Catherine Street runs east to west at the south end of downtown Ottawa, providing access to the Queensway and – as a result – is typically filled with a steady flow of traffic.
he person for whom it was named, Catherine K. Stewart, has quietly faded into history. Little is known about her, other than the fact that she was the wife of lumber baron William Stewart and the mother of their six children.
William Stewart was a Scottish immigrant, born on the Isle of Skye in 1803. His family immigrated to Upper Canada in 1816. He was influential in the early days of Ottawa, a businessman who bought much of the city of Nepean from Nicholas Sparks in 1827. Stewart was elected as an MP for the township of Russell. A leading figure in the timber trade on the Ottawa River and a member of the Ottawa Lumber Association, he also helped found the Ottawa Civic Hospital (which was first under the name Carleton General Protestant Hospital) and ran a store and tavern in Bytown.
The street named for his wife is home to the Greyhound bus station, the Canadian Real Estate Association, Kent Bowling Lanes and the Ottawa Police Station. It is lined with warehouses, industrial lots, offices and some residential homes.