Blossom Park

Blossom Park is a suburban community located in the south-end of the city of Ottawa, Ontario. It is considered an outer-suburb of the city. Before the 2001 city of Ottawa amalgamation it was a suburb of the city of Gloucester. Population (2006): 12,361.

The area was cleared and farmed by settlers who began to arrive in the early decades of the 19th Century. Early settlers included Charles Kinmond (1792–1859), a native of Perthshire, Scotland, Leonard Wood (1805–1888) and his wife Martha (1821–1905) and John Halpenny (1818–1873) who hailed from Wicklow, Ireland. Their farms were accessed by the Metcalfe Road, later known as Highway 31 (now Bank Street) which became a major regional thoroughfare by the middle of the century.

The first known reference to "Blossom Park" appeared in a subdivision plan which was drafted by the Bytown Suburb and Land Company which was was approved by Gloucester Township council on November 6, 1911 and filed at the Carleton County land registry office. A street grid was established but little development took place and the area remained essentially rural through the first half of the 20th Century. It was transformed into a suburban community with the construction of bungalows on 150 x 100 foot lots along Central Boulevard (now Kingsdale Avenue) and Rosebella Avenue and on the north side of Lawrence Avenue (now Queensdale) between Albion and Conroy Roads in the 1950s. Lots on the south side of Queensdale between the future site of the Sawmill Creek Housing Co-op (built 1983-84) and Conroy were sold piecemeal for residential development beginning in 1960.

Lots fronting on the east side of Highway 31 were severed by farmer John W. Goth and sold piecemeal for residential development beginning in 1947.

St. Bernard (Roman Catholic) Parish was established in 1957. Blossom Park Public School opened its doors in 1956 followed by the adjacent St. Bernard School and later Ste. Bernadette on the east side of Sixth Street which opened in 1965. The Kmart Plaza (now the Blossom Park Shopping Centre) opened in 1970. Transit service was extended to the community by the Ottawa Transportation Commission (now OC Transpo) in 1972. The Quail Ridge subdivision was constructed in the late 1970s followed by Bernard Court (which was built in 1980) and the Victoria Heights neighbourhood which was constructed in the late 1980s.

The Gloucester Presbyterian Church, which was built in 1928 and stood on the west side of Highway 31 near Sieveright Road was demolished in 1990.

The Aladdin Drive-In on Albion Road was a major local attraction from 1948 until its demolition in the 1990s.

Blossom Park residents welcomed Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip when their motorcade passed through the community during the royal tour commemorating the centennial of Confederation in 1967.

Blossom Park reached a major milestone on the road from rural to suburban with the opening of the Kmart Plaza (now Blossom Park Shopping Centre) on the site of a former cow pasture on the southwest corner of Highway 31 (Bank Street) and Queensdale Avenue in August 1970. Originally anchored by Kmart, the mall now features Farm Boy, Dollar It!, Giant Tiger, a dentist, hair dresser, Telus store and a Greek restaurant.

The current limits of the neighbourhood are: Hunt Club Road to the north, Airport Parkway to the west, Conroy Road to the east and the Greenbelt to the south (near Lester Road).

The north-south light-rail line project (which was cancelled in 2006) was planned to pass on the western edge of the area when the expansion would have been completed in 2009. Natives disputed ownership of a parcel of land with the city of Ottawa that was to be used by the LRT line.