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A Brief History of Britannia Heights/Queensway Terrace North
  The story of our community begins along the south and east sides of the early thoroughfares in the area.  Originally part of Nepean Township, the community began growing along today's Pinecrest Road, Richmond Road and Carling Avenue.  This, the oldest part of the community, was part of Britannia Heights, a community located on the high ground overlooking Britannia Village.

Public records show that in 1879 our community was titled to four individuals.  They were William Hughes, W.R.Bell, N.G.Robinson and James Magee.

The first land entrepreneur in our community was William Mosgrove whose registered plan in 1908 paved the way for 47 average-sized lots on Pinecrest and a parallel street named St. Louis (now Pinewood Cres.).

  The 162 acres of land east of the William Mosgrove's land was heavy forest with some farmland. The area, still known as Britannia Heights, was owned by William Graham.  In 1909 this land had been inherited by Harvey Graham, who subdivided part of it into 27 lots along a street named Graham (now Maplewood) Avenue.   In 1910, Harvey Graham sold the rest of his property to the Britannia Highlands Company.   This new company divided the land and laid it out along an extension of Maplewood and planned streets named Rob Roy, Dundee, Ivanhoe, Alpine, Portland (Forest), Norfolk (Norton), Tavistock, Connaught and Waterloo (now NCC parkland).   Waterloo Street was located on what is now the eastern portion of the 811 Connaught condos.  The street only went in about half a block and in the mid 70's had only one rather run-down house on it.
 
Not many residents realize, but the northern portion of our community from Pinewood Crescent east to Connaught Avenue was called Britannia Highlands, in keeping with the name of development company. However, this name never caught on and while it fell into disuse, Britannia Heights remains in use to this day.

The original Britannia Highlands lots were 100 feet wide or greater (double size) to allow for septic systems as the area was not serviced by sewers.  Lots could be divided into 50' wide in 1950 when the city took over and provided the area with sewers.  Many of the double lots were not severed until the early 60's; one can note many duplexes and doubles built in that period in what we now know as Britannia Heights.

By 1920 there were just 23 homes next to Carling Avenue and only 8 occupied year-round.
 
Some of the prominent residents at this time included Louis N. Poulin, an Ottawa dry goods merchant. Mr Poulin built Casa Loma Cottage. This cottageis now a Heritage property which forms part of Sterling Place Retirement Residence located on Carling Avenue at Richmond Road.  If you look carefully at the main building next time you go by there, you can still see the gazebo porch from the original cottage.

Another resident was Herbert Arkell, a Department of Agriculture livestock commissioner, who had a small farming operation on his property. This property, which was along Pinecrest Road and south of Elmhurst Street, was later acquired by Campeau Corporation. This was the last area of our community to be developed and Campeau called this section Queensway Terrace North.

Our first street light was a 100-watt light installed at the corner of Carling Ave. and Richmond Rd in 1924.

 
Grant School, 1922 		Grant Consolidated School (Grant Alternative School) located on Richmond Road opened in September 1923 with three classes and 67 pupils. The school was named after the Minister of Education and local Member of the Legislative Assembly, Robert H. Grant, of the United Farmers of Ontario Party. The school was actively used for community meetings, sports clubs and social functions.

The development of our community was very slow in the 1920’s and actually decreased during the great depression years of the early 1930’s.  Not surprisingly, the Britannia Highlands Company went bankrupt in 1933 and it’s many unsold lots were turned over to Nepean Township for tax arrears.  Other previously sold lot owners suffered the same fate.  Nepean Township was stuck with a surplus of unwanted land and it wasn’t until after the Second World War that sales of these lots finally picked up.
  The post-war boom in property sales had problems as services did not keep up.  Many of the Britannia Highlands lots being sold were located on unopened roads that hindered access to them.  Rob Roy and Connaught Avenues are two examples of this dilemma.  Apart from no access, many lots were in areas of poor drainage or where proper septic systems could not be installed.  In 1948 Nepean Township stopped selling lots until sewer and water were made available.



880 Maplewood

871 Maplewood before 1948
 
  In 1950, our community was annexed to the City of Ottawa and development finally took off.  Duplicate street names were changed over time, thus Graham became Maplewood in 1960.  Norfolk was changed to Norton Avenue, Portland became Forest Street and St.Louis became Pinewood Crescent.

In 1956 the Campeau Corporation acquired 114 acres of the Arkell farm on Pinecrest Road and, in 1958, subdivided the part north of the C.N.R tracks (present day Highway 417) to form Queensway Terrace North.  Campeau built single family homes on about 300 lots and reserved a site for a future public school (Severn Public, 1960).  Soon afterwards
871 Maplewood - 1948
  he extended the subdivision, with about 130 more residential lots along Hanlon, Connaught, Roman and Hopkins Street.

With growth came pressure for a new municipal garbage dump and in 1951 the City of Ottawa chose a site on Henley Street for a future dump.  This was overturned when local residents petitioned against it.

In 1958 a fire station and health centre was established on Carling Avenue between Norton and Tavistock.

  A lack of space forced the Britannia United Church trustees to search for a new location and to sell the old church built in 1873 next to the Olde Forge on Britannia at Carling Avenue.  They initially bought property on the west side of Pinecrest Road near the intersection of Watson and raised a campaign for funds to build the new church.  As plans progressed, the property was found to be too small and some Arkell farmland had just come on the market.  The trustees acquired one-acre of the farm on the east side of Pinecrest in 1960 and a church hall was built in 1961.  In 1966, the Arkell homestead was presented to the congregation by Margaret Arkell in memory of her parents.
  In 1957, St. Leonard’s Separate School was built behind Grant School on Rob Roy.  The Louis N. Poulin “Casa Loma” summer home at the corner of Richmond and Carling became the core of a 100 unit motel, the Blue Bonnet, built in 1965.  This was converted into the West End Villa nursing home in the 1970’s and is now Sterling Place Retirement Residence.

It was in 1967 that the City of Ottawa dedicated over 100 unsold former Britannia Highlands lots for a park named after Frank Ryan, between Henley, Pinewood, Clarenda and Alpine Streets.  The park was complemented by the woodland (Elmhurst Woods) bounded by Elmhurst, Alpine, Henley and Tavistock.
  Elmhurst Woods Park belonged for some years to the Ottawa Transportation Commission and was held in reserve for a future bus barn. When the need finally arose the area was well developed and it was obvious that a bus barn in that location would be an unwelcome neighbour; the location on Queensview Drive was chosen instead. Elmhurst Park is now designated an Environmentally Sensitive park protected by the city's Official Plan.

The community rallied in 1971 to defeat Campeau Corporation’s plan to rezone Gold Crescent for three highrises in the midst of it’s single family development.  Pinewood West, a nine-storey apartment building opened in 1973 at the end of Pinewood Crescent next to Richmond Road.
811 Connaught, circa 1975
  Since then a three-storey apartment building and sixty unit condominium development have been added to Connaught Avenue.  A number of single and semi-detached homes have joined our community as well.

Now represented by the Queensway Terrace North Community Association, one can consider today’s Britannia Heights together with Queensway Terrace North a complete, fine and safe community to live in.


Acknowledgements

Thanks to Henry Swiech of Norton Avenue who researched and wrote this article.

Much of the material in this article was sourced from the book:
Ottawa's Britannia by Eva Taylor and James Kennedy.
Published by The Britannia Historical Association, 1983

Thanks to Greg Ross of Connaught Avenue for his contributions to this article

Special Thanks to Ted Legg of Maplewood Avenue for his help and for bringing the book Ottawa's Britannia to the attention of the association.

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Last UpDate 15 Jan 2010