Looking north down the Booth Street street-car line in 1954.
Crossing the Chaudiere Bridge from Gatineau, Booth Street greets those who enter Ottawa from the Quebec side of the Ottawa River.
The long stretch of road passes by the Canadian War Museum on LeBreton Flats. The street is lined by tightly packed homes and features frequent intersections. Chinatown and Little Italy leave their mark, making Booth Street a kind of cultural crossroads. Parallel to Bronson Avenue, the frequently congested, north-south Booth runs the full length of Centretown’s west side.
Formerly known as Bridge Street, Booth Street gets its name from Ottawa’s 19th-century lumber king, J.R. Booth. After moving to Bytown from Quebec in the mid-1850s, Booth began to shape the local economy and the city’s development at a rapid rate. During his many years in the area, the self-starter built Canada’s largest mill as well as many lumber yards and railway lines to facilitate his business.
Booth was known for his frugal nature and his refusal to put on airs despite the status he acquired. He even declined to attend the wedding of his granddaughter to Prince Erik of Denmark because of his dislike of publicity. However, he was also known as a fair and generous man who worked hard for the duration of his life. He died in 1925 at the age of 99, outliving five of his eight children.
A man who came to Ottawa with only $9 in his pocket and grew to such success, Booth may be an appropriate namesake for a street where many of Ottawa’s immigrants get their start. Having seen events from the Great Fire of 1900 to the current developments on LeBreton Flats, Booth Street is truly engrained in Ottawa’s past and present.