Harrington Lake () is the summer residence and all-season retreat of the prime minister of Canada, and also the name of the land which surrounds it. The farm that surrounded most of the lake was the property of Margaret and John Harrington. John could not farm the land and moved to the local town of Iron Sides (now Old Chelsea). The family stayed on the farm for many years and eventually moved to old Ottawa. The property is located near Meech Lake—where the Meech Lake Accord was negotiated in 1987—approximately 35 kilometres northwest of Ottawa, in Gatineau Park, amidst the Gatineau Hills in Quebec. The property is not open to the public, but the Mackenzie King Estate, the retreat of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King at Kingsmere, is a tourist attraction located 2 kilometres south in the park.
Description
Since 1986, the 5.4-hectare (13-acre) property at Harrington Lake has been managed by the National Capital Commission. The property includes four recreational buildings; the land, which formerly consisted of cultivated fields, has reverted to secondary forest.
In addition to the main cottage with its view over the lake, the Harrington estate includes the following structures:
- staff cottage
- upper guest cottage
- lower guest cottage
- boat house and paddleboat dock
- long dock (located the northeast of the retreat)
The lake itself and the area around it are referred to as Lac Mousseau. The French name Mousseau comes from another early settler to the area, Louis Mousseau, who bought property in 1867.
The retreat is accessed by Chemin de Lac Meech with a gatehouse, staffed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Protective Policing Service, at the driveway of the retreat. The prime minister's motorcade accesses Harrington Lake from Ottawa via Quebec Autoroute 5.
History
Several families came in the 19th century to settle the Harrington Lake area, including the Harrington and the Mousseau families. The lake eventually became known as "Harrington Lake" in English and "lac Mousseau" in French. The Mousseau family had built a farm on the shores of the lake, which remained in the family for several decades. Since the land was not suitable for farming, the lumber industry replaced it as the primary economic activity. In the early 20th century, two Americans, W. A. Drum and W. L. Donnelly, built a sawmill at Harrington Lake to serve the lumber industry.
In the 1920s, Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Macpherson Edwards, a member of a prominent lumbering family in Ottawa, inherited part of the property from his uncle, Senator William Cameron Edwards (who had owned 24 Sussex Drive).