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| As featured in A.S. Woodburn's The Ottawa Directory, 1888-89 |
Horse* not included. The factory started as a carriage painting shop and was eventually taken over by the Davidson & Thackray wood planing and turning mill. This latter, thriving operation straddled the block, facing onto both Queen and Sparks — it was destroyed by fire on June 4 1903.
Sparks/Bank/Queen/Kent rose from its ashes as an office and commercial block which included the Hotel Cecil and the Dominion Vaudeville Theatre.
The entire block was demolished to make way for the C.D. Howe Building (240 Sparks), completed in 1977. The original carriage shop stood on what is now the C.D. Howe's southern entrance plaza, just east of the block's mid-line.
The vehicle depicted conforms to the description of a "Surrey cart", a design said to have originated in Surrey, England. This model even has a fringe on the top. Oh dear.
* In the song, cowboy Curly McLain tells his sweetheart Miss Laury that he'll take her to the box social in a Surrey pulled by "a team of snow white horses". I don't know if Surreys came in larger sizes but I think that more than one horse pulling a delicate rig like this would be overkill, if not dangerous. We're reminded of Leyland Palmer in Twin Peaks (Ep. 15), singing "Surrey" while driving his convertible at reckless speed.
