A Pillar of Community

For Westgate Mall employees, the space became more than a workplace. “It’s more than just a place to buy things,” said Brendon Banville, owner of the former Superior Photo store, in an October 2025 CBC News Ottawa article.[1] Banville met his wife, a Toy City employee, while at Westgate, where he regularly observed people buying coffee, spending mornings, and chatting with others. 

For Mohammed Hannawi, owner of Carducci’s Shoes and Satchels Luggage & Handbags, the mall’s closure is a sad development.[2] In a bittersweet statement, Hannawi said he will relocate Carducci’s Shoes to Wellington Street, but mourns leaving Westgate after more than 30 years as a tenant. Linda Wang, owner of Fine European Tailoring, will work from home but already misses her store patrons after nearly seven years at the mall.[3] Karen Ellis, who first visited Westgate at age eleven in 1971, shares an especially emotional connection.[4]

Ellis shared her story through an online article for the Ottawa At Home Magazine in September 2016. In “Growing Up at Westgate Mall,” Ellis shares pivotal moments from her life as a West End resident, offering a personal view of the community.[5] Ellis fondly recalls social, economic, and personal moments at the mall. She describes how Westgate shaped both her challenges and joys, making the memories powerful and lasting. 

Ellis begins by describing Westgate Mall as familiar and friendly, and notes that it first offered her an escape from the difficulties at home.[6] In a reflection arising from hardship, Ellis stated: 

My two sisters and I had recently lost our mother to cancer and our father quickly remarried. We found ourselves in a roughly blended family that was destined to disintegrate. Everyone in that mix suffered, and we all looked for escape when and where we could. For us, once a week, that was Westgate.[7]

As a child, Ellis often walked to Westgate Mall on Saturdays, spending her weekly two-dollar allowance on ice cream from Clark’s Dairy Bar, sodas from Throop Pharmacy, and cookies from Hunt’s Bakery.[8] On her thirteenth birthday in the early 1970s, anxious to dress like her peers at Fisher Park High School, Ellis delighted in a new outfit from Freiman’s. Said Ellis, “I cherish the memory of the wide-leg pants in a soft blue, pink and cream check pattern, a dappled white blouse with French cuffs, and the perfect pair of platform shoes that transported me to some level of grade-nine acceptance on the playing field of fashion.”[9]

By the mid-1970s, as a teenager, Ellis worked at S.S. Kresge Ltd., what she called “Westgate’s equivalent of Woolworths.”[10] With the money she earned from this job, Ellis bought a beautiful dress at Westgate’s upscale Anna-Lee Shoppe. With that deep-cherry red dress, she placed third runner-up in the local Snow Queen Contest. Her time at Westgate continued into her university years. While studying at the University of Ottawa in the late 1970s, Ellis sold women’s clothes at Town and Country: her last retail and mall job.  

In 2016, Ellis reflected on Westgate Mall, which served as a dependable backdrop, linking her memories and experiences from childhood through adulthood. Explained Ellis: 

The place is barely recognizable to me now, yet I still feel nostalgic gratitude whenever I see it. After all, Westgate was a refuge and a touchstone for me through fifteen formative and turbulent years - and I have lived within walking distance for most of my life.[11]

As Ellis and others have observed, Westgate was always more than a mall. It forged a vital link between personal memories and the collective identity of its community. Special events and everyday encounters at Westgate energized and anchored its community. Connection at Westgate unfolded every day. 

Future couples crossed paths, teenagers earned first paychecks, and seniors found renewed kinship. Kids ate ice cream, men dropped in for haircuts, women browsed for clothes, and families sat down to dinner together. Friendships blossomed between employees and customers. Decades-old businesses flourished under tenants. For people facing troubles, Westgate offered refuge.

These shared moments made Westgate a lasting symbol of belonging. As Ottawa’s oldest shopping centre, its closure stirs nostalgia and gratitude for a legacy woven into the city’s history. Westgate’s spirit lives on through its people. Thank you, Westgate. We miss you already.

[1] Guy Quenneville, “Patrons and shop owners of 70-year-old Westgate Shopping Centre mourn its closure,” CBC News Ottawa, October 30, 2025, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/westgate-shopping-centre-closure-9.6956832. 

[2] Quenneville, “Patrons and shop owners of 70-year-old Westgate Shopping Centre mourn its closure,” https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/westgate-shopping-centre-closure-9.6956832. 

[3] Quenneville, “Patrons and shop owners of 70-year-old Westgate Shopping Centre mourn its closure,” https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/westgate-shopping-centre-closure-9.6956832. 

[4] Karen Ellis, “Growing up at Westgate Mall,” Ottawa At Home Magazine (Ottawa, ON), September 17, 2016, https://www.ottawaathome.ca/living_article.php?articleID=138. 

[5] Ellis, “Growing up at Westgate Mall,” https://www.ottawaathome.ca/living_article.php?articleID=138. 

[6] Ellis, “Growing up at Westgate Mall,” https://www.ottawaathome.ca/living_article.php?articleID=138. 

[7] Ellis, “Growing up at Westgate Mall,” https://www.ottawaathome.ca/living_article.php?articleID=138. 

[8] Ellis, “Growing up at Westgate Mall,” https://www.ottawaathome.ca/living_article.php?articleID=138. 

[9] Ellis, “Growing up at Westgate Mall,” https://www.ottawaathome.ca/living_article.php?articleID=138. 

[10] Ellis, “Growing up at Westgate Mall,” https://www.ottawaathome.ca/living_article.php?articleID=138.  

[11] Ellis, “Growing up at Westgate Mall,” https://www.ottawaathome.ca/living_article.php?articleID=138.