Live in Stittsville
A village on the Carp Road that burned down in 1870, rebuilt around a railway, and has spent the last thirty years becoming one of the fastest-growing places in Ontario.
Stittsville is the only place in this guide with an actual main street that was an actual main street. Goulbourn Township was settled from 1818 by Irish soldiers under a post-war military settlement scheme, and the village took its name in 1854 when Jackson Stitt became its first postmaster. By 1866 it had a hundred people, one general store and one school with an average attendance of seventeen. Then in 1870 the Carleton County Fire — probably started by brush burning for railway construction — burned more than a thousand square kilometres from Ottawa to Smiths Falls to Carleton Place and took almost the whole village with it. Kemp's Tavern, built in 1868 and now a restaurant, is one of the few buildings that survived. The village rebuilt around the new railway line, and the first train came through on 16 September 1870, while it was still rebuilding. The last one left on 14 January 1990, and the corridor is now part of the Trans Canada Trail, crossing Stittsville Main Street at right angles. What has happened since amalgamation in 2001 is a great deal of subdivision: the ONS puts Stittsville at nearly 27,000 people and the ward at almost 41,000. The main street survived all of it, which is more than can be said for most Ottawa villages.
Burned down in 1870, rebuilt around a railway, and still has the main street to show for it
Stittsville sits immediately southwest of Kanata and adjacent to Richmond, about 20 km west of downtown Ottawa and well beyond the Greenbelt. The historic village — "Old Stittsville" — was centred on the Carp Road; the modern community runs south and east of it along Stittsville Main Street, Hazeldean Road and Fernbank. It corresponds closely to Stittsville Ward on City Council.
Goulbourn Township was settled from 1818 by Irish soldiers under a post-war military settlement scheme, and the village took its name in 1854 when Jackson Stitt became its first postmaster. By 1866 it had a hundred people, one general store and a school with an average attendance of seventeen. Then the Carleton County Fire of 1870 — probably started by brush burning for railway construction — burned more than a thousand square kilometres from Ottawa to Smiths Falls and Carleton Place and took almost the entire village. Kemp's Tavern, built in 1868 on Hazeldean Road and now a restaurant, is one of the few buildings that survived.
The railway made the town twice. The first train came through on 16 September 1870, while the village was still rebuilding — this time around the line rather than the Carp Road, which is why Stittsville Main Street runs where it does and why hotels went up along it. The line became part of the Canadian Pacific. The last train left on 14 January 1990, and the corridor is now part of the Trans Canada Trail, crossing Main Street at right angles along Abbott Street East. Nowhere else in Ottawa can you read the railway's arrival and departure that directly off the street plan.
What has happened since amalgamation. Goulbourn was folded into the City of Ottawa in 2001 and Stittsville has been one of the fastest-growing parts of it ever since. Fernbank, Jackson Trails and Poole Creek filled in the land south and east of the old village, the ONS puts the neighbourhood at nearly 27,000 people and the ward at 40,889, and the Goulbourn Recreation Complex carries the arenas, the pool and most of the community's winter. Through all of it Main Street kept its shops, its library branch and its Legion — which is more than most Ottawa villages managed.
The honest version. This is the longest downtown commute of any neighbourhood in this guide — thirty-two kilometres, all of it on the 417 through Kanata, with no rail plan at either end. If you work in the Kanata North technology park it is a ten-minute drive and one of the best commutes in the region; if you work on Parliament Hill it is not. The housing is new, which mostly means fewer surprises, but Poole Creek and the Carp River run through the newer subdivisions and it is worth knowing which side of the floodplain you are on. And this is genuinely the edge of the city: the farmland starts at the subdivision fence, and so does the drifting snow.
- Thirty-two kilometres to Parliament Hill on the 417, with no rapid transit planned at either end
- Ten minutes to the Kanata North technology park — which is the commute most people here actually have
- The Kanata–Stittsville rental zone is the most expensive in the region; new does not mean cheap out here
- Check the Poole Creek and Carp River floodplain on any address in the newer subdivisions
- The Trans Canada Trail on the old rail corridor runs through the village and is the spine of getting around without a car
- Open farmland to the west means drifting: Fernbank and Hazeldean close before the 417 does
How Stittsville got here
- 1818Goulbourn Township is founded under a military settlement scheme for Irish soldiers after the War of 1812. Most of the settler population that follows comes from Ireland, and the Orange Lodge that later meets in the village is a direct consequence.
- 1821–1824Joshua Bradley claims the land at what is now 590 Hazeldean Road and receives a Crown grant in 1824. The barn John Cummings builds for the family's dairy herd in 1873, and the farmhouse beside it, are still standing on the original site.
- 1854A post office opens and Jackson Stitt is made postmaster. The village takes his name. By 1866 it has a hundred residents, a general store and a school with an average attendance of seventeen.
- 1870The Carleton County Fire destroys almost all of Stittsville and burns over a thousand square kilometres from Ottawa to Smiths Falls and Carleton Place. It is believed to have started with brush burning for railway construction. Kemp's Tavern on Hazeldean Road, built in 1868 and now a restaurant, is among the handful of survivors.
- 16 September 1870The first train passes through the village while it is still being rebuilt — this time around the line rather than around the Carp Road. The route eventually becomes part of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and hotels including the Pacific, later Green's, go up on Main Street to serve it.
- 1898–1974A Holiness Movement campground operates in the village under Bishop Ralph Horner, used by members every summer for three-quarters of a century before closing permanently.
- 1990The last train, a VIA service headed west, passes through on 14 January. The corridor is decommissioned and becomes part of the Trans Canada Trail, which now crosses Stittsville Main Street at right angles along Abbott Street East.
- 2001Goulbourn Township is folded into the new City of Ottawa, and Stittsville becomes a community within it. It has been one of the fastest-growing parts of the city ever since.
- 2000s–2020sSubdivision fills the land south and east of the old village — Fernbank, Jackson Trails, Poole Creek — and the ward reaches 40,889 people by the 2021 census. Main Street keeps its shops, the Goulbourn Recreation Complex keeps its arenas, and the commute keeps being Highway 417 through Kanata.
A rail corridor through the middle and a conservation area to the east
The best piece of green infrastructure here is a piece of grey infrastructure that stopped: the Trans Canada Trail runs on the old Canadian Pacific corridor straight through the village along Abbott Street East, flat and wide, groomed for skiing and snowshoeing in winter and the spine of getting around on foot or by bicycle in summer. East of the community, across the Kanata line, is Stony Swamp — about twenty square kilometres of the National Capital Greenbelt with real trails, groomed cross-country skiing and the tamest chickadees in Ontario. North is the Carp Ridge, and beyond it the Ottawa River.
The resident's angle: what Stittsville does not have is water. There is no swimming inside the community — the Jock River is small, and the nearest beaches are the Ottawa River ones northwest, half an hour away. What it does have is the trail, the sports fields and the arenas, which for a community with this many children turns out to matter more.
22 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 22 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are estimated from a representative point near Stittsville Main Street, using straight-line distance multiplied by a road factor and a tiered speed model — honest ranges, not routed times. The downtown numbers here are the free-flow case; the 417 between Eagleson and the Greenbelt is the most reliably congested stretch of road in the region and a bad morning is roughly double.
Every gym within reach
The Goulbourn Recreation Complex on Shea Road is the community's anchor — arenas, a pool, a gymnasium, a fitness room and the programme list for the whole former township, at municipal prices. The larger Kanata Recreation Complex is ten minutes north, and a City membership covers both.
- Municipal pricing, and a City membership works across Goulbourn, Kanata and every other City facility
- Kanata Recreation Complex at 100 Walter Baker Place is ten minutes north and larger
- The Canadian Tire Centre is ten minutes away — closer to Stittsville than to any other neighbourhood in this guide
- Commercial gyms are on Hazeldean Road and in the Kanata retail parks rather than on Main Street
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Goulbourn Recreation Complex open | 1500 Shea Road — the City's Stittsville anchor, with arenas, a pool, a gymnasium, a fitness room and the community programming for the whole former township. Municipal pricing, and the building most families here plan their winter around. | 4–7 min |
| Kanata Recreation Complex open | 100 Walter Baker Place in Kanata — two pools, two arenas, a gymnasium and a fitness centre. The larger of the two City complexes within reach, and a City membership covers both. | 9–13 min |
| The Trans Canada Trail open | Not a gym: the old Canadian Pacific corridor, decommissioned in 1990, runs straight through the village along Abbott Street East. Flat, wide, groomed for skiing and snowshoeing in winter, and the spine of Stittsville's active-transport network. | 4–6 min |
| Canadian Tire Centre open | Not a gym either, but ten minutes away — closer to Stittsville than to any other neighbourhood in this guide, which is worth something on forty nights a year. | 6–10 min |
The free option is the Trans Canada Trail, which runs the length of the village on the old railway line — flat, wide, and groomed in winter. Follow it west and it keeps going to Ashton and Carleton Place.
Two high schools in the village, one of them French-language
Sacred Heart Catholic High School on Abbott Street East is the village's own, and École secondaire catholique Paul-Desmarais is the French-language Catholic secondary drawing from across the west end — a stronger French offer than most Ottawa suburbs manage. The English public secondary catchment for much of Stittsville is A. Y. Jackson, in Kanata.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Sacred Heart Catholic High School | OCSB | The Catholic secondary on Abbott Street East, and the village's own high school. |
| École secondaire catholique Paul-Desmarais | CECCE | The French-language Catholic secondary in Stittsville, which draws from across the west end. |
| A. Y. Jackson Secondary School | OCDSB | The English public secondary catchment for much of Stittsville, in Kanata on Abbeyhill Drive. |
| Stittsville Public School | OCDSB | The village's public elementary on Abbott Street, with the older part of the community around it. |
| Ottawa Public Library — Stittsville branch | Library | On Main Street, and one of the reasons the historic high street still functions as a centre rather than a stretch of road. |
Stittsville has been adding households faster than almost anywhere else in the city, and school boundaries and portable counts have moved accordingly. Confirm the current catchment for a specific address with the school board before you buy — in a community growing this fast, last year's answer is not reliable.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel — the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- The Trans Canada Trail through the village is groomed and becomes the neighbourhood's winter spine
- A daily mean of −10 °C, and the open farmland west of the village produces genuine drifting on Fernbank and Hazeldean
- The longest commute in this guide, in the dark at both ends
- Peak minor-hockey season at Goulbourn, and the arenas run from six in the morning
- Calabogie is an hour west — closer from here than from anywhere else in Ottawa except Kanata
- The coldest fortnight of the year, with about 16 nights a year below −20 °C
- Poole Creek and the Carp River rise, and the newer subdivisions discover which of them are on a floodplain
- Sugar bushes open across Goulbourn and out towards Almonte
- March break, and the one week the 417 behaves
- The Trans Canada Trail is soft for a few weeks while the ground thaws
- Main Street's patios reopen and the village's summer character returns
- Playoff season at the Canadian Tire Centre, ten minutes north
- The Carp Farmers' Market's outdoor season starts, fifteen minutes up the Carp Road
- The best cycling weeks of the year on the Trans Canada Trail towards Ashton and Carleton Place
- Village-wide garage sale weekend, which in Stittsville is a genuine event
- Sunset near 8:50pm, and the trail and the sports fields stay usable well past eight
- The Goulbourn Village Festival, the community's own weekend
- School ends and the morning arterial traffic on Hazeldean disappears
- The technology park thins out and the 417 briefly behaves
- A July daily mean of 21.2 °C with humidex regularly past 35 — almost all the housing here has central air
- The Jock River and the Ottawa River beaches northwest are the swimming options; there is nothing closer
- Peak humidity, and the month the open farmland around the village is at its most visibly agricultural
- The Richmond Fair runs south of here in September; August is the quiet before it
- Back-to-school traffic returns in the last week
- The Carp Fair in the second half of the month is the agricultural fair the whole west end goes to
- The best weather of the year, and the best walking weeks on the trail
- Schools, the technology park and the 417 all come back at once
- The old rail corridor's maples turn, and the trail is at its best
- The first frost usually lands in the first half of the month
- Golf ends, usually abruptly, and the arenas fill up
- Dark by half past four, and the commute becomes a two-way night drive
- Remembrance Day at the Legion in the old Orange Hall on Main Street
- Snow tires go on, and out here that is not optional
- The Stittsville Parade of Lights runs down Main Street, and it is the village's biggest night of the year
- Community outdoor rinks open across the subdivisions when the cold holds
- The first serious storm, and the annual reminder that Fernbank and Hazeldean drift shut before the 417 does
24 photographs of Ottawa and the region
Drawn from the site's shared, freely licensed Ottawa photo library — not photographs of Stittsville itself. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 24 photographs.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images geotagged in or near Stittsville, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. Inline photos elsewhere on the page may still come from the site's shared Ottawa library.