Ever wonder how the places on campus received their names?
With more than 45 buildings around Carleton, there have probably been moments when you were both hopelessly lost and yet curious about the history behind each structure.
Carleton undergoes a lengthy process to determine the names of their buildings. The tradition started with the name of the university itself, and extended to other structures, including shops and services.
Since the university’s growth in the early 1960s, Carleton has continued its naming tradition based on the service and type of the building. Some are named after small suburban areas, while others after people who positively influenced the students at Carleton University.
Mike’s Place
The graduate association’s pub opened in 1973, over forty years ago. It was named in memory of Canada’s 14th prime minister, Lester B. Pearson, whose nickname was Mike. You can still see a portrait of Pearson hanging in the pub’s entrance.
Pearson received his nickname during the Second World War by a senior fighter pilot. Mike was deemed more suitable for Pearson since he wanted to be a fighter pilot himself, and the name stuck with him throughout the war.
“You can read [Pearson’s] story inside. There are funny comics on his nickname as well as his letters and quotes about students and education in the pub,” said George Koneval, manager of Mike’s Place.
During Pearson’s government, he introduced student loans, health care, the Canadian Pension Plan, the Order of Canada, and the contemporary Canadian flag. The pub was named in his honour after his death in 1972 for his dedicated leadership.
“Students liked him. He was very student -oriented and believed it was important for every student in Canada to have a loan for their education,” Koneval said.
Since its first opening, the pub has moved to several different locations on campus before it finally settled on the second floor of the University Centre.
“Mike’s Place has a great atmosphere. It’s where students can socialize, share excitement, participate in trivia, eat, and hold small meetings,” Koneval said. “It is important for students, especially international students, to take some time to relax and forget about school.”
So the next time you visit Mike’s Place to eat or socialize, don’t forget to offer a toast to the prime minister whom the pub is named after, and who made financing for education easier for all Canadian students.
CUSA businesses
The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) owns and operates four businesses on and off campus. The origins of some of their varied names aren’t known, but a few have storied histories.
Campus convenience store Henry’s is named after a CUSA employee who’s been around for a while, said CUSA president Fahd Alhattab.
“Henry has been working for CUSA for 35 years, and is the building maintenance manager for all of the University Centre,” Alhattab said. “Anything from painting the walls, moving things, cleaning things, ensuring the team is good, all of the maintenance that happens in this building, Henry takes care of.”
Alhattab said Haven’s Bookstore kept its name and existing branding when CUSA bought the business, and his best guess for Rooster’s is that its namesake is after the coffee that wakes students up. As for Oliver’s, Alhattab said not even the oldest CUSA employee could remember its namesake.
Carleton did have a fifth president, Michael Oliver, who was popular with students over the seven years he served. Some speculation seems to indicate that the bar could be named after the students’ favourite administrator, but no one can know for sure.
Residence buildings
Carleton has a total of 11 residence buildings on campus that range from traditional dorms to larger apartments. The university began the process of building residences in the early 1960s, which included planning names for the prospective buildings.
The original residence buildings were Lanark and Renfrew, built in 1962, with the most recent being Lennox and Addington, which was completed in 2011.
Laura Storey, housing director at Carleton, said the names of the buildings reflect the areas around Ottawa.
“From my understanding, the names of the buildings were taken from the counties that surround Ottawa,” Storey said. “They’ve grown from Lanark and Renfrew, the closest to Ottawa, to as far away as Lennox and Addington.”
The naming of the residence buildings was also associated with the naming of the university itself, according to former housing director David Sterritt.
“[Carleton] is taken from the fact that when the university was founded, first as Carleton College, the city of Ottawa was part of Carleton County,” Sterritt said. “Carleton County no longer exists, as the City of Ottawa has expanded its boundaries to absorb all of the surrounding townships that originally comprised Carleton County.”
Other residence buildings followed the example of naming them after neighbouring counties that surround Carleton. Eventually, all the names of the counties that border Carleton were used up for the continued construction of residential buildings. However, this does not stop Carleton from keeping up its tradition.
“At the moment, the on-campus residences carry the names of counties east from Ottawa to the Quebec border, and west from Ottawa to Lennox and Addington County,” Sterritt said. Carleton will continue naming its buildings after counties, but from places that border eastern Ontario.
Carleton’s campus
Carleton got its start as a small college founded in 1942 to serve veterans returning from the Second World War. It soon expanded, and moved from its original location in the Glebe to the Rideau River campus where it is now.
Local history expert and Carleton history professor Bruce Elliott said the names of Carleton’s administration buildings come from people who are important in the history of the university.
“Generally, the buildings are named after early Carleton administrators, including the library or the early chairs of governors,” Elliott said.
The Tory building was named after the elected president of the first Board of Governors, Dr. Henry Marshall Tory. He died on Feb. 6, 1947 and was succeeded by Dr. Murdoch Maxwell MacOdrum, for whom the library is named.
“The first building on campus was Tory, followed by Paterson Hall and the MacOdrum Library, in 1959,” said assistant vice-president (facilities management and planning) Darryl Boyce.
Elliott said some buildings are named for donors who have made significant contributions to the university.
“[Others buildings] around campus are named by major donors, like the Minto Centre, named after the Minto Corporation, who gave Carleton a large sum of money. Another named after a donor is the School of Business,” Elliott said. The Sprott School of Business is just another example, named after Carleton alumnus and billionaire Eric Sprott.
According to Board of Governors Secretary Julie Caldwell, the university has a strict system for deciding how new buildings get their names.
“In terms of future names, there is a naming policy that is adhered to . . . there are protocols in place for formally naming things after people,” Caldwell said.
