White Paint on Brick

     There's no denying — back in its heyday, Metcalfe Street was one swanky strip of real estate. Now somewhat sandwiched between a pair of apartment blocks, #200 boasted some notable neighbours in the early 1900s. Here's a detail from the Might Directory for 1912, page 114...

     Here, Alfred M. Scott finds himself book-ended by a pair of physicians, not far from a "Sir" and an "Honourable", and a mere pigskin's toss from that well-known local athlete (lacrosse and yes, football) and businessmen (president of Pritchard Andrews Co.), J. Arthur Seybould. And we haven't even looked across the street yet — seriously, someone should write a book.
     That said, I don't think that anyone will be writing a book about Alfred M. Scott any time soon. The man was either mysterious, retired, or both. We can confirm his residence at 200 Metcalfe between 1912 and 1916, but during that time the Might Directories fail to associate his name with any sort of job.

     A gap in my records brings us to the year 1923 but not to any A.M. Scott.  That year appears to show the old Scott house divided into two apartments, with  a Thomas P. Murphy in one, and Herbert and Percy Sims sharing the other — Herbert being listed as another "phys" — Ear, Nose and Throat. Were these houses built over some kind of surgical anomaly?
     A "Heart and Blood Pressure" man moved into the digs in the early '50s and then, in a break with tradition, Thomas Shipman Realtors took over #200 in early 1956. By the 1970s, 200/200a housed a weight-loss clinic and a chiropractors' office. To this day, the building cleaves to its somewhat alternative medical heritage as the address of Advanced Wellness (main floor, "suite 100.")

June 1970 — Ottawa Journal

     
"...Lie on a lounge, bring a book, a sandwich, a martini, or some conversation and a friend..." Here come the seventies!


     I should mention that on the 19th of September 1913, the Ottawa Journal published the following social notice...

Mr. and Mrs. Alfred M. Scott, who have been on an eight weeks' cruise on the Rideau Lakes in their motor boat, The Porcupine, have returned to town.

     It's literally the only sentence I've been able to find that hints at the sort of thing the Alfred M. Scotts did apart from nothing — and bully for them I say!  ;-)

la p'tite maison hantée

Centretown Ottawa — July 2017

An Old Row in the Glebe

     These row houses at 206-212 Queen Elizabeth Drive abut the eastern end of Pretoria Avenue (originally "Jane"). They were built some time between 1901 and 1908, and were originally numbered 560-566 Elgin Street. At some point, each house was divided into small(!!!) upstairs and downstairs apartments.
     City directories date the detached house on the left (214) to some time between 1916 and 1923 — (clearly, I'm not working with a full set.)

adapted from Goad, 1912

     Goad's sheet #147 from 1912 shows our row houses facing east onto Elgin. The little gap between the row and the duplex would eventually accommodate 214 Queen Elizabeth.
     This part of the Glebe was originally a strip of factories and working-class dwellings clustered along the CAR/GTR train tracks, now the Queensway. Notice the "Washing & Wringing Machine" factory on the left side of the plan. Buildings labeled  "lumber shed", "planing... finishing" and "dry kiln" remind us that our modern machines evolved from wooden washtubs. The Pretoria Avenue facility was replaced by a unified one-storey building housing a tile and marble works (DeSpirt early 1947, later Durie). It's now occupied by an animal hospital, a pet groomer and a door-and-window showroom.

Growing pains... February 8 1947, Ottawa Journal

Footprint in a Parking Lot: 196 Lisgar, the Douglas House

     When the snow finally melted this past spring, I got into the habit of cutting through the parking lots between Cooper and Lisgar on my way to Sobey's. I soon noticed the remains of an old limestone foundation poking up from the unpaved ground behind the Queen Elizabeth Apartments* (201 Metcalfe, see here and here).

in the background, the Regency Towers to the left, the Queen Elizabeth on the right (both seen from behind)

     The above photo shows what was the east-side wall of a house, with its front end in the lower right — the yellow line runs along the outside of the foundation.  The heavy masonry (rough measure using my Chuck Taylors**) is about 20" thick. Here's a stitched view of the west wall, excuse the strong distortion...

     The north-west front corner of the house is clearly seen at (1). (2) indicates a small external protrusion, possibly a chimney, incorporates some yellowish stone — sandstone perhaps? (3) is a longer, well-defined protrusion that may indicate a window bay.
     It's notable that the east wall extends exactly 6 Chuck Taylors closer to the street than the west does, indicating an asymmetric facade of the sort we see on so many of the Victorian houses still standing in Ottawa. Indeed, a bit of poking about helps us date the building to the late 1800s.
     Charles Goad's insurance maps make it clear that, as of 1878,  he saw no construction south of Lisgar Street worth documenting. The following decade must have undergone a building boom because by 1888, Goad (and his draftsmen) were drawing little pictures of houses and businesses as far south as Catherine Street and the CAR rail line, now the Queensway.
     Here's an image adapted from Goad's 1888 sheet #52...

     196 Lisgar (top row of houses, second from the left) conforms perfectly with the size, shape and position of our parking lot find. Its solid pink colour indicates solid brick construction, at a prestigious 2½ storeys in height. The grey blocks wedged into the southeast corner of the property are a shed and a stable (the latter marked with an "X" on its roof). The very similar house at 200 Lisgar would be replaced by the Queen Elizabeth apartments at the start of WWII, while at a somewhat later date, 215 Metcalfe would make way for the Regency Towers at 261 Cooper.
     Relying on my meager collection of city directories, I find no 1885 listing for a 196 Lisgar. Jumping ahead to 1901, we find "196 Douglas Clifton A".  Mr. Douglas would reside at #196 until his death in February of 1916, earning the house (I would think) the title of "Douglas House."
     A death is not a cheery thing, but finding an obituary is like finding gold. Here are the nicer things we learn about Clifton Douglas from the Ottawa Journal, February 14 1916, page 4...

     Mr. Clifton A. Douglas, for many years one of the best-known real estate and financial men in this city, died at his home, 196 Lisgar street, on Saturday. Deceased was in his 64th year and had been a resident of Ottawa for the past 35 years.
     Born at Bellefontaine, Ohio, on March [unclear] 1853, the late Mr. Douglas came to Canada to engage in mining in the Ottawa Valley in 1875 and five years later settled here permanently. In that year he established the real estate and insurance business of C. A. Douglas & Co., and about ten years later, the Home Building and Savings Association of Ottawa, of which he has been managing director ever since.
     Deceased was a charter member of the Ottawa Board of Trade and held the office of secretary-treasurer for many years. He was also vice-president of the Copeland, Chatterton, Crain Co. and a director in many other business enterprises in the city.
     As a member of the Scottish Rite and Dalhousie Lodge, the late Mr. Douglas was prominent in Masonic circles, and he was also prominent in benevolent and philanthropic work, being at one time president of the Protestant Home for the Aged and a life director of the Protestant General Hospital.
     In religion the deceased was a Methodist and attended Dominion Methodist church, of which he was a trustee.
     The widow and four daughters, Mrs. W. Muir Edwards, of Edmonton; Mrs. G. F. Reinhardt, of Boston Mass.; Mrs. Kenneth  P. McDonald, of Ottawa, and Miss Marjorie Douglas, of Ottawa, survive him.
     The funeral took place at 3:00 this afternoon from the family residence, 169 [sic] Lisgar street, to Beechwood cemetery, Rev. Dr. Sparling conducting the service.

1906-6-28, Ottawa Journal

      GeoOttawa's aerial photos show the Regency Towers being built in 1965. The Douglas house disappeared some time between that year and 1976.

     In this view from early 1965, the Regency Towers building (RT) nears completion. The morning sun casts a shadow from the northwest wing of the new structure onto the roof of the older, shorter Queen Elizabeth (QE). Notice the construction crane still in place. Douglas House, not yet demolished, sits within the blue circle. Note its complex roof and the "summer kitchen" extension to the rear. "E" indicates the old red-brick house presently being used as the Czech Embassy.
     The Recency Towers began renting in the summer of 1965. Here is an ad from exactly 52 years ago...

     Apartments for rent? What a novel idea!

*I was having trouble getting my head around the idea of calling a building the "Queen Elizabeth" in 1939, when "our" Queen would have been some 12 years old and certainly not yet Monarch. Of course, the apartments were named for the Queen Mother, herself an "Elizabeth." The naming commemorated the 1939 cross-Canadian visit by King George VI and his wife (played by Helena Bonham Carter, best supporting actress) in the same year that Britain declared war on Germany.
The following year, George and Elizabeth would visit the New York World Fair as part of an effort to garner American assistance in "the European War." An intriguing article about a bombing at the Fair (Marc Wortman, Daily Beast) is well worth the read.

**Vans, Nikes,  whatever — each shoe should be 12" long.

The Parkdale, Elgin at Gladstone

     The Might Directories indicate that the swank-sounding Parkdale apartment building (first listed as #390-392 Elgin) was constructed around 1912 and that its six rental units replaced two single-family houses of like numbering. Goad 1912 sheet 67 shows this walk-up's brick-veneer-over-wood structure and insists that, because of the indentation created by its Mansard-style roof-line, the Parkdale is a two-and-a-half storey building and not a three.
     Listings as late as 1923 assure us that the Parkdale was not built to accommodate a storefront, but at some point in time that's obviously what happened. The ground floor was gutted, the side windows bricked in, and a projection of what looks to me like 3.5 metres was tacked on to the front of the building. It's been a Mac's for as long as I can remember, not that I've been keeping track. A staircase on the south side of the building permits access to the remaining apartments.
     The Parkdale exudes the charm that comes with peeling paint and a graffiti hit that has persisted unbuffed for at least a year now if not two. The current addresses are 388 Elgin for the store and 390 for the apartments.

Sunny morning, Google Street View — Elgin looking south (L), Gladstone looking west (R)

     This Street View capture shows how far the storefront extends past the original facade. Note the stone foundation and the four bricked-in side windows. The rebuilt balconies take advantage of the storefront roof and may be deeper than the originals.

Early Infill: 404 Elgin, the Holbrook

     According to Kalman & Roaf, (Exploring Ottawa, 1983) the Holbrook dates to 1915 and was designed by the prolific local architect Warner Edgar Noffke. In this case, his clients were Charles and James Holbrook, contractors — the building, one assumes, was conceived as an income property.
     The Might Directories reveal the Holbrook to be an early 20th century example of developer-driven infill. The 1915 directory, reflecting conditions of the previous twelve months, lists 404 and 406 as two detached dwellings, both vacant pending their demolition (and both, it appears, original to the site).  They were very much in the style and size of the adjacent #408, still standing (see Chris Ryan.)
     The following year Might would list the Holbrook at the same address, uniting the two lots and boasting 18 units, all occupied. Dividing this number of apartments by the two original households yields a densification factor of 9x for the property.

Watch This Space

Click the pic to enlarge — I hate it when you squint.

     To the left of this painterly scene, the distinctive 278 Crichton has found a new admirer, a little red rent-a-potty. Of #278, Katharine Fletcher (Capital Walks) writes...

[It is] a still beautiful 1908 Rogue Victorian red brick home that is a study in competing shapes and forms...  the squared-off central doorway and the balcony alcove [not visible in this shot] are later additions built when the single family home was turned into the Philip Apartments by the Betcherman family in the 1930s.

     In the foreground sits a vacant lot formerly occupied by the Brunswick Apartments at 280 and a modest older house at 282. This 2010 proposal (pdf) for "New Three Storey Stacked Townhouses (32 Units)" gives us a rough idea of what to expect next.

7-9-11 Electric Street

     Timberville.ca, who claim responsibility for this row at the corner of New Edinburgh's Crichton and Electric Streets, describe themselves as offering...

[A]rchitecturally designed, high-quality homes evolved from the classic modernist traditions. Our stunning designs and meticulous finishings ensure consistently spectacular results! Specializing in project management for custom builds and renovations, we take the building experience to the next level. Our current & past projects showcase our beautiful designs in some of Ottawa's finest communities.

     While I'm sure some of the neighbors grumbled when they saw this one going up, they could have been stuck with much worse. Height and setback are well-managed, the exterior reminds us of Sussex Avenue's historic limestone homes (or does a decent job trying) and the graceful upthrust of the columns add the right amount of "classic" to an otherwise modernist design.
     Timberville's website doesn't have much to say about 7-9-11, satisfied to offer a little slideshow and that's about it. This building went up some time after 2011 and demonstrates how modern architecture can (and sometimes does) make effective use of a small lot.
     Younger Ottawans may not realize that as late as the 1970s, parts of the south end of New Edinburgh, especially in the block bounded by Crichton, Electric, MacKay and Beechwood looked a lot like the rougher parts of Lower Town back in the day. If this is progress, I have no great objection.
     This lot was previously the site of 296 Crichton, an old (probably original to the site) flat roofed, red-brick house. A side lawn faced onto Electric. Goad's 1912 reprint shows a two-storey house, built of wood with brick veneer. Some time prior to its demolition, it acquired a boxy-looking front-porch/sun-room addition.
     Note that Crichton appears as "Creighton" in some older documents.

the Elgin Apartments, #370

     The Elgin Apartments date to the first decade of the 20th century, though pinning down an exact year is a bit tricky. They don't appear in the 1901 Might Directory, but they are listed in the 1909 — without any mention of tenants. This odd state of affairs persists in the 1912 edition. Seven tenants are listed in 1913 while 1914 indicates eight units. This would make two apartments running front to back on each of the above-ground floors.
     The building appears here on Goad's May 1912 reprint, with Elgin Street on the right margin of the page...

     The Elgin Apartments building is at the upper right-hand corner of the plan. Notice the building immediately to its south, numbered 372-376. It predates the Elgin and appears on Goad's 1888 plan (sheet 54), simply labeled 376. Here it's shown as a double storefront, featuring a grocers and a barber shop, with an apartment(s?) upstairs. As best I can tell, this is the same building (today numbered 372) that houses the Elgin Street Diner.
     A curiosity depicted here is the row of six houses that fill out the rest of the block. The two south-most units were unceremoniously lopped off when Gladstone was widened in the early 1960s. The remaining four units were converted to shops and offices — all destroyed by fire on the night of Friday, February 16 1979. As Mike Strobel reported for the Ottawa Journal...

     The "small apartment making up the rest of the block" would have been the Elgin Apartments. #370 had its own brush with fire just two years previous — from an Ottawa Journal photo caption dated January 17 1977...

 "A fireman is framed in the charred window of one of the apartments on the top floor of the nine-unit building at 370 Elgin Street. Fire gutted that floor of the Elgin Apartments at about 10:30 a.m. leaving 40 people without shelter. There were no injuries but damage to the four-storey brick structure was estimated at $30,000."

     The basement of the Elgin Apartments is, of course, home to the most excellent Manx Pub,  http://manxpub.com/ — proudly "TV free since '93."

The Lochiel Houses

28 Lochiel, now 244 Frank

 
      Lochiel Street ran west of Elgin for all of one block when the area was first being developed in the late 19th Century — it would eventually become part of Frank Street. Houses on the north side of Lochiel were razed to make way for Jack Purcell Park, more recently a dog park.
     On the south side of Frank, two small Victorian-era houses sit huddled together. Both are at least 130 years old, if the date on the map below is to be trusted. The 1885 city directory lists three households* on Lochiel, but the street numbers are not given.
     #244  (formerly 28 Lochiel) is made of brick, parts of which are veneered with faux masonry, now painted a silvery-grey. Goad calls this a 1½-storey, but I'd give it a two. The mansard-styling on the second storey facade creates the appearance of a tiny, side-gabled house, but the building is actually flat-roofed and at least twice as deep as it's wide.

Goad, January 1888, sheet 54 — Elgin runs along the right margin

 
     Goad shows #s 28 (pink for brick) and 32 (yellow for wood) on the south side of Lochiel. The vacant lot at the corner of Elgin would soon be occupied by The Elgin Apartments (#370 Elgin), eventually, home to the Manx Pub. Both sides of #28 abut the property line, which explains why the current 244 Frank appears glued to the walk-up apartment block on its east flank.

32 Lochiel, now 248 Frank

 
     Built of wood and standing at an uncontested 1½-storeys, 248 Frank is the more modest of the pair. This house is set further back than it's neighbour, allowing it to hide behind a profusion of barely-tamed shrubs. The wooden trim is delightful notwithstanding the loss of a finial, and the vertical siding is plastic — I went up and gave it a poke just to be sure.

*Captain Joseph Reed; H.R. McDonald (caretaker, Model school); Luke Williams (asst. engineer, Normal School)