Sparks Street

The final two blocks, west of Lyon Street, consist of a regular road, merging into Bronson Avenue heading south.

The peak of the street was in the early twentieth century, when a number of Beaux-Arts buildings that still stand were erected.

At the time, the eastern end of Sparks Street continued across the Rideau Canal on Sappers Bridge.

Where the War Memorial and Confederation Square stands today, was the Russell House hotel, and Ottawa's old Post Office.

This plan was modelled on Toledo, Ohio, which along with Kalamazoo were the first North American cities to close downtown streets in an attempt to recapture customers.

[2] Urban planning professor David Gordon, of Queen's University, blames the growth of suburban shopping malls.

Gordan and Bray wrote that Sparks became "an isolated island of pedestrian-friendly space in a traffic-dominated district" in a 2003 report.

However, the CBC development has been criticized as "just another low-cost, banal building" which was designed poorly and has not brought more life to the street.

One of the best known addresses in all of Canada for many years was "56 Sparks Street, Ottawa" as it was the tag line used in a large number of radio and television commercials and commentaries made by Lotta Hitschmanova, founder of the humanitarian charity USC Canada, which moved to an office at 56 Sparks Street soon after it was created in 1945.

[5] On September 14, 2019, the O-Train's Confederation Line was opened, under Queen Street and one block south of Sparks.