Thomas Ahearn Memorial

Thomas Ahearn (1855-1938) was an Ottawa-born inventor who founded the Ottawa Electric Company. Among his many accomplishments, he brought electric streetcar service to the city with a line running down Bank Street in the early 1900s. The memorial to Ahearn was first erected in the Glebe in 1950, comprising a bench and four drinking fountains, along with a bronze plaque sculpted by Felix De Weldon. After the Lansdowne redevelopment project in 2012, a revised monument was installed in the area—at the corner of Bank St. and Holmwood Ave.—a reminder of Ahearn’s lasting impact on the neighbourhood.