I only recently noticed this yellow-brick building on the corner of Bank and Slater — here's a photo to make up for lost time.
I shouldn't be surprised that Urbsite has already written about the "Sunburst" (March 2013) — he's always on top of the cool stuff. Check out his detailed, article here, with some great old photos (old cars, streetcar tracks, snow!). He tells us that "The building at 129-131 Bank Street appears to have been built ca.1910 for the Matthews-Laird Co., meat suppliers, with two floors of offices and workshops to rent above."
The why-when-and-who of the Sunburst name remains unclear, though I wonder if someone was inspired by the striking design of the lintels capping the windows under the roof-line. Urbsite writes "The lintels that comprise keystones in a row of voussoir stones mimic the structure of an arch flattened out into a straight line - which although only a decorative device is visually unsettling if you think about how an arch is supposed to work."
The effect does remind one of the sun's rays, stretching past the horizon. The sunburst was a popular Art Deco motif.
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| "Biba" Sunburst logo, late 60s Deco Revival |
Goad (1912) confirms brick construction. The block was already densely built-upon by the time the Sunburst was constructed. It replaced a pair of wooden, single-storey storefronts, the original 129 and 131 Bank.
Assuming that the 1909 Might Directory was compiled over the previous year, this clipping could push the build-date back to as early as 1908.
Mr. Matthews had a colourful selection of tenants!
After a bit more digging I found this...
The photo is attributed to Ottawa photographer William James Topley with a date of April 1906. Note the "Railway and Commercial Telegraph School" on the second floor. Topley's photo shows off those "voussoirs" to good effect. If the date is correct, it pushes the Sunburst's build date even further into the past.
