Soeurs de la Visitation Monastery - Ottawa, Ontario - Abbeys, Convents and Monasteries on Waymarking.com

The Soeurs de la Visitation d'Ottawa Monastery consists of a convent building sited within four acres of carefully tended grounds, and enclosed on its perimeter by walls and mature vegetation. The building is comprised of two parts, a Gothic Revival house built in 1864-1865 and four additional wings completed in 1913 to transform the structure into a monastery. Its cultural heritage value lies in its being an excellent example of both an 1860s Gothic Revival House and an early 20' century monastery. The complex has historical value for its association with James Skead (owner 1889 until his death on 1884), whose widow lived there until 1887), a lumberman, senator, Ottawa booster and founder of Skead's Mills and George Holland; (owner 1887-1910), a successful publisher and innovator, and with the Soeurs de la Visitation d'Ottawa. It is also a rare surviving example of a property that housed a cloistered religious community for over 100 years and functioned as a self-sustaining entity for much of that time.

The original house portion of the monastery strncture was built in 1864-1865. James Dyke, a local merchant, is thought to have built the house prior to selling the property to George Eaton, a gentleman farmer. It was one of a number of properties built on larger lots laid out along Richmond Road for members of Ottawa's emerging elite class. Features of the house associated with the Gothic Revival style include the steeply pitched gable roof, the dormer and bay windows, gables with bargeboard trim, and stone quoins and voussoirs. The picturesque gardens located at the front ofthe property are also a feature often associated to the Gothic Revival style.

The longest owner of the building prior to its purchase and conversion to a monastery in the century was George Holland, a prominent local newspaperman, and with his brother Andrew, a communications entrepreneur. In 1909 George and Alison Holland sold the entire property to the Soeurs de la Visitation, a cloistered order of nuns founded in Annecy, France in 1610. The order, whose members devote themselves to prayer, established monasteries across Europe in the centuries following its establishment. The Order's founders, St. Francis de Sales and Ste. Jeanne Francois de Chantal, have both been beatified. The nuns moved into the house in 1910 and, by 1913, its conversion to a monastery was complete.,It consists of four wings; arranged around a central courtyard or cloister, a plan followed by the monasteries of medieval Europe, and used for Roman Catholic convents and monasteries around the world. The features of the 1913 wings that express the building's role as a cloistered convent include its inward- facing plan with the wings arranged around a central courtyard or cloister, the tall, two storey construction with regularly spaced rectangular windows, a high basement and an attic lit by spaced dormer windows, the chapel and its associated pointed arch windows, the steeple and the galleries and verandas.

Early on, after its acquisition by the Soeurs de la Visitation, the property was encircled by high walls and vegetation which shielded the monastery from the exterior world. The grounds demonstrate the historic use of the property by the 19'" century owners, including Skeads and Hollands, and by the Soeurs de la Visitation. They comprise, at the front, the picturesque gardens dating from the 19 " century. At the rear of the building, more domestic spaces were initially used for the purposes of communal farming, including a kitchen garden, which sustained the needs of the community. Later this evolved into amore contemplative space, which acted inpart as a burial location for the Order. Like the building, the formal and domestic landscape associated with the monastery is rooted in the traditions of Western European religious architecture.

Reference: (visit link)

Full name of the abbey/monastery/convent: Soeurs de la Visitation Monastery - Monastère des Soeurs de la Visitation Address: 114 Richmond Road Ottawa, Ontario Canada Religious affiliation: Catholique - Catholic Date founded/constructed: 1865 Web Site: [Web Link] Status of Use: Converted to Other Use

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