page_title: The Glebe
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: The Glebe / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Glebe Collegiate in Ottawa
context_page_description: The Glebe is a neighbourhood in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located just south of Ottawa's downtown area in the Capital Ward with its northern border being demarcated by Highway 417, the Queensway. It is bounded by the Rideau Canal to the south and east. Many maps show the western edge as Bronson Avenue, but some also include the triangle farther west formed by Bronson, Carling Avenue, and Dow's Lake. The Glebe Community Association uses the latter definition. As of 2016, the area had a population of 11,559.
  The Glebe has a strong community association which, in addition to running a large community centre, lobbies the local government on issues such as traffic calming and neighbourhood development. The Glebe has a community newspaper, Glebe Report, that has been published independently since 1973.
  The Glebe is mostly populated by families; the area has many children, and consequently its social services are oriented towards youth. The Glebe lies in the federal riding of Ottawa Centre, and the same provincial electoral district.
context_section_description: The area is called the Glebe because in the initial 1837 survey of Ottawa the area of 178 acres was deeded by the Crown to St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church as Clergy Reserve. The word "glebe" means church lands, and the area was originally known as "the glebe lands of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church". When the area was opened for development in 1870, real estate agents began to refer to it simply as "The Glebe". The initial area was bounded by Carling Avenue and Fifth Avenue on the north and south sides, and Main Street and Bronson Avenue as the eastern and western limits. The original city limits on the south side had been set at Gladstone Avenue when the city was incorporated. Annexation in 1889 extended the new limits to the Rideau Canal. By Act of the Provincial Legislature, the Glebe became part of a small but growing city. By the late 1960s, the Glebe was bounded by the Queensway on the north side, by the Rideau Canal on the east and south, and with Bronson Avenue as a western boundary.
  The Glebe was one of Ottawa's first suburbs. In 1871 James Whyte, one of the leading merchants of the town, built a large residence on the Canal Road on the north side of the waterway at midpoint between what is now Bank Street and Bronson Avenue, which served the Basilian Fathers in the 1960s. In 1872, James Whyte moved into a new home on Bank Street near Holmwood Avenue, which served the community in the 1960s as a residence for older people. In 1882 the creation of Central Park and the construction of the new Canada Atlantic Railway terminal on the west side of the Rideau Canal at the end of the Glebe encouraged the development of the southern section of the city.
  In June 1891, the first electric street car set off down Bank Street for the Exhibition, which opened at Lansdowne Park in 1888.
  First Avenue Public School and St. Matthew's Anglican Church, then a small frame structure, opened their doors about the same time in 1898. Mutchmor Public School on Fifth Avenue was built in the 1890s with additions in 1911 and 1920 as housing density increased and new families moved into the district. The separate school, Corpus Christi, also dates from this early era. Roman Catholic families attended Mass for some years to a temporary chapel on the south side of Fourth Avenue near Percy. In 1900, the Ottawa Electric Street Railway was established, with one of its first routes running south along Bank Street. The Drive way, from Elgin Street and Laurier Avenue over the route to the Experimental Farm, was built between 1900 and 1903, providing added impetus to city growth on the south side. Most Glebe houses (which were largely built before 1914) date from this era, and the area became home to many middle-class workers. As housing went up on the avenues, corner stores and other commercial properties began to appear on Bank Street. The electric street car allowed workers to live in the Glebe and take the street car to work.  As part of this building program, Clemow and Monkland Avenues were laid out and Clemow Avenue was paved west from Bank Street. From 1903-1904, a large low-lying area between Second and Third Avenues was filled in with sand taken from the land along Carling Avenue. Growth was slower on the blocks west of Bank Street, and housing did not extend much beyond Kent Street.
  Between Powell and Carling Avenues, a transformation gradually took place since an address in this part of the Glebe showed that the owner had property or position, probably both. A series of distinctive homes, both east and west of Bank Street, were indicative of style and wealth of the owners. A number of the more upscale residences were designed by renowned Canadian architects W.E. Noffke and David Younghusband, while others were pattern-book homes built by local builders based on catalog designs similar to foursquare architecture elsewhere in North America.
  Blessed Sacrament Parish was formed in 1913; however, the church was constructed 19 years later. The Methodist Congregation worshiped originally in Moreland's Hall, on Bank Street, however Glebe Method
caption: Glebe Collegiate Institute
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