Stittsville's Parade of Lights Ends Where the Train Station Stood. Next Door, a New "Station" Is Going Up.

In January 1990, the last VIA Rail train ran through Stittsville. That ended nearly 120 years of rail service. The tracks were soon torn up, the rail buildings were demolished, and the crossing arms came off Main Street.

The railway still shapes the village. On Saturday, December 5, the Stittsville Village Association's Parade of Lights ends with Santa and a countdown to light Village Square Park, on the land where Stittsville's train station used to be. A few steps from that park, a building called The Station is under construction. It is designed to look like a heritage railway station. The village has been rebuilding its centre around that rail line for more than 150 years, and parade night shows it clearly.

Six o'clock at Browns, then down Main Street

The Stittsville Village Association lists the 2026 parade for Saturday, December 5 at 6:00 p.m. on Stittsville Main Street. The SVA says the parade is always held on the first Saturday of December, with Minto Homes as its largest sponsor. About 50 floats and many volunteers gather at Browns Independent to finish their displays before setting off. Local businesses, not-for-profits and community leaders build the floats as a thank-you to the community.

The floats leave from Browns. Last year's notice from the councillor's office shows where the 2025 parade went from there:

The 2025 route and closure time are last year's arrangements. Check the councillor's site and the SVA closer to the date for 2026 traffic details. Last year, iSiLIVE's coverage started at 5:30 p.m., half an hour before the floats moved.

The evening starts before the parade. The SVA hands out hot chocolate and cookies at Village Square while the Military Wives Choir and the Grace Baptist Church Choir sing Christmas music. Both ends of the night happen at the old station grounds.

Why the finale lands on the old station grounds

The village was not always centred there. Around 1820, settlement grew around the crossroads of what are now Stittsville Main Street, Hazeldean Road and Carp Road. By the 1840s the spot was known as "Stitts Corners."

The Great Fire of August 1870 destroyed almost everything in Stittsville. When the railway was finished along what is now the Trans Canada Trail, a station went in just east of the main road. Councillor Glen Gower writes in his history of Stittsville Main that the community's centre moved away from the old corners toward that station, and shops, hotels and other businesses grew up around it in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

The station site became Village Square Park in 1996. The rail line became the Trans Canada Trail, which connected Bells Corners to Carleton Place by 2000. The park's playground still follows the railway theme. The play structure that opened in 2024 has a replica VIA Rail train, a water tower and a sand play area.

The SVA's own description of parade night still uses the railway as a landmark. After the floats pass, the Scouts run a bonfire "just down from the train station," local artists and choirs keep playing, and the park lights up when Santa arrives. The station has been gone for more than 30 years, and the organizers still use it to give directions.

The corner across the trail

Bradley Square is the public square where the trail meets Stittsville Main, just south of Abbott. The 2015 Community Design Plan called for a square at that spot. It was completed in 2019 with provincial main street stimulus funding. In 2022 it was named for the Bradley family and their long contributions to Stittsville.

Across Abbott is the old Green's Hotel, also known as Butler's Hotel, at the corner of Stittsville Main. It was one of the businesses that grew up around the station. For years it housed Hudson's Insurance, and Gower says he used to stop his Jane's Walk tours on its porch and talk about how good a coffee shop or brew pub would be there. Today the building is home to Ritual Café, which he describes as a popular stop for cyclists and walkers on the Trans Canada Trail. The café's address is 1510 Stittsville Main.

This corner is the busiest stretch of the parade's second half. The square, the café, the trail crossing and the park all sit within a short walk of each other. They are all here because a train used to stop here.

A new building designed to look like the old station

The next lot south of the trail is 1518 Stittsville Main. Bradley's General Store was built there in the 1870s. Much later the building became Louisiannie's restaurant, until a fire badly damaged it in 2013. It was demolished the following year.

Inverness Homes broke ground on the site in the summer of 2025. Its project is called The Station because it is meant to look like a heritage railway station, with red brick, tall arched windows, wide eaves and a multi-sided clock tower. The architect is Malcolm Wildeboer of Vandenberg & Wildeboer Architects, a Stittsville resident.

The plans include a four-storey building with 27 apartments set toward the back of the lot. The second floor will hold offices for Inverness Homes and other tenants. The ground floor will have a restaurant with a patio. Caroline in the Capital reported that the restaurant is a personal project for Melissa Kruyne, a partner in Inverness Homes. She has lived in Stittsville for almost 20 years and plans a 50 to 70 seat room. She wants it to work as a neighbourhood gathering place, a date-night spot and a stop for people using the Trans Canada Trail, which runs right along the north side of the property. "It's going to be a cornerstone building, for sure," Kruyne told the outlet. The same report says her brother Ryan and his wife Ashley started Opa's Farming Huis, a regenerative farm in Ottawa's west end, and plan to supply the restaurant with vegetables and pasture-raised meat.

The project is scheduled for completion in spring 2027. That means the floats pass a building site this December. The street has rebuilt itself around the station once before. After the 1870 fire, the station pulled the village toward it. Now new buildings are going up on the same stretch, and one of them is modelled on the station itself.

The rest of the route is being rebuilt too

The Station is one of several buildings along the parade route that came out of the same plan. Gower lists the projects built under the 2015 Community Design Plan:

• The Switzer, 1531 Stittsville Main: 43 apartments, opened in 2022
• The Landing, 1370 Stittsville Main: 71 apartments, opened in 2025
• The Station, 1518 Stittsville Main: 27 apartments, under construction
• 1412 Stittsville Main: 18 apartments, under construction

None of these needed a rezoning. Every one except 1412 has shops or restaurants on the ground floor with apartments above, for a total of just over 150 units. The plan estimated the street could hold about 2,200 homes between 2015 and 2031, so the street is still far from that total.

The 2025 route ended at Carleton Cathcart Street, and the next change on the street is planned for that corner. Gower writes that the old firehall there is due for a major rebuild. The City plans to make it the permanent home of the Stittsville Food Bank, likely with affordable housing and community meeting rooms as well.

The parade already supports the food bank. The Stittsville Lions Club walks the route collecting non-perishable food and cash for it, and the SVA asks spectators to come ready to give. If you plan to donate, pack cans with your mittens.

Before December 5: the old rail bed and the weeks ahead

The trail built on the old rail bed is in use every week. The Ottawa-Carleton Trailway parkrun is a free 5 km run every Saturday at 9:00 a.m., depending on weather and trail conditions. It starts on the Trans Canada Trail at the dog park entrance near Shea and Granite Ridge and runs along Robert Grant to Bobolink and back, with no road crossings.

Here is what's coming up in Stittsville between now and parade night, from the councillor's events roundup:

1. Saturday, November 21: The Holy Spirit Catholic Women's League holds its Annual Bazaar at Holy Spirit Parish, 1489 Shea Road, with homemade crafts, a White Elephant table, and a tea room serving lunch from 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Admission is free, and donations to the food bank are welcome.
2. Saturday, November 21: Kisanaa Game Night runs from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. at the Stittsville Lions Club, 1339 Stittsville Main Street, with East African food and music. Tickets are $25 for one or $40 for a couple.
3. Sunday, November 22: The Goulbourn Museum's Old Fashioned Christmas runs from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at 2064 Huntley Road, with Santa, live music by the fire pit, hot chocolate, apple cider, local vendors and a raffle.
4. Sunday, November 29: The Goulbourn Male Chorus performs "A Gentlemen's Christmas" at 3:00 p.m. at Trinity Presbyterian Church, 1817 Richardson Side Road. Tickets are $25, or $15 for students.
5. Saturday, December 5: The Parade of Lights steps off at 6:00 p.m.

The museum also has an event the week after the parade. Frosted Fun, a family craft day, runs from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 12, with skiing snowmen, pinecone Christmas trees and salt-painted snowflakes. Pre-registration is required.

The SVA is still looking for volunteers and floats. Both the float registration form and the volunteer form are on the SVA's events page, and volunteers can also email [email protected].

If you own a home along Stittsville Main or near the trail, the new buildings going up around the old station site affect how your property compares with the rest of the street. The Zak Green Team follows Stittsville Main one address at a time, from The Landing to the Carleton Cathcart corner. Request a personalized market valuation, and we'll show you where your home stands on this changing street.