By Sue Stefko
(Appeared in the Glebe Report, January 2025)

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 as Ottawa grew to encompass existing neighbourhoods, and 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 Chaudiere 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 names of his daughters, such as Elizabeth and Emily.

Plymouth – This street was originally part of a parcel of land called Dolly Varten Square by owner Joseph Patterson. Patterson emigrated from Ireland and became a mill foreman at the Bronson and Weston lumber firm. He was very well-known to 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 (Bell) to Division (Booth) and from Elizabeth (Orangeville) to what is Ernest (Powell). At the time, the southern part of the property was partly brush, but also used to grow orchard fruit, 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 sold and subdivided the property. The purchaser named one of the streets – now Plymouth Street – Dolly Varden Street.

However, residents soon expressed discontent with the street name, creating a petition in 1909 to change the name to Dominion, with a city controller (what we call a councilor 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/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 had 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.

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