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Sandy Hill | |
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Neighbourhood | |
 Embassy Row on Range Road | |
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  Sandy Hill Location of Sandy Hill in Ottawa | |
| Coordinates:45°25′30″N75°40′30″W / 45.42500°N 75.67500°W /45.42500; -75.67500 | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Ontario |
| City | Ottawa |
| Government | |
| • MPs | Mona Fortier |
| • MPPs | Lucille Collard |
| • Councillors | Stéphanie Plante |
| Elevation | 70 m (230 ft) |
| Population (2011) | |
• Total | 12,490 |
| Canada 2011 Census | |
| Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) |
Sandy Hill (French:Côte-de-Sable) is a neighbourhood inOttawa,Ontario, located just east of downtown. The neighbourhood is bordered on the west by theRideau Canal, and on the east by theRideau River. To the north it stretches toRideau Street and theByward Market area while to the south it is bordered by theQueensway highway andNicholas Street. The area is named for its hilliness, caused by the river, and its sandy soil, which makes it difficult to erect large buildings.[1] It is home to a number of embassies, residences and parks.Le Cordon Bleu operates its Canadian school there, at the opposite end of Sandy Hill from theUniversity of Ottawa.
According to the2011 Canadian Census, the population of Sandy Hill was 12,490.[2]
Sandy Hill was, during the nineteenth and early twentieth century, Ottawa's wealthiest neighbourhood. Originally the estate ofLouis-Théodore Besserer,who donated part of this land toUniversity of Ottawa, it was subdivided andbecame home to most of Ottawa'slumber barons. When Ottawa became the country's capital, it became home to senior public servants and to thePrime Minister who lived at Stadacona Hall and later at what is now known asLaurier House.
The construction of bridges over the canal and the introduction ofautomobiles andstreetcars made the area much more accessible to downtown, and it began to decline as the very wealthy moved toRockcliffe Park. The neighbourhood became much denser and moremiddle class. It was predominantly francophone, and the 1960sRadio-Canada television network drama "La Côte de Sable" was set there, to this day one of the network's only drama set outside Quebec.
The area saw much growth at the end of theSecond World War as thebaby boom increased the population and the nearby federal government began hiring. Many of the once grand mansions becameembassies. Many nations still have their embassies in Sandy Hill, including those ofRussia and of manyAfrican nations, which are clustered near the Rideau River. Its population dropped by 30% in the '60s and '70s as families fled the dismal urban planning. Currently, there are many students living in the area due to its proximity to the University of Ottawa.
Unusual among modern urban neighbourhoods, Sandy Hill demographics change dramatically within a few blocks. Very wealthy people live near the embassies of the Rideau River, but closer to the university, one finds more students, senior citizens, and new immigrants with more diversified income levels. Housing in the western end of Sandy Hill includes boarding houses, student rental housing, modest privately owned homes and cooperative housing. For example, on Henderson Avenue, a historically Irish working-class sector of Sandy Hill, there are two Housing Cooperatives: Sandy Hill Housing Co-op and St. Georges Housing Cooperative / la Coopérative d'habitation St Georges, a bilingual, multicultural coop, with residents who come from Canada, with neighbours newly arrived from Ghana, DR Congo, Morocco, Rwanda, Burundi, Poland and several Middle Eastern countries. These Coops not only provided attractive low-rise multi-housing mixed income communities but also contributed to the restoration of the heritage homes on this street and won awards for their contribution to Sandy Hill's heritage restoration.
The Sandy Hill area is split about equally between theEnglish speaking and thefrancophone population, with large communities fromSomalia,Lebanon, andHaiti. The area is very close to downtown, especially to theRideau Centre, a large downtown shopping mall. The area is well served bymass transit and O-Train Line 1 serves the University of Ottawa
Sandy Hill is often divided into four areas. North Sandy Hill consists of the area north ofLaurier Avenue. This part of the neighbourhood is much older with many of its buildings dating from the nineteenth century. The area is subject to the influences of more recent developments on the thoroughfare ofRideau Street. South of Laurier is South Sandy Hill largely built after theSecond World War, though there are a number of much older structures. The far south of neighbourhood below Mann Avenue is an area known as Strathcona Heights. This area is much smaller geographically than the other two but is as densely populated. It consists almost entirely of low-rise apartment buildings that are either subsidised housing or co-operatives. This area was completely redeveloped in the early 1990s. The area below the Strathcona Heights escarpment, near the Rideau River, is known as Robinson village. It was cut off from other neighbourhoods when highways were built, and contains low-rise houses and light industrial uses.
By virtue of its proximity to Parliament Hill, many past residents of Sandy Hill have been politicians.
The large homes built by the lumber barons are today popular locations for embassies and many countries are represented in the neighbourhood:
Places adjacent to Sandy Hill, Ottawa | |
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