Moving to: Westboro

Westboro is a thriving community with a lively street scene. Several condominium projects are encouraging densification and promising to bring more people to the neighbourhood.

The neighbourhood got its start in the late nineteenth century, when published flyers proclaimed, 'Move to Westboro,' and offered prospective residents 'views of the Laurentian Mountains.' This slightly creative name for the distant geological formation along the Eardley escarpment is now better known as the Gatineau Hills, which are visible across the Ottawa River.

Nineteenth-century descriptions of the neighbourhood refer to its location along the Macadam Road to Bells Corners. That road is now known as Richmond Road, and where it slices through Westboro it is the commercial heart of the village-like neighbourhood, once the centre of the old Nepean Township. The old Town Hall on Richmond Road once housed the bell that later became the symbol of the former city of Nepean, now a part of the city of Ottawa, Ontario. The Maplelawn Garden, boasting the second oldest building in Ottawa (built in 1831) and designated a National Historic Site, is located at the western edge of the village.

The other prominent street in Westboro Village is Churchill Avenue, which was known as Main Street but was renamed in honour of Winston Churchill following World War II. A few blocks to the west, another street was originally named River Road since it bisected the neighbourhood and led down to the beach on the Ottawa River. That street was renamed Roosevelt Avenue for similar reasons post-WW II. Westboro's integration into Ottawa, which already had streets named River Road and Main Street, also prompted the street renaming. Westboro existed as a police village from 1903 until 1949 when Ottawa annexed it. An Ottawa streetcar line ran along what is now a narrow grass park along Byron Avenue, bringing Ottawa residents to an area once considered cottage country. Many cottage-like residences still exist today, especially by the Ottawa River north of Scott Street. Most houses in Westboro were built between 1900 and 1960. 71% of the houses are detached.