Ottawa Ladies' College
268 First Avenue
Written by Bytown Museum
on
03/Dec/2009
This large institutional structure was built just before World War I as a new home for the original Ottawa Ladies' College (OLC), originally established downtown in the 1870s. Students at the OLC believed that “the time has passed for any laboured argument in defence of the education of women. We have come to discern that it is indispensable, and that it should not be less thorough than that of their brothers, though in some ways it may be different.” At the OLC, in addition to languages and mathematics, young women were instructed in needlework, practical cooking, horseback riding, pantomime and scientific sewing. The college closed its doors around 1940.
The building served as a residence for members of the Canadian Women's Army Corps during World War II. And from 1946 until 1959, it was the campus for the fledgling Carleton College, now Carleton University. In 1999, the building was converted into condominiums.
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
