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• 1 2021-04-13T12:17:41-07:00 The Station's Role 11 Tyler Hodgkins plain 2023-09-24T08:26:08-07:00 As we can see in the aerial photographs, the station was established during a time of great development. The location, as discussed in the Island Park Drive and Richmond Road section, was a crucial departure point for many travellers, with Island Park Drive being the first crossing over to Québec from the west, and Richmond Drive being the main artery into Ottawa at the time. It was inevitable that anyone traveling to Québec from the west or into Ottawa from the west would be forced to pass this station. The introduction of the automobile evermore increased the exposure of the area. Motorist's reliance on the guiding handbooks, as discussed in the section The Automobile, advertised specific businesses to stop at along the way, and The AOA, a subsidiary of the Champlain Oil Company who bought the station, commissioned their own handbook. Because the station was owned by the same company, it is likely that the station in question was listed as one of the places to stop, further increasing exposure to travelers and surrounding businesses. The introduction of the automobile also affected local travel, where rural populations were frequenting urban centres more and more while urban dwellers were taking their new automobiles out for a cruise on the open country roads. The station's location along this shared transportational artery essentially had the effect where local travellers, either leaving the city to go out to the rural west or coming into the city, were forced to pass this station, increasing the likelihood of business brought to the area due to its location along main transportation routes. And to cement our theory of economic development during this time due to the introduction of the automobile, aerial photographs show the exponential development of the area over a seventeen-year span, especially to the west. Together with these sources of information, it is quite apparent that the station was a large contributing factor to the rapid development of Westboro. The station is a surviving relic from this era and should be protected as a contributing factor to this growth and development. The gas station was undoubtedly a large contributing factor to these changes and should be preserved at least in its aesthetics to remind the residents and passersby of Westboro's early history of developmental phases.