1886 Rideau Garden Drive

   Rideau Garden Drive borders the left bank of the Rideau River at the north end of Old Ottawa South. It was one of the last strips of land to be developed in that part of the neighbourhood, just before the George McIlraith Bridge was built.

   Constructed in the early 60s, ads for these 3, 4, and 5 bedroom "deluxe custom homes" began to appear in the late summer of 1962 and continued to run into early 1964. The Rideau Garden Drive development featured an assortment of period houses including low-slung bungalows, some with stylishly integrated garages and carports.  Split-levels like the one in our picture were also trending when Uri Gagarin orbited the earth (once!) and JFK sat in the White House.

   Rideau Garden Drive snakes through the middle of this 1965 aerial view — #1886 is circled in red. The McIlraith Bridge appears as a steel skeleton soon to join Main Street to Smyth Road. Materials from the City of Ottawa state that the bridge was "built" in 1964, but if this geoOttawa view is correctly dated, then '64 was at best the date that construction began.

   If there were any trees along the drive, they would have been "landscaped" saplings, nothing larger. Half a century later, Rideau Garden Drive is graced with many mature trees, blending nicely with the wooded shorline.