Early Days in Westboro Beach - Reflections and Images

by Robert N. Grainger

In about 1995, the Westboro Beach Community Association in Ottawa, Canada decided to produce a history of the neighbourhood as seen through th eyes of the local residents. The important questions were: What was the community like? What was it like to live in Westboro Beach? How did the neighbourhood function? What would one have seen on the streets? What was happening at the beach? Based largely on interviews with early residents, this work focuses on life in the community as seen through the eyes of a young person in the 1920s, '30s, and '40s.

The first three chapters are based on other historical works and documents. The heart of the book is chapters four and five, which are based on memories of present and former residents, and is concerned with events and aspects of life which were important to and remembered by these former residents.

237 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Mike Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Westboro Beach is an urban neighbourhood in Ottawa bounded by the Sir John A. MacDonald Parkway on the west and north, Island Park Drive on the east, and the bus Transitway on the south. This amateur history traces the early years of the community, from its birth as a village supporting a sawmill on the Ottawa River in the 1870s to a small beach community on the outskirts of Ottawa in the 1940s and '50s.

For me, as a new resident of this neighbourhood, the central attraction of this book was the four aerial photographs, taken once a decade from the early 1930s through the mid-1960s. The centre chapter of the book explains what we're seeing in the photos and points out the changes to roads and buildings that are visible. The early chapters cover the 19th century and are based largely on other histories and archival material (such as newspaper articles and village records). The final chapters describe life in Westoboro Beach in the '20s, '30s, and '40s, based on interviews with long-time residents, who were children in that period.

This book is a project of the local community association and was written by an amateur historian who spent ten years interviewing, researching, and writing. Clearly, a lot of effort went into this. The writing can be a bit stilted at times, but is competent and readable. The book's structure makes for some repetition and occasionally jarring jumps from topic to topic. There are many photographs, which are explained in detail.

Obviously, this book will have a limited appeal because of its very specific subject matter. But for what it is, Early Days in Westboro Beach is a fascinating story of how one little neighbourhood grew and changed over its first century of existence.

[Evan]

As name would suggest very Westboro-centric; best takeaway was mention in passing of pre- 1960s passenger train route from West into Union station; via modern Scott St corridor then Prince of Wales Bridge, over to Hull, back over Inter-Provincial Bridge and down the canal cut to Union Station.