Ottawa Hydro Electric Company
109 Bank Street
Written by Bytown Museum
on
03/Dec/2009
Welcome to the future! That was the essential message the Ottawa Hydro Electric Company wished to convey when it commissioned the construction of this office building in 1934.
Electricity had arrived in Ottawa over 50 years earlier, in 1882. Ottawa Hydro started out as the Consumer's Electric Company in 1889. By 1905, it appeared destined to be bought out by Thomas Ahearn's Ottawa Heat, Light and Power Company, like all the other rivals to Ahearn's monopoly. Ultimately, the City of Ottawa stepped in to purchase Consumer's Electric in the hopes of lowering electricity rates.
Consumer's Electric was renamed the Ottawa Hydro Electric Company, and grew phenomenally in the early 20th century as the demand for power increased.
This building housed Ottawa Hydro's headquarters until 1957 and some would say it is the finest Art Deco building to grace Ottawa's streets.
