"Cottage" Gas Station – Ottawa, Ontario - Atlas Obscura
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"Cottage" Gas Station is permanently closed.

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"Cottage" Gas Station

Ottawa, Ontario

This defunct Champlain Oil service station harkens back to the early days of automobiles.  

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"Cottage-style" gas station from the 1930's at the corner of Island Park Drive and Richmond Road. KieferU (Atlas Obscura User) (Used with Permission)
"Cottage-style" gas station from the 1930's at the corner of Island Park Drive and Richmond Road. KieferU (Atlas Obscura User) (Used with Permission)
"Cottage-style" gas station build in 1934, pictured in 2018 Andrew King (Used with Permission)
Reflective of Tudor Revival style, the building borrows from old English cottage architecture. KieferU (Atlas Obscura User) (Used with permission)
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Constructed in 1934, this small service station is an architectural rarity. American architect Carl-August Petersen designed the building in the Tudor Revival style. The rounded doorways and windows, steeply-pitched roofs, and chimneys are similar to those found on old English cottages and homes in the surrounding Island Park neighborhood. 

It served as one of Ottawa’s first drive-in gas stations during the early boom of automobile ownership in the 1930s. It operated as such until the late 1960s when it became a used car dealership. Since 2014, the building and plot have changed hands between a few property developers, who plan to incorporate the structure into a mixed-use space.

Notably, the former Champlain Oil Company service station was once owned and operated by Charles-Émile Trudeau, grandfather of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The building received Heritage Status in 2015.

gas station automotive history architecture
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Added by
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Andrew MacLean
Edited by
meganbystricky, Andrew MacLean
Published
February 5, 2021
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