Ruisseau de la Brasserie: from industrial to cultural

Used for thousands of years by North American Natives, the Ottawa River (Kitchissipi) and its tributaries became popular with explorers and coureurs des bois, and helped bring settlers to the territory. The first of these settlers found the juncture of the chute des Chaudières and the ruisseau de la Brasserie particularly conducive to economic and social activities. This became the initial hub for the industrial development of Hull in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Pioneers and developers like Philemon Wright, Ezra Butler Eddy and George Edward Hanson used the hydraulic power of these waterways to drive the economic life of Hull and turn this area into the cradle of the Outaouais. Their prosperous industries, largely built around wood, polarized the social, religious, commercial and residential structure of the community in the region's historical core.

Well-to-do Anglophone families settled to the west of the creek, shaping village d'Argentine for posterity. The only sector to be left almost unscathed by the Great Fire of 1900, it retains a unique architecture, preserved by its inhabitants, who have worked with the municipality to create the Hanson-Taylor-Wright heritage site. The Association du patrimoine du ruisseau de la Brasserie continues to protect and maintain the neighbourhood's value.

Industrial buildings, opulent residences and public artwork mark different points in the origins of the city and region along this route. Over time and through successive generations, this former industrial site has acquired a cultural soul of its very own.