By Elizabeth Gibb
There were frequent smallpox epidemics in Ottawa in the late 1800s. The Sisters of Charity (also called the Grey Nuns) cared for the victims clandestinely in the former typhus hospital that was still standing in the courtyard of the motherhouse at Sussex and Bruyère.
It was called Hospice Ste-Anne so as not to alarm the people in the neighbourhood. The old building was in danger of collapsing. It had to be replaced with a structure spacious enough to accommodate cases of other infectious diseases as well. In 1871 Sister
Bruyère had approved a project of the municipal Board of Health to establish a hospital specializing in the treatment of contagious diseases. Bishop Duhamel donated the land on the site of the former Catholic cemetery at 95 Cobourg Street (between Heney and Tormey). The four earlier cemeteries on the sandy hill–Catholic, Wesleyan Methodist, Presbyterian, and Anglican–had closed in 1872, so isolation from the neighbours was possible.
The residents of the area did not see it the same way, however. On 8 July 1875, in the Ottawa Citizen, Dr. Hamnet Hill, consulting physician at the nearby Protestant General Hospital, gave the opinion that “[T]here is no danger to the people of Sandy Hill in the Nuns erecting a smallpox hospital in the vicinity.
The neighbourhood is unnecessarily alarmed.” Two policemen were deployed to the building site to prevent threatened disturbances. After an unsuccessful attempt was made to blow up the building on 14 July 1875, the Citizen claimed, “No further sapping and mining operations have been tried. Building remains status quo.” A later attempt to burn down the building resulted in damage of $500 and a delay in construction.
Hospice Ste-Anne was not completed until January 1880, when again residents protested against the construction of the hospital on lands originally designated for cemetery purposes only.
Finally, on 21 January 1880, a three-storey hospital, 30 by 40 feet, opened its doors to victims of contagious diseases. It was situated on Lot four of the seven lots formerly occupied by the Roman Catholic Cemetery. The property was approximately 67 by 200 feet. Dr. Adolphe Robillard was named medical director of the new Hospice Ste-Anne. English-speaking physicians in the area willingly collaborated in this new charitable venture. During the same year, in his inaugural address, the recently elected mayor of Ottawa stated that “above all, however, I am not alone in holding the opinion, our duty will be, if possible, to remove the smallpox hospitals to some isolated district, to erect a commodious building…”
Between 1880 and 1895, the nuns recorded that they cared for 936 patients. Hospice Ste-Anne remained open until December 14 1903, the year after the municipal Isolation Hospital opened
near Strathcona Park on Range Road. The hospice building remained at 95 Cobourg Street until 1910. City Council paid $500 to Sister Demers for all claims on the former Catholic Contagious Hospital, although the value of the building and property was $7,000 according to the 1895 assessment roll. Sister Demers was allowed to keep possession of the building until 31 March and the order to clear the old Sandy Hill Cemeteries was approved by Council in May 1910.
Elizabeth Gibb is a resident of Macdonald Gardens and author of the 2017 booklet that provided a historical perspective on Macdonald Gardens Park.