University of Ottawa

Photo by Alan L Brown - June 30, 2005

Photo by Matthew Hoskin

Plaque Location

The City of Ottawa
On the north side of Laurier Avenue East between Waller Street and Cumberland Street

Plaque Text

This institution was established in 1848 by Bishop Joseph-Eugene Guigues and placed under the direction of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Incorporated by Act of Parliament on May 30, 1849 as the College of Bytown, it occupied a three-storey frame building in the garden of the Episcopal Palace. Renamed "College of Ottawa" in 1861, it received university status five years later, and was decreed a pontifical university by the Pope Leo XIII in 1889. The college, which has occupied its present site since 1856, was destroyed by fire on Dec 2, 1902, but quickly rebuilt. Administrative control of this, Canada's first bilingual university, was transferred in 1965 from the Oblates to a board of governors.