What’s in a name? Origins of Glebe Annex street names

Feb 07, 2025

The west end of Henry Street, which had been truncated to create the Fraserfield Lumber Yard in the late 1800s, is now the site of Natural Resources Canada. Henry Street is now just one block long, extending from Bell Street South to Lebreton Street South.

1887 map showing Elizabeth, Dolly Varden and Henry Street in 1887.

Source: Map of the City of Ottawa and the City of Hull, compiled by John A. Snow and Son, 1887, City of Ottawa Archives.

The S-curve on Plymouth Street was created in 1930 to enable Plymouth to connect with what was then Imperial Avenue.

Photos: Gabrielle Dallaporta

What’s in a name? Origins of Glebe Annex street names

East/west streets

By Sue Stefko

While most of us take our street’s name for granted as an immutable fact, many of our neighbourhood’s streets have changed names over time – sometimes to try to escape a reputation, sometimes to avoid duplication, at other times to pay tribute to the history of the area’s earlier residents. This series will look at the history of street names in the Glebe Annex.

Orangeville

Until 2002, the street was called Elizabeth Street. The name Orangeville references the first settlers in the area, as they were believed to be Orangemen – an order of Irish Protestants named after William of Orange. The Orange Order was a secret society established in 1795 to maintain Protestant political control in Ireland.

The origin of the previous street name Elizabeth is difficult to determine. However, John Rochester, also an Orangeman, was a prominent local businessman who operated two sawmills at the Chaudière Falls and launched other business ventures such as a tannery and brewery. The area just west of what is now the Glebe Annex was called Rochesterville. This could be why streets in both Rochesterville and Mount Sherwood bore the names of his daughters, Elizabeth and Emily.

Plymouth

This street was originally part of a parcel of land called Dolly Varden Square by owner Joseph Patterson. Patterson came from Ireland and became a mill foreman at the Bronson and Weston lumber firm. He was very well known in the community and built the first home in Mount Sherwood, likely in the early 1870s, at the corner of Lebreton and Elizabeth (Orangeville). He bought a four-acre block of land which now encompasses much of the Glebe Annex, from Lisgar (now Bell Street) to Division (now Booth Street) and from Elizabeth (now Orangeville Street) to Ernest (now Powell Avenue). At the time, the southern part of the property was partly brush but was also used to grow orchard fruit and vegetables and house horses. He called the property Dolly Varden Square after a popular comedic opera based on the Charles Dickens’ novel Barnaby Rudge. Before his death in 1893, he subdivided and sold the property. The purchaser named one of the streets – now Plymouth Street – Dolly Varden Street.

However, residents soon expressed discontent with the name, creating a petition in 1909 to change the name to Dominion, with a city controller (what we call a councillor today) calling Dolly Varden a “cheap and foolish name.” Dominion was not accepted by the city, although officials suggested shortening it to Varden. A similar petition was raised in 1910, as there was a street with an unsavoury reputation bearing the same name in another city. Other suggested names were Dominion (again), Pleasant, Grant and Walnut. Walnut was selected, but the change was never implemented. Finally, in 1911 when Mechanicsville was annexed to Ottawa, a number of street names where changed, largely to avoid conflict or duplication with other street names in the city. At that point, Dolly Varden was changed to Plymouth Street, after the English seaport town which was the home of many famous explorers such as Sir Francis Drake, the first Englishman to sail around the world.

At the time, Plymouth stopped at Lebreton. However, in 1930 the city planned to extend Imperial Avenue, which stretched across both sides of Bronson, ending at Cambridge on the west side. This left a gap between Cambridge and Bell. However, with just a slight curve (and the removal of several buildings), the two streets could be connected – which is why Plymouth has an S-curve. In 1953, the portion west of Bronson became Plymouth, with the Glebe portion of Imperial keeping its name.

Henry

Maps from 1879 show Henry Street already in place, although at the time it was twice as long, stretching from Bell Street (then Lisgar) to Booth (then Division). John Booth bought the western part of Henry as part of an 1870 land deal to create the Fraserfield Lumber Yard. Maps show Henry shortened to make way for the yard at some point between 1888 and 1901. References to Henry Street in local newspapers date back to 1865 (before Canada was a country!), although it’s not clear whether this is the same street that exists today. Henry may have been named after lumberman and entrepreneur Henry Bronson. Bronson co-founded the Harris and Bronson timber company at the Chaudière Falls in 1852, moving from New York to Ottawa in 1853. Bronson Avenue was subsequently named after his son, lumber baron Erskine Henry Bronson.

Sue Stefko is vice president of the Glebe Annex Community Association and a regular Glebe Report contributor.