The following appeared in the August 1988 issue of Lindisfarne, and is entitled “Thirty Years Ago”.  The author is the late Harry McCauley, a name well known to us old-timers.

Elmvale Acres in the late fifties

As we celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of our Parish, it seems fitting to remind ourselves, both those of us who were here in the beginning and those who moved in later, that Elmvale Acres was not always the compact, well-developed, virtually self-contained community it is today.  Not by a long way, for the fact is that prior to l955 most of the area was farm land and very few houses existed.

Then around 1955 a young man named Robert Campeau, he is still very much in the news today, appeared on the scene and started building affordable housing on a large scale at a time when the post war housing shortage in Ottawa was extreme.  Thus started Elmvale Acres and thus started the Campeau empire which has grown out of all proportion ever since.  Actually Robert Campeau took an active part in the selling of his houses and we recall dealing with him in a trailer office parked somewhere near Haig and Dolphin in July of 1956.  Few, if any, of the original houses were priced above $20,000 and long term mortgages were available at between 5% and 6%.

The first houses were built on either side of Smyth Road and the community spread north and south from there, but little development took place south of Pleasant Park for several years.  Canterbury, Urbandale, etc., would not be serviced until after the Green Creek Sewage plant was in operation in the late 60’s.  It is interesting to note that the Green Creek facility is back in the news today, as the subject of an urgent multi-million dollar rehabilitation and enlargement programme.  In those days Smyth Road east of Alta Vista was reasonably well developed as far as the Veteran’s Home only and from there on it was little more than a mud trail, eventually arriving at a reasonably well developed Russell Road and a not too well developed St. Laurent, which had level crossings where each of the railway underpasses now exist.  Smyth Road, in the opposite direction from Alta Vista was virtually a road to nowhere as the Smyth Road bridge wasn’t yet built.  To go downtown from Elmvale Acres one had to either take Billings Bridge or the old recently demolished Hurdman’s Bridge beside the yet to be built Queensway.  Just as Smyth Road was often a sea of mud so also were most of the side streets serving the new housing after a significant rain.  For, unlike today when roads, storm sewers, street lighting, side walks, etc., are installed ahead of house construction, in those days in Ottawa it was customary to build the houses first leaving the construction of such facilities until long after occupancy in many instances.  Many will recall the resultant discomforts including the difficulties of travel into, out of and around Elmvale Acres in inclement weather before the first bus service was provided about 1957.

We lived on Haig, north of Smyth then and the old 82 bus used to plough through the mud past our door before negotiating, if it could, the hill up to Russell Road, and turning right to eventually go down Pleasant Park en route to its terminus, on Bank Street near Trinity Church, where one could transfer to a Number 1 street car to go downtown.  A year or so later a direct service downtown via Russell and Coronation was established and is still running on much the same route.  For awhile there was a special zone far of an extra nickel required for travel beyond Coronation and Russell and, when the weather was favourable, many economic and/or health minded individuals could be observed tramping along the road between Elmvale Acres and Coronation.

The only shopping facility in the area was Tom Dempsey’s rather shack-like General Store on Russell Road, just north of Haig.  As the area developed, Tom’s store grew like Topsy, but the leak in the roof over the door never seemed to get fixed and an unwanted shower both entering and leaving was quite the norm.  Later Tom moved to a new Super-Market type building further back from Russell Road and the old storm was torn down.  Soon after the Elmvale Shopping Centre was opened and the competition apparently was too much for Tom, who went out of business.

The new store progressively was a Case Goods outlet, a fruit and vegetable store, a furniture storage warehouse and is presently a young people’s dance hall.  But the closing of Tom Dempsey’s store ended an era in the community, the Dempsey family having lived nearby for many years before Elmvale Acres was even planned.  The family name is, however, still with us in the Dempsey Community Centre built some 10 years ago on what was formerly Dempsey land.

Most of the Churches in the community were, like St. Aidan’s, formed about thirty years ago with Church Buildings erected in the early sixties, but St. George’s Anglican and Hawthorne United had existed for many years not very far away along Russell Road.  Among the first to open their doors in Elmvale Acres proper were the Lutheran Church on Smyth Road the Resurrection Roman Catholic Church on Saunderson.  Out own St. Aidan’s was not far behind being formed exactly thirty years ago (August 1958) with the Parish House, later named Lindisfarne Hall, opened and used as a temporary Church in November 1960 and the Church proper completed and dedicated in June 1965.  Emmanuel United followed our original construction with a hall around 1962 and used it as a Church until a couple of years ago when a full scale Church was added to it.

The first school was Vincent Massey, opened about 1957 and it was used for Sunday Services by both St. Aidan’s and Emmanuel United from 1958 until each of these congregations had their own facilities as noted heretofore.  The Resurrection Separate School appeared in the early sixties along with Hillcrest High School, which opened in 1962.

 Around 1956 the Elmvale Acres Property Owners’ Association was formed primarily to work with the City in the solution of the many municipal problems that were being encountered by new housing developments in those days.  The Mayor of Ottawa at the time was the notoriously verbose and fiery Charlotte Whitten and many of the meetings of the Association were little more than a fierce verbal battle between Charlotte and Robert Campeau, whose ideas on what was needed for the orderly development of Elmvale Acres seemed to be at perpetual variance.  Charlotte will be long remembered for her quite wit and often hasty responses, and the following story, though no doubt known to many, seems worth repeating here.  It is said that, while Mayor of Ottawa, Charlotte was seated next to the Lord Mayor of London at a formal dinner, both wearing their full regalia complete with chains of office.  The Lord Mayor leaned over and touching Charlotte’s chain said “Madam Mayor, if I were to pull your chain would you blush?”  The quick reply was “Sir, if I were to pull yours, would you flush?”

In summary then, the Elmvale Acres of thirty years ago had no Shopping Centre, few schools, Churches only in the formative stages, no hospitals, no high-rise apartments, no banks, terrible roads, few street lights or sidewalks, and lots of vacant land to the south and east that had seemingly little prospect of ever being developed.

But wasn’t there anything there, you say?

Oh yes.  Houses, lots of houses, fast becoming homes.  And Vision – lots of Vision.