By Sue Stefko
(Appeared in the Glebe Report, November 2025)
Before it became the parking garage for the new Ottawa Hospital Campus, the former Queen Juliana Park and National Capital Commission parking lot site played a role in supporting Canada’s World War II efforts. As Ottawa’s public service expanded from 12,000 employees to 36,000 over the course of the war, and the Canadian Armed Forces grew from 46,000 members in 1939 to 147,000 by 1944 (though not all were based in Ottawa), the city needed additional facilities to support its rapidly increasing workforce.
Land was carved out of the Central Experimental Farm to construct two buildings for the growing workforce. Number 5 Temporary Building was constructed in 1941, with Number 8 completed in December 1942 and expanded in 1944. These were two of Ottawa’s 18 “Temporary Buildings” (though some sources only note 14 such buildings). Constructed at a rapid pace – some in a matter of weeks – the timber buildings were both quickly assembled and surprisingly robust. Their lack of insulation, however, led to frequent complaints from employees about sweltering heat in summer and frigid conditions in winter. Most structures incorporated courtyards to admit light and promote air circulation; when viewed from above, their orderly, block-like layouts resembled bricks.
Despite the important work taking place inside these buildings, local media coverage often focused instead on their cafeterias. Because the site was considered remote, it was felt that the “low-wage” workers neither had time to go into town during lunch nor the means to buy nutritious meals. To address this, Mrs. Donald Gordon, known for running the Eight Bells Cafeteria for the Women’s Naval Auxiliary, was tasked with establishing cafeterias on site.
Menus and pricing were frequently noted in local newspapers, and with proceeds benefiting the Red Cross, even modest price increases prompted allegations of profiteering. Mrs. Gordon defended the operation, noting that volunteer labour kept costs comparatively low. The controversy peaked in May 1943, when employees in Building 5 protested the rise in meal prices – from 35 cents the previous year to about 50 cents – arguing that the cafeteria ought to serve and support war workers rather than function as a fundraising arm for the Red Cross.
Allegations of rudeness from Mrs. Gordon and her staff further fueled the debate, with some cafeteria workers countering that they were not prepared to give their services free to serve low-cost meals to disgruntled, discourteous employees. It all culminated in Mrs. Gordon’s abrupt resignation from the Building 5 cafeteria – a sensational topic in local papers, accompanied by letters to the editor and heated public debate.
The coverage of the cafeterias also helped provide insight into the employees working in the buildings. In 1945, for example, it was reported that 700 government employees were served lunch in Building 5 daily. Initially, Air Force and Army staff were the building’s primary occupants. Some Air Force staff were removed from the building in 1944 to make way for the newly formed Veterans Affairs department, as well as the Ottawa District Income Tax Office. By war’s end, civilian departments like unemployment services, the Auditor’s Department, and Ottawa’s Emergency Shelter had moved in. Post-war rumours to house homeless veterans there never materialized, and civilian office use expanded further, including employees from the entomology branch of Agriculture, the Taxation Data Centre, and the Insurance Branch.
Building 8 was larger, housing approximately 4,600 at its peak. The Air Force was a significant tenant, as was Veterans Affairs, Geological Survey and the Bureau of Statistics, among other departments. Controversy flared again in 1956 over the site’s “unreasonable remoteness,” this time sparked by the relocation of the Patent Office to Building 8, which made visiting the search rooms markedly more difficult.
By 1979, the government deemed these temporary buildings obsolete and no longer required. Both were sold to Quebec-based companies interested in salvaging the old-growth cedar timber. After a fire due to suspected arson in 1979, the buildings were demolished in 1980. The government promised via a cabinet decree that the land would always remain open space. Building 5’s site, later a National Capital Commission parking lot, was slated for sodding (which never appears to have happened), while Building 8 which was supposed to return to the Central Experimental Farm, became Queen Juliana Park. Today, the location makes up a large portion of the new Civic Hospital’s parking garage.
Photo: Temporary Building Number 8. Source: CITY OF OTTAWA ARCHIVES, CA021401
Photo: 1958 Aerial view of the site, with the larger building Number 8 on the left. Source: City of Ottawa, geoOttawa
