| Bells Corners | |
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| — Community — | |
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Bells Corners
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Ontario |
| Municipality | Ottawa |
| Bell's Corners | August 6, 1851 |
| Nepean Township | 1792 (Incorporated 1850) |
| Amalgamated | 2001 (City of Ottawa) |
| Named for | Hugh Bell |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Jim Watson |
| • MP | Pierre Poilievre |
| • MPP | Lisa MacLeod |
| • City Councillor | Rick Chiarelli |
| Area | |
| • Total | 4.67 km2 (1.80 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 90 m (295 ft) |
| Population (2006) | |
| • Total | 9,799 |
| • Density | 2,098/km2 (5,444/sq mi) |
| Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| Postal code span | K2H |
| Area code(s) | 613, 343 |
Bells Corners is a suburban community in the city of Ottawa, Canada. As of the Canada 2006 Census, it had a population of 9,799.[1][2]
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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.[3] Prior to that it was known locally as just "the Corners", but when the first post office opened on August 6, 1851[4] it had to adopt a formal name and became Bell's Corners.[5] 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.[6] Most of Bells Corners was destroyed by fire in August 1870.[7][8]
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.[9]
Some notable residents of the time:
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.
Once a rural community with many dairy farms, Bells Corners is now a residential, commercial and industrial island surrounded by greenbelt, woods and farmland. For a time Bells Corners was a hi-tech area and home to such Canadian technology icons as Computing Devices Canada, the Ottawa-based defence electronics company (bought by General Dynamics), which blazed the trail for later defence technology firms in what would become known as Silicon Valley North in neighbouring Kanata.
Many of the houses in Bells Corners are in a neighbourhood called Lynwood Village (Bells Corners East), built in the late fifties and early sixties. It is one of the first examples of tract housing in Ottawa. The first area to be developed was Stinson Avenue in 1950. This was followed by Arbeatha Park in 1955-58, and then Lynwood Village proper in 1958-62. In the fifties Nepean had acknowledged the rights of property owners to subdivide their land for housing but usually individual lots were sold to small builders. In Lynwood Village, land speculators Lloyd Francis and Donald Sim had assembled a vast tract of land. In 1958, they brought in Bill Teron to build the entire subdivision. By 1960, four hundred families lived in Teron's bungalows; another four hundred homes were built in 1961. Many more were built in 1962. The last area of Lynwood to be developed was the area bounded by Richmond, Robertson, and Moodie Drive in 1966. Today there are over 1700 homes in the Lynwood area.[13]
The magnitude of the shift to tract housing is demonstrated by the fact that most of the subdivisions built in Ottawa during the rest of the sixties were the work of three large firms (Minto, Campeau and Assaly/Johannsen).
To the west of Lynwood Village is Westcliffe Estates (Bells Corners West), founded in 1969, it is a growing community of over 2000[14] homes. Assaly Construction and later the Thomas C. Assaly Corporation built most of the older (1969–76) homes in this area. The Westcliffe community is characterized by significantly higher residential densities than other parts of Bells Corners. There is a multi-storey housing complex operated by Nepean Housing as well as a multi-storey senior's residence and a co-operative housing project. The Terrace Drive/Mill Hill area of Westcliffe Estates was developed in 1986.
Bells Corners has a reputation as a retirement community, hosting three retirement homes in Lynwood Village and another in Westcliffe Estates.
Bells Corners is also the home of Bellwood Estates (formerly the Bellwood Mobile Home Park), consisting of 256 homes. The park was established in 1959 By Ken Hughes. It is now owned and operated by Parkbridge Lifestyle Communities.
Major roads which either serve or border Bells Corners include:
Bells Corners has a tennis club, the Lynwood Park Tennis Club, which manages the courts for the City of Ottawa. The Valleystream Tennis Club is located nearby on Richmond Road. Bell Centennial arena and two seasonal outdoor rinks provide facilities for skating and ice hockey. The arena is also used for lacrosse in the summer. There is an outdoor public swimming pool at Entrance Park in Lynwood and numerous soccer, football, baseball, softball and play areas in the nine public parks in the community.
The City of Ottawa partners with not-for-profit community associations to provide a variety of programs and services in recreation, arts and culture, and sports.[15] Three such associations have been formed within Bells Corners - the Westcliffe Estates Community Association, the Lynwood Village Community Association, and the Arbeatha Park Community Association. In Bellwood Estates there is a homeowners association that represents the interests of tenants of the mobile home park.
Although many bicycle paths exist to the east, west, and north of the community, they do not connect to each other and cycling on the major thoroughfares (Robertson, Richmond, and Moodie) through the community can be particularly hazardous. Pedestrians do not fare much better, as most of the community has no sidewalks.
Effective 4 September 2011, public transit service to Bells Corners is also being reduced[16] as OC Transpo eliminates many suburban routes.
However, for the summer of 2011 an innovative new bicycle taxi service has been introduced within the community.[17]
There are five schools in Bells Corners - a public and a Catholic elementary school, a public intermediate school, and a public and a French Catholic high school. Most students, unless they live quite close, take a bus to get to school.
Ottawa-Carleton District School Board
Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est
There are four churches and a mosque in Bells Corners. A new mosque is under construction and will replace the existing one.
Bells Corners is probably best known for the commercial strip along Richmond and Robertson Roads, which is dominated by car-oriented retail uses, gas stations, restaurants, strip malls, shopping plazas, and automobile dealers. In 2009, the City of Ottawa designated the strip a Business Improvement Area under the Ontario Municipal Act.[18] Because of the residential development in neighbouring Kanata to the west, the strip is now a major thoroughfare for residents travelling to and from work within the city centre to the east. The amount of daily traffic, particularly during rush hour, can cause serious traffic congestion in Bells Corners. To the north of these roads lie the majority of commercial and industrial businesses, with most residential real estate located to the south. It is now proposed to build high-rise condominiums on this strip.[19] Recently there was some considerable controversy over renaming Richmond and Robertson Roads. In the end it was decided to keep the Robertson name for both. The change will take effect in 2012.
Bells Corners is an island, surrounded by Greenbelt and farmland. The area of the Greenbelt around Bells Corners is known as the Stony Swamp Conservation Area. It is the largest forested area of the Greenbelt and has a great diversity of trails with interpretive exhibits on the geology and natural history of the area.[20] Those, combined with the many trails that lead from Bells Corners through other natural areas, such as the Trans Canada Trail and the Rideau Trail, provide it with a wide diversity of urban wildlife. Squirrels, snowshoe hares, raccoons, skunks, chipmunks, groundhogs, beaver, and foxes are all native inhabitants. A large deer population makes the Greenbelt home but they can often be found roaming streets and yards at night. Black bears have been sighted,[21] as well as coyotes. There have been unconfirmed reports of a wolf in the area just to the west of Westcliffe Estates.
In 2010, Bells Corners was the location for the feature-length film Going Thru a Thing produced and directed by former Bells Corners resident Jo Marr.[22]