Many of you come to Les Trois Érables for the luxurious and distinctive rooms.  For many others, it’s to savour the three-course gourmet breakfasts.  And we know others just like to enjoy the quiet ambiance of our salon, porch or gardens.  But a lot of others are fascinated by the history of the place – and I don’t just mean that it’s a beautiful old house that dates from 1896 or that Dr Geggie has many country-doctor stories that you can read about when you’re here.  No, it’s the architect of the house who is fascinating, too: Moses Chamberlain Edey, whom we honoured with the name of one of our rooms.

Moses Edey was born in 1845 in Shawville, Quebec – in the Pontiac on the other side of Gatineau Park.  And he was a talented and prolific architect who designed many prominent buildings in Ottawa, such as the Aberdeen Pavilion at Lansdowne Park, designated a National Historic Site and a structure that the Royal Architecture Institute of Canada has designated as one of the top 500 buildings in Canada.  He also designed the since demolished Daly Building that stood beside the Chateau Laurier until 1992, and the magnificent Centretown United Church on Bank Street.  Towns and villages in and around the Ottawa Valley are also sprinkled with commercial buildings, churches, schools and residences that he designed.  And of course one of them is Les Trois Érables.

Some of you may have heard the interview on Saturday April 30 on CBC Radio’s In Town and Out of Nick Cameron, Moses Edey’s great grandson, who proudly listed the architect’s many contributions.  And an Ottawa group came together recently at the Bytown Antique Show to acknowledge Edey’s achievements in a show entitled “Moses Edey, Architect at the Dawn of Modernism”.  We thought we’d take advantage of the occasion ourselves to acknowledge Moses Edey’s contribution to our lives – and yours when you come visit Les Trois Érables!