The area was called The Uplands by early settlers - it was one of the first to emerge from the glacial Champlain Sea, which results in a number of unique plant communities in the area, notably at the Leitrim wetland. There is no evidence of any human presence prior to European settlement.
It was officially designated as the Township of Gloucester in 1793. Gloucester became part of the Ottawa District (judicial) and of Carleton County (political) in 1816. Initially, the whole township was granted to Colonel Wm. Fraser. Soon, as elsewhere in Canada, this massive grant was rescinded and a more equitable grant system implemented.
The first real grantee of the land was Captain Andrew Wilson, who built a house called Ossian Hall and welcomed all who arrived by land or river. He held magistrate's court in full Royal Navy uniform, and boasted one of the finest book collections in the area.
When Wilson encountered financial difficulties in 1829, another colourful character, Daniel O'Connor (who named O'Connor Street after himself in a famous deal with Nicholas Sparks) bought the land. O'Connor also became a magistrate, and had to deal with the vicious 'Shiner' Catholic vs. Protestant riots, when he was often accused of bias, being almost the sole Catholic granted power in the Bytown of the time. He died in 1858.
A Historical Atlas of Carleton County, H.Belden &Co. 1879 shows the area under study (outlined in green below) as owned by two heirs of O'Connor.
According to the earliest Gloucester tax rolls, no O'Connor was resident at Ossian Hall over 1860-1879, so his legatees were absentee landlords.
As you can see, in 1879 Donald McCarty held two parcels of land further to the south. His name is spelled both with and without an h at the time. He was granted his first land in 1854; he, together with his father William and older brother John, held a total of 225 acres in the area by 1860. The family name was given to McCarthy Road and hence to the McCarthy Woods.
The Ottawa Hunt Club was established on the land of William Upton. Today's Hunt Club Road is outlined in red above.
Here is the area in 1924 as shown on sheet 31G/5 5th ed. of the Geological Survey of Canada, prior to construction of the CN freight line parallel to the hydro line:
The Southern Corridor began its existence under that name in 1950, with the publication of a Plan for the National Capital by Jacques Gréber. Prepared at the request of Prime Minister Mackenzie King, the plan served as the template for the national capital for the next two generations. One of Gréber's recommendations was for a ring road around the capital (in red below on his master plan), with the land outside it reserved as a rural green belt to limit urban sprawl. The Federal District Commission promptly began to buy land for both, and the City of Ottawa equally promptly annexed the area to implement it.
In the area now known as Hunt Club Woods, the land the FDC bought for the road (in green below) was a bit to the north of Gréber's recommendation. The land was then owned by Margaret J and Kenneth R Dowler, whose ancestors had bought it from the estate of Dr. O'Connor about 1883. The building called Ossian Hall (the square under the Dr. on the Belden map above) seems to have been replaced by a two-story brick building about 1920; its address was 3596 Old Riverside Drive when it in turn was demolished shortly after 1998.
Over the years, various proposals have been made to develop the corridor, but in the area of Hunt Club Woods, it has sat idle since its acquisition in 1953, except for occasional rentals to farmers to harvest field crops and mowing of patches by the National Capital Commission. Here it is in 1973. The River, Bowesville and McCarthy roads still follow their old routes, and the railway spur to Uplands is still visible.
Since 1973, the area south of the corridor has become home to 13 000 people. It was called the Western Community (west of Bank Street) by planners who envisaged it as a complete bedroom community for all age and socio-economic groups - zero employment or shopping anywhere except by car! (There is now a small shopping plaza just to the west of McCarthy Road that residents can walk to.) Although it continues to be a community with almost all interests necessarily elsewhere, a few residents use the corridor on a regular basis, for walking their dogs in particular. As a result, an informal network of paths has grown up, spreading from a number of public access points:
The trail north of the railway is an access road for Ontario Hydro. Very few residents of the older area north of the corridor (Riverside/Mooney's Bay) use the corridor except to extend their back yards; there seems to be no public access.
plans for the corridor
meadow and woods
edges and problems
a year in the meadow
Hunt Club - history of a name
John Sankey
other notes on community matters
I thank Hariette Fried, reference archivist of the City of Ottawa, for generous assistance, and Rhoda Bellamy for access to her unpublished study of the cultural heritage of the area.