The group behind a proposed national monument to mark the Ottawa origins of the Stanley Cup is preparing to announce that the commemorative statue will be erected at a “prominent Centretown location” after the original plan to use a site at the corner of Rideau Street and Sussex Drive was recently rejected.
A press conference to reveal the proposed new location of the hockey landmark is scheduled for March 18, Centretown News has learned.
And according to officials with the Lord Stanley Memorial Monument Inc., the driving force behind the project, the planned monument will be moving westward to a new location because of jurisdictional complications at the Rideau-Sussex site.
It had emerged as the leading contender after advocates began searching for an approved site in 2009.
“It was just clear that the site wasn’t going to work,” George Hunter, a member of the group’s board of directors, said of the Rideau-Sussex location.
“The city has plans to do a number of engineering tests for an upcoming traffic reconfiguration,” he says.
That intersection fell under the dual jurisdiction of the NCC and City of Ottawa and was rejected over what appears to be prolonged bureaucratic wrangling.
As NCC spokesperson Denise LeBlanc recently told Centretown News, “in the process of designing a commemoration, what is really important is that the artist designs it for the site and location they are working with.”
Height restrictions must be met, infrastructure and zoning issues dealt with, and federal and provincial permits acquired.
According to Ottawa hockey historian Paul Kitchen, originator of the project, the group does not plan to unveil the statue until 2017.
“The year 2017 is of great significance,” Kitchen says. “First, it will be the 150th anniversary of Confederation. Second, it will mark the 125th anniversary of the dedication of the cup itself, and third, it marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the NHL.”
The statue, categorized by the NCC as an “order one monument,” may cost up to $7 million.
What the statue will look like has not been determined.
But Murray Costello, former president of Hockey Canada and a Lord Stanley board member, hopes the monument will “capture the moment in time when the Stanley Cup was first announced” by the governor general.
Kitchen agrees.
“It should appeal to people who like hockey, people who like history, and people who can just appreciate beautiful objects.”
On March 18, 1892, the Ottawa Hockey Club was crowned champion team of Canada.
While celebrating the victory at the former Russell Hotel, located in the present-day Confederation Square near the corner of Sparks and Elgin streets, a note arrived from Lord Stanley of Preston, Canada’s vice-regal representative at the time.
“There does not appear to be any such outward sign of a championship at present,” the message read. “Thus, I am willing to give a cup, which shall be held from year to year by the winning team.”
It was at that precise moment, more than 120 years ago, that the Stanley Cup was born.