Was Preston Street named after Isabella Preston?
Was Preston Street named after Isabella Preston, the celebrated horticulturalist who worked at the Central Experimental Farm in the 1920s?
Preston Street was named many years before Isabella Preston’s time.
Preston Street is mentioned in the 1864-65 directory:
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It is also described in the Ottawa 1869-70 directory:
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The 1885 Fire Insurance map shows Preston Street. It was then still outside the city limits.
City of Ottawa historian Lucien Brault published a list of the origins of Ottawa street names in 1942 in his book Ottawa, Then and Now. He said that Preston Street was named for City Treasurer John Honey Preston. I discovered that Lucien Brault got his list of the origins of street names with the wrong information about Preston Street from an earlier book, Ottawa Past and Present, by A.H.D. Ross, Ottawa, 1927, page 198. www.archivecdbooks.ca/Samples/CA0260_Samp.pdf
However, in the Ottawa directories from 1863 onwards I can only find a George H. Preston, tailor and mens’ outfitter. There is no record of a John Honey Preston.
Here is George’s ad from 1864-65:

George H. Preston was an Alderman on City Council in that year and also in 1863, when he sat on the Streets and Improvements committee and chaired the By-laws committee.
Here is the 1871 census information for George H. Preston:
PRESTON, GEORGE H
Sex:Male
Age:44
Place of Birth:QUEBEC
Religion:Presbyterian
Origin:ENGLISH
Occupation:MERCHANT
District:OTTAWA (077)
Sub-district:St. George's Ward (C)
Division:2
Page:55
Microfilm reel number:C-10014
Reference:RG31 — Statistics Canada
In the 1881 Census he was listed as:
Name: Preston, George Honey
Sex: M
Age: 54
Place of Birth: Q (Quebec)
Religion: R. Episcopel
Ethnic Origin: English
Occupation:
Province: Ontario
District Name: Ottawa (City) (105)
Sub-District Name: St-George Ward (C)
Division:1
Page:6
Microfilm:C-13230
Reference:RG31 - Statistics Canada

According to http://www.bytown.net/rochesterjohn.htm Mary Ann Rochester (b.1824) married George Honey Preston.
Rochesterville ... after its amalgamation to the city, was still referenced as Rochester Heights. That area could be described as that height of land around Laurier and Bronson extending southward to Gladstone. The John Rochester clan arrived in Bytown, from Rouses Point NY, USA around 1827 and were engaged as provisioners to Colonel By. They established a brewery - Dominion Pale Ale was one line that is named in various accounts, being popular to the troops. As well, they developed a tannery and John Rochester had a sawmill at the Chaudiere.
... (George) Rochester was born in Rouses Point NY in 1820, moved to Bytown with his family (John Rochester Sr.) in 1828 as provisioners to Colonel By, mainly establishing a brewery of major proportion circa 1829.
... George (son of John Rochester) and Marion Rochester had a family of six sons. George Hamilton Preston Rochester, the third son ...
George Rochester may have been the brother of Mary Ann Rochester, so she and her husband George H. Preston could well have been the godparents of George Hamilton Preston Rochester.
So the only north-south streets of Rochesterville were named after the two families that were linked by marriage, Rochester and Preston.
The east west streets of Rochesterville were Maple, Elm, Spruce, Cedar (now Somerset), Ash (now Eccles), Alice, Poplar, Willow, Beech, etc.