Editing Hull, Quebec (section)

===Early history===
[[File:Hull, (Lower Canada), on the Ottawa River; at the Chaudier (sic) Falls, 1830.jpg|thumb|Painting of Hull by
[[Thomas Burrowes (artist)|Thomas Burrowes]], with the Chaudière Falls and Bytown in background, 1830]]
[[File:Hull, Quebec from Ottawa - 1896.jpg|thumb|right|Hull from Ottawa, 1896]]
[[File:Execution of Stanislaus Lacroix in Hull, Quebec, Canada 1902.jpg|thumb|Public execution in Hull, 1902]]
[[File:Main & Bridge Street, Hull, Quebec (1905).jpg|thumb|right|Corner of Main and Bridge streets in Hull, 1905]]
[[File:Hull, Quebec (1913).jpg|thumb|right|Hull, 1913]]

Hull is a [[List of former municipalities in Quebec|former municipality in the Province of Quebec]] and the location of the oldest non-Indigenous settlement in the National Capital Region. Prior to European settlement, various [[Anishinaabe]] peoples including the [[Algonquins]] inhabited the area.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/gatineau#IndigenousPeoples | title=Gatineau &#124; the Canadian Encyclopedia }}</ref> It was founded on the north shore of the [[Ottawa River]] in 1800 by [[Philemon Wright]] at the [[portage]] around the [[Chaudière Falls]] just upstream (or west) from where the [[Gatineau River|Gatineau]] and [[Rideau River|Rideau]] Rivers flow into the Ottawa. Wright brought his family, five other families and twenty-five labourers<ref>{{cite book |last=Taylor |first=John H.  |year=1986 |title=Ottawa: An Illustrated History |publisher=Toronto: James Lorimer & Company, Publishers |page=11}}</ref> and a plan to establish an agriculturally based community in what was a mosquito-infested wilderness. Soon after, Wright and his family took advantage of the large lumber stands and became involved in the [[Lumber industry on the Ottawa River|timber trade]]. Originally the place was named [[Wright's Town, Lower Canada]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/base-de-donnees/annuairescanadiens/001075-2100-e.html |title=CityScapes: Ottawa |work=Canadian Directories: Who Was Where |publisher=[[Library and Archives Canada]] |date=2008-11-10 |access-date=2010-09-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130618213609/http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/base-de-donnees/annuairescanadiens/001075-2100-e.html |archive-date=2013-06-18 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and the name Wrightville survives as the name of a neighbourhood in Gatineau's Hull district.

The Gatineau River, like the Ottawa River, was very much the preserve of the ''draveurs'', people who would use the river to transport logs from lumber camps to mills downriver. (The Gatineau River flows south into the Ottawa River which flows east to the [[Saint Lawrence River|St Lawrence River]] near [[Montreal]].) The log-filled Ottawa River, as viewed from Hull, appeared on the back of the [[Withdrawn Canadian banknotes#One-dollar bill|Canadian one-dollar bill]] until it was replaced by a dollar coin (the "[[loonie]]") in 1987, and the last of the dwindling activity of the draveurs on these rivers ended a few years later.<ref>https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-08-04-wr-5041-story.html {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</ref>

Ottawa was founded later, as the terminus of the [[Rideau Canal]], built under the command of Lieutenant Colonel [[John By]] as part of fortifications and defences constructed after the [[War of 1812]]. Originally named [[Bytown]], Ottawa did not become Canada's capital until the mid-19th century after the original Parliament Building in Montreal was torched by a rioting mob of English-speaking citizens on April 25, 1849. Its greater distance from the Canada–US border also left the new Parliament Buildings in Ottawa less vulnerable to foreign attack.

Nothing remains of the original 1800 settlement; the downtown Vieux-Hull sector was razed by a [[1900 Hull-Ottawa fire|destructive fire in 1900]] which also destroyed the original ''pont des Chaudières'' ([[Chaudière Bridge]]), a road bridge which has since been rebuilt to join Ottawa to Hull at [[Victoria Island (Ottawa River)|Victoria Island]].