234 O'Connor Street

234 Cooper seen from Somerset Street W.

   From "Application to demolish 234 O'Connor Street, a property designated under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act and located in the Centretown Heritage Conservation District" (full document here)

"The building at 234 O’Connor Street is a two-and-one-half storey, wood frame, brick clad structure with a front gable roof. It is located on the west side of O'Connor Street between Somerset and Cooper Streets. Based on fire insurance plans, the building was initially constructed between 1879 and 1901 with two, two-storey additions. It is identified as a Category 2 building in the Centretown Heritage Conservation District (HCD). The upper levels of the building were damaged by fire and it has been vacant for approximately 15 years. There is a parking lot on the south side of the building..."[The parking lot comprises two lots, 236 O'Connor and 311 Somerset West.]

   From 13 October 2016 Ottawa Sun article by Matthew Pearson (full article archived here)...

"The city's built-heritage committee on Thursday denied a developer's request to tear down a vacant house in the Centretown heritage conservation district.
Gemstone Developments wanted permission to demolish the red-brick building at 234 O'Connor St. and replace it with a temporary park...

Committee members considered two separate structural assessments — one submitted by the owners and one conducted on the city’s behalf. The reports identified similar issues but offered differing opinions on the extent of the damage. The owner’s report ultimately called for demolition, but the city’s report, prepared by John G. Cooke and Associates, concluded the building is “reasonably repairable.”
That's the same position the heritage department and Somerset Coun. Catherine McKenney took.

Gemstone only purchased the building about a year ago, but McKenney said the building had not been properly maintained long before that. "It may not be your neglect, but it is demolition by neglect," she said.

The committee's vice-chair Barry Padolsky said he supported the staff recommendation reluctantly because the city has done very little to address the building's deteriorating condition over the years..."

   In our photo, the belfry of Dominion Chalmers United Church peers above #234's roofline. In the distance and to the left, the ghostly, Carrara-clad towers of Esplanade Laurier mark the skyline while to the right, Plaza 234 (the "old" EDC building) shows off its stripes*.

adapted from Goad, January 1888 sheet #53

   Goad (1888) shows 234 Cooper (which I've highlighted in pink) completely built, including the two rear extensions and a small detached shed. Both houses directly to the south have since been demolished.

   An early (likely the first) resident of the house was one Colin Dewar (Might, 1901) a bookkeeper with the Ottawa Water Works Department, this at a time when that office's duties included sprinkling the streets in summer to keep the dust down to a dull roar.

   I can find no more recent discussions of significance — #234 quietly awaits its fate.

*An earlier version of this post misidentified Plaza 234 as Place Bell. I must endeavour to sniff less glue on weekdays.

326 Somerset Street West: Chamberlain House

the House with the Turret

  The 1884 City Directory lists no homes on the south side of Somerset between Bank and O'Connor. The house above does appear on Goad's 1888, sheet 53 as a solid brick building numbered 352 328 (eventually 326.) While this might suggest that it dates to some time between 1884 and 1888, a plaque on the house reads (source)...

1894
Chamberlain House
First occupied by David G. Chamberlain
Civil Servant

   Whatever. The source cited above also tells us that...

"This is a two and one half storey brick house of the Eastlake* model of the Queen Anne Style. The property on which the building is situated was part of the estate of John By, which was one of the most important parcels of land in the development of 19th century Ottawa.
D.C. Chamberlain, was an accountant with the House of Commons, lived in the house until 1901 when he sold it to a relative, Hiram W. Chamberlain.
Reference: Some early Ottawa Buildings, by C.J. Tayler, Historical Research Section, Canadian Inventory of Historic Building. 1975"

   The Might Directory agrees that a Hiram W. Chamberlain did live at (then) #328 in 1901.

   If anyone is wondering why parts of Centretown and Sandy Hill are thick with these red-brick "Queen Anne" houses dating to the reign of Queen Victoria...

   There was indeed a Queen Anne, whose short reign spanned the years 1704 to 1707, well before that of Victoria. What we call "Queen Anne Style" — this massing of bays, dormers, overhanging gables, fancy woodwork and yes, turrets — is supposed to mark the revival of a whimsical style popular in the early 1700s. Except that houses built in the revival style don't look all that much like actual Queen Anne architecture. Go figure.
  
   And yes, that's a wee "For Sale" sign stuck in the snow by the tree. Royal Lepage describes #326 as a "STUNNING VICTORIAN OFFICE BUILDING, CAREFULLY RESTORED AND UPGRADED..."(caps theirs), listed for sale at $1,495,000.00. 

   This block of Somerset (between O'Connor and Bank) features several of these late-Victorian houses, now serving as offices, pubs, bistros, hair salons and the like, collectively calling themselves "Somerset Village" for the purposes of tourism and real-estate. 

(go get 'em Getm!!!)

  
   If you're heading west, you'll know you're leaving the Village when you see the thing that looks like an elephant's backside painted orange.

*     *     *

*Not a body of water but Charles Eastlake (1836-1906), an American architect who gave us his own particular spin on the Q.A.R. style.

(another) Bate House

46 Cartier, viewed from the SE corner of Cartier & Somerset

   This crapulent weather may be depressing, but gloomy skies totally rock for picture-taking. After ten years of flicking graff, you learn to hate hard shadows. Hard shadows are where things go to die.

   We were rubbing shoulders with a "Bate houses" a post or so back. C.T. Bate built at least one, and probably two (or more) houses in Centretown while his better-remembered brother Sir Henry Newell Bate built several of his own, mostly in Sandy Hill. C.T. seems to have had an eye for all-stone baronial architecture while H.N. favoured the timely asymmetries of the late Victorian "Queen Anne Revival."

   My interest in the Bates goes back to last year when I spent a few days researching the ancestry of my best friend from high school, a descendant of Sir Henry N.  I discovered that his (my friend's) grandmother's house on Wilbrod (cue the ferns) was but one of several attributable to the man.

   Indeed, I tripped over 46 Cartier while looking into another apparent "Bate house" — a murky sprawl one block further south, on the NE corner of Cartier and Maclaren. Searches on "cartier bate" made it clear that #46 is the better documented. Also, it's not hidden behind a screen of Manitoba maple. I'll get to the house at Maclaren eventually. At some point soon I'm going to have to assemble a catalogue of these buildings.

   Robert Smythe composed a historical sketch of 46 Cartier in the summer of 2014. He tells us that the house...

"...was built for Newell Bate in 1901 — likely an early work by W.E. Noffke. It was later the home of New Brunswick Senator Geo. W. Fowler, and between 1924-42 the residence of Supreme Court Justice Thibodeau Rinfret. From 1942-65 it was the D'Youville Convent, then a nursing home, a bed and breakfast [Carmichael Inn and Spa], and most recently the Embassy of the Syrian Arab Republic." 

   Read his entire article here. Smythe goes on to discuss St. Theresa's Catholic Church (1929, directly across Cartier from #46) and the astonishing "Seybold's Castle" (1890s), the sandstone folly that predated the church.

46 Cartier, south side as viewed from Somerset

   A plaque affixed to the building reads...

“This fine example of the houses constructed for Centrertown’s affluent residents was built for retired merchant Newell Bate. The elaborate chimneys, porches and gables clearly identify the building with the Queen Anne revival style.”

   The Global Affairs Canada website continues to list, 46 Cartier as the home of the "Embassy of the Syrian Arab Republic." However, a blog post (2-Dec.-2015) by Jeremy MacLaine titled "The Abandoned Embassy of Syria in Ottawa" indicates that...

"Syrian officials were booted from the embassy in May 2012, when Canada joined the US, UK and several other European states in the decision to expel Syrian embassies and consulates as well as staff."

   MacLaine claims that the house is in a state of disrepair, it's grounds (as of late 2015) strewn with garbage, despite the building's 1994 heritge designation. He also points out that this embarrassment stands a mere block from City Hall. I can't say that I noticed any striking maintenance issues with the building, but then I wasn't looking for them and the grounds are presently covered by snow. It is not clear to me who presently owns the property. A Syrian flag, limp and sodden, still hangs from the flagpole and security seemed non-existent.

The Laurelridge: Harold C. Beckett

The [Ottawa] Evening Citizen, 28 April 1947

   This drawing and its accompanying text appeared in the same issue (indeed on the same page) as the advertisement for the Rideau Gardens Annex lots featured in the previous post.

   Before the advent of the the pre-built suburb, magazines and newspapers regularly featured house plans aimed at young couples looking to become first-time home owners — which, in times of scarcity,  meant building your own. These placements didn't actually offer enough information to be of much help to the novice builder, but the article would usually provide contact information so that one could order detailed working plans from the designer. It was like a home seamstress working from a Butterick pattern — only larger, and probably less often.

   This example from the Ottawa Citizen features the work of Harold Champ Beckett, Architect (1890-1970). You can read all about his work here. Of this design Mr. Beckett writes...

    The popularity of early Colonial architecture has deservedly endured since the days when the beginnings of our Eastern cities were being hewed out of a primitive wilderness. Throughout the New England States and Maritime Provinces are houses dating back to the 18th century which possess the distinctive charm that goes with good design and and detail. Our forefathers found that the characteristics of the basic materials which go into building, consisting of lumber, brick and stone. [I’m sorry, I realize that isn’t a sentence.] Scientific advances of our present era have not bettered their use though present construction methods are somewhat different.
   The “Laurelridge” is a very economical two storey design containing 3 fair sized bedrooms. These are all over National Housing Act minimum, with large closets. Total first floor area is 580 square feet and the cubage is 16,016 feet.
   Exterior materials are brick to belt course with cedar siding above. The large living room bay is roofed by a second floor overhang. This increases area in bedrooms and produces a strong horizontal shadow line.
   This is another house suggestion proposed for readers of The Evening Citizen by Harold C. Beckett, M.R.A.I.C. 52 Chatam St. West, Windsor, Ontario.

Lots of Lots!

The (Ottawa) Evening Citizen,  28 April 1947

   The date of this ad  for the Rideau Gardens Annex (at the south end of "Old" Ottawa East) is noteworthy. In 1947, construction began on a new kind of suburb in Nassau County Long Island. It was called Levittown and it would be hailed as North America's prototype mass-produced, post-war suburb.  In a few short years, the Levittown model would make ads like the one above obsolete.

   Before Levittown, a subdivision was simply an area of surveyed land. The "subdivider" would clear (I did not say "pave") roads and (hopefully) arrange for electricity and ditches. Home-building, well-digging and septic-tanking fell to the buyer.  Berthiaume Realty's ad, with its cute little poem, is a snapshot of the old normal. The empty subdivision was already falling out of fashion, to be replaced by the massively more convenient, pre-built development.

   This neighbourhood abuts the south end of Main Street and features some striking mid-century suburban homes, including split-levels and bungalows with iconic car-ports.  The streets are quiet, the trees mature.  Most of the street-names shown here are still being used. Marlowe Crescent (at the top of the map) provides access to a pre-war enclave called Brantwood Place. Bullock Avenue no longer connects to Main Street and the latter has doubled in width.  Rideau Drive is now Rideau Garden Drive. And then there's the boulevard, actually a hydro corridor, bisecting the Annex...

   As we prepare to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday,  let's recall our Centennial year. Expo '67 had pavilions and monorails. Everybody had a Centennial Project. "I'm gonna be a maple tree." That horrid song ("Now we are twenty-million!") 1967 was also the year that France's war hero, General Charles de Gaulle, visited Canada.

   I remember the 24th of July as a perfect summer's day. I wanted to play outside but my mother insisted that my father and I stay home for a few minutes "to watch history being made."  De Gaulle was about to address the people of Montreal. The three of us sat in our basement rec-room, staring at the screen of a black & white Electrohome TV while, 100 miles away, a slow-motion train wreck unfolded for all of Canada to see.

   Seldom do the mighty fall so far so fast. With those four words, "Vive le Québec libre!" our jaws dropped as one. De Gaulle was hustled out of the country. The British press labeled him a buffoon.  The US smelled a plot to divide North America. Even the French government took pains to distance itself from the old man's gaucherie.

  Which brings us to this Ottawa Journal article, dated 26 July 1967, just two days after the morning in question. It's about that boulevard/ hydro corridor, the one that slashes the Rideau Gardens Annex in half...

Name Change Sought

   A  non-separatist, pro-Canadian Englishman feels badly enough these days. But what if he happens to live on a street called de Gaulle Boulevard?
   Gordon Hamilton, [of] 14 de Gaulle Bouldevard, would like to have the street name changed. And he’ll ask some 40 other residents on his street to petition the Street Name Committee at City Hall for a name change.
   “I’m anti-separatist and pro-Canada and not only English Canadians but a lot of French Canadians are against what General de Gaulle is saying” says the 22-year-old Mr. Hamilton, who is married and lives in a 1½ storey home on the short residential street near Riverdale Avenue in Rideau Gardens.
   Mr. Hamilton spoke to ten de Gaulle Boulevard residents and found that nine of them were willing to sign a petition to have the street named changed. He will set out Wednesday to get signatures from all residents.
   There is an extra little submission in the petition, requesting that de Gaulle  Boulevard might be given the new name of Centennial Boulevard.

 *     *     *

   I would be remiss if I were to leave anyone with the impression that Levittown NY was somehow the primary cause of the rise of the merchant builder and the pre-fab suburb. Levittown was a watershed moment, the signifier of an inevitable transition, spurred by population growth and made possible by emerging assembly-line approaches to building.

   War-time and post-war agencies (themselves born of Depression-era  policy) gave rise to our CMHC, as they did to corresponding American bodies. These offices set building standards and provided financing for affordable single-family homes at the very time when assistance and oversight was needed most. Yes Virginia, sometimes bureaucracies actually do work.

   Angella Hercules Stevenson has written a lucid introduction to the subject as it applied both here and in the United States. She discusses Levitton at some length, and cites Don Mills (Toronto) and Ottawa's own Manor Park as early examples of post-war development. You can read her work in pdf form here.

180 Metcalfe Street

 Of this Art Deco gem, Robert Smythe writes (Centretown Buzz, 24 July 2015)...

"...The Medical Arts Building (designed by architects Noffke, Sylvester and Morin in 1928) is the quintessential 1920s skyscraper in miniature. It was built, owned and managed by a holding company—the principal shareholders of which were the doctors themselves.
The 50 medical offices were quickly filled. On-site services included two surgery suites, a radiology clinic, pharmacy and branch of the Bank of Nova Scotia.
Although it was designed to have an extension of a further three floors, with the intervening Great Depression and World War II this never happened..."

 You can read Robert's complete article here. He addresses the bizarre attempts to incorporate this six storey building into a 27 storey office/condo/hotel whatever.

Roderick Lahey / Toth Equity, via the Ottawa Citizen

 I recently found another unnerving story, set at the Medical Arts Building, dating from spring of 1947 — shades of The Bad Seed. The following Ottawa Journal article is lightly edited for style. I have redacted the names and the address of the victim and her family to protect their privacy.

Ottawa Boy Causes Grave Injury to Infant in Fall From Ledge
Pulls Child from Carriage and She Suffers Fractured Skull

   Pulled out of her carriage by an eight-year-old boy in front of the Medical Arts Building, 180 Metcalfe street, at four o’clock yesterday afternoon and shoved from a four-and-a-half foot high cement ledge to the pavement below, eight-months-old _____, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. _____ of _____ street, is in the Civic Hospital suffering from a skull fracture and shock.
   Civic Hospital authorities said this morning the baby’s condition was “still quite serious”. Full extent of her injuries would not be determined until examination was completed and X-rays taken.
   Meanwhile, employees at the Medical Arts Building said the boy who was seen to remove the child from her carriage and drop her from the ledge had returned to his home.
   The incident occurred in full view of a number of persons who happened to be in the vicinity at the time.
   Mrs. _____, the child’s mother, had carefully placed the carriage near the main door to the building, up three steps onto a platform, having taken precaution to leave it in such a position that it was shielded by one of the large cement blocks fronting the right side of the entrance.
   Returning a short time later Mrs. _____ saw the carriage was empty. Rushing into the building she asked at the information  desk if anyone know where her baby was.
   She was informed that a child had been injured and had been taken up to Dr. W. E. Caven’s office in the building. Hurrying to Dr. Caven’s office she learned what had happened and Dr. C, K. Rowan-Legg, who had previously attended the child, was summoned and ordered its removal to the hospital. At the hospital, Dr. H. T. R. Mount, brain specialist, examined the child and reported a fracture of the skull.
   What prompted the boy to molest the baby is not know. Mrs. E. R. Lyon, 564 Brierwood avenue, Westboro, said she was walking past the Medical Arts Building when she  heard unusual cries coming from the carriage near the entrance to the building.
   “Having had children of my own, I can tell when a baby’s crying means something”. Mrs. Lyon told The Journal.
   She then stated how she had gone to the carriage to see what she could do. “There was a small boy standing near the carriage”, she said, “and i thought he was the child’s brother.
   “I bent over the carriage, adjusted the baby’s bonnet and straightened the covers. While I was doing this, the boy pushed his hands into the carriage as if to grab the baby. I asked him where his mother was and he replied ‘not in there’. pointing to the Medical Arts Building.
   “The baby had stopped crying and I started to walk away. I had only gone a short distance when I heard cries again. Looking around I saw the boy put his hands in the carriage, pick up the baby, place it on the cement block and push it off.”

   Mrs. Lyon said she rushed back, picked up the baby from the pavement and hurried with it in her arms into the building. She saw some other people grab the boy, but that was the last she saw of him.

    Falling about four and a half feet, the baby girl landed on her head. At the hospital it was determined that no bones [other than the skull] were broken and the infant never lost consciousness. She apparently suffers no pain except when pressure there is pressure on the large bump on her head.
   Mrs. _____, the child’s mother, said it would be difficult for anyone to snatch the baby from the carriage, as she had carefully tucked the coverings around the child and had fastened the safety strap.

William Mackey, Lumberman

 Further to our look at 201 Cooper, this is the text of the Ottawa Journal's appreciation of lumber baron William Mackey. He died at the house on 1 December 1902, aged 82. More details about his life and times have been assembled by Doug Mackey and can be viewed here and here.

Wm. Mackey, The Ottawa Journal

Ottawa Journal, 1902-12-03

LATE MR. MACKEY BURIED TODAY

FUNERAL WAS A PRIVATE ONE

Sketch of the Successful Career of the Deceased, who was a Pioneer Lumberman.

   Although of a private nature, the funeral this morning  of the late Mr. Wm. Mackey was attended by a number of his relatives and old friends who had been privileged to pay their last respects by being present at the funeral. The cortege left his late residence, Cooper street, at 8:30 and proceeded to St. Patrick’s church where the requiem mass was held, Rev. Father Whelan officiating. Interment was made at Notre Dame cemetery. Among those at the funeral were Messrs. William, Walter, John and Herbert Mackey, N. Flood, Sir James Grant,  Dr. R. W. Powell, J. de St. Denis Lemoyne, E. S. Skead, D’Arcy McMahon, Jos. Kavanagh, Neil Stewart, M. J. Gorman, Percy Mackey, P. Caron, R. D. McKenzie, P. Kennedy and A. Ryan.
   A number of beautiful floral tributes were sent by friends of the family.

*     *     *

THE LATE WILLIAM MACKEY.

A Remarkable Career of Nearly Sixty Years in the Timber Trade.

   A brief obituary notice of the late William Mackey, one of the pioneer lumber kings of the Ottawa valley, appeared in the Journal on Monday last. To-day it may be well to refer to some of the incidents in his long and busy life—particularly in connection with the part Mr. Mackay took in manufacturing square timber—the staple industry of the Ottawa valley for more than three-quarters of a century. It was this industry that gave impulse to Bytown and a start for Capitolian honors to Ottawa.

   It was in the year 1842 that Mr. Mackey landed in the “lumber village.” Like many a son of the Emerald Isle desiring to better his condition, he had sailed for America—a brother and sister accompanying him—arriving in Bytown just as the first government slide was being constructed to safely convey the square timbers past the Chaudiere Falls. Here the young man soon obtained employment with a then prominent operator in the timber trade named George Buchanan. This gentleman had much to do with the new slides at Bytown, acting for the government, and built under contract the slides at the Chats, on both of which works William Mackey and his brother were employed. And it was in the descent of a crib of timber at the latter that Mr. Buchanan lost his life in endeavoring to release a jam of timber.
   At the date in question it so happened that the late Hon. James Skead was conducting for the government some improvements on the Upper Ottawa, these being intended to encourage the growth of the timber trade on the upper waters, rather than to facilitate the descent of timber at that time, for there was little to come down. In this work the two Mackey soon became engaged under Mr. Skead’s superintendence, continuing in this service until the improvements were completed. Soon after—in ’44 it is said—Mr. Skead began lumbering on his own account, and with him were the brothers Mackey. This business connection continued for some four or five years, during a portion of which time Mr. Mackey became foreman, after which he began to take out timber on his own account, his first raft of red pine being floated down from the new Madawaska limits in 1850.
   Reference may be made to the most melancholy accident, as the number losing their lives, that probably ever happened among the river men on the Ottawa. Fourteen men, amon whom was Mr. Wm. Mackey’s brother, were drowned while endeavouring to release a jam of timber which had hung upon the rocks.
   Meantime the employing lumberer had become brother-in-law to Mr. Mackey, and thus the friendship which had existed for years had merged into life-long relationship.
   As already stated it was in the year 1850 he floated down his first raft, although he had piloted several previously for the man who was to take his sister for a wife. Thus Mr. Mackey’s actual years in the trade may be said to cover 58 years—a career, considering that it was without a break or failure, that has probably never been equalled in the Ottawa valley timber trade.

   Mention must be made of Mr. Mackey’s partnerships—both business and marital. A few years after his entry in business he became united in marriage to one of Bytown’s fairest daughters. The young lady was the second daughter of Peter Armstrong, the proprietor at the time of the old Union hotel, that preceded the Grand Union of Elgin and Queen streets. It was then that Mr. Mackey purchased a farm near to Arnprior, built himself a handsome house, and settled down in his own home. Curiously, also near the same time he formed another partnership, a business one, to take part in the management and share the profits of his then active business. Neil Robertson, a man already well skilled in lumber operations, took charge of one branch, the profits arising from which he shared in, while Mr. Mackey continued on his own account in another direction. Both settled on farms contiguous to each other, and the families of both grew up almost together, but death put an end to the union of interests, Mr. Robertson passing away some 30 years ago.
   It was shortly after this that Mr. Mackey made Ottawa his home. He purchased in the west end of the city the stone building erected by William Hunton, improved and embellished it, and settled his family therein. Some twelve years ago, however, Mr. Mackey made another move, purchasing the commodious residence on Elgin and Cooper streets, built by C. T. Bate for his own prospective home. Here many improvements were made and comforts added to the new and centrally located family residence, the first break in its employment being the death of Mrs. Mackey about nine years since. Now the chief himself disappears—and such is life.
   The distinguished lumberman having been traced, in a brief manner, in his highly successful career, a few remarks may be appropriately made as to his religion, political opinions and open-handedness. In religion he was Roman Catholic. In politics he was pronouncedly Conservative and was a liberal contributor to the cause when election contests were on, but he never could be persuaded to enter the political field himself. Of a retiring disposition and fond of the home circle Mr. Mackay found his pleasure in conducting business and in the company of his family. His family consisted of four sons and three daughters, those resident in the city being Mrs.  St. Denis Lemoyne, Mrs. D’Arcy McMahon and Walter Mackey.
   Mr. Mackey died very wealthy, his estate, nearly all personal, being said as mounting to four or five millions. And all this wealth was secured in legitimate business. No chances were taken on the stock exchange or in speculation outside of the trade he understood so well. Each year he made money, and this money was well invested, and being favored by long life, a wise head and continued good fortune he leaves to his family the millions he saved.

   Lastly, it may be interesting to learn how wealth is sometimes acquired, legitimately, honestly and perhaps by good luck. One of Mr. Mackey’s speculations may be given as an example. During his lumber operations, although he began on the Madawaska, his chief limits and those he made the most money out of, were on the stream known as the Anable-du-Ford. Here he lumbered extensively and also built a saw mill, and it is related by a fellow lumberer of long experience in the trade, and well acquainted with Mr. Mackey’s methods and doings, that on a certain occasion he purchased a limit, the price being but a few thousand dollars. He offered his partner, Mr. Robertson, a half interest in the speculation, which was readily accepted. Some time after, however, the lumber trade became unpromising; Mr. Robertson desired to be relieved of his charge and stated the fact to Mr. Mackey, who at once paid him back his money. Several years rolled by while raft after raft were being taken from the limit and still it seemed inexhaustible. Finally, last year when Mr. Mackey resolved to dispose of that and all other interests in the woods, this much-culled limit sold for $65,000.

CAXTON.