Bells Corners - History

History

The community owes its existence to its location on the Richmond Road midway between Richmond Landing near Bytown (now Ottawa) and the military settlement at Richmond, at the junction with the concession road leading west to the Hazeldean neighbourhood in neighbouring Goulbourn Township. It was also the junction between Richmond Road and the "base line" which was the boundary road between concessions on the Ottawa front and those on the Rideau front. Hence, the plural "Corners". It was named after Hugh Bell, who owned a tavern on the site of the present day Bells Corners Public School from 1834 to 1863. Prior to that it was known locally as just "the Corners", but when the first post office opened on August 6, 1851 it had to adopt a formal name and became Bell's Corners. Today it is most commonly spelled without the apostrophe.

In 1850, Bells Corners became part of Nepean Township, Carleton County. In 1866, the 43rd Battalion of Infantry (otherwise known as the Carleton Blazers) was formed in Bells Corners with companies in many of the surrounding communities and absorbed Ottawa's volunteer rifle company. Most of Bells Corners was destroyed by fire in August 1870.

The oldest buildings in Bells Corners are Al's Steakhouse, formerly Hartin's Hotel, built after the fire in 1870 on the site of Robert Malcomson's Tavern (David Hartin was married to Robert Malcomson's daughter Sarah); and, The Spa which occupies the old Drummond Methodist Church built in 1898. This church used stone from the old Union Church (now the site of the Bells Corners Union Cemetery on Richmond Road) built in 1853 and the only building in Bells Corners to survive the fire of 1870.

Some notable residents of the time:

• Robert Malcomson - tavern owner
• Hugh Bell - tavern owner
• George Arnold - postmaster and owner of Arnold's General Store
• David Hartin - hotel owner
• John Robertson - general store owner
• Robert Moodie - tavern owner

In 1950, Ottawa annexed the main urban areas of Nepean Township including Westboro, where the town offices were located. A new town hall was then built in Bells Corners at the intersection of Richmond and Robertson Roads, which was used from 1966 to the late 1980s, when a new Nepean city hall was built at Centrepointe. The City of Nepean was finally amalgamated with 10 other municipalities into the City of Ottawa in 2001.