South Azimuth Building

The Dominion Observatory was an astronomical observatory in Ottawa, Ontario that operated from 1902 to 1970. The Observatory was also an institution within the Canadian Federal Government. The observatory grew out of the Department of the Interior's need for the precise coordinates and timekeeping that at that time could only come from an observatory. For several years they had used a small observatory on the Ottawa River for this purpose. In 1902, it was decided that Canada needed a larger national observatory similar to the Royal Greenwich Observatory in Britain.

Chief Dominion Architect David Ewart designed the Dominion Observatory in 1902.The new building was then erected near Dow's Lake on the Agriculture Department's Central Experimental Farm land. This Romanesque Revival building was completed in 1905.