We started this series covering Wellington and By. Among the other figures of historic influence over the history of Ottawa are, of course, the Prime Ministers of Canada and several of their more influential allies. Sandwiched between Elgin Street and the Rideau Canal for over 125 years are salutes to the first of the post-Confederation PMs, Sir John A Macdonald himself, and his chief ally from the francophone side of the aisle, George-Étienne Cartier. Built at some point around 1877 or 1878, with Cartier Street as an offshoot of Cartier Square -- ...

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Created with Google Earth"][/caption] This started out as another one of the “Street Names” stories. Once my digging began, though, it turned into a story about a neighbourhood that most people in Ottawa can't place. Its history is little-known. Where do you find this district? Well, just to the east of the train station, branching off of Tremblay Road, are two sets of side-streets. Uniquely for Ottawa, they are alphabetized. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="363" caption="Source: Author's files - used with permission"][/caption] There is Avenue K and Avenue L, then the interruption of Belfast Road, followed by Avenues N through U. The omissions will be explained as we go along. This kind of nomenclature is not unique among Canadian cities. Saskatoon has had such street names since the 1880s. Ottawa’s “alphabet village” came along some two decades later, or so we’re told by the maps we have from those days.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="640" caption="No loitering, no smoking, no banking "][/caption] On Friday July 23, 2010, a signal change happened at the Fallingbrook Mall in Orléans: the local branch of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce - CIBC - closed its doors for the last time. Much of the furniture, the last of the files, and most of the signage had been moved out to other branches over the course of the previous few weeks. The final bits of equipment were moved out in rented vans the same evening the branch closed. CIBC provided several months' warning of this change to any and all willing to pay attention. To be sure, many of their customers at that branch will likely make use of the other branches further away from that mall. Many will also make use of the online services on offer, either supplanting or in addition to visiting those other branches. For these customers, it will be more or less business as usual with a minimum of discomfort or disruption. Some might not even feel any pain at all, and consider the change a "gain".

The above photo was taken at a street corner in the far eastern reaches of Orléans; an obscure intersection, but of course its pop-culture reference is anything but. Yes, it's that Mulder & Scully, the duo from The X-Files. The story of how these two nondescript suburban thoroughfares got their televisual nomenclature has been told elsewhere but their existence does raise the question – are there other Ottawa streets named after fictional characters? Well, the fact is that the practice of naming Ottawa streets for famous fictional characters has been going on, albeit sporadically, since as far back as 1899. This was borne out in the pages of Ottawa Past and Present by one A.H.D. Ross, published back in 1927. In Volume II of that work, there is a list of the streets and parks running ten pages in total. In those ten pages are at least three examples that predate Mulder and Scully.

In recent weeks, we've witnessed a debate over whether or not one of the central streets of the downtown core should be renamed. As a result of that debate, we've also gotten a civic history lesson or two on the founding of Ottawa. In truth, the names of Wellington and By should be forever linked in the minds of Ottawans for one reason: the city as we know it today could not exist without either of them. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="194" caption="Source: Wikipedia Commons"][/caption]...

Editor's note: Many commentators have noted that the decision by Mayor O'Brien to run again in this fall's municipal elections means that he can campaign by claiming two significant achievements: spearheading the decision to build an East-West LRT that includes a downtown tunnel, and backing the proposal to redevelop Lansdowne Park. So far, the two major projects have been presented as "stand alone"; here Spacing Ottawa contributor Dwight Williams suggests a way to link them. In the months since the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG) brought forth their proposal for redeveloping Lansdowne Park, ...

Anecdote, urban legend, sometimes even myth: we don't usually associate such descriptors with the street map of our city, but there is a story behind each and every street name we encounter in our daily navigations. And with over seven thousand of them now in use, there is a rich store of narrative to be revealed by exploring the history behind Ottawa's street names. They are a unique insight into what the builders of our city held most dear, and a lens through which we can see how our civic culture has ...