7 Rideau Gate is a “home away from home” for heads of state that visit Ottawa

The property at 7 Rideau Gate serves as a “home away from home” for visiting dignitaries in an environment of elegance and comfort. It is here, in close proximity to Rideau Hall, that Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada offers accommodation and hospitality to heads of state who are visiting Canada’s Capital Region. The residence is not open to the public. However, a virtual tour of 7 Rideau Gate is available.

Virtual Tour of 7 Rideau Gate

History

The residence at 7 Rideau Gate was built about 150 years ago by a prosperous Ottawa businessman. In its time, it has been home to some of Ottawa’s most historic families.

A Mill Owner’s Home

In 1862, Henry Osgoode Burritt bought a parcel of land in the industrial village of New Edinburgh and built a house there. Burritt owned a woollen mill at Rideau Falls and had decided to settle nearby. The house was typical accommodation for Ottawa’s new business elite and a signal that Ottawa was beginning to flower as an industrial centre. In 1873, Burritt sold the house for what was then the substantial sum of $10,000.

Middle-Class Ottawa

The new owner was Philemon Wetherall Wright, the grandson of pioneers and a post office clerk. Wright’s wife, Sarah Slater, was also descended from early settlers, and the family was part of an emerging, home-grown “aristocracy” in the Ottawa area. The Wrights called their new house “Edgewood,” which gives some sense of how close the wilderness came to the city in those days. They remained at Edgewood for only three years, and the house remained vacant for some years after their departure.

Aristocratic Inhabitants

In 1884, the Honourable Octavius Henry Lambart, younger son of the British Earl of Cavan, moved into the house with his wife, a Canadian. The Lambarts remained in the house until 1934. The second Lambart owner, Frederick Howard John Lambart, was a civil engineer who helped to survey the Canada–Alaska boundary.

Modernization and Expansion

For its first 70 years, the house remained Victorian in character. In 1947, the arrival of Commodore Percy W. Nelles (Chief of Staff of the Royal Canadian Navy) marked the first of real changes to the house. The new owner modernized the house by stripping away the verandas and entirely replacing the dark Victorian decor inside.

The last private owner was businessman Thomas Franklin Ahearn (son of the inventor Thomas Ahearn). The Ahearns removed the roof walk, added exterior shutters, and built a sunroom on the east side of the original building and a new wing on the west side.

Public Vocation

The Government of Canada acquired the house in 1966. Because of its ideal location — on the doorstep of Rideau Hall — 7 Rideau Gate became an official residence to serve as a guest house for state visitors.

In 1986, the NCC took on responsibility for all official residences in Canada’s Capital Region. It fully restored and refurnished the house, with the help of the Canadiana Fund, which receives donations of heritage art and furniture. Today, much of the original character and spirit of this historic old house has been recaptured. As well, thanks to the generosity of the Lambarts, a number of family pieces came back to their old home at 7 Rideau Gate. The house has been decorated and furnished to create a distinctively Canadian experience for visitors.