Ottawa Mosque, ByTowne Cinema and two churches receive heritage designations

The Bytowne Cinema in Ottawa. (Dave Charbonneau/CTV News Ottawa)

The ByTowne Cinema and the Ottawa Mosque are among the City of Ottawa buildings being added to the city’s list of heritage buildings, but the Archdiocese of Ottawa-Cornwall opposes heritage designations for two churches.

The Built Heritage Committee approved granting heritage status to the église Saint-François-d’Assise on Wellington Street and église Saint-Joseph d’Orléans on St. Joseph Boulevard on Tuesday.

“It is adding an additional burden,” Richard Pommainville, Chief Administrative Officer of the Archdiocese of Ottawa-Cornwall, told the committee.

Église Saint-François-d’Assise on Wellington Street was built between 1913 and 1915. Église Saint-Joseph d’Orléans at 2757 St. Joseph Boulevard was built between 1920 and 1922, while the rectory was constructed in 1891. Staff say the église Saint-François-d’Assise meets seven of nine criteria for heritage designation, while église Saint-Joseph d’Orléans meets seven of the nine criteria.

However, the two congregations and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Ottawa-Cornwall are not supportive of the designations. Pommainville says the Archdiocese and the pastors at both parishes did not ask for the heritage designations.

“The reason why we’re not supporting this designation is fundamentally the overall long-term impact it has. The whole aspect of future-type projects having to go through additional, specific work that has to be done with heritage staff,” Pommainville said.

“While we know that these buildings, we want to maintain them, there’s an additional cost.”

Pommainville says adding a heritage designation to a building without “significant financial support” is adding “a burden” to the owner.

• ByTowne Cinema, Ottawa Mosque could be designated heritage buildings in Ottawa

Councillors approved the new heritage status for the ByTowne Cinema on Rideau Street and the Ottawa Mosque on Northwestern Avenue.

The Ottawa Mosque is one of the earliest purpose-built mosque buildings in Ottawa, built between 1973 and 1979. Staff say the building meets five of the nine criteria for designation.

The report says the Mosque is a “unique and rare expression of a modernist place of worship” as the only “modernist mosque in Ottawa.”

Staff recommended designating the ByTowne Cinema a heritage building, saying it has cultural heritage value for its “design, associative, and contextual values.”

The two-storey building on Rideau Street that houses the ByTowne Cinema was originally constructed as the Nelson Theatre in 1947 and re-opened as the ByTowne Cinema in 1988.

Other buildings to receive heritage designation on Tuesday include The Rothesay Apartments on O’Connor Street and the former Bell Telephone Exchange buildings on Besserer, First Avenue and Eccles Street.