Maplelawn House
Address: 529 Richmond Road
Construction date: 1831-1834
Once part of a large prosperous farm on the outskirts of Bytown, today Maplelawn House and Garden is part of the Westboro area of Ottawa. Maplelawn has a long history associated with three important families in the community: the Thomsons, the Coles and the Rochesters.
Built between 1831 and 1834, the 2 ½-storey stone house was built in the Georgian style for Scottish immigrant William Thomson.
Thomas Cole, a successful lumberman, acquired the farm in 1877 and applied himself to dairy farming. His son electrified the farm, making it one of the first in Canada to operate electric lights and machinery.
In 1935, Lloyd B. Rochester purchased Maplelawn farm. It was during Lloyd Rochester’s ownership that the house became known as Maplelawn. He hired R. Warren Oliver, a Guelph-trained landscape architect working at the Central Experimental Farm, to renew the garden. Oliver re-envisioned the garden as an ornamental perennial space. The general layout of the beds, borders and pathways was retained, although the fruit and vegetable gardens were turned to lawn.
In 1994, the City of Ottawa designated Maplelawn and Garden under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act, comprising one of the few historical landscapes designated in Ottawa. In 1995, elements of the house’s interior were added to the designation.
The NCC leased the vacant Maplelawn house to Peter Fallis in 1995, who carried out extensive interior renovations to accommodate a new café, but several setbacks forced the restaurant into bankruptcy. In 1999 a lease with The Keg restaurant chain created a new franchise called “Keg Manor,” which continues to operate today.
