Hay House

Address: 700 Echo Drive

Construction date: 1865

Hay House, also known as Echo Bank, is a two-and-a-half-storey stone house incorporating a mix of Georgian and Victorian-Gothic Revival architectural elements. 

Hay House was built in 1865 by Colonel George Hay. He was one of Ottawa's first Aldermen, a prominent hardware merchant, president of the Bank of Ottawa, board member of several local institutions and a militia officer during the Fenian Raids. Hay is credited with suggesting the name "Ottawa" for the former Bytown, and designing the first Coat of Arms for the City of Ottawa in this house.

The design of the house represents a mid-19th century transition from the classically inspired Georgian style, with a symmetrical massing and stone quoins to a more romantic style with Gothic Revival elements, including a steeply-pitched gable roof, coursed rubble stone walls, a pointed-arch window and decorative verge boards under the high gable of the projecting middle bay.