Ottawa Jail Hostel
by Dawn Matheson
July 8th, 2009
<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-CA X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3"; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:16777216 0 117702657 0 131072 0;} @font-face {font-family:"\@ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3"; mso-font-charset:128; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:16777216 0 117702657 0 131072 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3"; color:black; mso-ansi-language:EN-US; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> <!--[if gte mso 10]> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} <![endif]-->You won’t mind staying under lock and key in this converted hostel
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HOSTELLING INTERNATIONAL OBVIOUSLY saw past the local opinion when it opened the capital’s newest budget digs: “Moral pest house…dingy, damp, dark and unwholesome. The privy overflowing with abomination sending out a stench which poisons.” So described was the Carleton County jail shortly after it opened in a violent, lawless 1862 Ottawa.
The hostel opened in 1973, a year after the jail closed due to inhumane conditions. Walls between three cells were torn down to bunk two, the prison chapel became My Alibi Café serving up to-die-for meals, and a “haunted” Death Row is now the jail’s Heritage Centre, the hub of Haunted Ottawa’s excellent, nightly hour-long Crime and Punishment Tour *($8.50 for hostel guests; $12.50 for the public)*. Bars still secure doors and windows, and grids enclose stairwells. There’s even a working gallows. But today’s accommodations are welcoming —deluxe even—compared to the three-by-nine-foot dank drum cells once rampant with disease, bed bugs, even snow (the windows didn’t have glass).
If bars aren’t your thing, stay in the adjoining governor’s mansion: bright dorms with high ceilings; plus the comfortable warden’s quarters (where he lived with his family) with its bay windows, kitchenette, walk-in closet and original clawfoot tub.
Rates start at $27 for members, $32 for non-members.
Map
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Ottawa Jail Hostel
Ottawa, Ont.
75 Nicholas St.,
866-299-1478
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