Hope for the abandoned Benin embassy
The abandoned Benin Embassy on Glebe Avenue, a heritage building, has suffered floods, vandalism and neglect but is now for sale.
Photo: Alan Freeman
Hope for the abandoned Benin embassy
By Alan Freeman
After a couple of floods, a collapsing front porch, vandalism and even a rave, the abandoned embassy of Benin on Glebe Avenue may soon get a new lease on life.
According to City officials, the heritage building at 58 Glebe Avenue, across the street from Central Park, is for sale.
A sale to an owner who will renovate and re-occupy the building will surely be a relief for neighbours, who have been living next to a vacant building for more than five years.
For now, the early 20th century home is surrounded by a high metal fence installed to stop squatters from camping out, while the sagging front porch is propped up by timbers.
Unfortunately, it’s not an unusual problem for a capital city like Ottawa, where the missions of foreign governments occasionally get caught up in the intrigue of disrupted diplomatic relations or are owned by governments that simply run out of money to run facilities abroad.
And because of diplomatic immunity and the fact that foreign-owned missions are generally free of property taxes, it’s sensitive for municipal authorities to get involved.
The Iranian embassy on Metcalfe Street in Centretown has been shut since 2012 when the Harper government expelled that country’s diplomats from Canada. The embassy sits forlornly behind high fences but appears to be safely secured.
That’s not the situation elsewhere. In Rockliffe Park, home to a large number of embassies, local community groups have been lobbying for action by the City and Global Affairs because of eight abandoned and neglected diplomatic properties, including the former residence of Uganda’s high commission, a heritage building that was demolished in 2024 without a permit.
The Glebe has fewer diplomatic properties (see box), most of which are in good shape, which makes the Glebe Avenue embassy stand out. The house has been owned by Benin since 1975, when the country was known as Dahomey, a former French colony that became independent in 1960. Located in West Africa, Benin has a population of 13 million and is one of the poorest countries on the continent. Yet until recently, there were no problems.
“They were good neighbours,” said Bill Price, who has lived next door since 2000. “I became quite friendly with a few of the ambassadors.”
Sometime prior to the pandemic, there were plans to renovate the building, and the diplomats moved out. But for unknown reasons, those building plans were put on hold, and the building was left vacant. After the heating was shut off, the pipes burst, and there was a flood. There was another flood last fall during the reconstruction of Glebe Avenue.
With the building unsecured, there was vandalism and unhoused people began using the garage for overnight stays.
“Then somebody got the bright idea to have a spontaneous rave,” Price recalls. “Powered by social media, a couple of hundred kids showed up.”
The front porch began to sag. City inspectors were called in last year. According to Scott Lockhart, the City’s deputy chief building official, “stabilization measures were undertaken at 58 Glebe Avenue to prevent failure of a compromised section of the front façade.”
An eight-foot metal fence was installed and according to an email from Lockhart, the measures to prop up the front porch are temporary “until permanent repairs are completed.”
Benin no longer has resident diplomats in Ottawa, with representation being handled by the country’s embassy in Washington. Efforts to contact the embassy there by phone and email were unsuccessful. Benin does have an honorary consul in Montreal who appears to be responsible for the property, but he declined to speak to the Glebe Report on the record.
According to the Glebe Community Association’s Heritage Committee, the two-and-a-half storey Edwardian Classic home was built in 1915 and initially was occupied by Louis K. Jones, assistant deputy minister of railway and canals. Its most famous occupant was Dr. Henri S. Beland, a medical doctor from Quebec who served in Belgium during the First World War and was held as a prisoner of war for three years by the Germans.
Dr. Beland was also an MP and cabinet minister in the governments of Wilfrid Laurier and William Lyon Mackenzie King. He later served as a senator.
Price, the embassy’s neighbour, is also chair of the heritage committee for the Glebe Community Association, so he’s concerned that the building be preserved if there’s a new owner.
According to MacKenzie Kimm, a senior heritage planner at the City, the embassy building is located within the Clemow Estate East Heritage Conservation District, which means that a special permit is required before alterations or demolition is allowed to go ahead.
Aside from the structural issues affecting the front porch, no other issues were discovered by the City’s engineer when they assessed the state of the house for Building Code Services. So there is hope for the future of 58 Glebe Avenue.
Alan Freeman is a noted journalist, columnist and academic who lives in the Glebe.
Embassies in the Glebe
Chanceries:
Benin (Glebe Avenue)
Cameroon (Clemow Avenue)
Ghana (O’Connor Street)
Lebanon (Clemow Avenue)
Trinidad and Tobago (First Avenue)
Tunisia (O’Connor Avenue)
Yemen (Chamberlain Avenue)
Ambassador’s Residences
Greece (Queen Elizabeth Drive)
Vietnam (Glebe Avenue)