In brief

Lowertown’s first resident

The first resident to clear a lot in Lowertown is a French Canadian, Jean Baptiste St-Louis. The year is 1827, and the site is a poorly drained cedar swamp. A shrewd entrepreneur, St-Louis is granted permission by Colonel By to build a mill by the Rideau Falls, one of the most promising sites of the new settlement.

Black and white engraving of a small rudimentary wooden installation located near waterfalls. The mill is located between a wooden bridge and a wooded cliff.

Bytown sawmill erected by Jean Saint-Louis in 1830 on the Rideau River near Bytown. Engraving attributed to E. Benjamin, from a drawing by William Henry Bartlett (1809-1854), in Willis, N.P., Canadian Scenery, London, 1842, Vol. II, facing p. 8. 

Library and Archives Canada, Illustrated books, albums and scrapbooks, MIKAN 2833697, C-2368.