The Glebe as a Suburb
How did the Glebe develop as a unique suburb in Ottawa?
This is a big topic. Generally, urban historians say that cities grow outward in concentric circles, or in corridors moving outward radially. It was the Bank Street corridor that opened the Glebe to early settlement.
As far as I know there is no documented or archaeological record of settlement in the Glebe by First Nation's Peoples. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.) The Algonquins would have used the Ottawa River and the Rideau River as trade and trapping routes, and may have hunted through the Glebe, but left no permanent record.
The early development of Ottawa (called Bytown until 1855) was along the Ottawa River, running from the mills on the Rideau Falls in the east, up Sussex to Wellington, and down Wellington to the mills on the Chaudiere Falls in the west. It was primarily a mill town, and people lived where they could walk to work. In 1826, Colonel By's surveyors cut the lines for the Rideau Canal along the east and south edges of the Glebe. Trees and brush were cleared and burned for the canal easement. The virgin timber on the Glebe was likely poached, as there is no record of it having been lumbered in an organized fashion. Surveyors' notes list the area as mixed bush and swamp.
Also in 1826, George Patterson, Chief of the Canal Commissariat, purchased land and built a house near where Patterson Avenue meets the canal. This is the first recorded habitation in the Glebe. There was little other formal settlement for many years, although a military survey in the 1840's records a number of French and Irish squatters in dwellings on the east shore of Dow's Lake.
In 1855, when Ottawa was incorporated, the city's southern boundary was Gladstone Avenue. By 1865, the arrival of civil servants for the new capital of Canada sparked the extension of Bank Street from Gladstone Avenue to the thriving settlement at Billings Bridge in Gloucester Township. Bridges were built over Patterson Creek (where Central Park is now) and the Rideau Canal. A joint-stock venture named the Ottawa and Gloucester Road Company macadamized Bank Street from Gladstone to Billings Bridge by 1867. This toll road ran right through the Mutchmor farm, from the current Fifth Avenue to Wilton Crescent. The Mutchmors were happy to donate land for the Bank Street Road, realizing this thoroughfare would increase the value of the rest of the farm for subdivision.
Overnight, the Bank Street Road became a busy access route to Ottawa from the south. It was used by market gardeners and nurserymen like the Hinkey brothers who, owned lands between Isabella and Powell from Bronson Avenue east to the Rideau Canal. In 1868, the Glebe lands of St. Andrew's Church (between Glebe and Firth Avenues), were carved into 10 acre plots and rented to other market gardeners who helped to feed the growing city.
Hotels sprang up on Bank Street to service travelers, especially Gloucester farmers coming in to market. In 1869, Meaken's Hotel was built where the northeast corner of Bank and Clemow Avenue is today. In 1873, William Powell built the Grove Hotel across Bank Street from Meaken's. In 1871, Ralph Mutchmor rented 48 acres west of Bank Street, between Glebe and Fifth Avenues, from St. Andrew's Church and set up a trotting course for horses called Mutchmor Park. They built the Turf Hotel on Bank Street north of Fifth Avenue for race aficionados. Mutchmor Park drew the carriage crowd out from the city for Sunday drives. The Queen's Plate ran at Mutchmor Park in 1872 and 1880.
In 1868, the city of Ottawa Agricultural Society bought 19 acres of land from the Mutchmors between Bank Street and the Rideau Canal for what would later develop into Lansdowne Park.
Alexander Mutchmor build his stone house, named Abbotsford, on Bank Street in the Glebe, in 1867 (although the historical plaque by the front door claims it was not built until 1872). The Mutchmors also sold a few lots from their farm on which brick houses were built in the late 1860's. This appearance of stylish country homes, market gardens and recreational amenities just beyond the city limits were the first signs of settled suburban development that would begin to open the Glebe in the 1870's.