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Beechwood Avenue is one of the main thoroughfares of Quartier Vanier. It appears on maps of the area as early as the 1870s. Soon afterwards, it was used mainly to reach the Protestant cemetery which bore the same name, and which acquired considerable importance throughout the region. Slowly, a number of pioneers arrived, mostly of French Canadian origin. They settled south of this road and established the village of Clarkstown towards the end of the nineteenth century.
Beechwood Avenue also served as a boundary between the city of Vanier and the city of Ottawa. At times, this boundary became a source of friction between the two cities, for example when the time came to widen the road or to pave it. There were also streetcars on Beechwood Avenue beginning in 1921, and this attracted several businesses and restaurants to the area.
This part of Quartier Vanier was often referred to as the St-Charles Section, in reference to the local parish, or Clarkstown, the name of the former village founded in the 19th century.
In the 1880s, construction of the St. Patrick street bridge allowed a number of families to settle in the area. Most of them came from Ottawa’s Lower Town neighbourhood, which was largely French Canadian at the time. The new village, which was centred on Beechwood Avenue, north of the village of Janeville, was named Clarkstown after the former owner of this large tract of land.
In fact, this area located just south of New Edinburgh had belonged to a man named T.M. Clark towards the middle of the nineteenth century. Clark, who was a son-in-law of Thomas McKay, as well as a rich merchant and industrialist, began to divide his land during the 1880s, and that is how the community of Clarkstown was established. The settlement of new families in the area was a slow process. In 1891, there were only 152 people in Clarkstown, 142 of them having arrived from Quebec. The great majority of the new arrivals were settling in this small community to raise a family. At the time, Clarkstown attracted a number of workers and tradesmen, as well as some farmers. In 1909, Clarkstown was still a small village comprising only a dozen streets or so. Once the villages had been joined together, the pace of residential development in this part of Quartier Vanier increased much more rapidly.
Even though there were no apparent links between the distinctively French Canadian village of Clarkstown and the Anglophone village of Janeville, the two were amalgamated in 1909 to create the village of Eastview.
Throughout the years, this part of the Quartier Vanier kept its Francophone character and essence. Notable buildings of this area include the St-Charles Catholic Church, built in 1909, as well as many shops and restaurants on Beechwood Avenue.
Points of interest of the Beechwood Circuit