City View Community Association has undertaken a legacy project to preserve and develop the property at 21 Withrow into a Heritage Peace Center as part of Canada’s 150^th year of Confederation and Nepean’s 225^th.
This property and the heritage house located on it were originally established more than 175 years ago by William and Archibald Scott, some of the first settlers in the Nepean region. First registered as a police village, City View is the oldest municipal property in Eastern Ontario and the site of some of the earliest settlements in Ontario.
These European pioneers who ventured to farm this land were ill prepared to face Canadian winters. First Nations people, largely Algonquin people in the Ottawa Valley, began what has grown into a strong Canadian tradition of helping others with mutual benefit.
This basic all important principal and tradition of helping others has taken root in our Canadian psyche. It has become an active part of our Canadian way of life today. It can be seen in our systems of health care, education and in recent times as support for the Vietnamese Boat People and the Syrian Refugees of today.
The tradition and significance of immigrants receiving help from our most early Canadians, First Nation peoples, is one we would like to honour and promote. These Canadian values and traditions of mutual support and respect, begun in Canada by First Nations Peoples, could be accentuated in the Heritage Peace Center, promoting peace and reconciliation.
Our vision for this legacy center is to preserve and create a green, environmental oasis, right in the heart of mid town Ottawa, similar to Stewart Park in Perth, Ontario, where people can enjoy a piece of unspoiled, historic Nepean-Ottawa.
This center will preserve the tradition of peaceful co-existence and promote reconciliation and understanding. It will also honour the resourcefulness and tenacity of early pioneering immigrants who settled in Canada. This is an opportunity to preserve a precious and all too rare, green space for the enjoyment of all, with an historic tree canopy and landscaped gardens in mid-town Ottawa.
Communities and small organizations could use these proposed facilities for varying purposes, such as intimate conferences, weddings, receptions, meetings and indigenous celebrations; located right here in the middle of Ottawa.
Let’s celebrate Canada! Let’s celebrate 150 years of our country and build for the next 150 years!
Let us preserve our past and create our future… together… in Peace and Reconciliation!!