What is Lost Ottawa?
Lost Ottawa started off as an experimental history page on Facebook where people shared pictures of things around Ottawa, Canada, that were “lost” in some way. Lost as in gone. Lost as in changed beyond all recognition. Lost as in still there but nobody remembered what they were or why they were there. From 2013 to 2021 we had over 16,000 posts, at least two every day, and gathered more than 500,000 comments on working, living and growing up in the nation’s capital. We used the most popular posts to write three Lost Ottawa books providing a unique look at life in the Ottawa-Gatineau community in the second half of the Twentieth Century. The Facebook phase of the experiment is over, but there’s more Lost Ottawa and more Lost Ottawa books to come!
Lost Ottawa Book 1
This is the one that started it all. Our first book and one that people liked it so much it became the most popular local history book sold anywhere in Canada in 2018.
Inside you’ll find 76 stories of life in Ottawa, Gatineau and the Valley from our first four years on Facebook.
These are the stories that people liked the best, as measured by the number of likes, shares and comments on Facebook. Each story comes with a picture, a short description, and an edited section of comments left by members of the Lost Ottawa Community.
They stories may date from 2013 to 2017. But actually? They’re timeless. The Chick Hatchery at the Science and Tech Museum. The Green Valley Restaurant. The Britannia Drive-In. Malted Milks at Freiman’s? We got all that. Learn more.
Lost Ottawa Book 2
This the follow-up to Lost Ottawa Book 1 and follows the same format. It contains 75 of the most popular stories about life in the Nation’s Capital as posted to Lost Ottawa on Facebook from January 2017 to September 2018.
Once again people provided us with pictures, descriptions and comments about people and places in Ottawa and Gatineau, and some of the crazy things they used do there.
Remember Gerry Barber of the Chaudiere? Miles for Millions? The Spaghetti Factory? The Rideau Theatre? The Last Train to Wakefield? The Auditorium. Hey, we even have Elvis in the building … well, in the book anyway.
We’ve got a huge number of stories you’ll want to share with your friends in Lost Ottawa 2. Learn more.
Lost Ottawa Book 3
We’re at it again with more stories of life in Ottawa in the second half of the Twentieth Century as told by the people themselves to Lost Ottawa on Facebook.
This time, however, we decided to switch things up a little.
We decided to go with themes, not years, and so we have five chapters with stories about life in the neighbourhood, life in the streets, life at school, life in the summer and life after dark.
And we decided not to worry about the strictly most popular stories as measured by likes, etc. Instead we decided go with stories we liked, and stories that went best with the themes.
The result is a book full of great stories from Lost Ottawa and some of the funniest stories, too. Learn more.
