Clegg House
Address: no longer standing
Construction date: 1866
The Clegg House, located at the corner of Bay and Queen streets, was built circa 1866 by Captain William T. Clegg. Captain Clegg was a member of Lt.-Col. John By’s Royal Engineers. He worked on the building of the Rideau Canal as an ordinance paymaster, artist and route selector. It is believed that Clegg lived in the house until 1869 after which he moved to live with his daughter, Barbara Noel. The Clegg family retained ownership of the house for several decades.
Clegg House was a solid, 2 ½ storey house and later 2-storey brick addition was added on the west side of the building. The house had a large main floor drawing room, dining room, kitchen and pantry. It was reported to have three fireplaces, nine bedrooms and servants’ quarters, with ten foot ceilings and two-foot thick walls.
In 1911, Clegg House was sold to an Ottawa lawyer, Louis W. Coutlée. Coutlée had distinguished himself during the North-West Rebellion as a Major commanding the Winnipeg Field Battery. In 1969, Clegg House was jointly purchased by William Humphries and St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. The church acquired full ownership in 1974 and operated the house as rental apartments.
Clegg House was threatened in 1978 as the church wanted to expand their parking lot. To do so they considered its demolition, and even evicted the tenants.
In June 1979, the City Council designated Clegg House under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act and turned down the church’s application for a demolition permit. However, early on Saturday October 27, 1979, a local architect witnessed a bulldozer digging into the building without a permit. A major portion of the house was ripped apart.
Authorities were alerted and a stop-work order was imposed. Protesters came out in force the next day carrying placards and distributing leaflets to parishioners to save Clegg House.
The Church challenged the City all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. In the end, the City lost the case because it had failed to provide formal written notice of the rejected building permit within the 90 day period allotted under the Ontario Heritage Act. In December, 1982, the City was forced to repeal the bylaw designating the Clegg House as a heritage property, and permit its complete demolition.
The site is now used as a fee-based public parking lot.
