By Julia Morton
An old, converted mansion on O’Connor Street across from the YMCA houses the Ottawa Curling Club, a club older than this country.
“This club has a lot of history,” says former president and avid curler Gord Perry with a wave around the room. With the new season started in September and a membership of over 400, another chapter in this club’s history is about to be written. Photos spill off of every wall. They show former members, players and presidents. One is even of Perry’s own father, also a one-time president of the club. Perry, now in his late middle-age, has been curling here since the age of 13. The history of the club is evident everywhere you look in plaques and pictures documenting 154 years of curling and camaraderie.
The club’s former life as a grand house is also evident with its large old-fashioned staircase and wide hallways. Walking through the club’s dark and wooden rooms there is a modern, shining curling facility beyond a glass viewing wall. The ice rink was added after the club moved to this location in 1914. It has the capacity to hold five games at once.
“There are four players per team, and each player throws two stones,” explains Perry, moving over to a table in the banquet hall with a ‘house’ decal on the middle. The house is the target-like design at the end of the ice and the red spot in the centre in curling talk is the button.
“You can’t throw a curling rock straight,” Perry explains, “That’s where the name curling comes from.” The stones, he says, each weigh 40 pounds and are made of granite. When you throw them, they move in a curve with the intended goal of landing on the button.
Gayle Greene, the club’s current president, says curling is a sport that requires “practice and dedication” which is why they encourage their youngest curlers, aged seven to 12, the ‘little rocks,’ to practice regularly. “That’s the future of curling,” says Greene.
As important as the future is to this club, its rich history cannot help but come up. Sandra Chisholm, the club’s first female president, held the title in the early 1990s.
“Women weren’t even allowed in until 1957,” says Chisholm, “they had a separate entrance just to come in and watch the games!”
Laurie Gasior, a new club member, won’t likely have this problem as the club boasts a variety of women’s and mixed leagues. She says she recently moved to Centretown from Saskatchewan and is no stranger to the game. She chose the Ottawa Curling Club for both its location and the positive response she got when she first contacted the club.
Gasior has joined two of the club’s leagues which range from the highly competitive to the very social and completely recreational.
“This is a very social club,” Perry says. “This is a very social game,” interjects Chisholm.
“Well, we do have very good parties,” confides Perry. Even visitors to the club are greeted warmly. They are sometimes whisked into the banquet hall and handed a drink by a smiling bartender.
Donalee Anderson, a longtime club member and avid curler, says “I enjoy the sport, I could go elsewhere to curl, but I love the people here. I have a loyalty.”