The Heritage Building is today part of Ottawa City Hall. It was originally built in 1874 as Ottawa Normal School and served as a teacher's college. The Gothic Revival building stands at Elgin Street and Lisgar and several extensions were added to the rear of the building.
It was part of Ontario's normal school system of teacher's colleges that had been set up by Egerton Ryerson. When Ryerson's system was replaced by a more modern system it was renamed the Ottawa Teacher's College in 1953. In the 1960s it was decided that Ontario's teacher's colleges should be merged into universities and the teacher's college was merged into the Faculty of Education of the University of Ottawa in 1974. Four years later the building was closed and the building was sold to the federal government.
In 1986 it was purchased by the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton, to serve as part of a new RMOC headquarters. To the north of the college the main building of the new RMOC building was erected and links were created to the old school, which was re named the Heritage Building. With the creation of the new city of Ottawa in 2000 the building became part of Ottawa City Hall. The mayor has his office in this building, overlooking Elgin Street.
Famous quotes containing the words normal and/or school:
“Everyone in the full enjoyment of all the blessings of his life, in his normal condition, feels some individual responsibility for the poverty of others. When the sympathies are not blunted by any false philosophy, one feels reproached by one’s own abundance.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“I’m tired of playing worn-out depressing ladies in frayed bathrobes. I’m going to get a new hairdo and look terrific and go back to school and even if nobody notices, I’m going to be the most self-fulfilled lady on the block.”
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