Embraced by the beauty of the Rideau Canal and inlets, The Glebe community is home to all walks of life and reflects the heart and soul of Ottawa.
Bank Street is the commercial hub meeting the needs of bustling and laid back residents alike, offering grocery stores, coffee shops, dance and yoga studios, music shops, post offices, bookstores, cinemas, and restaurants.
Lansdowne Park, distinguished by the Cattle Castle circa 1898, is a gathering place for all Ottawans. Public playgrounds and a vast array of eateries are plentiful. The expansive park is home to outdoor concerts, CFL football, hockey, agricultural events, the farmer’s market and New Year’s eve celebratory fireworks.
The annual ‘Great Glebe Garage Sale’ attracts thousands of bargain hunters to the community the last Saturday of May. Sellers donate a portion of the proceeds to a designated charity.
Originally Christian churchland, the first Glebe residents were english speaking social activists. Excellent schools and churches attracted families. The introduction of street cars on Bank Street in 1891 attracted wealthy residents and spurred urban development and diversified architecture. Noffke designed eclectic style homes around Patterson’s Creek and the Baker House on Brown’s inlet in 1890. Victorian and Edwardian designed homes appeared between 1904-1920 and later, south of Glebe Collegiate, the classic homes of David Younghusband. As homes age and the appetite for new construction grows, many cherished homes make way for infill development.
Dow’s Lake offers the largest display of tulips with 300,000 colourful tulips and breathtaking fireworks paying tribute to veterans and the WWII liberation of the Netherlands by Canadian Troops.
Since 1953, Ottawa’s official flower, the tulip, has been recognized as an international symbol of friendship and peace. The Royal gift of tulips to the people of Canada is a global attraction celebrated annually in May at the world’s largest tulip festival with attendance of over 650,000.
Before the construction of the Rideau Canal, this area was known as Dow’s Great Swamp. The gardens and residential enclave, nicknamed Indian Village, was built from 1920 to 1950s on a former lumberyard site. A rail tunnel, formerly owned and operated by Canadian Pacific, passes under the lake is now used for Ottawa’s light-rail transit system.
Dow’s Lake pavilion is open year round and offers three restaurants overlooking the water, canoe and paddle boat rentals, boat mooring and an indoor change area for skating. In addition, Dow’s Lake residents enjoy easy access to Little Italy’s restaurants on Preston Street and the Glebe’s renowned shops and restaurants on Bank Street.
During the winter, Dow’s Lake freezes and becomes part of the world’s longest skating rink and one of the primary sites of the Winterlude festival in February, with events such as the ‘dragon boat race’ on the ice.
