JR Booth

JR (John Rudolphus) Booth was a Canadian lumber tycoon and railroad baron. He built the Canada Atlantic Railway (from Georgian Bay via Ottawa to Vermont) to extract his logs and to export lumber and grain to the United States and Europe. In 1892, his lumber complex was the largest operation of its kind in the world.

Booth arrived in "Bytown" (later renamed Ottawa) at the same time as many other lumber enterpreneurs such as Henry Bronson, W.G. Perley, John Harris and E.B. Eddy, yet, by 1890, Booth overtook them all to become the largest lumber producer in the world. It was said that at one point the timberlands under his control occupied an area larger than France.

JR Booth built 704 Island Park Drive in 1937.