By Nancy Miller Chenier
On May 21, 2015, Luo Zhaohui, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China, unveiled a commemorative plaque in front of the Chinese Embassy at 515 St. Patrick Street. Set on a stone facing the street, the plaque pays tribute to this magnificent stone building and its role as a Catholic convent until its purchase by the Chinese government in 1972. The building itself stands as a monument to the work of Mother Superior Mary of St. Jerome and the four nuns who came to Ottawa in 1866 at the invitation of Bishop Guigues, Ottawa’s first Roman Catholic Bishop. It continues as part of the history of Ottawa, but also as witness to the history of China-Canada relations.
When these women from the Order of Our Lady of Charity arrived in April 1866, they saw a wooden structure at the end of Park Street (later renamed St. Andrew) surrounded by flood water from the Rideau River. The building located on a former garden site of the Oblates was their temporary shelter until the mid-1870s when, with funds from personal savings, private and religious donations, and a provincial grant, the women built a spacious stone monastery for their cloistered community.
The Gothic-style monastery referred to as the Convent of the Good Shepherd’s was designed by the father and son team of John and James Bowes, architects who were also involved in the design of Canada’s Parliament buildings. Local alderman O.A. Rocque was the contractor for the building, with Mr. Fink as plasterer and Mr. Foisy as stonecutter. Twenty years later, the building was expanded by architect Joseph Simeon Jude Routhier from Montreal to create a larger refuge for women and girls. The convent was rebuilt following a 1938 fire, apparently started by a young resident smoking a prohibited cigarette in her room. Designed by architect Georges Lucien Emile Leblanc, it retained the original structural and architectural style.
The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity and Refuge worked mainly with women who were pregnant and needed support, women who had been abandoned and turned to prostitution, and girls who were in trouble with the law. In the early period, there was an arch built over St. Andrew Street to allow movement to the other side without being accosted by the unruly men who gathered on the street. By 1948, the total population was over 200 women, described as 54 religious and 170 residents.
The residents received religious and other education from the nuns. They also worked in the institution’s laundry and did sewing, weaving and embroidery to raise funds to cover the convent’s costs. In the 1940s, the steam laundry was well used by local neighbours who took items to the convent and by larger institutions that got delivery by truck. This changed in the 1950s, when legal action taken by commercial laundry owners in New Brunswick resulted in a court decision that laundries operated by the Sisters of Good Shepherd were not charities and therefore subject to taxes.
It is possible that this change in tax status affected the financial stability of the institution; combined with a decline in women seeking religious life and with a different approach to female delinquency, this led to the decline of the religious order in Ottawa. However, during the late 1950s and through the 1960s, the nuns continued to operate a school for girls called the Notre-Dame des Victoires. The school had some pupils who lived at the convent during the school term and others who attended by day.
The chief exterior architectural features of this historic building remained relatively unaltered after the Good Shepherd Convent was converted to the chancery of the Chinese Embassy in Canada. The steeple of the chapel was removed and the centre of the building is now the main entrance for visitors. The interior now contains offices and meeting rooms. In 1985, an addition to the east section became the venue for major cultural and diplomatic events. Current construction is reported to be for an underground parking garage with upper levels for various multi-purpose rooms.