234 O'Connor - Another One Bites The Dust?

Centretown has a number of heritage properties that I enjoy sketching. Many are often scheduled for demolition through neglect (i.e. like the recent 293 Lisgar (Mauds Mortar) demolition D07-05-15-0006).

The most recent heritage home on the demolition block is at 234 O'Connor St in Centretown, Ottawa and the application will be heard at Ottawa City Hall (in the Champlain Room at 9:30) Thursday October 13, 2016.

The owner has made application to demolish the existing house and to create a temporary park (featuring a mix of hard and soft landscaping).

234 O'Connor St., Ottawa: notice of demolition application

The building at 234 O ’Connor Street is a two and one half storey, wood frame brick clad structure with a rubble stone foundation that was constructed between 1888 - 1915 and is an example of a simple vernacular Queen Anne dwelling. (Read Cultural Impact Statement here)

The property has been vacant for approximately 15 years after a fire that caused damage to the upper floors. The windows and doors have been removed and the openings have been covered with plywood. All interior finishes and fixtures have been removed, with the exception of the plaster ceilings on the ground floor of the original building

The City of Ottawa planning staff want the committee to deny the owner's application for demolition.

I decided to visit the site over the Thanksgiving weekend and take a few photos to sketch.

My ink sketch based on photo in Heritage report

234 O'Connor St., Ottawa (north side)

A couple of quick sketches from my sketchbook.

234 O'Connor St., Ottawa (rear)

My watercolour sketch of 234 O'Connor St.

From the Heritage Report:

"O’Connor St. between Cooper and Somerset was developed in the 1880’s as a residential neighbourhood consisting of two and three storey brick residences typically fronting on the east west streets ( Cooper and Somerset) with mid - block residences fronting on O’Connor. The development pattern remained static up until the early part of the 20 th century when low - rise apartment buildings were developed, and Dominion - Cha l mers United Church were constructed in the 194 0s . Ten years later, a second wave of apartment buildings were constructed in the area. one of which is located across the street from the site. Beginning in the late 1950s through to the mid 1960s, a number of residential properties were demolished withi n the block and across the st r eet , lots consolidated under one owner and developed as parking lots. By 1976 , the corner of O’Conner and Somerset within the block had been cleared and has served as a parking lot; the bui l ding to the south of the site was d emolished in 1997."

 234 O'Connor

• based on fire insurance maps, 234 O'Connor was constructed between 1888 and 1915.
• the exterior brick was painted to protect the relatively soft brick and has peeled off due to the building being vacant and unheated. 
• the verandah has been removed from the front of the building.
• there is a structural crack in the brick veneer extending up  the left corner of the rear (west) wall of the building due to settlement / movement in the stone foundation.
• In 1909, William Swetman (caretaker of the YMCA) lived there with Earl Swetman who was a student.

Source: My Heritage: The Ottawa City Directory, 1909

• City of Ottawa Meeting files http://ottwatch.ca/meetings/file/397553
• Ottawa Watch Development Applications
• Ottawa Citizen: Derelict Buildings of Ottawa (see photo screen capture below)

Today's Daily Sketch

Quick sketch of 310 Cooper St., Ottawa

Today's quick sketch is of this beautiful brick house located on Cooper St. in Centretown, Ottawa. Built some time around 1874, it is surrounded by cobblestones - something seldom seen here in Ottawa.

The building located at 310 Cooper Street was designated under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act in 1984. (Source: City of Ottawa)

I really like the picture of the property with a tree in the front (now long gone).

The Heritage Ottawa Newsletter for 1984 describes a bit of a challenge in securing the heritage designation. I am so glad that heritage status was eventually achieved. 310 Cooper is a lovely little charmer and a joy to sketch

Source: Ottawa Heritage Newsletter: January/February 1984

 https://heritageottawa.org/sites/default/files/newsletter-pdfs/HerOttNews_1984_01.pdf

Ottawa Heritage Buildings - Fire Hall No 10 Graham Station

Ottawa now has approximately 350 properties designated under the Ontario Heritage Act ranging from simple Lowertown cottages to rural churches and stone farmhouses.

The Ottawa Heritage register includes a property at 260 Sunnyside Ave now known as the Ottawa South Community Centre but previously known as fire hall No. 10 Graham Station (1921-1974)

My art journal sketches of  Fire Chief Graham
& No. 10 Graham Station

The History of

No. 10 Graham Station

Fire Chief Graham won the support of the City to have Station No 10 built, by one  of the Ottawa's top architects W.E. Noffke (1878-1964), to serve the needs of Ottawa South which  grew rapidly following WWI

Chief Graham died on May 27, 1921 and did not live to see the station completed,  which was subsequently named after him and opened in September 1921.

No. 10 Graham Station served the City as a fire station till 1974. When the Station was decommissioned in 1974, its preservation was one  of the first issues addressed by the newly formed organization: Heritage Ottawa.

It is the only heritage Fire Station in Ottawa that is still publicly owned and accessible.

(Source: Bytowne.net)

Picture Source: ROFFA Photo Album No 1

Source: Heritage Ottawa Bulletin 1974
(Bulletin No. 2 Nov 74)

Google image of Fire Station No 10

Links

• History of the Ottawa Fire Department (150 Years of Firefighting)
• Retired Ottawa Firefighters Association (ROFFA)
• The Margins of History - Fire Sation No.6
• Ottawa South Designated Heritage Properties
• Ottawa South History Project
• History of the Old Firehall. ( David Bouse - 1999 essay)
• Application to Alter Sunnyside Community Centre (2008)
• The Ottawa City Directory 1910 (Internet Archive)

About Chief Graham 

Fire Chief Graham

Fire Chief Graham (in rear of car)

"Chief Graham was the son of Irish immigrants. He came from a family of fire fighters that included his father and 3 uncles. His Father Francis Graham was a member of Ottawa's first professional Fire Department. He was also the first Ottawa fire fighter to die in the line of duty in 1877 at age 37."

"Chief Graham was the founding President of the Dominion Fire Fireman’s Association of Canada. He advised Parliament that it had to take fire prevention more seriously. That advised was not heeded and in on Februay 3, 1916, the Parliament Buildings burned down.

Parliament fire - Feb 1916

Ottawa Fire Fighters Became Unionized 

Under Chief Graham's watch, Ottawa Fire Fighters became unionized and he convinced the City to install phones in firefighters' homes to improve emergency response times."

(Source: Bytowne.net)

Ottawa's Heritage Buildings No.2: The Abiwin: 283 Somerset St West

There are 312 individual buildings or properties in Ottawa that are designated "heritage" under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act. 

283 Somerset St. West
Artist: Cindi Moynahan-Foreman
(watercolour and ink sketch)

283 Somerset Street West is one of four heritage buildings located within the Abiwin Co-operative Housing Community.

283 Somerset West 

Centretown Heritage Conservation District 

(CHCD) 

Following inquiries I made to the Abiwin and with the generous assistance of the Coordinator of Ottawa Heritage Services, I learned that 283 Somerset Street West "is located in the Centretown Heritage Conservation District (CHCD), which means that it is designated under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act, unlike the Burpee House which is individually designated  under part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act." 

This critical clarification really helped. That meant that there would be no ready made "Statement of Cultural Heritage Value" for me to copy and paste here (there is a Heritage Survey and Evaluation Form) and I would have to research this wonderful building on my own from scratch.

History Of The

Centretown Heritage Conservation District 

(1890-1980)

To locate the original residents/occupants of  283 Somerset Street West will take a great deal more time and I will have to rely heavily on my genealogist  and research skills. I will post more of those details later as I find them.

The Ottawa City Directory 1901

Preliminary investigations show women living in the area (above): (273) Miss EJ McQuat - music teacher; (283) Miss Mary Thistle, (293) Rev. William T. Herridge (close friends of Mackenzie King; King would purchase Marjorie Herridge's summer house "Kingsmere" when she died in 1924); (299) George L Orme.(Musical Instrument Retailer & Piano Manufacturer)

For now, here is some basic information about the Centretown Heritage Conservation District (CHCD) that 283 Somerset Street West is located in:

• The majority of buildings within the Centretown Heritage Conservation District date from the 1890-1914 period. (*Source)
• Historically, Centretown attracted a wide variety of residents: long-term public service homeowners; short-term civil servants; and two other notable groups: the Centretown Irish and single women. (*Source: HCD P 21)
• Historically, the levels of income it accomodated were broad - extending from modest working class tradesmen, civil servants and railway workers, to ministers, senior civil servants and lumber barons like J.R. Booth (*Source HCD P 25)

283 Somerset St West Would Become Part Of

The Abiwin Housing Co-operative 

(1980 to 2015)

This Co-operative was established in the early 1980s by Ottawa gay activists

It was the intention of the founding members that Abiwin be a harmonious atmosphere where both gay and straight people would live as neighbours and co-owners of the co-operative. A by-law was created to make sure that there would be no discrimination based on sexual orientation. This by-law exists today and has been expanded to ensure a community free from any form of discrimination.

Abiwin’s first Board of Directors was able to purchase four ideally located buildings - three on Somerset Street West (263-295) and one on Cooper Street. These turn of the century three storey buildings were renovated and paid for with the help of Canada Mortgage and Housing’s special assistance program to housing co-operatives.

Linda Wilson was on the founding board of the Abiwin Co-op and she was also the first woman president of GO (Gays of Ottawa -1983). She was also among the first women working the Gayline.

Each floor in the six-storey apartment complex has two designated wheelchair units and there are two dedicated units in the co-op for persons living with AIDs.

Heritage Ottawa - Ontario Links:

• The Ontario Heritage Act was passed in 1975
• Ottawa Heritage Designation Program
• Ontario: List of 486 Ottawa Heritage Properties
• Ontario:  List of Heritage Conservation Districts

Centretown Links

• Centretown Heritage Conservation District Study, Winter 1996-1997
• Centretown Heritage Conservation District Study 2012
• Past Ottawa - Centretown
• Capital Neighbourhoods - Centretown
• Centretown Heritage 
• Images of Centretown
• Mid-Centretown
• The Historical Society of Ottawa
• Ottawography
• Bytown.net
• Capital Walks by Katharine Fletcher

Ottawa Photographer

• Christopher Ryan on Instagram
• Christopher Ryan on HistoryNerd
• Christopher Ryan on Twitter

Reference photograph used with permission from
 Christopher Ryan on Twitter, Instagram and History Nerd website

Ottawa's Heritage Buildings No.1: The Burpee House

There are 312 individual buildings or properties in Ottawa that are designated "heritage" under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act. This is one of the more recent ones located at 22 Rideau Terrace in the New Edinburgh neighbourhood of Ottawa.

Art journal page

The Burpee House
Art journal sketch: watercolour and graphite
(Low resolution scan)

Originally the home of civil servant Lawrence Johnstone Burpee, first secretary of the International Joint Commission from 1912-1946, ardent supporter of a national library for Canada and an accomplished scholar, historian and author.

More recently the house was the residence (for 17 years) of Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and was threatened with demolition in 2010. A developement group want to tear it down and replace it with a triplex. Understandably, this upset Burpee's granddaughter Sheila Burpee-Duncan.

In 2010 the Ottawa City Council approved the Burpee home as a designated heritage building.

National Library of Canada

Burpee's 12 page plea for a National Library

"Burpee is best known for his lifelong promotion and support of the creation of a national library in Canada. Burpee spent ten years of his life campaigning ardently for a national library. Burpee became president of the Ontario Library Association in 1910 and in February 1911, he published an article entitled, “A Plea for a National Library” which had originally been delivered as a speech to the Ontario Library Association. The article noted that with the lack of a national library, “Canada enjoys the dubious distinction of ranking with Siam and Abyssinia in at least one respect….” Dolores Donnelly, a faculty member in the Faculty of Library Science at the University of Toronto and the author of a historical analysis of the National Library of Canada, notes that this quote was revived and reused for many years in the campaign for a national library.

Burpee believed that the Library of Parliament was not sufficient to serve the entire country. In “A Plea for a National Library” Burpee argued that, “the Library of Parliament is legislative library, pure and simple; it was created to serve the needs of parliament, not of the public.” He also argued that a national library must be a repository of the work of a nation and could be combined with the national archives. He advocated that the federal government ought to consider a model like the American Library of Congress which combined the legislative library, national archives and national library in one institution. The Library of Congress also provided lending services for some of its materials unlike the strict reference function of the British Museum or the Bibliotheque nationale in Paris. The Librarian of Congress, Dr. Herbert Putnam endorsed Burpee’s concepts in 1911. In 1916, after fire gutted the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings with the exception of the Library of Parliament, Burpee took the opportunity to write to Prime Minister Borden to urge that in re-designing the building, space should be allocated for a new national library. Ultimately, in 1947, a year after Burpee’s death, the federal government commissioned a study that would eventually lead to the establishment and construction of the National Library of Canada on Wellington Street in 1953. Donnelly notes in her history of the National Library that even 40 years later, the general principles of Burpee’s ideas for a national library were incorporated into the final library system. These remain today."

The National Library of Canada on Wellington Street owes its existance to Lawrence Johnstone Burpee....as a genealogist and the family historian, I am forever grateful!

Library and Archives Canada

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_and_Archives_Canada