Shots of Selkirk

     I left home when I was eighteen, or rather my parents moved to Montreal and asked me if I was coming with them and I said no. I shared, roomed and couch-surfed for two years before renting my own first apartment, a ground-floor bachelor at 50 Selkirk in Vanier. The Selkirk Apartments is a low-rise (five floors, elevator) lurking behind the Eastview Shopping Centre. Back then, rent was $135 all in. That's how long ago.

     I've adapted the map at the top of the page from Belden's 1879 Atlas of Carleton County. It shows Janeville, one of the three communities that would be combined to form Eastview (1908), eventually Vanier (1963), now a part of Ottawa (2001).

     Once upon a time, Selkirk Street was called "John" while Montgomery, the roadway that crosses it at an angle was "Victoria." You can see all of this if you click on the map to enlarge it. If you do, you'll see how John-now-Selkirk runs east from Russell Road (now River Road) to a set of railway tracks labeled "St. Lawrence Ottawa Railroad" — now the Vanier Parkway, a railway no longer.

     I never paid much attention to the east end of Selkirk when I lived there, but I cycled out this past weekend and took a few shots. Some funky little houses there, a couple of which look almost 19th Century.

      103 Selkirk — note the faux masonry treatment. The lintel on the ground-floor window looks like it could be real, likewise the stucco — brick underneath?

     97 Selkirk — and no, it's not you, it's the front porch.

    95 Selkirk — again with the curiously small windows. I've noticed a lot of these latticed enclosures under front porches up in the Gatineaus — a French-Canadian thing? A planting of day-lilies ("hémérocalle") would complete the effect.

     91 Selkirk — more lattice-work, more stucco, and an (added on?) bay window that effectively increases over-all living space while intimidating passing battleships.

     107 Selkirk — balance, simplicity, and finials.

     345 Montgomery, just around the corner from Selkirk —rustic charm hangs on for dear life while Bona's 10-storey office building at 140 Jeanne Mance (2014, SE corner of the Parkway) looms modern in the distance.