Remembering Lebreton Flats
Lebreton Flats is an area about 1km from parliament hill located on a flat portion of land between the Ottawa River and Nanny Goat Hill, a cliff which juts out over the plains and seperates the upper portion from the city from the prarie-esque area by the shores of the river. This 200-acre area was the birthplace of Ottawa as it is known today and the industrial engine which drove the city in its first decades.
From its initial building up in the mid-1800's until its exproperation by the Federal government in 1962 and eventual destruction in 1965, /Lebreton flats was home to industry, lumber and rail primarily, and the workers and their families who operared the factories. While never an affluent area, populated with a majority of working-class French-Canadians, the Flats were a lively area where industry and home life met.
After destruction following the Great Hull/Ottawa Fire of 1900 which levelled 90% of the buildings largly of wood in the area, the neighbourhood was rebuilt within two years, insurance, the city, and the industries footing most of the bill. From 1902 until 1962 the area was mostly unchanged archetecturally: most residents lived in row and tenement houseingbuilt to house the industrial workers following the Great Fire, and most of the land was dominated by large industrial facilities, interspursed with small industry and shops to serve the residents and workers of the area.
Foillowing the Greber Plan of 1946-50, created by Jaques Greber known for other major city redevelopment and beautification projects like Paris, Washington D.C. and Philidelphia, Ottawa was to be reformeed and trouble spots suffering from "urban blight" were set to be either rehabilitated or redeveloped. Assessment was donein the 1950s and one of the areas of urban blight located was Lebreton Flats, which was deemed irretrealable and inhabitable for the residents. This was decided more so for political reasons than for sanitatiion and health reasons. While the area was not a healthy place to live per se what with the large factories and rail industry surrounding and making up much of the area, Lebreton Flats was still livable by standards of the day. In reality the decision came down to the want of a slightline and throughfare to Parliament Hill from the west without people having to go through what was concidered an industrial slum, particularly in the years leading up to the Centennial of Confederation which was expected to bring crowds from across the country to Ottawa.
As of the date of exproperation in 1962, the plan for the area was to build a massive national headquarters for the Department of National Defence, known as the "Pentagon of the North", which would house all facets of the Federal Department. Expropreation began in 1962, with the Federal Government buying up all of the land in the area from owners for "fair market price", and sending out letters of the intent to have the lands vacated in the coming years. Little to no compensation was given to the residents of the area renting their homes, rather they were expected to find their own lodging in the coming few months. Demollition began in 1964, being completed in the next year, leaving the area as a large vacant lot by 1966.
Lebreton Flats was left vacant for the next 40 or so years, with little or no development after plan after plan for the area fell through due to poor planning. But what off the now lost neighbourhood? As the majority of it was demolished, save for the area between Empress, Albert, the Eastern side of Perkins, and Nanny Goat Hill, all that is left to comemorate the memory of the industrial cradel of Ottawa is photographs taken by residents and assors to illustrate life and the look of what was Lebreton Flats.
This project aims to visualize how Lebreton Flats looked shortly before demolition, making use of photographs taken of the buildings, utilizing the most recent fire insurance plan of the area in the public domain to recreate the layout of streets and buildings which were lost.
https://omeka.uottawa.ca/jmccutcheon/neatline/show/remembering-lebreton-flats/