Lees Avenue is both a road and a

neighbourhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neighbourh ...

Ottawa, Ontario Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

, Canada. The area lies in the narrow stretch between the

Rideau Canal The Rideau Canal is a 202-kilometre long canal that links the Ottawa River at Ottawa with the Cataraqui River and Lake Ontario at Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Its 46 Lock (water navigation), locks raise boats from the Ottawa River 83 metres (272 ...

and

Rideau River The Rideau River (, ) is a river in Eastern Ontario, Canada. The river flows north from Upper Rideau Lake and empties into the Ottawa River at the Rideau Falls in Ottawa, Ontario. Its length is . As explained in a writing by Samuel de Champl ...

south of Sandy Hill and the Queensway and is part of

Old Ottawa East Old Ottawa East or just Ottawa East (''Vieil Ottawa Est'' in French) is a neighbourhood in Capital Ward in central Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located south of Nicholas Street and between the Rideau Canal and the Rideau River, with Avenue ...

. The neighbourhood is dominated by five large apartment buildings, some of the largest in Ottawa. These buildings range from low cost to moderate cost and mostly house new immigrants, students and young professionals. Across the Rideau River to the east Hurdman is a more recently built such area. Prior to Ottawa East's annexation in 1907, Lees was known as William Street. Originally the area was an industrial zone lying beside the train tracks. In the 1950s, the tracks were removed and replaced by the Queensway. The industry also left the area and new towers began to be built. The Eastern Ontario Institute of Technology, (later to merge with The Ontario Vocational Centre and renamed

Algonquin College Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology is a publicly funded English-language college located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The college has three campuses, all in Ontario: a primary campus in Ottawa, and secondary campuses in Perth and ...

), opened its new Rideau Campus there in 1964. The Ottawa architecture firm of Burgess, McLean & MacPhadyen designed a single level brick, concrete and steel building composed of three connected wings on a 12-acre city-owned Lees Avenue site. After being unused for a number of years, it was sold to the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a Official bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ot ...

in January 2007. The neighbourhood remained home to the Canadian military's Lees Avenue Armoury until the late 1980s. In 1986 while building the

Lees Transitway Station Lees station is an OC Transpo light rail station in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It had previously been a Transitway station, which closed in January 2016 and was converted into an O-Train station. Location It is located south of the Highway&n ...

the area's industrial past began to cause major problems as it was discovered that large, and leaking, tanks of

coal tar Coal tar is a thick dark liquid which is a by-product of the production of coke and coal gas from coal. It is a type of creosote. It has both medical and industrial uses. Medicinally it is a topical medication applied to skin to treat psoria ...

sat under the area. For some 35 years up to 1957, the Ottawa Gas Works had operated a

coal gasification In industrial chemistry, coal gasification is the process of producing syngas—a mixture consisting primarily of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (), carbon dioxide (), methane (), and water vapour ()—from coal and water, air and/or oxygen. H ...

plant in the area and had produced this byproduct. This began many months long arguments with the various levels of government, the landowners, and the residents. Eventually, a major cleaning operation was launched costing some $12 million. The current road of Lees Avenue runs from Main Street in the west to where it crosses over the Queensway when it becomes King Edward Avenue. It is a moderately used

collector road A collector road or distributor road is a low-to-moderate-capacity road which serves to move traffic from local streets to arterial roads. Unlike arterials, collector roads are designed to provide access to residential properties. Rarely, juris ...

serving the local community. Lees originally turned into Chapel Street but was realigned in 1993 to turn into King Edward. The original Lees Ave cross over the train tracks (now Queensway) went straight to the edge of the Rideau River. Although just like other streets during the construction of the Queensway. Originally it got split and the northern part of Lees Ave could be accessed via Robinson Ave. As of April 10, 2017 the northern section was renamed to Robinson Ave.

References

{{authority control Neighbourhoods in Ottawa

See also

References