Farewell 89 Richmond Road

One benefits of this new era of Covid social distancing/isolation is that I suddenly have a lot of extra time that I'd always kind of wished for. As a result, I'm finding time to finish old topics that I'd started before. This is one that I meant to get done before the building was gone, but alas, I was too late. Still worth publishing as a sort of "obituary" for the old place. I wrote 90% of this a year ago, and am editing it to run today.

The old houses along Wellington and Richmond are disappearing one by one, and the latest to go came this week with the demolition of what was left of 89 Richmond Road. Destroyed by fire on a cold day in late December 2017, 89 Richmond historically would be most associated with Akeson family, who resided in it from just after construction until 1965. It was re-purposed in 1977 as a mixed commercial and residential, where it had a variety of uses over its final 40 years. Prior to the fire, from outside appearances the house seemed to have some life in it yet, but it was beginning to show its age a little.

The property is now slated for redevelopment for construction of a six-storey building that would feature a spa and health centre on the main two floors, and 14 residential units on the top four floors (more information available here: http://kitchissippiward.ca/content/89-richmond-rd-official-plan-amendment-zoning-law-amendment-site-plan-control-applications). The proposal has apparently passed through committee and is with Council (as of February) for approval. (more info here: https://app01.ottawa.ca/postingplans/appDetails.jsf?lang=en&appId=__BHK595).

I thought it might be interesting to dig into the history of the house, and briefly tell the stories of the families and businesses that have occupied the home over the last 94 years. 

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89 Richmond Road was built on the front lawn of what was originally the Cowley family homestead.  The impressive stone mansion would have stood barely 100 feet directly behind the house. In fact the remnants of the home (which had been burned out in 1903) sat in a dilapidated state until after 89 Richmond was built, and into the 1930s.

Daniel Keyworth Cowley died in 1897, the fire ruined the home in 1903, and his son Robert H. Cowley would begin subdividing the family's old farm in bits and pieces. In 1922, he divided up the area between Scott and Richmond, Patricia and Rockhurst.

The lots fronting Richmond Road were of course the first to sell. Theophile Ladouceur, a 67-year old contractor who had been building houses in Ottawa all the way back to the 1880s acquired the vacant lot on Richmond from Robert H. Cowley for $400, and borrowed $1,300 to build 89 Richmond. It was complete by early 1925, and he, his wife Lea, and 22-year old daughter Pauline moved in.

They did not live there for long. On April 8th, 1926, Ladouceur sold the house to his son-in-law's niece Marie Irene Cain and her husband Andrew Akeson, for the sale price of $3,700. Andrew and Marie were a young couple, just 24 and 22 respectively, who had married just a year prior. Andrew was employed as a printer with the civil service. They would later have two daughters, Pauline and Dorothy.

As mentioned, the Akeson family would remain here for the long haul.

Midly interesting to note, the house was originally numbered 83 Richmond. In the mid-1940s, the buildings on this block were all slightly renumbered. Why were they? Because prior to that time, there was no consistency in odds/evens on Richmond - as you can see with the struck numbers, both odd and even numbers appeared on the north side. So when the federal Post Office established rules of civic addressing, there was a forced change for this block.

1948 fire insurance plan clip showing this block.
Patricia Avenue at left, Island Park Drive at right.

Back to 89 Richmond... In 1953, a second apartment was listed for the first time within the house, and over the next ten years, tenants would be listed. In the early 60s, Teck Chiodo and his wife Lucy resided in the house with their only child, son Harold. Harold was with the RCAF, and in the spring of 1961, was posted down to Barrie, to RCAF Station Edgar.

1961 was a sad year for life in the house. Irene Akeson died in January, at the young age of just 59. And then on December 28th, 23-year old Harold Chiodo, LAC (Leading Aircraftman) with the RCAF, was killed in a freak car crash. He and a fellow serviceman were out driving at night, crashed through a fence, and came to a stop on CPR tracks at the exact moment a train was coming. It dragged the car half a mile down the track.

Harold Chiodo (source: Ancestry)

Andrew Akeson remained in the home for a couple of years as a widow, eventually deciding to sell in 1965. Lawrence E. and Edward L. Leduc purchased the house for $22,500.

A year ago, I spoke briefly with Linda Leduc, daughter of Lawrence Leduc. The Leduc family ran the restaurant that previously existed where Napolis does today, just two doors down. "Napoli's was originally called Charlie's Diner ...and looked like a bus", she wrote. "My Dad and uncle took over from my grandfather Charlie and eventually it became The Diner...they sold 40 years ago...funny though so many folks from the west end remember it."

She also had a neat memory of the house: "One unique part of the house is that the front upstairs bedroom overlooked the Visitation, and in the winter you could see the sisters tobogganing in the apple orchard!"

Of course by the "Visitation" she means the former Convent which now sits in heartbreakingly decaying condition.

I'd hoped she might have an old photo of the house in the family albums, but unfortunately she did not, and nor did any source I've checked.

The best I could do for a unique older photo is from a May 1969 aerial photo. It shows a little detail of the block between Patricia and Island Park.

May 1969 aerial photo showing 89 Richmond Road
(Patricia at left, Island Park at right)

In 1977, the house was acquired by Archie McDonald Ltd., and converted into a mixed-use building with ground-floor commercial space and residential upstairs. McDonald paid $50,000 for it in March of 1977, and sold it August 1979 after listing it for nearly two years, for $74,000. In the interim he had rented it out to tenants, and for most of 1978 and 1979, a used car dealership operated out of the property.

Ottawa Citizen, April 5, 1978

Ottawa Citizen, July 6, 1979

In early 1980, Ken Beaton and his wife Sally closed up their jewellery shop, Ken Beaton's Jewellers, at 322 Richmond, corner of Churchill, where they had been for 30 years and moved to 89 Richmond. It was around this time, that the pair retired, and their daughter Bonnie Beaton took over the firm.

Ottawa Citizen, April 19, 1983

By 1990, it was Ottawa Chinese Medical Centre, and later Wu's Penetrating Chinese Massage. The sign out front also read "Ottawa-Gatineau T.C.M. Centre" for a while.

The photos below were from a real estate listing sometime around 2013:

I can't recall if the Chinese Medical Centre was still in operation when the fire hit in December 2017. I believe it may have been vacant at the time, but I'm not sure!

The fire happened on an extremely cold day on Friday December 29th, -20 degrees according to the Citizen photo below.

Ottawa Citizen, December 30, 2017

Source: 1310News

Source: Ottawa Citizen

Source: CBC

And so for the last 28 months, this is how the house has sat, in burnt-out condition, before being demolished sometime in the last couple of weeks.

89 Richmond Road is no more. April 19, 2020.

Of course it needed to go, with it being destroyed by the fire. But always a little sad to see a familiar part of the neighbourhood disappear. Farewell 89 Richmond Road.