Description of Historic Place

The Prime Minister’s Residence at 24 Sussex Drive is a large stone house revealing a restrained, formal classicism whose details overlay earlier, more picturesque, features. It is set in large open grounds overlooking the Ottawa River. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

The Prime Minister’s Residence was designated a Classified Federal Heritage Building because of its direct association with six prime ministers of Canada, its status as a nationally known landmark, and because of the impact of the house and its grounds on the character of the area.

During its first 75 years, 24 Sussex Drive was associated with three lumber barons of the area. By 1943, it was the last remaining private residence on Sussex Drive, in an area given over increasingly to foreign embassies and parkland. In 1949, it was expropriated by the Government of Canada and became the official residence of the prime minister.

Sources: Jacqueline Adell, Prime Minister’s Residence, Ottawa, Ontario, Federal Heritage Building Review Office Building Report 85-067; Prime Minister’s Residence, Ottawa, Ontario, Heritage Character Statement, 85-067.

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that define the heritage character of the Prime Minister’s Residence, include:
-the evolutionary nature of the property (modifications have substantially altered the original Gothic Revival design, first to a châteauesque appearance with towers, oriel windows and porte-cochère, and in 1949 to a more restrained and formal design);
-the present façades, relatively unadorned and tied together by the horizontal roof lines and rows of rectangular, shuttered windows;
-its major elevations and outstanding location;
-its circular drive–the site’s most significant surviving landscape feature–which connects the property to Sussex Drive;
-its magnificent views, further enhanced by its setting on the ceremonial route between the Governor General's residence and Parliament Hill;
-its role as an important symbolic and visual landmark.