132 Pretoria (at O'Connor) was built circa 1900, a time when the northeast part of what we now call "the Glebe" was transitioning from a tract of market gardens into part of Ottawa's southward suburban spread. #132 was purpose-built as a corner store, and spent most of the 20th century fulfilling that role.
The building was massively renovated at the beginning of the 21st by Christopher Griffin and his wife Oresta Korbutiak. Griffin veneered the exterior with quick-drying cement into which he incised images of animals — abstract birds, stick-figure deer, fishes, and a diving whale. From a distance, the creatures blend into a textured flow — up close, they suggest petroglyphs. The branching tracks of a recently-removed Virginia creeper add an aged, rustic effect.
Although Griffin works as a graphic artist, his penchant for cement has found expression not only on the walls of this house but in his sculpting of molded bird and mammal forms, like the bear we see here — waiting for a concrete salmon to leap up from the sidewalk.
If you're in neighbourhood, take a moment to look at the section of wall to the right of the door frame. With the help of a local researcher*, Griffin and Korbutiak have assembled a list of the building's previous tenants, and pressed their names and dates into the concrete...
2007- Oresta Organic Skin Care Confectionery*...chronology assembled by Gillian Magnan.
2001-2007 Christopher Griffin Studio
1984-1997 Fairmart Kit Kat Corner Store
1964-1984 F&N Confectionery
1954-1964 Poirier Confectionery
1936-1954 Bebb Grocery
1934-1936 Cavanaugh Groceries & Fruit
1931-1934 William & Theresa Rath
1922-1931 Bebb Grocery
1920-1922 James Stevenson, Shopkeeper
1918-1920 Henry & Kirk, Grocery
1913-1918 Morris Gansburg, Grocer 1912-1913 O'brien & Whitehorne
1911-1912 James & Robert Cochrane
1908-1911 Alfred Day Grocer
1905-1908 Jeremiah Driscoll, Merchant
1901-1905 Usher Grocery
