Ottawa Rowing Club

The Ottawa Rowing Club (ORC) is a rowing club based in the City of Ottawa. It is the oldest rowing club in Canada and is located on the south banks of the Ottawa River at 10 Lady Grey Avenue. It is a registered club with Rowing Canada and Row Ontario.

The Ottawa Rowing Club was founded on 6 June 1867, the same year as the Canadian Confederation. One of its founders and first patron was Sir John A. Macdonald; other members of the first executive committee included Robert Lyon (politician), mayor of Ottawa, and; Allan Gilmour, businessman in the shipping and timber industries.

The original club house was a wooden building, initially built on pontoons, and moored to the shore of the Ottawa river at the foot of parliament hill, between the Rideau canal and the Chaudière falls (Akikodjiwan Falls under their Algonquin name). Whilst the view from the club house over the Chaudière falls was picturesque, the rowing conditions were difficult: vast field of sawdust and other refuse from an immense lumber mill situated about the falls, and logs escaping from the booms. Each spring, along with the melting ice, the club house floated downstream and came aground. Every year it was brought back up near the Rideau canal.

In the early 1870s, the ORC ceased to exist before being re-introduced on 25 June 1875 with approximately 100 members..

In 1884 and 1885, the club house suffered important damage when it sank. Members of the Ottawa Rowing Club, led by P. D. Ross, discussed building a permanent foundation for the club boat house in 1887.

In spring 1896, the members of the Club decided to purchase a piece of the river front property at 10 Lady Grey Drive and leave the club house in its current, permanent location. The club is just west of and below Sir John A. Macdonald's home Earnscliffe that is now the residence of the Britain's High Commissioner to Canada.

For six consecutive years, from 1905 to 1911, members of the club were the North American champions. The two world wars were difficult years for the club, with fourteen members of the Club losing their lives while serving during World War I and with the shell house being neglected and showing signs of deterioration.

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