until 1874, the town relied on volunteer firefighters, many of whom would simply ignore the fire bell when it rang, and when the city started offering a cash reward to water carriers that reached fires first, competing companies broke into brawls when they should have been dousing flames. On April 26, 1900, the Great Ottawa Fire started on the Hull side, causing devastation throughout much of the city, and crossed into Ottawa via the bridge at Booth Street. The Ottawa fire department turned out en masse to fight the blaze, and calls were put out to Montreal, Smiths Falls, Brockville, Peterborough, and Toronto for additional help, as the blaze sent up plumes of smoke that could be seen for hundreds of kilometres. Damage extended as far south as Dow’s Lake, and lumber baron J. R. Booth lost 55 million board feet of lumber. Fortunately, the high limestone cliffs separating the Chaudiére district from the rest of Ottawa, coupled with a drop in wind speed, prevented the flames from overtaking the Parliament Buildings. Still, the affected area encompassed a one-kilometre (0.5-mi) wide strip from the
Chaudiere Falls south for four kilometres (2.5 mi to Carling Avenue, leaving seven dead, 3,000 buildings destroyed, and 15,000 people homeless. The area known as LeBreton Flats, just west of the downtown core by Scott and Booth Streets, has been almost completely vacant since, with new development beginning only over the past few years, with the construction of the new Canadian War Museum.

Gas Explosion

Just before noon on May 29, 1929, Ottawa residents were startled by a violent gas explosion in the main sewer line between the Ottawa River and Centretown. Over the next nine hours, a series of explosions ran the stretch of the main line more than five kilometres (3 mi) long, shooting manhole covers three storeys into the air in an area stretching from Sandy Hill (roughly the intersection of Cartier and Waverley Streets) through New Edinburgh and into the suburb of Eastview. Surprisingly, only one person was killed (a janitor in the basement of the building at the centre of the explosion), but a number of buildings were destroyed, including St. Martin’s Reform Episcopal Church in New Edinburgh. After the dust had settled, officials made inquiries into the cause, but the findings were inconclusive, despite the fact that residents along the line had reported the smell of gas to the city for months prior to the explosion. One outcome, though, was a bylaw passed to stop volatile liquids from being dumped into sewers.

Smallpox Epidemic

The smallpox isolation facility on Porter’s Island, on the Rideau River between Old St. Patrick Street on one side and New Edinburgh Park on the other, was typical of the types of quarantine arrangements during epidemics, with small shanty-like shacks housing patients who, for the most part, quickly died where they lay. The facility operated until the early part of the 1900s and treated victims of typhoid and influenza as well as smallpox. Between January and March 1911, there were 987 cases of typhoid reported in Ottawa, 83 of which resulted in death. In 1910, a consultant recommended regular chlorination to treat the water, and the Gatineau Hills as an alternate source, because an earlier typhoid outbreak was traced to the use of an emergency intake valve in Nepean Bay (located on the Ottawa River below the Royal Canadian Mint at the base of the Nepean River behind Parliament Square). The island now exists as a park and is a great site for birding, with urban fishing available, and a section of private property. It is also home to the Island Lodge retirement centre. A footbridge provides access from St. Patrick Street (except during the winter months, when it remains closed).