Zig-Zag Storefronts and The Norway Apartments

211-213 Bank, at Nepean — with the crazy brickwork on the storefronts. Goad indicates construction between 1878 and 1888, with a grocer and a druggist doing business here by the latter date. At some point, the building was extended back along Nepean, creating a decent-sized apartment block at #178.

That annex, "The Norway" can be seen to the left in this side view, clad in darker brick.

The Norway (entrance just to the left of the blue car) comprised thirteen units — numbered 1-12, 14 — and probably still does. It was built some time between 1916 and 1923.

487 Lewis

Still. Being. Rebuilt.

Action Jackson

Those those of us who first rode the Montreal Metro as kids visiting Expo '67 may find this mosaic oddly resonant. It adorns the entrance of the Jackson Building at the corner of Bank and Slater and was created by Quebec artist Jean-Paul Mousseau. During the 1960s, Mousseau was commissioned to decorate the Peel Metro station, which he did, extensively, in the same op-art style we see here — his cheerfully-coloured rotated disc motif evoking the motion of the subway trains themselves. Or maybe he was just into dots.

This mosaic carries well enough into the Jackson's early '70s style — which, as it turns out, has nothing to do with the building's original (1920) appearance.

According to Urbsite, (check out his informative and much-illustrated article here)

"...The Jackson Building (1919-20) was designed by J. Albert Ewart in a restrained Tudor-Jacobean style. Ewart had just completed the Transportation Building (1916) for Booth, and later designed Gordon Edward's Victoria Building on Wellington Street (1928) in a similar vein.

As it grew grimy with age, and the rooftop features became unstable and had to be removed, the Jackson Building entered a long slow decline. In 1969-71 the Jackson was modernized with a total makeover designed by James Strutt...."

Also, take a look at "A History of the Jackson Building" at Images of Centretown.

Splendid, Modern, Fireproof... Ottawa Journal, May 13 1922

Peel Metro Station, David Sidaway / Montreal Gazette, March 12 2017

In 1958, the "old" Jackson Building suffered blast damage from a gas explosion at the Addressograph-Multigraph Building directly across the street on Slater. "Today in Ottawa's History" has an account of the disaster here. According to TiOH,

"...The Jackson Building, where thousands [?!] of civil servants worked, situated at the corner of Slater and Bank Streets across from the Addressograph building, was also severely damaged. Virtually all its windows were blown out; debris, sent high in the sky by the force of the blast, littered its roof. Major-General H.A. Young, the deputy minister of public works, said that the building had been reduced to “a shell.” So twisted were its elevator shafts that all twelve elevators were out of commission; filing cabinets and furniture were later retrieved using external hoists. Remarkably, however, the sturdy, nine-story office building, the tallest in Ottawa, remained structural sound, and was later repaired..."

blast damage at Bank and Slater, via "Today in Ottawa's History"

This view of the blast site, across Slater from the Jackson Building, shows the Addressograph Building shattered to matchsticks. The crumpled shell behind it is the Odeon Theatre on Bank Street — flimsy and hollow. These sites remain vacant to this day.

Window Kitteah, qu'est-ce que c'est?

470-472 O'Connor, the Glebe

Might puts the build-date of this lovingly maintained north-Glebe gem somewhere between 1901 and 1909. Goad reminds us that as late as 1898, O'Connor stopped at Pretoria (then Jane) — this property was then still part of a sports field (see below). Top maps indicate that O'Connor was extended south to Fifth Avenue no later than 1906.

The Expectant Parking Lot

The Albert/Lyon/Slater/Bay block, once thick with Victorian era working-class homes, later home to the Alterna Savings building, now sits mostly empty, waiting for Manor Park Management and Broccolini to do something tall with it.

People used to live here

Part of a cluster of boarded-up houses on a lot collectively designated 494 Lisgar (per geoOttawa). Read about the wassup here, here, and here.

Holiday Turquoise and Canary Yellow

Resolved: that architecture is, in some instances, for the birds.

Some Day My Prints Will Come

Daly Building, 1905-1992

Green Valley Restaurant, 1947-2002

Drawings of "lost" buildings in Ottawa (and other Canadian cities) by Montreal artist Raymond Biesinger —check out his work here. Heck, you can even buy prints from him!

152 Nepean

This once-charming brick-on-wood two-and-a-half-storey house dates to 1888ish, no later than 1891. It's a shame to see that decoratiove woodwork falling into neglect. There's some nice brick coursing above the windows, half-hidden by a small tree.

#152's first occupant was likely Thomas Green (or Greene, depending on the typesetter's mood), a surveyor for the Department of Indian Affairs. Shortly thereafter, the address became associated with the name Keenan. Might (1901) lists D. Douglas Keenan, a bookkeeper, as well as Miss Belle and Miss Jessie Keenan, both dressmakers.

Jessie Keenan, working mere steps from home, Feb. 9 1903

The vegetation here (to change topic abruptly) is interesting. That ragged-looking tree is an eastern (or northern) white cedar or "arborvitae" (Thuja occidentalis*). While common enough outside the city (there are some very old specimens in Rockcliffe Park), this tree was surely transplanted. Long-lived and slow-growing, this specimen may well have stood here since the house was built. 

If the liana struggling to tear down the porch is a Boston ivy, it's one of the gnarliest I've ever met. 

Apart from the tree and the vine, any garden that may have been, no longer is.

That's the Soho Lisgar in the background (viewer's right), as well as the yellow-clad Onyx Condos, the latter nearing completion.


*The name, assigned by Linnaeus in 1753, means "western Thuja", which would seem to contradict the popular name "eastern white cedar" — that is, native to eastern North America. As Thujas occur in Asia, we must suppose that Linnaeus described this one as "occidental" to distinguish it from its oriental relatives. Also, "cedar" a misnomer. Thuja is a kind of cypress, unrelated to true cedars.

Oh, and "Boston" ivy is native to China, Japan and Korea. And it's not a real ivy. I know, botany can be such a joy in the ass.

Massacre at Taliesin

We don't usually associate Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic Taliesin (1911, Spring Green Wisconsin) with gory mass murder. Apparently it's time we did.  Check out Stephanie Waldek's diverting Daily Beast article here. For that matter, bookmark the Beast and visit it at least once a day. Really, I insist.