St-Joseph d'Orléans, 1879 and 1906

I have lately discovered an online PDF of H. Belden's 1879 Historical Atlas of County Carleton, boasting a scan quality that far exceeds the crapulent version that I (and I think many others) have been relying on for years now — download it for free here! The map of Gloucester Township features several insert plans of settlements and suburbs I've heard of but never actually seen before, including this survey of the Village of St Joseph, Orléans as we call it today. 

The lot numbers across the top of the plan are the original Gloucester Township designations, First Concession, Ottawa River Front. We see St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church sitting near the middle of the plan on the Ottawa/Montreal Road, later the "Old" Montreal Road and now St Joseph Boulevard. Bilberry Creek runs north toward the Ottawa River, passing next to the Church — the open space west of the creek would become the Orléans Cemetery.

The "road allowance between the 1st and 2nd concessions" is now Notre Dame Street, while "Cumberland Street" is now the Tenth Line Road.

Wikipedia has a dandy summary of the area's early European agricultural settlement here.

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While we're wallowing in maps, here's something published 27 years after Belden's — a detail (Orléans again) from the Department of Militia and Defence, 1906.

If you look closely, you'll see St Joseph's Church on the old highway, coloured red, just east of the creek.

An interesting feature here is the Canadian Northern Rail line (CNoR) passing to the north of the village. Those tracks would be acquired by CN, then abandoned at the start of WWII. This right-of-way would eventually become the "new" Montreal Road, now the Queensway/174.

The brown contour lines here reveal two significant limestone outcrops. The larger of these, to the lower left between the railways tracks and the Navan Road, was first quarried after WWII by the Ottawa Valley Crushed Stone company, later by Francon Concrete, and later still by Canada Cement Lafarge. A smaller outcrop, just above the word Orleans on the map, was also quarried in the 20th century. It was later abandoned and the pit now contains a housing development — Quarry Glen by Minto.

Besserer's Wharf on the Ottawa River would be developed as a camping ground, later renamed "Hiawatha Park." And the "L.H." just north of Lower Duck Island (left side of map) was a lighthouse of sorts — a beacon, which may have given the suburb of Beacon Hill its name.