Electric Park
(At the corner of Bank Street and Glebe Avenue)
Written by Bytown Museum
on
03/Dec/2009
In 1891, Thomas Ahearn and Warren Soper opened the Ottawa Electric Railway. The two entrepreneurs envisioned a much-improved public transportation system for Ottawa, which had previously consisted of “10 small horse-drawn streetcars, 15 sleighs and 12 omnibuses.” Their new system included four electric streetcars that travelled from downtown Ottawa along Bank Street to Lansdowne Park.
Electric Park was designed by the Ottawa Electric Railway as a destination for streetcar day trippers. It was considered a pastoral resort and was located in the area bounded by Bank Street, Glebe Avenue and Patterson's Creek.
Eventually, there were 29 miles of track through the city with 68 streetcars. In winter, the cars were warmed by running electrically heated water under the floors – the first electrically heated cars on the continent! The streetcars were replaced by buses in the late 1950s.
Did you know that in 1887 Ahearn and Soper were hired to illuminate the Parliament Buildings with thousands of electric lights for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee? Parliament continues to be lit up in this fashion every Christmas.
Do you remember travelling by streetcar in Ottawa? Tell us about it!
Neighbourhood
Like the rest of Ottawa, the area that would become known as the Glebe was originally a hunting territory for Anishnabe (Algonquin) tribes, principally the Odawa, whose name is commemorated ... read more
