It’s the east-west street with no sign to name it coming off of Bell Street North, between Arlington and Gladstone avenues.
A massive apartment building of peeling white paint and pigeon roosts marks the turn.
This is Louisa Street, and like most roads that run near Ottawa’s main highway, it has a fractured feeling to it.
Louisa lies close to the roar of the Queensway. There are bursts of noise coming from an auto shop behind a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire.
The sidewalk slopes down past a mishmash of building styles towards Booth Street, reaching a townhouse development and its parking lot.
The last leg of the road is a tiny residential inlet accessible only from Preston Street. It runs up to the rail tracks and stops dead.
Despite its short length, Louisa was once parceled into three distinct sections, all with different identities. From the railroad to Preston was William Street. Joseph Street came next, stopping at today’s Booth Street. The last leg up to Bell Street North was known as Margaret Street. In 1926, Margaret was renamed Louisa, and in 1950 all three sections were amalgamated under the name Louisa.
The route’s namesake is Princess Louise – christened Louisa Carolina Alberta – the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria. She spent three years in Ottawa during the appointment of her husband – the Marquis of Lorne — as Canada’s governor general from 1878-1883.
Homesick Princess Louise wasn’t fond of Ottawa’s snow and cold, though, and was even injured when the sleigh she was riding in overturned, caught her earring and tore her earlobe in half.
The province of Alberta and its Lake Louise are also named after the princess, widely regarded as Queen Victoria’s most elegant daughter.