Former Hintonburg Pumphouse built in 1899, now open to public

The former Hintonburg Pumphouse has reopened as a public space, after the city restored the ruins. CTV’s Peter Szperling reports.

A part of Ottawa’s history is now accessible as a public space.

The city has restored and preserved the ruins of the former Hintonburg Pumphouse and revitalized surrounding areas, making it accessible for visitors.

Located on the Ottawa River at 5 Onigam Street between the Ottawa River Parkway and the bridge that accesses Lemieux Island, the site was officially unveiled Thursday morning.

“To see it rehabilitated in this way and to create an environment where families can come, where people can come on foot, on their bikes, it’s just really great,” Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe told CTV News.

“It’s going to be great for this community.”

The 1899 city-owned, heritage-designated building was destroyed by fire in 1989 and remained in ruins, according to the city.

“It’s very important for us to have more publicly accessible recreational spaces that also really demonstrate the importance of our culture and this is a very important site in terms of our heritage as a city,” says Coun. Rawlson King, who is also the Chair of the Built Heritage Committee.

“It’s very important to emphasize that we need to make more investments like this into our city so that people can really, firstly, enjoy the riverfront, which is so important, but also, have access to our cultural heritage,” says King.

According to King, the project had allocated $2.2 million for the restoration.

“This has been about five years of work from the time that it was first proposed, and it went through a big public consultation,” says area Coun. Jeff Leiper.

“This space really gives Ottawa great reasons to visit the river again.”

“There are picnic tables, there’s a lawn, there’s this great boardwalk that we’re standing on. I expect that a lot of people are simply going to want to come and bring a lunch, eat, enjoy, an early dinner, things like that,” adds Leiper.

One of the first visitors to the site was a family who happened to be out for a walk past the site.

“It’s very cool that they’re doing it now and it gets to show a lot more history,” says Lilly Wilbur.

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