Ragsil Court

421 Lisgar Street, Ottawa, built circa 1913

My earliest Goad map dates to 1875 and shows a tiny wooden house at 421 Lisgar, this at a time when the street marked the southern boundary of Ottawa's urban spread. The house appears on Goad's 1912 "reprint", in which year the Might Directory listed it as "vacant", still so in 1913. Might 1914 gives us "Ragsil Court" — the building we see here — with six units including one for the janitor (at the time, one George Johnson).

The style, going by date, is some flavour of the late Edwardian, and a classical last stand at that. Indeed, the Ragsil would have been party to the final huzzah of the limestone foundation in this city — World War One and poured concrete were waiting in the wings.

I want to believe that the leaded window treatments are original. The windows themselves mark the transition from limestone sills to "sandstone" lintels. The uprights in the balcony railings bow outward, alluding to properly turned balusters while the columns suggest an Egyptian* play on the Corinthian order — papyrus and nodding lotuses instead of acanthus? — almost deco — but hey, I'm just guessing.

The name is odd. "Ragsil" is largely search-proof and the few meaningful returns discuss anagrams. And look, Ragsil is an anagram of Lisgar. In fact, it's Lisgar spelled backwards.


*Suez Canal completed - 1869
 Aida (opera) premieres - 1871
 Cleopatra (movie) opens, starring Theda Bara (an anagram for "Arab death") - 1917