Up the Gatineau! Article
This article was first published in Up the Gatineau! Volume 6.
Highlife in the Gatineau
On 31 December 1909, Walter B. Welby, the proprietor of the Hotel Cecil in Ottawa, arranged a complimentary dance for the employees of the Cecil and this was held in Island View House at Farm Point, Que.
Hotel Cecil, which claimed to be the “best equipped hotel in Canada", was located at 226 Sparks Street, south side, four doors west of Bank Street. Next door was Bennett's Vaudeville Theatre and across the street was the Ottawa Free Press.
For the dance at Island View House there were printed dance programmes and it was every girl's ambition to have a full programme of dances. Between the opening Grand March and the closing Home Waltz there were 14 other dances including, in this order — Waltz, Saratoga Lancers, Two-Step, Caledonia, Waltz, Oxford Minuet, Plain Lancers, Jersey, Two-Step, Caledonia, Gavotte, Duchess, Waltz Lancers and Five-Step.
Some of our readers may even have danced to some of these steps.
Contributed by Lillian Walton
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