Lecture Series
Heritage Ottawa is lining up an enticing program for our 2025-2026 Free Lecture Series!
We ask that you PRE-REGISTER in advance of each free lecture. Stay tuned for more information about the upcoming season!
The lectures begin at 7 pm and are presented via ZOOM, unless otherwise indicated, and last approximately one hour.
Thank you to our Lecture Series sponsor ANDREX HOLDINGS and MERKLEY SUPPLY LTD.
Note: Several of our lectures are available for viewing on Heritage Ottawa's YouTube channel .
Upcoming Lectures
Past Lectures
For over a century, the intimidating architecture of Canadian prisons inspired sentences to be carried out in solitude and silence.
Set within Ottawa's own historic jail…
Followed by an optional bus tour of Beaverbrook to 6:30 pm
PLEASE NOTE: Registration…
Planning for Ottawa has been underway since its choice as Canada’s capital in 1858. Focus of this planning has always been on the Parliamentary and Judicial Precincts located along Wellington…
Rockcliffe Park has long been a Village within a city setting. Its early history is closely linked to Frederick Law Olmsted, whose remarkable planning philosophy was imported to Canada by…
In celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the Conserving the Modern in Canada Conference held at Trent University in 2005, the National Capital Commission's Capital Urbanism Lab is pleased to…
Beginning as a settlement built on the forest frontier, Ottawa has largely been shaped by Modern ideas over the past two centuries. Since Confederation, it has had a complicated relationship with…
Beechwood Cemetery was established in Ottawa in 1873. Now almost one hundred and fifty years old, it is recognized for its naturalistic, pastoral and picturesque landscape. It features a number of…
The National Capital Commission (NCC) and Heritage Ottawa are proud to present a panel discussion about emerging ideas in Canadian and international heritage conservation, and how these ideas…
Ottawa is home to some of the loveliest shoreline driveways in the world with the Rideau Canal Driveway, the first beautification project of the capital. This lecture will present the history of…
Dr. Lilly Koltun will lead an irreverant promenade through the history of portraiture in Canada, leaving us to wonder at the unexpected wealth we've inherited in that art as well as the…
The East Block was designed in 1859 as one of the first Gothic Revival office buildings and it was an early example of the style’s first phase of development. The talk will focus upon how the East…
This month’s lecture features two talks on local monuments. Meredith Stewart offers a new perspective on the heritage value of the Champagne and Plant Baths “The Public Baths in Ottawa: A Heritage…
This month’s lecture features two talks on local monuments. Meredith Stewart offers a new perspective on the heritage value of the Champagne and Plant Baths “The Public Baths in Ottawa: A Heritage…
A.W.N. Pugin, best known as a designer of Gothic churches and the decoration of the Palace of Westminster, perhaps had his greatest impact designing residences that were completely different from…
The competition for design of the Parliament Buildings in the late 1850s drew to Ottawa several English architects who introduced popular Gothic domestic forms that helped transform the housing…
