Constructed: 1873 - 1874
Architect: Recorded as "Mr. Hudson"
Location: 70 Nicholas Street, Ottawa
The City Registry Office formed part of the 19th-century judicial precinct, which included the Carleton County Courthouse, Registry Office and Gaol. The architect, recorded as “Mr. Hudson,” likely followed the prototypical building plan prepared in 1868 by Kivas Tully, Ontario’s first Provincial Architect and Engineer.
Conveniently located across from the Courthouse, the Registry Office housed important property deeds, lot surveys, mortgages and land instruments, while providing retrieval and transcription services to the public.
The Ottawa Registry Office’s classical temple massing gives the small-sized building its solid appearance. Pleasantly proportioned, the cut stone trimmed buff brick walls, round-headed windows and door arches with rusticated quoins and elaborate joined chimney stack (since partially removed and capped) contribute to its dignified presence.
In the interior, three brick barrel-vaulted spaces define the public, administrative and storage functions. Solid iron doors and iron window bars and shutters protected the documents from fire. The heavy ledger books were on movable cases that ran in iron tracks set in the stone floor. To secure the building against theft from tunnelling, the stone foundations extend 4 metres into the ground.
In need of larger quarters, the registry office moved to a new building on Elgin Street in 1909. The Nicholas Street building was eventually leased to the Women’s Canadian Historical Society of Ottawa in 1917, which operated the Bytown and Ottawa Historical Museum there from 1926 until 1951 when the society moved to larger quarters in the Commissariat, now the Bytown Museum.
During that time, in 1935, the City sold the registry office to the federal government.
The Registry Office was later occupied by the Ottawa Tourist and Convention Centre from 1954 to 1966. Several short-term leases followed, including the Youth Drop-In Centre, the New Canadian Services and the Federation of Citizens’Associations.
HERITAGE DESIGNATION
Recognizing the significance of the building to the city’s history, City Council designated the City Registry Office under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act in 1978 and added a Heritage Overlay on the property.
In 1980 the building was left vacant, and remains vacant to this day.* The City Registry Office was acquired in the 1990s by Viking-Rideau Corporation (developer and former owner of the Rideau Centre) as part of a land-exchange deal with Public Works and Government Services Canada. The arrangement, however, included no commitment to preserve the designated City Registry Office.
Over the years Heritage Ottawa has worked to raise awareness about the need to preserve the City Registry Office by adapting it to a new use. Members have researched the building’s history and condition, produced media handouts, and staffed the building during “Doors Open Ottawa” when the owner has agreed to open it to the public.
Discussions with Viking-Rideau included the possibility of moving the City Registry Office to another site, or incorporating it in an expansion of the Rideau Centre. Heritage Ottawa favoured the latter proposal and lobbied the City to make retention of the Registry Office a condition of municipal financial support for any expansion of the Rideau Centre/Congress Centre.
In a 2003 letter to the mayor, then Heritage Ottawa President David Flemming wrote:
“The Old Registry Office … is a stunning example of a 19th century land registry office and is one of only four of its kind still remaining in Ontario.”
By 2013, the new owner, Cadillac Fairview, launched a Rideau Centre Revitalization project and used the Registry Office as a construction office. Four years later, the owner invested in some restoration work, repointing the exterior brick mortar and stabilizing the chimney.
Despite ongoing efforts, the City Registry Office remains vacant and at risk of demolition by neglect as of this writing in 2017.
Heritage Ottawa actively advocates against demolition by neglect, a major issue in the preservation of heritage properties, and will continue to advocate for adaptive reuse of the City Registry Office.
*UPDATE
In 2021, Cadillac Fairview announced plans to develop the site with a 21-storey mixed-use high-rise apartment building and two-level underground parking garage, which will involve relocating the Registry Office further north on the site to integrate it into the new development. The building's revitalization is being overseen by heritage architect consultant Barry Padolsky. Heritage Ottawa supported the investment in the historic building, which will see it adapted to a new use allowing public access to the building for the first time in over 35 years.
On September 21, 2022, City Council approved the recommendation of the Built Heritage Sub-Committee and Planning Committee to amend the zoning by-law for 70 and 74 Nicholas Street to permit the construction of the mixed-use building and the incorporation of the Registry Office, which remains a designated heritage building.
UPDATES | Related Reading:
Historic City Registry Office Building Moves to New Location | Heritage Ottawa, July 21, 2023
How Do you Move a 149 year old Building? Very Slowly | CBC Ottawa, July 23, 2023
Historic City Registry Office to Gain New Life as Bistro as Part of Residential Development | Ottawa Citizen, December 6, 2022