the Long Vacancy: 490 Wilbrod

the vacant lot on the southwest corner of Charlotte at Wilbrod, Sandy Hill

 Please ignore the splendid late-19th Century yellow brick and grey stone house, its sun-lit flank dominating the photo above. Consider instead the impromptu parking lot in the middle ground, just behind the bus stop. The one with the black car. This empty lot, seen here from the east side of Charlotte St, is 490 Wilbrod.

 I have only the vaguest memory of seeing the smouldering remains of #490, a little over twenty years ago. I can't recall the exact time of year of the fire nor can I find a news account of the event. I have however, found a helpful passage in a meeting agenda (full document here) for Ottawa's Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee dated October 17 2000. On page 2 we find the following...

New construction for 490 Wilbrod Street (Document 1) was first proposed in the summer of 1998, as a replacement for a late-19th century Queen Anne Revival-style house destroyed by fire in 1994 but objections to the size and character of the proposed development brought forward at community meetings and at the Committee of Adjustment resulted in its dismissal.
In early 2000, the applicant brought the project to the Committee of Adjustment again and was again refused. This summer, in order to resolve the differences between the applicant and the community, the Planning Branch organized facilitated sessions with City staff, the Ward Councillor, Action Sandy Hill, adjacent neighbours, the developer, his architect and agent to work out a design that was acceptable to all. The application being considered here is the result of the facilitated sessions... [emphasis mine]

 The document goes on to describe the proposed flat-roofed, four-storey, fourteen unit building in flattering detail, noting that "...the Department supports this project because it evokes the character of the existing older apartment buildings that characterize Charlotte Street near Wilbrod Street." Detailed drawings of the proposed building are included.

 Twenty-two years after the fire, the lot remains empty.

 Here's an aerial photo-comparison, made with images from geoOttawa. (Click to view large.)

490 Wilbrod St, Sandy Hill — 1991-2009

 A red circle marks #490, still standing in 1991 — a concrete walkway leads from Wilbrod to the front door.  Dramatic shadows frame an empty lot 490 in 2009.

  The Advisory Committee document describes #490 as "late 19th century." The Goad fire insurance maps show this to be true, albeit about as late in the 19th as it gets.

Charlotte between Wilbrod and Laurier, Goad, October1898

 We can see the outline of 490 Wilbrod, tentatively labeled #3 Charlotte, described "to be 2½ [storeys], foundation Oct 1898." The adjacent 278 Charlotte ("6") is still under construction — it has yet to get a veranda, and the brick veneer at the back of the house is missing. "9" seems complete save for its veranda (yellow indicates wood construction, pink denotes brick.)

 You may recognise the shape of the building at the bottom right of the image as that of Le Cordon Bleu — or if you've been around for a while, Le Cercle Universitaire at 453 Laurier. In January of 2000, Ottawa Business Journal offered this summation the house's history on the event of its sale to Le Cordon Bleu (full article here.)

Built in 1877, the majestic and stately Le Cercle features Tudor and Baronial-Gothic architectural influences and was a twin to what is now the Laurier House museum.
Originally designed as a private residence for the family of Bytown lumber baron John Mather, the building remained a private residence for a succession of owners until 1940. From 1948 to 1958, the building was used as a residence for the Women's Royal Canadian Navy Service (WRENS) and students from the University of Ottawa and St. Paul's University. Le Cercle Universitaire was established at 453 Laurier Avenue East in 1958. 

453 Laurier, "Munross Mansion" via ottawa.ca

 But lets wander back to Wilbrod. Notice how #490's footprint is nearly identical to that of its Charlotte St neighbours — simply rotated by 90 degrees to face onto Wilbrod. It's a likely bet that the three houses were the work of the same architect/developer, building the trio at the same time. Work could have started in 1897, with the Charlotte-facing houses completed by Christmas of '98, while #490 could have been ready for occupancy by spring or summer of 1899. Of course, I'm guesstimating these dates but the point is, yes, late 19th century.

 This detail from Goad (1912) shows us the Charlotte-Wilbrod intersection in its glory days...

Charlotte and Wilbrod, Sandy Hill circa 1912 per Goad

The similarity between the three houses is undeniable, though #490 seems to be of more modest scale than its siblings. Also, notice 488 Wilbrod, as seen in our photo at the top of this post, boasting full brick construction set on a magnificent "stone 1st" storey. That building is now home to Ottawa's Amethyst House.

 I haven't researched #490's occupancy in detail, but a few interesting characters have turned up. We should remember that during the 19th century, Sandy Hill evolved from forest, to farmland, to Ottawa's most prestigious neighbourhood — usurping that role from Upper Town before loosing it to Rockcliffe Village in the early 20th century. The dying days of the 19th saw building of the last of the big houses on the northern plateau — Sandy Hill was still the place to live.

 One of (if not the) first occupants of 490 was Edward R. Cameron (per the City Directory of 1901.) Active as an author and lawyer in the latter half of the 19th, Cameron was eventually named King's Counsel — (after Victoria's death, one would think?) A 1914 listing describes him as Registrar for the Supreme Court of Canada. He and his wife maintained a summer house at Blue Sea Lake.

 The directories show Mrs Emily P. Arnoldi living at #490 in 1909.  She was the widow of the noted architect King McCord Arnoldi. By 1912 Emily had moved across the street to 483 Wilbrod (now the parking lot of the Vimy Apartments.) She was replaced at 490 by a Mrs Julia Gwynne. I am tempted to say that she was Julia Maude Gwynne, wife or widow of surveyor and rail engineer (the kind who designs railways), Sir Collingwood Schreiber.  Schreiber died in 1918 so I'm not sure what to think — did he and Julia divorce, or simply misplace each other?

Sir Arthur G. Doughty

  In 1916, Arthur G. Doughty assumed residency of 490 Wilbrod. Born in England in 1860, Doughty was a civil servant, Dominion Archivist and Keeper of the Public Records. He was a close friend of Prime Minister Mackenzie King, with whom he shared an interest in spiritualism. It is suggested that he introduced King to table-rapping. Doughty was awarded a knighthood in 1935 (for his non-spiritualist work) and died the following year.

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 I'm just back from a short visit to the OPL. As I sat squinting at the tiny lettering on the darkly coloured pages of the Ottawa Directory for 1993-94 — the year of the fire — a very old man at the table next to mine ate his lunch and read newspapers, all the while making sounds like a small ghost dying from a broken heart. This distraction notwithstanding, I was able to find the listing for 490 Wilbrod. It read, simply, "BOARDING HOUSE" — followed by a telephone number. I hope no-one was hurt in the blaze.

  The image below was adapted from a Google Street View capture, taken just over a year ago, roughly from in front of the Russian Embassy. Not only does Google's shot reveal the sheer, gaping vacancy of the lot, it gives us a view of 278 Charlotte (on the left) which would have been built a year or less before 490 Wilbrod, in the same style (Queen Anne revival, I think) with a near identical layout. The Vimy Apartments sit of to the right of the image. Going by the name, one assumes they were built some time after the battle of Vimy Ridge, April 1917.

278 Charlotte and environs, spring 2015, adapted from Google.