24 Sussex Drive

24 Sussex Drive

 24 Sussex Drive, in Ottawa, was designated as the official residence of the prime minister of Canada in 1950 and, in 1951, Louis St-Laurent became the first prime minister to live in the house. It was designed by J.M. Currier in 1867-68 as a Gothic Revival villa for his brother Joseph Merrill Currier, a prosperous mill owner and lumber manufacturer made wealthy by the tremendous 1860s boom in the lumber industry. In 1902 the house was sold to another lumber manufacturer, W.C. Edwards, who made substantial alterations to the house in 1907-08. Acquired by the federal government in 1943, this stone house was redesigned and given its present, formal appearance by the architectural firm of Allward and Gouinlock. The house is magnificently situated on the cliffs above the Ottawa R, in sight of the Parliament Buildings.