Wellington Village 100th Anniversary
All through June we are celebrating 100 years since the founding of Wellington Village. The village first came to be when the Ottawa Land Association held their huge auction in a circus tent at the corner of Wellington Street and Holland Avenue, selling off one-by-one each of the lots in Wellington Village south of Wellington (a year later they would do the same for the lots north of Wellington). The big auction was held on May 31st, 1919, and over 500 lots were sold for a total of $140,000 (an average of under $250 apiece, with the cheapest going for $35 alongside what is now Island Park Drive – ironically the cheapest lots were in this area, at the time less desirable due to their distance from the streetcar and Wellington Street).
From June 7th to 21st, we featured a special window display at St. Vincent de Paul. This display contained various historical artifacts, prints of historical photos, including canvas prints courtesy of CanvasPop, and locally made tumblers and mugs celebrating the history of Wellington Village are available for purchase. All historical photos and artifacts come courtesy of Dave Allston of the Kitchissippi Museum.
On Saturday, June 22nd we hosted a reception at the Exposure Gallery, above Thyme and Again, with a silent auction of the canvas prints seen at St. Vincent de Paul, and presentation from local history buff, Dave Allston of the Kitchissippi Museum and Kitchissippi Times Early Days column.
We loved seeing your Wellington Village memories that were shared on Facebook last week. Here are a few favourites:
