Live in Old Ottawa East
A narrow strip between the canal and the Rideau River that Ottawa built past for eighty years, and is now filling in on 26 acres of former seminary land.
Old Ottawa East is the piece of the inner city that nothing happened to for most of a century. It began as Archville, incorporated as the Village of Ottawa East in 1888, and was annexed by Ottawa in 1907, which ended its self-government and more or less ended its growth. Water on both sides is the reason: the Rideau Canal on the west and the Rideau River on the east make a strip about four blocks wide, with Main Street down the middle and one road out at each end. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate owned 26 acres of it from the early 1860s until the summer of 2016, which kept a quarter of the neighbourhood as seminary grounds while the rest of central Ottawa was subdivided. Three things have changed that in a decade. Main Street was rebuilt between 2015 and 2017 as Ottawa's first complete street, with raised separated cycle tracks in place of two of its four lanes. The Flora Footbridge opened on 28 June 2019 and put the Glebe, and the Rideau Canal Skateway, at the end of Clegg Street on foot. And Greystone Village is going up on the Oblate lands, eventually more than 900 homes, with the heritage Deschâtelets building at its centre being converted for a school, a community centre, a daycare and affordable housing. The Ottawa Neighbourhood Study puts 6,645 people here, which makes it one of the smallest neighbourhoods in this guide and one of the few adding population fast.
Water on both sides, one high street, and a quarter of the neighbourhood owned by priests until 2016
The neighbourhood runs south from Nicholas Street between the Rideau Canal on the west and the Rideau River on the east, with Avenue Road as its southern edge, in Capital Ward. Main Street is the spine, the Lees Avenue area sits at the northern end and the southern section is known as Rideau Gardens. The Ottawa Neighbourhood Study's Gen 2 boundary for Old Ottawa East covers the same strip between the two waterways, and this guide's point is its area-weighted centre, near Main Street and Clegg.
This is the piece of inner Ottawa that nothing happened to. It began as Archville, incorporated as the Village of Ottawa East in 1888, and was annexed by the city in 1907, which ended its self-government and effectively ended its growth. The geography explains the rest: the Rideau Canal on one side and the Rideau River on the other leave a strip about four blocks wide with Main Street down the middle and one road out at either end. Then there were the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, who held 26 acres at 170 Main Street from the early 1860s until the summer of 2016. For a century and a half a quarter of the neighbourhood was seminary grounds while the rest of central Ottawa was subdivided.
Three things changed it inside a decade. Main Street was dug up in 2015 for new water and sewer mains and rebuilt by June 2017 as Ottawa's first complete street: two of four traffic lanes gone, raised separated cycle tracks, wider footways and parking in their place. The Flora Footbridge opened on 28 June 2019, 123 metres from Clegg Street to Fifth Avenue, which put the Glebe, Bank Street and the Skateway at the end of the road on foot. And the Oblate lands became Greystone Village, eventually more than 900 homes between Main Street and the river, with a waterfront pathway and a central plaza.
What is still unfinished. The heritage Deschâtelets building at the centre of the site is meant to hold a school, a community centre, a daycare and affordable housing. Phase one finished in late 2022 and phase two then sat still for years, waiting on Ontario, which granted a further $21.2 million in December 2025. École élémentaire catholique Au Cœur d'Ottawa is now due to open there in January 2027. Until it finishes, the neighbourhood has no municipal recreation centre of its own, and anyone buying on the strength of the hub should read those dates as intentions.
The practical position. For 6,645 people this is a startling amount of transit: Lees station on Line 1 sits at the northern end, Hurdman is over the river, and Parliament Hill is about fifteen minutes door to door. Two waterside pathways run the length of the place and reach downtown without a traffic light. The costs are the flip side of the same geography: a narrow strip with two crossings carries a lot of through traffic on Main Street, most of the older houses have no driveway, and the low ground towards Rideau Gardens is close enough to the river that the City's flood mapping is worth reading before an offer. On tax, use about 0.83% of market value, not the published rate, which is levied against an assessment frozen at 1 January 2016.
- Lees station on Line 1 is at the north end, which is rare for a neighbourhood of 6,645 people
- The Flora Footbridge, open since June 2019, is what makes the Glebe and the Skateway walkable from here
- Greystone Village is still building out on the 26-acre Oblate site, and the Deschâtelets hub is not due to open until January 2027
- There is no municipal recreation centre in the neighbourhood; Glebe Community Centre over the footbridge is the nearest
- Most pre-war houses on the strip have no driveway, and the overnight winter parking ban applies
- Check the City's flood mapping for anything on the low ground towards Rideau Gardens
How Old Ottawa East got here
- 1863The Roman Catholic College of St Joseph is established on Main Street. It becomes Saint Paul University, and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate hold the land around it for the next century and a half.
- 1888Archville, the suburban community between the canal and the river, incorporates as the Village of Ottawa East. Main Street is its high street, and for two decades it governs itself.
- 1907Ottawa annexes the village, ending its self-government. Growth largely stops with it: the water on both sides gives the neighbourhood no room to spread, and the city expands elsewhere.
- 1928Immaculata High School opens at 140 Main Street as a girls' school. With Lady Evelyn on Evelyn Avenue and Saint Paul University, it makes the northern end of Main Street a cluster of institutions rather than shops.
- 2015 to 2017The Main Street renewal replaces the water and sewer mains and rebuilds the surface: two of the four traffic lanes go, and raised separated cycle tracks, wider footways, parking and public art take their place. It is celebrated as Ottawa's first complete street, and it is finished in June 2017.
- Summer 2016The Oblates leave the 26-acre site at 170 Main Street after more than 150 years. Regional Group begins Greystone Village on it: houses, terraces and flats between Main Street and the river, a waterfront pathway, a central plaza, and eventually more than 900 homes.
- 28 June 2019The Flora Footbridge opens, five metres wide and 123 metres long, joining Clegg Street to Fifth Avenue in the Glebe. Council named it in July 2018 for Flora MacDonald, Canada's first female foreign minister. It changes what is walkable from here more than anything else in the decade.
- 2020 to 2027The Deschâtelets building, the 140-year-old heritage centrepiece of the Oblate lands, is to become École élémentaire catholique Au Cœur d'Ottawa with a community centre, a daycare and affordable housing. Phase one ended in late 2022 and phase two stalled for years awaiting provincial funding; a further $21.2 million was granted in December 2025, and the school is due to open in January 2027.
Two pathways, two banks, and a riverfront that was private until 2016
The open space here is water on both sides. The Rideau Canal and Colonel By Drive run along the west, becoming the Skateway for six to eight weeks a year, with the Flora Footbridge landing at Clegg Street. The Rideau River and its pathway run along the east, quieter and less used, north to Strathcona Park and south towards Billings Bridge. What is new is the riverbank itself: the Oblate lands were private for over 150 years, and Greystone Village is opening a waterfront pathway across ground with no public access before 2016.
What the map does not show: the two sides are not equivalent. The canal has the Skateway, the events and the crowds. The river side is where residents actually walk: no festivals, fewer cyclists, and herons. The trade-off is that a strip between two waterways has only two ways out, so Main Street carries traffic a neighbourhood this size would not otherwise generate.
Elsewhere in Ottawa, not Old Ottawa East
22 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 22 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are estimated from the Ottawa Neighbourhood Study's area-weighted centre for Old Ottawa East, near Main Street and Clegg, using straight-line distance multiplied by a road factor and a tiered speed model: honest ranges, not routed times. The drive column reads worse than reality here: from Lees the train beats it to almost everything downtown, and so do the two pathways on a summer afternoon.
Every gym within reach
There is no City recreation centre inside the neighbourhood, and the one promised in the Deschâtelets building is not due before 2027. What residents use instead is the Glebe Community Centre, twenty minutes away on foot over the Flora Footbridge, and Brewer Pool and Arena in Old Ottawa South for the nearest 25-metre tank.
- A gymnasium, programme rooms and an outdoor rink beside it through the winter
- Brewer Pool and Arena in Old Ottawa South is the nearest full City pool
- Jack Purcell Community Centre off Elgin Street carries one of the busiest programme lists downtown
- Rideau Sports Centre on the river is the commercial option, with tennis, fitness and paddling
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Glebe Community Centre open | The City centre on Third Avenue, a twenty-minute walk over the Flora Footbridge, with a gymnasium, programme rooms and the outdoor rink beside it. Since the footbridge opened this has been the closest municipal indoor space on foot. | 4–6 min |
| Jack Purcell Community Centre open | The City centre off Elgin Street in Centretown, with a gymnasium, a fitness room and one of the busiest programme lists downtown. | 4–6 min |
| Brewer Pool and Arena open | The City pool and arena in Brewer Park in Old Ottawa South: a 25-metre tank with public swim schedules, and the nearest full indoor pool. | 6–9 min |
| Rideau Sports Centre open | The tennis, fitness and paddling club on Donald Street beside the Rideau River, on a commercial membership rather than municipal pricing. | 7–11 min |
The free option is the pair of pathways. The canal side is flat, lit and continuous to downtown and becomes a skating route in January; the river side is quieter and runs the whole length of the neighbourhood without a road crossing.
A high school on the main street, and a French elementary still waiting on its building
Immaculata High School has been at 140 Main Street since 1928, when it opened as a girls' school, which makes this one of the few Ottawa neighbourhoods with a secondary school on its own high street. Lady Evelyn Alternative on Evelyn Avenue runs junior kindergarten to grade 6 as an alternative programme, so places are applied for rather than assigned by address, and Hopewell Avenue over the canal takes much of the English public catchment. Au Cœur d'Ottawa is the French Catholic elementary, due into the Deschâtelets building in January 2027.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Lady Evelyn Alternative School | OCDSB | 63 Evelyn Avenue, junior kindergarten to grade 6. An alternative programme rather than a catchment school, so a place here is applied for rather than assigned by address. |
| Hopewell Avenue Public School | OCDSB | 17 Hopewell Avenue in Old Ottawa South, junior kindergarten to grade 8, and one of the English public schools this neighbourhood's children attend. Its graduates go on to Glebe Collegiate among others. |
| Immaculata High School | OCSB | 140 Main Street, founded in 1928 as a girls' school and still the English Catholic secondary inside the neighbourhood. Very few Ottawa neighbourhoods have a high school on their own main street. |
| École élémentaire catholique Au Cœur d'Ottawa | CECCE | Due to move into the converted Deschâtelets building on the Oblate lands in January 2027, with a gymnasium and a daycare, after years of waiting on provincial funding. Until then it operates elsewhere, so confirm the current site before you count on the walk. |
| École secondaire publique De La Salle | CEPEO | The French public secondary in Lowertown, about ten minutes north, admitting on the board's own attendance area rather than a municipal catchment. |
| Saint Paul University | Post-secondary | On Main Street, descended from the Roman Catholic College of St Joseph established here in 1863, and the reason the Oblates held a quarter of the neighbourhood until 2016. |
Two of the four schools serving this neighbourhood are not catchment schools at all: Lady Evelyn admits by application and Au Cœur d'Ottawa admits on the French Catholic board's own attendance area. Confirm the current catchment for a specific address with the school board before you buy, and confirm where Au Cœur d'Ottawa is actually teaching this term.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- The Skateway is a walk over the Flora Footbridge rather than a drive, which is the single best thing about living here in winter
- Main Street's cycle tracks are cleared as part of the winter network, so the bicycle commute survives the season
- Side streets are narrow and the overnight parking ban decides where a second car goes
- Winterlude traffic and parking land on the Glebe side of the canal, and the footbridge lets residents here avoid all of it
- The coldest fortnight of the year, and the month the canal is busiest
- Immaculata and Lady Evelyn run their winter terms, and Main Street at half past three is briefly busy
- The Skateway closes, usually in the first week, and the canal is drawn down
- The Rideau River side thaws first and the pathway is walkable before the canal is
- March break empties the schools at the north end of Main Street
- Freshet on the Rideau River, and the low ground towards Rideau Gardens is worth checking on the City's flood mapping before you buy there
- Greystone Village construction restarts, and Main Street carries the trucks
- The river pathway reopens and is rideable before the ground has dried
- The Tulip Festival at Dow's Lake is twenty minutes up the canal pathway by bicycle
- Main Street's patios come out, and the complete street rebuild is the reason there is room for them
- The best cycling weeks of the year, with two waterside pathways and no traffic light between here and downtown
- Sunset near 8:50pm, and both pathways stay busy well past it
- Redblacks home games start at Lansdowne, four minutes away, and game-day parking spills over the canal
- Saint Paul University's term ends and the north end of Main Street goes quiet
- Humid, and the strip between two waterways holds the humidity longer than the Glebe does
- Canada Day is a fifteen-minute train from Lees, which is the easiest approach to it in the city
- The Rideau River pathway is the neighbourhood's own summer, and it is never as busy as the canal side
- The federal public service empties out and Main Street is at its calmest
- Peak humidity, and the month a century house on this strip makes its case for central air
- Construction on the Oblate lands runs through the month while the schools are shut
- Saint Paul University, Immaculata and Lady Evelyn all restart, and the north end of Main Street is the busiest it gets
- The best weather of the year, and the month both pathways are at their most used
- The Panda Game fills Lansdowne across the canal and the footbridge carries a remarkable share of the crowd
- The maples along Colonel By Drive and the river pathway are why people photograph this strip in October
- First frost usually lands in the first half of the month
- Greystone Village's landscaping goes in for the season and the site is at its tidiest
- Dark by half past four, and the canal is drained to its winter level and looks wrong for about three weeks
- The overnight winter parking ban starts, which on Main Street's side streets is a genuine constraint
- The month to test whether a basement on the river side stays dry
- The Skateway's opening date is watched here more closely than almost anywhere, because it is at the end of the street
- The Glebe's Bank Street shops are the neighbourhood's December high street, over the footbridge
- First serious snow, and the discovery that most houses on this strip have no driveway at all
5 more photographs of the community and its surroundings
All freely licensed, via Wikimedia Commons. Filter by category.
Showing 1–5 of 5 photographs.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images geotagged in or near Old Ottawa East, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. Inline photos elsewhere on the page may still come from the site's shared Ottawa library.