Saturday, December 10, 2022

Goodbye Ottawa Neighbourhood Services

 For the Kitchissippi Times' December issue, I wanted to write something in the vibe of the Christmas season - a time of year of charity and giving. And there is no organization more tied in to charity and giving in the history of Kitchissippi than Ottawa Neighbourhood Services. 

Sadly, many people reading this won't even recognize that name. Many others will remember it of course but will have thought the organization closed years ago. In fact, it was just during Covid that the last traces of ONS disappeared. It's a tragic and unfortunate ending to an organization that was so integral to Ottawa, and especially to the Hintonburg neigbourhood. 

And perhaps even more troubling is the fading memory of it's founder and long-time operator Harold Mayfield, who basically dedicated his life to the organization. 

You can read the full article here:

https://kitchissippi.com/2022/12/11/early-days-the-forgotten-legacy-of-hintonburgs-first-thrift-store/

Somehow, the concluding paragraph of the column I submitted got cut off in the final edition, perhaps due to length. But I wanted to re-add it here, as it expresses the disappointment I have at the loss of Mayfield's name in the community:

"It’s a veritable tragedy that the ONS is gone, and just as sadly the Mayfield name is nowhere to be found, including no longer even on his building. A man and an organization that did so much through the many decades of Kitchissippi’s history when the area was working class, and not yet gentrified, the imprint Ottawa Neighbourhood Services had on our community cannot be measured."

It's true... I still remember seeing the "Mayfield Building" name emblazoned on the building at Wellington and Garland as a kid. This would have been in the 90s, so not that long ago. I can't remember if it was on the side or front of the building, or how it was (I feel like it was overtop an entranceway), but regardless, the name is now gone and can't be seen anywhere. If you Google "Mayfield Building" in Ottawa, pretty much it is just my article that comes up. That's really too bad that we don't have anything permanent to honour the contributions of Harold and Marjorie Mayfield. 

The ONS building in 1985

Thursday, November 10, 2022

Tracking down the Hintonburg Howitzer

With Remembrance Day falling in November of course, I wanted to do something on that theme for my Kitchissippi Times column. A few years ago, Paulette Dozois had written a short article for Newswest about the discovery of an old photo from the 1920s of a howitzer gun placed in Somerset Square. It was a piece of long-lost Hintonburg history that no one knew anything about. What was it for? How did it get there? Where did it go? 

I took a shot to figure out all these answers, and was amazed that I was actually able to track down the history! Thanks to one of the Ottawa newspapers of the day actually publishing the serial number of the gun as it discussed it, and an amazing website The Searchers (https://warsearcher.com/the-silent-batteries-war-trophies-of-canada/war-trophies-allocation-and-details-database/comment-page-1/?unapproved=3996&moderation-hash=a35253179054307dfcd8140809061986#comment-3996) that attempts to track the history of all of Canada's war trophies, I was able to come up with the full story of the Hintonburg Howitzer.

What is not 100% definite (though is 99.999% sure) is where it ended life. And it appears it was melted down as part of the war effort for WWII. Just after print deadline, Alex Comber, who maintains The Searchers website, had come up with an old scan he had made from the LAC holding on Malak Karsh, Yousuf’s brother, was an Ottawa-based photographer too, and went around photographing the old war trophies that were neglected and likely to be melted down. His feature was called "Canada Melts its War Trophies", and wihin it, is a photo that apparently shows the old Hintonburg Howitzer sitting snow-covered in back of the dump by Bayview and Scott. 

Malak Karsh: Canada Melts its War Trophies
(LAC R11612 1985-070)

Anyhow, it's an interesting story, and really it's too bad the gun wasn't better maintained and isn't still holding a place at Somerset Square. 

Have a read of the full story at: https://kitchissippi.com/2022/11/24/early-days-wartime-history-tracking-down-the-hintonburg-howitzer/

Monday, October 10, 2022

150 Years of Mechanicsville

A major milestone quietly occurred in 2022, the 150th anniversary of Mechanicsville! It was back in 1872 that the neighbourhood subdivision was first laid out, and the first houses built. Over the past few years I have been researching Mechanicsville's history extensively, and so I was easily able to write a (very quick) summary of how Mechanicsville developed for the October Kitchissippi Times. It's a really neat story for which this column only scratches the surface. I have been aspiring to write a book, and my original goal was this year (2022) to coincide with the anniversary. But the pandemic scuttled those plans as I was not able to complete the interviews I needed. I still hope to have a book finished at some point, because I think it's absolutely necessary to have the stories of Mechanicsville recorded as the neighbourhood changes so fast, and little of the old houses and people remain. 

Mechanicsville itself was not in a position to be able to celebrate the 150th as Laroche Park was in full redevelopment mode and not usable. So I think the community may have plans to low-level celebrate the anniversary in 2023.

Either way, I look forward to getting a book finally done, and if you, or someone you know would be a good candidate to meet with me to share old stories and photos, I would love to hear from you!

For now, enjoy this article!

https://kitchissippi.com/2022/10/05/150-years-of-mechanicsville-the-neighbourhood-forged-through-hard-work/

Saturday, September 10, 2022

The doctor is in: Meet Israel Goldwin Smith, Kitchissippi’s first doctor

My Early Days column in September's Kitchissippi Times was a long-overdue profile on Dr. Israel Goldwin Smith, who was the first Doctor to open a practice within Kitchissippi's borders. He was a mainstay in Hintonburg from 1896 until his passing in 1936. As you can imagine, life as the doctor in a growing turn-of-the-century village had its interesting highlights. I was pleased to have the opportunity to meet Dr. Smith's granddaughter, who shared some great stories and photographs. 

You can read the full article at the Times here:

https://kitchissippi.com/2022/09/09/the-doctor-is-in-meet-israel-goldwin-smith-kitchissippis-first-doctor/



Wednesday, September 7, 2022

A hidden piece of 124-year old Wellington Village history


The oldest building on Wellington West in Wellington Village may come as a surprise. It's a smaller, square old building that is somewhat squeezed between two much more well-known buildings. But it has a unique and interesting history all its own, and for years I've wanted to unearth that history, which I've done over the last couple of weeks finally!

The timing is good, as there is a new business opening up in half of the building this week. The Thrifted Mini is a popular kid's consignment business which has existed only online, until now. They open in their first physical commercial space in today (September 8th) here in Wellington Village, in this historic old building. 

That's the present, but the building at 1239, 1241 and 1243 Wellington Street West actually has a history that ties back to the late 1800s!

It's hard to tell from the street, as the commercial portion of the building that abuts the sidewalk is most of what is visible, but behind the 13-foot 1950s addition is an old square duplex house that was built 124 years ago and has seen its share of west end history over its impressive lifetime!

Construction & ownership history

The construction of the building appears to have been a messy affair. Land registry transactions were not registered as immediately as they are today. Back then, sales, mortgages and other transactions could take months or years to be officially registered. Often a seller would cut a deal with a buyer on a handshake or verbal deal, and only after certain conditions were met would the transfer go through. Thus, specific dates are lost in piecing together the construction of the building, and even pinpointing 100% who the builder(s) were. Making things even more challenging is that none of the bills for the construction were paid to the contractors, and the owner skipped town altogether, leaving the building in legal and financial limbo for several years.

Information indicates it definitely was constructed in 1898. It is possible that there were two people who owned the property and oversaw construction. Guillaume Chouinard (his wife Albina on the paperwork, as was common in the era), certainly acquired the lot from the well-known Hintonburg Stott family for $450, and took out the initial mortgage towards construction of the building, for $1,200 from the Canadian Mutual Loan and Investment Company. Whether Chouinard started the project and sold it off mid-way through is lost to history, but at some point, either early or during the project, he got out of the whole thing, and sold it to a young man, 22-year old Oscar Alexander Philion, a former journalist with the Ottawa French language newspaper 'Le Canada'.

The building appears to have been completed by late 1898, but the end of the project was disastrous. In my research, I'll occasionally come across a "mechanic's lien" on a property, which is registered when a contractor has not been paid for work done on a property. It's a legal lien placed against the property until the owner's debt is paid. It is sometimes common to see even two liens placed on the same project. But seven??? I've never seen anything close!

Something happened, the exact details of which appear to be lost to history, but whatever the case, starting in early September 1898, the liens started rolling in. Meanwhile Philion had skipped town, and his father Alphonse Philion was dragged into the financial affair. By Christmas, the Citizen was reporting the details of his experience with the 2022nd regiment of New York, Philion apparently enlisted in July 1898 when the Spanish-American War broke out!

Ottawa Citizen
December 21, 1898

Philion stated he may return to Ottawa in the spring, but that never happened. The 1900 US Census caught him as part of a regiment in Dumanjug in the Philippine Islands, and some light digging on Ancestry revealed he ended up a couple of years later in St. Joseph, Indiana, where he married, began his family and lived the rest of his life, never returning to Ottawa.

The builder of 1239-1241 Wellington 
Oscar Philion (pictured at his 1903 wedding)
Source: Ancestry.

Back to the building on Wellington Street... The good news about all of these liens is that it gives us a full list of who was involved in the construction of the building in 1898, which is quite rare. 

That list of liens, and their values includes: George Faulkner ($30.90), Louis Piché ($42.00), Samuel McArthur ($83.50), William F. Frazer of Frazer & Hamilton ($188.14), the Farley Bros. ($168.30), Edward Clairmont ($50.00), Henry Living ($56.47). 

Samuel McArthur is the most notable of the names on the list. He was a well-known local small-time house builder, and very likely was hired as the lead for the construction. He was living on Carruthers at the time. 

The Farley Bros. were a Hull-based brickworks and lumber plant, where a lot of the building materials were likely sourced; Frazer & Hamilton was a small sash and door factory and planing mill at 46 Elm Street; and Henry Living operated a hardware store at 105 Bank Street, where some of the tools and materials were likely sourced.

Louis Piche (a butcher from 10 Eccles), George Faulkner (a teamster living in Mechanicsville), and Edward Clairmont (a carpenter on St. Patrick Street) were likely labourers on the project.

All of the liens were registered between September 3 1898 and February 22 1899, and in March 1899, certificates of lis pendens were issued, with some of the contractors suing each other, and the whole thing is just a financial mess. In the end, it appears that the original mortgage holders, the Canadian Mutual Loan and Investment Company, took over ownership when the mortgage owing by Philion was obviously defaulted on, and would have paid off all the liens. And oddly, they (Canadian Mutual) maintained ownership for the next decade, acting as landlords to the property. (At some point it had become the Colonial Investment and Loan Company, but was conveyed to the Anglo American Fire Insurance Company by about 1910).

The house was originally numbered 227 and 229 Richmond Road (as Richmond road extended to Western Avenue until 1908, when that portion was renamed to Wellington Street). 227 was the east half (1239 Wellington) and 229 the west half (1243 Wellington).

Anyways finally in March 1910, it was sold to William Joynt, a Hintonburg-based real estate investor and agent, for $2,000. It was very common in this era, for real estate dealers to actually purchase the building and re-sell it, unlike today where the agent simply coordinates the sale. 

Within days of purchasing the building, Joynt had it listed for sale in the Journal with a large ad:

Ottawa Journal - March 19, 1910

Even Joynt at the time saw the potential the building had in being converted for commercial purposes. 

Of course it is obvious even more so today that this should have been its original build type, but at the time of construction, Wellington Village was still just largely vacant farmland. Most of the land was owned by the Ottawa Land Association, who were still nearly 20 years away from offering it for sale. 

If you were standing at the corner of Holland and Wellington at the time, you would have seen only a handful of structures to the west, before the small subdivision around Carleton Avenue. Wellington Street was a commercial thoroughfare only up to about Holland Avenue at the time, when it transitioned to being the road out to the country, towards Bells Corners and Richmond. Even the streetcar line (which arrived in 1900, two years after the building was completed) turned off Wellington at Holland, turning south towards the Farm. So though one could have foreseen a likelihood that Wellington would eventually grow into a commercial street further to the west certainly in 1910, and even possibly in 1898 when the building was first built, it wasn't a sure thing, and certainly would have had minimal interest for commercial purposes at the time.

Joynt incidentally had also acquired the property next door (to the east, at the corner of Holland) in August 1906, which at the time had a small wood-frame duplex.

He kept ownership of both properties, which remained in the Joynt family as tenanted properties until the mid-1940s. Joynt passed away in 1930 after an incredible career, working his way up from a grocery store owner in Hintonburg to becoming the largest landlord in the west end, to eventually being appointed Magistrate for Carleton County (despite having no legal training!).

View of the two buildings on the 1922 fire plan.
That is Holland on the right edge. The pink colour
indicates brick, yellow is wood, and grey represents
a small garage, shed or outbuilding.

Aerial photo from May 5, 1933. Also visible is the
"Holland Service Station" which opened at the corner of
Huron in 1926, and remained there until about 1973.

The building was sold in June 1946 to William E. Haughton for $7,250. Haughton also acquired the lots to the west, and constructed the Haughton Building (better known as the Bank of Montreal building) in 1947 to house his law firm. Haughton built his new building abutting the duplex at 1239-1241 Wellington, which actually ate 7 feet into the original lot space of 1239-1243 Wellington.  

Haughton continued to rent the duplex out to tenants over the next few years. He later, in October 1951, acquired the property to the east, which was still the old wood-frame duplex, for $23,000 (the Joynts had sold it in 1945, but Haughton re-acquired it). At the close of 1951, Haughton owned the entire block of Wellington from Huron to Holland.

In April 1953, Haughton sold the two lots (not his building, but the two duplex buildings) to Pearl E. Fenton for $52,000. Pearl Fenton was the wife of George Wesley Fenton.  And he had big plans for the property.

In 1953, he renovated the building at 1239-1241 Wellington, putting on a small addition at the front of the building to bring it to the sidewalk line, creating a commercial frontage to the building. 

On the east half, at 1239, he opened the 10th bakery of the local Fenton's Bakery chain that would eventually grow to 12 branches. 

Ottawa Journal - September 30, 1953

The renovation essentially eliminated the main floor residential portions of the house. There were commercial spaces on both halves of the main floor (1239 on the east half, and a new number 1243 Wellington Street West on the west half). Upstairs was both 1241 Wellington West, with a small commercial space on the east half, and a residential unit on the west half. Interestingly, the long-time tenants on the west half remained in the building, even after the renovation eliminated the downstairs half of their home! 

I wish I had a photo of the building prior to the renovation, but I have yet to find one! If anyone reads this, and has an old family album with a photo of even a part of the original building visible, please let me know.

Meanwhile, in late 1954, Fenton demolished the old wood-frame duplex at the corner, and immediately took out a permit to construct the Wesley Building. It was completed just in time for Christmas 1955, by James More and Sons Ltd., at a cost of $225,000.

Below are two photos (and one neat illustration) of the construction of the Wesley Building, the middle photo shows a good view of the newly-renovated Fenton building, with Richards Jewellers on the left, and Fenton's on the right. The old Haughton Building sign which was once fully exposed is now seen as mostly covered up by the front addition.

Ottawa Citizen - June 8, 1955

View of 1239-1241 during the construction of the
Wesley Building, September 21, 1955
(City of Ottawa Archives, CA-25262)

The Wesley Building completed. December 1955
(City of Ottawa Archives CA-35918)

Another good way to see the renovation and new construction visually is the comparison of the 1948 and 1956 fire insurance plan sheets of the block. See below:

1948 fire insurance plan, pre-reno

1956 fire insurance plan, showing the new front
addition (the blue colour indicates concrete block
construction), and the new Wesley Building

The building at 1239-1241-1243 Wellington has largely been unchanged since 1953. The biggest change has probably been the addition of a large parking garage in behind the building, which appears to have been constructed during the 1990s. In older photos from the 60s and 70s, it appears there were actually a couple of larger trees in this space.

Rear of 1239-1243 Wellington West - September 2022

In fact, a 1939 article mentions that long-time tenant Mrs. Beckworth hosted a large garden party and bingo in the house and grounds of the house! So it must have had a pretty nice backyard for a time.

Ottawa Journal - August 7, 1939

Fenton Realty owned 1239-1243 Wellington until March 1st, 1984, when they sold it for $950,000 to an numbered Ontario incorporation, and it later sold again in 1986 for over $2M. I didn't bother tracking its more recent sales.   

The early occupants: 1897 to 1953

The earliest confirmed inhabitants of the house are from the 1901 Census, where the east half (227 Richmond/1239 Wellington) was occupied by William A. and Charlotte Mason and their two children Robert and Catherine, ages 4 and 2. William was Village Clerk for Hintonburg at the time, which meant he was photographed as part of Hintonburg's Council in 1897:

William A. Mason in 1897

The west half of the duplex (229 Richmond/1243 Wellington) had interesting residents as well, James and Mary Mark, an Irish couple in their 80s, along with their 39-year old daughter Martha, and an 11-year old grandson Bertram Smith. (James would go on to live to the amazing age of 95). 

1901 Census-taker made his visit to the home on April 2nd, 1901, and also noted the house was brick, with 6 rooms in each half.

Tenants of the era often moved frequently, it was very common to see a new occupant in a house each year, and it was rare to see someone staying more than a couple of years.

By the summer of 1902, both sides had new occupants: 227 was occupied by Harry L. Routh, an electrician, while 229 was occupied by James Carkner, a clerk. 

227/1239 was occupied next by Thomas Turvey, a conductor for the Ottawa Electric Railway (1903-1904), before carpenter Thomas C. Fagan and his wife Elizabeth moved in for the long haul (1906-1930), then Emile and Emily St Aubin (1931-1933), Alfred and Marguerite Leduc (1934-1950), Hubert J. and Agnes Shellard (1951) and Clifford H. and Claudette Tyo (1953).

229/1243 meanwhile was occupied by James Carkner (1902-1909), James E. Sullivan (1910-1914), Leslie Tennant (1914-1916), Sophia Beard (1917-1920), Sidney E. Day (1921), Charles G. and Helen McFadden (1922-1934), Cecil W and Inez Joynt (1935-1937), and then the longest occupants, Bernard H. (Tom) and Agnes Beckworth (1938-1961). What's most interesting about the Beckworths is that they remained in the house even through the conversion to commercial, and would have had to accept the renovation which would have halved the size of the apartment in 1953.

The WWI period is worth discussing, as both sides of the building saw the occupant families significantly affected by the war.

Thomas Fagan in 1239 was employed as a saw filer, and must have been a pretty tough character, for he enlisted in March of 1916 to fight for Canada. What made him a bit unique was his age: Thomas was 46 years old at the time. He also had four children, ranging in age from 15 years to his daughter Frances who was only 13 months old. Within a month, he was in England, a member of the 224th Canadian Forestry Battalion, with the rank of Private. He was soon shipped to France, where he spent the next two and a half years, until the end of the war. He returned home in May 1919, a Lance Corporal, and just shy of 50 years old. For those three-plus years he was away, it must have been difficult on his wife Elizabeth. 


On the other side of the building was the Beard family. Mrs. Sophie Beard, lived alone, though apparently estranged from her husband Henry. The family had moved to Canada just five years prior (1912) from England, seemingly following over a daughter who had married and come to Canada in 1910. Sophie lived with her five youngest children (Henry, Lawrence, Edward, Lucy and Annie) who ranged in ages from 14 to 25. A short Citizen interview with her in May 1918 noted that the family of Mrs. Beard "has done its duty", as she had her two sons (Lawrence and E.C.), her son-in-law (Nelson Baker) and "forty near relations" fighting in the war. Sadly, I later found a Citizen article from November 1st of 1918, noting that the family had received word that her Pte. Edward Charles Beard had died on October 25th 1918, at the age of 20, from gunshot wounds in the head and arms in battle on September 30th.


The occupants: 1953 to Present

These were the commercial years, when the building was converted by the Fentons. Of course the upstairs remained largely residential into the 1990s or even 2000s. It has only been in the past few years that commercial tenants have been located here. It's the ground floor level where all the action has been!

On the 1239 (east) half, Fenton's Bakery remained for 17 years, and is likely the most memorable tenant of the building for long-time residents. Frustratingly, I could not find a better photo of the storefront from the 50s or 60s, than the photo above showing it next to the Wesley Building under construction. Here is a sample storefront view of a different Fenton's location:

Fenton's Bakery (not the Wellington location!)
storefront view (City of Ottawa Archives CA-44523)

Fenton's also had a popular location in the neighbourhood at Westgate for many years. 

Fenton's closed at 1239 Wellington in 1970, and closed their final store between 1974-1975, the end of a very popular Ottawa franchise.

In 1970, Fontaine's Colour TV and Stereo shop (1970-1975) opened up in Fenton's place.

Ottawa Journal
February 12, 1974

Then, Overseas Varieties (aka Overseas Imports) opened at 1239, operated by Amir Mussani, an Ismaili Muslim who was forced from Uganda when President Idi Amin expelled 52,000 non-citizen Asians for "sabotaging the economy". Canada opened its doors to 5,600 of these refugees, bringing them in through chartered planes, with 200 settling in Ottawa. Mussani's shop dealt in "imported garments, brass and wood carvings", and was open into the early 1980s.

Mussani in his shop
Ottawa Citizen, September 15, 1977

From what I can tell, around early 1987, Jimmy's Hair Stylist (which had been open for about two years prior in the 1243 half) expanded and took over the entire commercial space of both 1239 and 1243. It appears (though I could be wrong), that for the next 12 years or so, the ground floor was combined as one business space, later being re-split as it previously had been, around 2002.

Jimmy's remained open until about 1990, when an H&R Block moved in briefly.

Ottawa Citizen - December 8, 1987

Records are a bit spotty from the mid-90s onwards, but some of the more recent tenants of 1239 Wellington have been the Wellington Gallery & Gifts (1992); the Avalon Bookstore (specializing in spiritual healing) from 1995-1999; Tuesdays the Romance Store from about 2007-2015; and The Cell Doctor from about 2015-2017. Google Streetview reveals that the shop remained vacant and for lease until late 2019, when Panash Dry Cleaning opening, but they had the misfortune of opening just as Covid hit, and I guess never stood a chance, gone not long after opening. As mentioned at the start of this article, The Thrifted Mini becomes the newest tenant of this great location this week!

**

The 1243 (west half), has had some varied tenants over the last 70 years as well.

Brookshire Cleaners Ltd. were the first, opening a branch location in late 1953 or early 1954, but only staying about a year. 

Ottawa Citizen - November 16, 1953

Richard's Jewellers, shown in the 1955 photo above stayed for a few years, from 1955-1959.

Ottawa Citizen, December 3, 1953

They were followed by Capital Watch Repair (1960-1961), and then became a beauty salon for the next nearly thirty years. 

At first it was Muriel's Beauty Salon (1963-1973) operated by Muriel MacGregor, then Alex's Hair Design (1973-1986), and finally taken over by Jimmy's Hair Stylists as a second location (their initial location was at 905 Carling). 

Ottawa Citizen - November 13, 1967

Around 2002-2003 I believe, the commercial space was re-split into two separate shops, and the 1243 half briefly was the sales office for the Routeburn Urban Developments condo at 1277 Wellington West prior to its construction, and then became Heavens to Betsy from 2003 until they moved to Hintonburg in 2008. Allegro was in for several years (2011 or 2012 until 2016), then finally the Kindred Shop & Studio which has been in 1243 Wellington since 2017.

Here are a few final random photos of the building, to close off this exhaustive history of one of Wellington West's most unexpectedly-historic buildings!

June 5 1984 aerial view

April 2009 view

2020? doorway to Perfect Electrolysis upstairs

April 2021 view

Monday, August 1, 2022

The Hintonburg Horse Thief of 1910

Hintonburg in the early 1900s had a lot of similarities to what you might imagine an old west town on the frontier would look like. There were no cars, no paved roads. Electricity and running water were still a novelty reserved only for the newest houses and buildings occupied by only the most affluent residents. Residents traveled in and out of the village by horse or by foot, travelling mostly on the one main street entering and leaving Hintonburg, the Richmond Road. 

Hintonburg had a village constable, a doctor and a volunteer fire brigade. There were small grocery stores, butchers, blacksmiths, carriage makers, and a flour and feed shop. Residents largely worked at the nearby mills or the train yards. There were no restaurants or really any recreational facilities. There were also two hotels that catered to travelling farmers or part-time labourers looking for a short-term stay, and these hotels featured a large tavern for locals and visitors alike to have a drink (or two). 

One of the longer-running hotels of early Hintonburg was James Byers' hotel, the Hintonburg House. Located directly across from the St. Francois D'Assise Church, in the middle of what is today the Wellington Towers apartment building at 1041 Wellington Street West, the hotel featured a large number of rooms, and stretched all the way back to Armstrong Street, where large stables allowed travellers to "park" their horses for the night. 

The fire insurance plan below from around the turn of the century shows the original footprint of the hotel (at what is labelled #61 with "Sal." for saloon). 

1895 Fire Insurance Plan of Ottawa, updated to
about 1900-1901

In the early morning hours of Tuesday February 8th, 1910, these stables were the scene of what was called a "daring theft", when a drifter took the opportunity to steal the village doctor's horse and sled, which was stored inside. This set off a lengthy investigation that would take an Ottawa police constable across eastern Ontario to solve the crime.

Ottawa Journal
February 8, 1910

The village doctor was Dr. Israel G. Smith (the subject of my upcoming column in the Kitchissippi Times - September edition), and he resided in a large greystone house on Wellington just east of Parkdale Avenue, where the Grace Manor stands today. Why the Doctor's horse and cutter were being stored in the Byers' stable is a bit of a mystery to me, as the Doctor lived 1,500 feet to the east, and had a sizable shed or stable of his own behind his house where he could have stored his horse. 

Regardless, on the night of the big theft, at three in the morning, the thief entered the Byers' stable, harnessed the horse, hitched up the cutter, grabbed a handful of musk-ox robes and horse blankets, and then unlocked and opened the stable doors. Nearby residents heard the horse being taken out, but apparently didn't think it strange because the Doctor had occasionally called for his horse at 3 a.m. to visit a sick patient.

This is not Hintonburg's Dr. Smith, but is a representative
photo showing a County Doctor on his horse and cutter. It
is actually Dr. Arthur Sutton of Port Credit in 1912.

However, at sunrise the theft was discovered, and the police chase began through the country roads, looking for the broncho chestnut horse with four white feet and white face, and a brand reading "F.H." stamped on the right shoulder, along with a red shanty jumper containing the robes. The entire haul was estimated at $800. The search was led by both the City of Ottawa police and the Carleton County Police, with Ottawa detective Joseph O'Meara, an 18-year veteran of the force, leading the investigation.

Later, it was discovered that a collie dog, described by the Ottawa Citizen as a "friend of the horse" had followed the horse and was also missing.

Local police alerted police throughout eastern Ontario, to keep an eye out for the stolen horse.

24 hours after the theft, on Wednesday morning, Carleton County Constable Hamilton was called out to a farm on Montreal Road, five miles from the city to investigate a report of a missing horse, which was thought to perhaps have a connection to the Smith horse case. However, on arrival, the Constable discovered the horse and rig had been found up the road, having strayed away after a family member of the horse's owner had only loosely tied it up.

Finally, on the morning of Friday February 11th, three days after the horse was stolen, a phone call came from the Chief of Police for Perth, Chief White, informing Ottawa Police that Dr. Smith's horse had been seen at a farm a few miles back of Perth, and that the cutter and two of the three robes had been located.

Perth police were working with the farmers who had purchased pieces of Dr. Smith's property, to attempt to identify who the thief was, and to locate the horse. It was mentioned that it would be difficult owing to the fact that the thief had sold the horse, traded the cutter and sold the robes at all different places between Ottawa and Perth. 

The Journal wrote that the cutter and robes that had been located would be "taken from their present owners who will not be recompensed, and who, if they refuse to hand over the stuff, will be charged with receiving stolen goods."

Detective O'Meara left that Friday morning to investigate in Perth and along the way. He successfully tracked the horse as far as Carleton Place, but by the following Tuesday had been unable to track it any further.

However, some good news was announced the following Friday (February 18th) when Detective O'Meara found the horse on a farm in Smiths Falls.

Ottawa Citizen - February 18, 1910

It was not until Monday morning that O'Meara returned to Ottawa, and shared some of the details from his nine day hunt with the local newspapers that day. O'Meara battled heavy snow in the country, but also had to work through what the Citizen called a "troublesome tangle" investigating backwards through a couple of horse trades the thief had made. Also making things difficult were farmers in the Perth area, who were apparently reluctant to share information. He was only able to track down the stolen horse after he found the horse for which the thief had traded Dr. Smith's horse. 

He claimed that horse, and then rode around the country until he met a man who recognized the horse and knew its old owner. The detective then drove to the farm suggested by the man, and "up a cross road came upon the missing horse." Thus he was able to undo that first trade, and bring home Dr. Smith's horse to him.

Tracking down the thief was a harder challenge, one which initially eluded the city and county police. 

However, either months later, on Tuesday October 18th, 1910, police got a break when a livery rig and horse had been stolen from Kemptville, and the man matching the description of the thief, who also matched the description of the Hintonburg horse thief, was seen in Richmond. He was having lunch at the Rielly House hotel in Richmond, with a "fancy carriage and horse" parked outside. Perth police phoned Detective O'Meara, who asked to have hotel staff to keep an eye on the man, and he quickly took an automobile out to Richmond and nabbed the thief as he was eating.

The arrested man was Christian Olsen, who was also known with an alias of L.M. Larsen, "who is recorded in police annals as a horse thief and general bad man", hilariously wrote the Citizen.

Olsen was 36 years old and a stonecutter by profession. He was of Danish descent, but apparently resided at Baker's Bush, which was an old cluster of homes in the Richmond Road and Woodroffe vicinity at the time.

He had arrived in Canada in 1898, but had spent 11 of his 12 years in Canada in jail. In November 1898 he had been given five years for cattle stealing in Ottawa, and in 1903 was sentenced at Kingston for seven years, also for cattle stealing. "He has been the terror of many of the farmers of the district between Smith's Falls and Kingston", wrote the Citizen. He had last been released April 3rd 1909.

Olsen was charged with the Hintonburg theft, the Kemptville theft and for other crimes he had been wanted for, including two additional charges of horse stealing, and a charge of arson (it was alleged he had recently burned a barn near Smith's Falls after stealing a horse to make it appear as if the horse and carriage had burned in the fire). Police stated that Olsen had regularly been stealing horses, and then selling them within a 25 mile radius of Perth.

The justice system worked quickly back in these days, and so it was the next day, Wednesday October 19th, that Olsen was in court for his plea. Olsen pled not guilty, and was remanded for a week at the request of Detective O'Meara. He was charged with the theft of Dr. Smith's horse, cutter, lap robe, halter and two robes, all valued at $400, and a second charge of theft of a musk-ox robe and a set of single harness from James Byers. 

Christian Olsen, from his sentencing photograph
(source: LAC Kingston Penitentiary collection)

The case was heard one week later, on October 26th, and Olsen's lengthy criminal history was shared, along with the details of the case. Detective O'Meara and Inspector Ryan also gave testimony, and a "big array of witnesses" were on hand as well, though they proved not to be needed as Olsen changed his plea to guilty. He asked the judge for another chance, blaming alcohol as the cause of his downfall, and offered to "take the pledge". 

"You have probably told this same story in other courts", said Deputy Magistrate Askwith in imposing the sentence, which he did without further comment. Olsen was given seven more years in Kingston Penitentiary for the theft of Dr. Smith's horse and cutter, and was also given two and a half years for the theft of Byers' property, though it was to run concurrently with the seven year sentence. The other charges, for his crimes in Smith's Falls and Kemptville, he apparently was going to be charged with after he served his seven years in Kingston (I guess law officials could chose to do that back in the day). 

Thanks to the fantastic addition of the Kingston Penitentiary archives being uploaded to LAC's website a year or two ago, Olsen's photograph and sentencing file can be found! Above is the photo from his 1910 sentencing, and below is the entry from the log book about him, noting that he was just shy of 5'6", 152 pounds, with a fresh complexion, light hair tinged with grey, hazel eyes, with a scar on his left buttock and 5 vaccination marks. 

Christian Olsen's file notes from the
Kingston Penitentiary (source: LAC)

In attempting to find out what happened to Olsen later in his life, I quickly searched the newspapers of 1917 (when his sentence would have ended), and was not surprised to find that in September of 1917, there was a story of the same man, then going by Larsen Olsen, being found guilty of stealing half a set of double harnesses, 20-30 hens and 3 bags of potatoes from a far in Osgoode. Olsen was then sentenced to 18 months in the Central prison.

From there, the trail goes cold, as I could not easily find any information where life took Olsen beyond that jail sentencing. 

What a neat story from the early days of Hintonburg!

Keep an eye out for the September issue of the Kitchissippi Times where I'll be profiling the life of the horse-theft victim, long-time Hintonburg village doctor, Dr. I. G. Smith!

Monday, June 20, 2022

The history of the Hampton-Iona neighbourhood (two-part series)

In May and June of 2022, my two-part series looking at the birth and early days of the Hampton-Iona neighbourhood was published in the Kitchissippi Times.

In the article, I call Hampton-Iona the "Savannah, Georgia of west-end Ottawa", due to its vintage houses, each one unique, on wide, deep lots, many of which back on to parkland. It's a gorgeous neighbourhood, with all kinds of long, lost history. I do my best in two columns to cover a summary of the highlights of it's history - including it's years as "Laurentian View", a name that still pops up on the occasional map or real estate listing. Part two particularly focuses on the growth of the Standard Bread company, which had its beginnings in the middle of Hampton-Iona. One of its original buildings actually still stands on Hilson Avenue today!

Lots of photos and tidbits worth checking out! See the two parts at:

PART ONE: https://kitchissippi.com/2022/05/18/the-early-history-of-hampton-iona/

PART TWO: https://kitchissippi.com/2022/06/14/hampton-ionas-history-standard-bread-and-a-community-on-the-rise/

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Ottawa's early pre-sewers sanitation history & Kitchissippi's role

Early Ottawa sanitation is one of those topics that I hadn't intended on researching, it just kind of happened. I was researching a different topic, and discovered that back in Ottawa's early days, before water distribution and sewers, that dealing with human waste was a big problem. Understandably, as Ottawa had a booming population, but no system in place to take waste away. Today we take it for granted that we can use a washroom, and it gets piped away immediately. But in the late 1800s and early 1900s, waste accumulated, and had to be dealt with. Interestingly, some parts of Kitchissippi was used as dumping grounds for collected waste. There were ever-evolving elaborate systems of collection and disposal, and in some cases, the city's waste was carted through and into Hintonburg, Mechanicsville and Wellington Village. Meanwhile the little villages within Kitchissippi had their own issues as they continued to grow, and sewer services were still years away, some not arriving until well after WWII. 

The full story from the April 2022 issue of the Kitchissippi Times can be found at the link below: 

https://kitchissippi.com/2022/04/14/night-soil-and-honey-wagons-kitchissippis-role-in-early-ottawa-sanitation/


Outhouses in Hintonburg along Cave Creek 1911

Sunday, March 20, 2022

The tail of the Hampton Park Lynx

The March 2022 Kitchissippi Times features a fun article I wrote on the appearance and capture of a lynx in Hampton Park in May of 1919. Just a quick fun story of an oddity in the neighbourhood, and how it became big news in Ottawa.


Read the full story at: 

https://kitchissippi.com/2022/03/12/the-tail-of-the-hampton-park-lynx/



Sunday, February 20, 2022

The St. Hubert's Gun Club: Renowned early-20th century Westboro club

The February 2022 issue of the Kitchissippi Times includes an article I wrote on the history of the St. Hubert's Gun Club, which had developed in central Ottawa in the late 1800s, but eventually found a long-time home within Westboro more or less from 1901 to 1939. 

Gun clubs were extremely popular in the early 1900s, and not only was the St. Hubert's Club successful in Ottawa, but in fact was one of the top North American clubs with some of the continent's best shooters; many of whom lived in Kitchissippi.

You can read the full story at:

https://kitchissippi.com/2022/02/08/westboros-renowned-gun-club-of-the-early-1900s/

1912 tournament at St. Hubert's Club
Rod and Gun Magazine

1915 tournament at St. Hubert's Club
Rod and Gun Magazine

5-trap system illustrated
Dominion Trap Shooting Association
Constitution 1903

Sunday, February 13, 2022

The detailed history of Hilson Avenue Public School


The history of Hilson Avenue Public School goes back over a century, and the growth of the school has mirrored the neighbourhood around it. From its earliest days as the schoolhouse for old Nepean Township School Section 2, through its many additions and alterations, finally leading to the construction of an entirely new school in 1999, Hilson has seen tens of thousands of neighbourhood kids walk its halls. The neighbourhood has had a variety of names over the years - alternatively called Westboro, Ottawa West, Laurentian View, or Hampton-Iona, but what hasn't changed is the community focus the school has had, and the key role it has played in so many lives.

I'm the proud parent of two current Hilson students, and realized not long ago that there really isn't a record of the original Hilson School online. In fact, there wasn't a single photo I could find anywhere of the original school exterior. I thought that was a bit unfortunate, as the school is such an important part of the childhoods of so many, and I knew many would enjoy seeing some photos of the old building. But more than that, the building had such an interesting history, that I felt publishing its full story was important, so that it was just more 'lost' local history. 

Just as I did a few years ago for Elmdale School (http://kitchissippimuseum.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-detailed-history-of-much-loved.html), I started out a few months ago researching and pulling together the complete history of the school. Even with a ton of editing and selecting some photos from batches of many, it still ends up being a long article. It is thorough in each stage of the school's life, starting with bringing to life just who "Hilson" was, attaching a name (and photos) to the school for the first time in a century or more.

So with that, I hope you enjoy this history of Hilson Avenue Public School.


Who was Hilson? - The origins of Hilson Avenue

The story of Hilson Avenue begins back in May of 1899 when the neighbourhood was still open county and old farmland. Alison ("Alice") Hilson Holland and her husband George C. Holland owned a large piece of land, and filed a joint subdivision plan with fellow-land owner Frederick Heney called Carleton County Plan 186. This subdivision laid out former farmland located between Richmond Road and Carling Avenue (on the north and south), and approximately Bevan Avenue to the west and Kensington Avenue to the east. Through the middle of this new plan, the group created a long street running north to south which they called Hilson Avenue. 

Alison Hilson Holland - February 1888

George and Alice Holland - September 1905

Alice Holland was born on September 8th, 1856 in Kirkintilloch, Scotland. She married George Clarke Holland in 1874 in Toronto, but the couple soon after moved to Ottawa. They had 7 children between 1875 and 1886. In 1888, they acquired a large property along Richmond Road from the widow of Hon. James Skead, which was known as "The Elms", later as the Soeurs de la Visitation Convent, which still stands (tragically neglected) behind the condo towers on Richmond Road, next to Hilson School.

Hilson was Alice's middle name, and there was likely a familial significance to the name, but in digging through family tree records on Ancestry, I could not make any definite connection. The name did get carried down to her first-born daughter Clara Hilson Holland (1879-1967), who incidentally married John Alexander MacDonald ("Jack") Hinton, the youngest child of Hintonburg pioneer Robert Hinton, in 1898. Clara and Jack did not have a daughter to further pass the name down to, but they did have a son who they named Lyman (another neighbourhood street name connection!). 

From 1899 onwards, Hilson Avenue began to develop quickly as a residential section, particularly with the arrival of the streetcar line down what is now Byron Avenue in 1900. The neighbourhood grew around Hilson as its main street.

Planning and Construction

As the neighbourhood grew, so did the need for educational facilities closer by. Prior to Hilson School being built, local children would attend school at the Westboro Public elementary school on Main Street (now Churchill Avenue). The distance was a little far for younger children, but beyond that, the Main Street School had seen its student population rise to 375 in 1913, which was an increase of nearly 100 students from the previous year. In fact, the student population had risen from just 75 students in 1908!

Thus the history of Hilson School begins with a short blurb hidden within the pages of the Ottawa Citizen on Saturday November 29th, 1913. In the paper that day, it was mentioned that the Westboro school trustee board was soon to hold a public meeting proposing to build a new four-room school, in the vicinity of Hilson Avenue. 

Ottawa Citizen - November 29, 1913

In fact the population of Westboro itself had nearly doubled in a year, which meant that homes were being built at a frantic pace. The Journal noted in early 1914 that "the majority of those who are choosing Westboro as a future place of residence are all young people with families, and as a result the public school is filled to overflowing." 

By end of January 1914, it was noted that the student count was at about 400 with "the seating accommodation fully occupied". It was agreed that work on the new Hilson Avenue school would need to be rushed. What follows here is a case study on how to plan for, build and populate a school in under a year!

First off, the architect firm of Richards and Abra (who also notably later designed Nepean High School and Broadview School, among many other buildings) was hired to produce plans and specifications in late January 1914. It was one of the first jobs for the new business, as Hugh A. Richards and William J. Abra had just opened their new firm three months earlier, out of offices in the new Booth Building on Sparks Street. 

On February 25th, it was announced that the school to be built would in fact be eight rooms, not four, and would cost approximately $25,000 to build.

Ottawa Journal - February 25, 1914

At some point in time in early 1914, the school trustees acquired the land on Hilson Avenue on which to build the school. The land had been part of the vast holdings of Frederick A. Heney, who had a mansion home on the north side of Richmond Road where the Canadian Bank Note Company exists today (more on Heney and his house can be found at: https://kitchissippi.com/2016/08/18/heney-home-ottawa-history/).

Heney sold to the Nepean Township School Section 2 public school board a total of seven lots in Alison Holland's 1909 subdivision plan (a second plan, further subdividing the original Holland property, which was known as Carleton County Plan 286) for a total of $3,500. The sale was not registered until August 21st, but it was common in that era that real estate deals would be made but not registered for some time. 

Note these seven lots represented only about a third of the land that Hilson currently occupies; it would be years later through multiple acquisitions that the remaining property was acquired.

Below is a rough drawing to show the original property lines of the Hilson property in 1914, on top of a present-day aerial view of the school.

Red marks indicate 1914 property boundary

Meanwhile throughout the winter of 1914, the student count at the Westboro Main Street School continued to steadily climb, to the point where trustees announced they would need to rent rooms in another building within Westboro to house additional classroom space. "The trustees believe that they can make the present accommodation hold out until the Easter holidays," wrote the Citizen, "and after that a room or rooms in another building in the police village will be rented The trustees after this expect to have to rent more rooms about the first of May." 

The trustees also mentioned that two new teachers would also need to be hired. 

Sure enough a cottage was rented by the trustees that was used by the junior pupils for the balance of the 1913-14 school year. As it became clear that the new Hilson School would not be built in time for September, the trustee board continued to explore more satellite classroom space options in Westboro.

By March 24th, Richards and Abra were putting their "finishing touches" on the plans, and once completed, allowed for the call for tenders towards the construction.

A week later, on March 31st, advertisements for the call for tenders for both the excavation and well drilling work, as well as the actual construction of Hilson School were both published.

Ottawa Citizen - March 31, 1914

On April 17th, it was announced that Robert E. Ralphs of Highland Park won the contract to build Hilson School, at the amount of $25,000. (There was no word on who won the contract for the excavation work, though it is likely that Ralph was selected for that work as well).

Robert E. Ralphs was a 27-year old contractor, who was born in Westhoughton, England and had come to Canada in 1905. He met his future wife Eva Thorne in Ottawa, where the couple married in 1908. They would have all four of their children (Gladys, Tolar, Lola and Earl) within five years (three survived infancy). Ralphs and his family lived at the time in the house Robert had built at 481 Broadview Avenue. 

From documentation, Robert was tall and slender, with light blue eyes and brown hair. I could not locate a photograph of him unfortunately. He was a bricklayer by trade, and he was a small-time house builder in Westboro, building a couple of houses at a time, selling them and then using the funds to acquire more building lots, etc. The Hilson Public School job was a major coup for him. According to all the searching I can do, this was by far his biggest job he had ever undertaken. And in fact, he would not remain in the area long. In 1916, he relocated with his family to Decatur, Illinois, where he continued to build houses. (The family history gets a little squirrelly later on; by 1930 his wife and three kids had moved to St. Louis, while Robert remained in Decatur, remarried, and had another son. He died in the Decatur area in 1952). 

But back to building of Hilson.... Things moved quickly back in this era - by the time the trustees had announced their decision, work had immediately begun by Ralphs' men on the foundation. Ralphs had been asked to rush the job, with the hopes that the school might be ready by the fall start of the school year after all.

Ottawa Citizen - April 17, 1914

Four days later, the Ottawa Journal reported that excavation work had been completed, and that "concrete work was started yesterday morning" (the morning of Monday April 20th). 

Nepean Council met on May 21st, and discussed the issue of debentures for the $25,000 cost of the construction of the school. Debentures were early forms of loans taken out by a board which did not have the funds on hand to build with. Bylaw 810 was passed, providing for the issue of debentures to a total of $40,121.20. 

A photo from the actual original Nepean Council minute
book approving the debentures for Hilson School on
May 21st, 1914.

Ottawa Citizen - May 30, 1914

At the Nepean Council meeting on June 30th, it would be put into the record that the offer of the Dominion Securities Corporation to purchase the debentures for the new school would be accepted, and that the Reeve and Clerk were to take the next steps to complete the sale. 

The structure of Hilson School appears to have been completed by early-mid June, as on June 8th, Robert Ralphs ran a classified ad looking for six "first class bricklayers" for Hilson School. 

Ottawa Citizen - June 8, 1914

Two weeks later, John E. Cole of the Westboro school trustee board put out a classified ad as well, looking for six new teachers for Hilson School:

Ottawa Citizen - June 20, 1914

Meanwhile, Ralphs continued to oversee his house construction business. While Hilson's construction was in full flight in June of 1914, he also was building three houses on River road (now Roosevelt) north of Richmond Road. He also built a house in the summer-fall of 1914 at 540 Highland Avenue, where his family would move in to upon completion. 

By the end of June, the Westboro trustee board had also decided that the Main Street School needed to be enlarged, and so tenders for $5,000 of work to expand the school were put out.

On July 18th, it was reported that the new Hilson School was "rapidly nearing completion".

Ottawa Citizen - July 18, 1914


The School Opening & Early Years

Frustratingly, despite publishing regular updates about the planning and construction phases of Hilson School, there was no mention made of its opening once construction was finished in either Ottawa newspaper that fall. The first mention of the school operating comes in mid-November. However, based on the evidence, it appears the school was indeed ready for opening at the start of the school year in September of 1914. Perhaps part of the reason for the omission from the local papers was that the opening of Hilson School fell at the same time Canada had entered WWI, declaring war on Germany on August 4th.

Stone S.S. No 2. sign above the entryway on the
 front façade of the original Hilson School

When the new school opened, Mr. Charles Salathiel Mattice was appointed its first principal. He was 40 years old, and had lived his entire life in Lunenburg, Ontario, coming to Westboro specifically for the principal job. He and his wife Grace were parents to four children, ranging in age from 1 to 13. The family moved into a house on what was known as Francis Street in Mansfield Park (now just known as Athlone Avenue between Richmond and Scott). 

On the inaugural teaching staff (or at least on the staff within the first year of operation) were the following teachers: Mary Fraser, Lucy Grant, Mamie Groves, Elizabeth Mackey, Rose Stapledon, Irene Vessot and Irene Kelley.  

Stapledon and Vessot would both go on to become long-time teachers at Hilson. Both had recently graduated from Ottawa Collegiate in 1912 and attended the Normal School the following year. Stapledon remained at Hilson until at least the mid 1940s, retiring in 1957 from Broadview School. Vessot died in 1993 at the age of 98.

Ottawa Citizen - June 4, 1957

Mamie Groves was 24, and was born in Fitzroy Township. She only remained at Hilson for a few years. 

Elizabeth Mackey was likely the veteran on the staff. She had taught in Kemptville and North Gower before moving to Hilson, where she retired from sometime in the 1930s or 1940s. She passed away in 1947.

Irene Kelley graduated from Ottawa Collegiate in June 1914 as the top student, winning the gold medal for overall general proficiency. After a year at the Normal School, she would have begun teaching at Hilson in the fall of 1915.

A 1989 article in Newswest provided a few anecdotal memories of the opening of Hilson, which likely had been shared by a former student: "In the school yard were outdoor lavatories and a water pump. Each class had 20 double seat desks in five rows, four deep. Radiators were installed along the ceiling and it was not an uncommon sight to have the janitor, Mr. Cox climb a ladder in class to turn up the heat. The school had grades 1-8 (called Junior 1-4 and Senior 1-4) with "Senior 4th" requiring finals to enter High School."

Mr. Cox described in that story was Henry G. Cox, the hired caretaker for the school, who lived just up the street from Hilson on the east side, and worked at the school for its first ten years or so.  

This article below is a fantastic, lengthy list of students at Hilson from the 1915-1916 school year (Hilson's second year of existence). Unfortunately, a similar list was not published in 1915 that would have listed the students from the first year of the school, but I'm sure many of the names in this list were indeed part of Hilson's first students in the fall of 1914.

Ottawa Citizen - July 7, 1916

By November of 1914, just two months after Hilson's opening, it was reported that there were now 700 students attending Main Street and Hilson schools in total, and was increasing at a rate of one student a day. This ad below shows that the schools could barely keep up, hiring four new teachers to start in January of 1915:

Ottawa Citizen - December 14, 1914

Almost unbelievably, less than a year after the idea of Hilson School was conceived, it was discovered that Westboro was "taxed to their capacity" at both schools, and now needed even more, permanent school space! At a special meeting of the school trustees in February of 1915, it was decided that a school would be constructed in the western part of Westboro, within Highland Park.  Once again, the firm of Richards and Abra was hired, who designed what was known as the Main Street school "Annex" (eventually it became part of the full original Churchill School). The original plan was for a four-room school (which seems short-sighted when considering how Westboro's population was exploding at the time; sure enough just one more year later, a completely new school - Broadview - was to be built!).

By April, the Bylaw was passed issuing the debentures for the construction of the annex, but included in the Bylaw was also an inclusion of "the improvement of the school house on the Hilson Avenue School site." However, no record exists of what work this entailed, or how the school was modified in 1915. (It would not have been a significant amount of work, as the debentures issued was mostly for the construction of the new school). The population of the two schools had increased by another 100, up to 800 by mid-April 1915.

The annex opened later that year, then Broadview School (then known as Broadway Avenue) was finished in 1916, an eight-room school built at a cost of $30,000. That original school was destroyed by fire in December 1926, and a new building built the following year for $75,000 (the original 1916 foundation still stands under the sadly boarded up original Broadview School that the Board apparently has no plans to do anything with - an obvious case of demolition by neglect in a community that could benefit significantly from the extra community use space). 

March 1915 also saw another key step, when Nepean Council put out a call for a truant officer and constable for the west end. Out of 21 applications received, Council hired J. R. Cooke, to be paid "two dollars per diem", and he would start work on April 1st, 1915. For the next 15 years, he would keep watch of the village of Westboro, and was most remembered for ensuring kids were in school during the day, and at home at night after curfew.

Sadly, Hilson's first Principal Charles Mattice died November 29th, 1915 after being in the job for only a little over a year. He passed from typhoid at just 42 years of age, leaving behind his widow and four children aged 2 to 14. He had worked up until the 22nd of November, but his illness worsened, and he died after a few days in hospital.

Ottawa Journal - December 2, 1915

Gertrude Reddington Macpherson was appointed the new principal of Hilson.  She was 36 years old, born in Arnprior in August 1883 and had taught school in Pembroke and Arnprior before coming to Hilson in early 1916.

The ongoing World War I certainly led to a slowdown in Westboro construction, and the student population counts leveled off at this time. Attention began to focus on the war efforts, and it was reported in June of 1916 that Hilson students had purchased two bugles for soldiers of the local 207th Battalion.

Ottawa Citizen - June 12, 1916

1918 saw the arrival of the deadly influenza epidemic, which caused the closure of the school for most of October. 

Ottawa Citizen - October 5, 1918

At the beginning of the school year in September 1919, there were 1,100 students between Hilson, Churchill and Broadview. Hilson had 8 teachers, Churchill 12, and Broadview 5.

The 1920s

By the fall of 1920 Hilson had 364 students. As reported in Newswest in 1989: "(By 1920) there were 8 teachers, a music supervisor and the district nurse Miss Aris. The schoolyard was divided by a high fence so that boys and girls had separate play areas. In winter and when it rained recess and gym were held in a very dusty basement."

Below is a photo of one class of students from Hilson in 1920:

Hilson Avenue School - class photo from 1920
(Published in Newswest April 1989)

Another neat rare photo from this time... Below is an aerial photo from the first set of aerial photos available of our area, taken in 1920 when the original school was only six years old:


As you can see, there is no Island Park Drive yet, and no Kirkwood Avenue either. The convent property is encircled by a fence. The old stone Aylen-Heney house appears on Richmond Road, a little west of Hilson Avenue (the only finished street running north-south in the photo). The original Hilson School is set well back from Richmond Road, next to the Convent, and you'll note that the large space between the school and Richmond, which today makes up the school yard and field, was not even used by the school then, as all the well-used land area is all around the school, particularly to the south and east. Hilson occupies an L-shape of land, which is encircled as well by fencing, sectioning off the residential houses to the south. Hilson even to this day still has a bit of an L-shape to the property, though it is now smaller and less pronounced.

Macpherson would remain principal until about 1921. It is uncertain why she left the school, but it may have been due to illness. Sadly in July of 1924, Gertrude Macpherson passed away at the young age of 40 from "pernicious anemia". Her obituary described her as having "in very large measure the gift of making and keeping friends, and whose patience and courage through months of ill health were an example and incentive to all who knew her", adding "she leaves a name and memory that will be cherished by a wide circle of friends whom she had greatly influenced for good by her sunny outlook on life, her buoyant faith and her unwavering devotion to all that was pure and lovely." 

Hilson would then go through a series of different principals to close out the 1920s: John G. Hamilton, a Westboro resident. (1921-1924), Ray D. Mallen (1925-1927), E. F. Casse (1927-1928), and John W. Sterling (1928-1944). 

February 1922 saw the start-up of what essentially was the first parent-teacher council, then called the Hilson Avenue School and Home Club. 150 attendees were in the school on Monday February 20th, 1922 for the inaugural meeting, which included a story on this history of local schooling, and a local teacher Miss Pettitt (who lived on Hilson but taught at a downtown school) who spoke of the advantages of a parent-teacher organization, and new opportunities for students to stay active and occupied.

Ottawa Citizen
February 21, 1922

This is a great photo below, taken of the graduating class exactly 100 years ago, in the spring of 1922, of the "entrance class" of students moving on to local high schools. Nepean High School was under construction at the time, with classes being held on the top floor of Broadview School until Nepean opened in 1923, where many of these kids would have gone. The students are posing in front of the Soeurs de la Visitation Convent. 

Hilson Avenue Public School "Entrance Class" of 1922.
Taken in the eastern section of the school yard, by
the side of the Convent/former Holland home.

The spring of 1924 saw the start of an important new tradition, the annual school concert. On the evening of Thursday March 20th, 1924, virtually the entire school community (numbering 400 staff, students and family) piled into the auditorium of the new Nepean High School for the show.

Ottawa Citizen
March 21, 1924

(The 1925 show was held in the new parish hall of All Saints Church on Richmond Road in Westboro)

Yet another tradition began in June of 1926 when the school community held their first annual Picnic and Sports Day, at Riverside Park (which is today known as Champlain Park). Back in 1926, long before the Parkway was built through the neighbourhood, Riverside Park was one of the top destinations in the city for its recreational facilities, cottages, and its beach at the north end of Carleton Avenue. Many groups and organizations held large events on the grounds, and certainly it would have been a fun day for the kids of Hilson. What I love about this article is the large number of student names listed from 1926!

Ottawa Citizen - June 26, 1926

Taking over from Henry Cox, during the 1920s, John Henry Meers became the long-time janitor of Hilson School. Meers was born in Birmingham, England in 1876, and was a resident of Hilson Avenue as well. In May of 1929, Meers was unexpectedly let go as janitor by the school board, and the brother of board trustee George L. Hill was given Meers' job. The school community came together and signed a petition and fought for his reinstatement (as well as the dismissal of a teacher at Broadway School). The community won out, and Meers was allowed to stay on as caretaker.

On July 5th, 1929, the school trustees of school section 2 of Nepean Township made a big acquisition, purchasing all of the land to the north of the school, all the way to Richmond Road. They bought it from Frederick Heney (who had sold them the original property in 1914) for the price tag of $5,000. This was so that Hilson could expand its school yard, but also in anticipation of potential future growth. 

Here are a few photos taken on Richmond Road directly in front of Hilson School in the late 1920s. Unfortunately, despite best efforts of searching, I have never seen a photograph taken at street level of the original Hilson School from back in that era! (If anyone has one, I'd love to see it and add it to this history!)
 
Richmond Road looking west - circa late 1920s
Hilson School property at left

2022 comparison to the vintage photo above.
Note the stone Aylen-Heney house remains at left.

Richmond Road looking east just before Hilson - circa late 1920s
(Source: LAC PA-034201)

And here is a nice clear aerial photo of the area taken in the fall of 1928, with the new Island Park Drive cutting through the area along the left. Hilson was just about to take over the land to the north of the school the following year, so in this photo below it was not using this space as a playground yet (or at least not officially):

Aerial photo of Hilson November 4, 1928


The 1930s

By 1930, the school settled in and there was little change to the school itself. Also the economic depression had begun, which led into WWII, which also ensured that few improvements or modifications would occur to the school during this time. But a few of the highlights of the 1930s are included below. 

1930 started with an announcement that Richmond Road was to be widened from Island Park Drive to Tweedsmuir later that year. It would also receive a proper layer of asphalt on top. Also a fence was constructed around the future playground, at the corner of Hilson and Richmond, visible at the left side of the photo below:

Richmond Road looking west - circa fall 1930
After Richmond Road widened and asphalted

As of December 1931, there were 27 teachers and 1,048 students in the three Westboro public school combined.

In February of 1932 a large carnival was held at Hilson, which had over 600 students and parents in attendance:

Ottawa Citizen - February 27, 1932

Here is another aerial photo, this one from 1933, and this one shows the well-used schoolyard facilities between the school building and Richmond Road.

May 5, 1933 aerial photo of Hilson and surrounding area

In the 1930s, inter-scholastic sports tournaments became popular, and one of the first instances I can find of Hilson winning a trophy came in June of 1938, when the school softball team defeated Woodroffe to win the league consisting of teams from the Westboro, Woodroffe and Carlington schools. 

Ottawa Citizen - June 25, 1938

The Principal of Hilson for the entirety of the 1930s was John W. Sterling, who had formerly been a teacher at Main Street School in Westboro before taking over the job at Hilson in 1928.

Indoor plumbing and a steam boiler were added by 1935.

The 1940s

The 1940s was a more interesting era, as the neighbourhood, and the school expanded significantly during the post-WWII boom. Also photographs became far more prevalent, particularly in the local newspapers, and so a better photographic record of some key events and clubs begin to emerge after WWII as well. Here are some of the main highlights of the 1940s.

In October of 1940, an evening blaze broke out at Hilson - but amazingly, only caused $15 worth of damage! 

Ottawa Journal - October 24, 1940

Hard to imagine, but it was only in 1941 that Hilson Public School obtained water and sewer services for the first time. Taken from Bruce Elliott's book "The City Beyond", water and sewer services were added for Main Street and Hilson schools "by invoking Board of Health Regulations so that the township could order the work done and cover the costs from SS 2 over five years." 

No story about the history of Hilson would be complete without mentioning the WWII era and how the war touched on Hilson. Of course many former Hilson students fought in the war, but no story may be as sad as the one of Robert Lowell Benson. 

Flying Officer Navigator Benson was just 23 years old when he was killed overseas on active service on February 26th, 1943. He and his family lived close by at 467 Athlone Avenue. Not only was he a former Hilson student, but after graduating from Nepean High School (where he was captain of the senior football team in 1937), he became a teacher back at Hilson, teaching for three years before enlisting in the RCAF. He graduated as a sergeant-observer at Mont Joli Air Training School in April of 1942 and went overseas in August. Making the story even more heart-breaking was the arrival of a letter at his parents' home in early April written by Benson just days prior to his death, letting his parents know he had been promoted from the rank of Pilot Officer to Flying Officer, just 10 days before he died. What a tragic story for Hilson School, and the Benson family.

Ottawa Citizen - March 1, 1943

Scattered throughout newspapers of the era were stories covering fund raising efforts by students at local schools. One such Hilson-related story appears below:

Ottawa Journal - April 5, 1943

In October of 1944, the Principal of Hilson School for 17 years, John Wesley ("Jack") Sterling took ill and took an early retirement. Sadly he died just two months later, on December 19th. He was only 42 years old, and left behind his young widow and four young children, the youngest being son Norman... the same Norm Sterling who went on to become MPP for an impressive 34 years, from 1977 to 2011.

Jack Sterling was born in Valleyfield, Quebec but came to Ottawa as a boy. He attended Nepean High School during the time when the school building first opened, and became assistant principal at Broadview School in his early 20s, moving on to become Principal at Hilson when he would have been just 25 years old. His widow Doris, who then would teach at Hilson for years herself, would actually go on to live another 62 years, passing in 2006. In April of 1945, a ceremony was held at Hilson that brought the trustees, teachers, parents and students of Hilson together, where a photograph of Sterling was presented to Hilson by Alvin Schryer, chairman of the school board. 

Hilson Principals in the 1940s included: Jack W. Sterling until October 1944, H.C. Henry 1944 briefly in 1944-early 1945, John Archibald Graham in 1945, and then a new Principal started in September of 1946, J. Lorne Fulford.

Here is a great aerial photo of Hilson from the fall of 1944. Notable are all the fresh new houses on the neighbouring streets of Mulvihill and Lyman:

Aerial photo, September 16, 1944

In 1945, with expansion in mind, the Nepean Township School Section 2 Board began acquiring adjoining property to Hilson School to the south. On old subdivision plans, Mulvihill Avenue actually originally extended east past Hilson. There were several lots fronting this Mulvihill extension, as well as lots extending back from Shannon Street (the little lane that faces Byron Avenue). 

On October 18th, 1945, the Board paid Fred Artelle $2,100 for lots 12 and 13 (which included an existing house), and Hazel Levick $5,000 for lot 14 (which also included an existing house); On January 21st, 1946, the Board paid Annie McGuire $175 for the northern halves of lots 1 and 2, and paid Gertrude O'Connor $75 for lot; on April 9th, 1946, the Board bought lots 10 and 11 from Nepean Township for $250; and finally on February 21st, 1947, the Board purchased lot 15 through Carleton County for an undisclosed sum. In effect, the school significantly increased its boundary to the south, with just a few lots on Shannon and one or two fronting Hilson that kept them from owning the entire block from Byron to Richmond.

The expansion was desperately needed. With the close of WWII and the building boom taking off, local schools began to burst at the seams.

By December of 1945, there were 1,216 students at Broadview, Hilson and Churchill. Basement rooms at Broadview and Hilson had been converted into classrooms, and the Masonic Hall had been rented for extra class space, but it became apparent that new school buildings would be needed. Those would come soon.

This article below I just love the story - Hilson Principal becomes Jail Governor!

Ottawa Citizen - January 3, 1946


The Expansions of 1946-1950

In the early part of 1946, local school trustees began exploring options to expand Hilson Avenue Public School. Plans were presented at the meeting of the Hilson Home and School Association in mid-April, showing a longer-term project that would see expansions, and the eventual replacement of the original 1914 building (which would in actuality not be replaced for more than more 50 years!). $125,000 was set aside for a new wing at Hilson, to the west of the 1914 school, that was to be one-storey, with a gymnasium/auditorium combination to have a capacity of 550, and a library and kindergarten class. The longer term plan was for an expansion that would see the new gym/auditorium become the center of a larger school to be built to the north and south of it.  The project was to take place in parallel to that at Broadview, where the original 1926 tower was to have an L-shaped building appear next to it. 

The addition was expected to be ready for September 1st.  32 years after he drew up the plans for the original Hilson, W.J. Abra was once again the architect for the project (as part of his new firm Abra, Balharrie and Shore). Churchill School was also considered for additional space it too desperately needed, but was not approved as it did not have the large land space the other schools did. 

Alvin Schryer, chairman of the board of trustees, stated that since 1939, "families with young children have been pouring into the area and with each succeeding year more and more were reaching school age until, at the present time, there was not adequate accommodation for them." 

However construction did not happen in 1946. This was due to a major shortage of construction materials that was holding up new construction all over Ottawa and the country as a whole. The fall of 1946 saw reports in the papers of the over-enrollment at Hilson, Broadview and Churchill schools, as well as at Nepean high school. Hilson began using a second basement room (versus the one it had used the year before) as registration was up 10%, over 400 students total.

Finally, on Boxing Day 1946, it was announced that the project would go forward in 1947. The plans for Hilson had grown as well, as it was to be a two-storey auditorium with one-storey wings, with a kindergarten and eight classrooms:

Ottawa Citizen - December 26, 1946

Even more interesting is viewing the design plans for Hilson and Broadview side by side. Incredibly similar.

Ottawa Journal - December 26, 1946

Construction occurred throughout 1947 and 1948, the contractor being the Thomas Fuller Construction Company of Ottawa, who built the additions at both schools. The plumbing, heating and ventilation contracts for both schools went to Williams Brothers of Ottawa. The project was not quite complete by the opening of school in the fall, so extra space was found within the existing school to run classrooms until the construction was finished. It appears construction went well into 1948, as the opening for parents and the community was not held until early October 1948. 

The opening in the fall of 1948 allowed for six new classrooms, which increased the student population from 400 to 600. The classrooms were advertised as the "latest thing in school decoration and furnishing. Each is equipped with indirect lighting with special inset lights over the blackboards to eliminate glare. They are finished in a light shade of green and are equipped with individual, moveable desks." 

The official opening ceremonies were held on the evening of November 18th, 1948. George Drew, leader of the provincial PC party (and future Premier) attended. 

Ottawa Citizen - November 17, 1948

Ottawa Citizen - November 20, 1948

With the opening of the new auditorium, Hilson was now able to host plays and community presentations. The first to take advantage of the new facilities was a presentation of Alice in Wonderland in October 1948:

Ottawa Citizen - October 15, 1948

Unbelievably, mere months after the additions opened at Hilson and Broadview, the board of trustees announced in April of 1949 that new additions would be required immediately at both schools! It was stated that the area had developed so rapidly that even more accommodation was essential. 

"These additions are just part of an all-out school building program which has been under way for more than a year and has not yet caught up with the increased school population", stated the Journal. A meeting was held April 26th for the community to discuss debentures for the next additions. The new addition would include five more classrooms for Hilson. Further complicating matters was that in 1949 it was announced that a large part of Nepean Township (which the area west of Western Avenue still was in Nepean until January 1950) would be annexed to the City of Ottawa. So Nepean Township ratepayers weren't likely too happy contributing to school construction of schools that would soon be transferring over to the Ottawa Board. During planning discussions the Ottawa Board announced it would pay for any classroom additions greater than 800 square feet only (as the provincial Department of Education had stated they would pay grants only on the cost of classrooms greater than 800 feet). 

Contracts were awarded in October 1949, with local firm F. E. Cummings winning the contract for $98,100 to build Hilson. This additional wing was to be ready by the fall 1950, and would bring Hilson up to 22 rooms (a six room addition for Broadview at the same time would bring it up to 20 rooms). The highlight of the Hilson addition was "three large classrooms with enclosed project rooms at the rear of each". 

The project was part of a $1,000,000 program of new schools and additions in the recently added sections of Gloucester and Nepean in time for the fall 1950 school opening. 

Here are a few random photos at Hilson published in the Ottawa newspapers in the late '40s:

S.G. Cameron Trophy winners for boy's softball
Ottawa Citizen - June 21, 1947

Ottawa Journal - October 7, 1948

In the 1940s and 1950s, Hilson School would have an ice rink on its grounds during the wintertime, and an annual winter carnival was held. 

Ottawa Journal - February 12, 1949

Ottawa Journal - February 12, 1949

Ottawa Citizen - February 14, 1949

On Halloween night 1949, a large party of 600 children attended a party held at the school. 10 gallons of ice cream was apparently served. A few weeks later, the adults celebrated when the staff and admin of Churchill, Broadview and Hilson Schools held a "Farewell to Nepean" party at the Prescott Highway Inn, before the schools transferred to the Ottawa board. 

On January 11th, a ceremony was held at Hilson where a ceremonial key was handed over to George Nelms, Chairman of the Ottawa School Board, by Alvin Schryer of the former School Section Number 2 board for Nepean. 

Ottawa Citizen - January 12, 1950

A photo from the annual winter carnival of 1950, where the King and Queen (as well as a Prince and Princess) were selected:

Ottawa Citizen - February 13, 1950

In March of 1950, the Ottawa Public School Board announced plans to create the first intermediate school in the west end (intermediate schools had first been created in Ottawa in 1929), where one school in a district would become the only one to host grade 7 and 8 classes (along with a limited number of very local kindergarten and grade 1-6 kids), eliminating grades 7 and 8 from the others.

Hilson was initially targeted to be converted into the intermediate school for the west end, but ultimately it was Broadview School that was selected. The plan was for 273 new grade 7 and 8 students from Hilson, Churchill, Woodroffe and Grant Schools to join the 7 and 8 kids already at Broadview (as well a single class of each grade from kindergarten to grade six would remain at Broadview for kids west of Highland Avenue), and in turn, the plan would have meant shuffling 200 elementary grade students out of Broadview to Churchill, and subsequently transferring 200 from Churchill to Hilson. This was the plan of Chief Inspector Dr. Robert Westwater. 

Local parents were not happy with the announced plan, as already the communities were largely not happy with losing their own identity and association with Nepean, now falling within the large city of Ottawa, and felt this was happening far too quickly, barely a month into annexation. Some parents were particularly upset as existing Broadview students would be forced to see their kids leave the nice new, modern addition at Broadview (called the "pride of Nepean" by the Journal) for the older Churchill. The initial announcement said that the changes would take affect that very fall of 1950. A committee of parents "bitterly condemned" the proposal and fought valiantly, but lost when the board decided to proceed (modifying the Broadview boundary slightly to the east at Golden). The change took effect that fall of 1950, and Hilson ceased offering grade 7 and 8 classes at that time.

April 4th, 1950 was a banner day in the history of Hilson Avenue Public School. On that night, Hilson captured the city-wide public school hockey championship for juveniles, taking the title the first year the former Nepean schools joined in with the long-time city schools. The Auditorium in downtown Ottawa was full with 7,000 fans on hand to watch the final, which saw Hilson defeat Mutchmor 6-1 on the strength of four goals from their captain and star player Lloyd Mulligan.

Ottawa Journal - April 5, 1950

Also Hilson proved dominance on the softball diamond that June as well by winning the city-wide juvenile baseball title.

Ottawa Citizen, June 28, 1950

While construction continued on the new wing in the summer of 1950, an old stone barn that was built by 19th century farmer John Heney as early as the 1840s had to be demolished. The impressive old building stood where the kindergarten class in the far southwest corner of the Hilson stands today. The barn had a variety of uses in the 20th century, including community activities, and as a unique duplex house in the 30s and 40s. Tragically, it was demolished in August of 1950, while still in good condition.  Had it been preserved in some way it would be one of the five oldest structures in Ottawa still standing today. 

Some of the last grade 8 grads to ever graduate Hilson are shown in a photo below when they returned to Hilson for a graduation party. Included in the photo are Principal J. L. Fulford, encircled by Barbara Ann Morgan, Dianne Leary, Jim Bennett, Ralph Stephens and Janet Smith.

Ottawa Citizen, September 30, 1950

The new wing (and last addition made to the original Hilson school) was not ready in time for September, but appears to have been by late fall, sometime in November 1950.

As part of the Hilson new wing project, a new Westboro Community Centre was opened within Hilson. The grand opening was held on December 1st, 1950. The key speaker at the opening was Hon. Walter Harris, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, and also a resident of Westboro. Laurence Smith was the first Director of the centre, and Leonard Turner chairman of the Centre Council. This Community Centre was the precursor to what is today Dovercourt Community Centre.

Ottawa Citizen, December 4, 1950

Below is a segment of the 1948 fire insurance plan for Ottawa (updated to 1950) showing Hilson School and the surrounding buildings. (Pink represents brick, yellow = wood, blue = stone). The old stone Heney barn is still shown as vacant ("vac") and the Mulvihill extension is also still represented on the map. 

1948 updated to April 1951 fire plan

Here is an aerial photo from 1953 showing Hilson School in its completed state:

Aerial photo, October 14, 1953

Here is a photo from June of 1954 that just barely shows Hilson School in the background of a streetcar stopped on Byron Avenue at Hilson. (It had hit a car that day, hence why the news photographer had captured this shot). 

Hilson Avenue looking north from Byron - June 2, 1954
(City of Ottawa Archives CA-4461)

As a final note from the 1950s, here is a quote published in a 1989 Newswest article by Leslie Rubec: "By 1956, Hilson had 759 pupils. This was a time when basket and paper drives were popular. Constable Paul and music supervisor Mr. Sutherland were familiar figures. In the 1960s Mr. Stephen was principal of 20 teachers. It was at this time that the girls' schoolyard was paved."

Final Years of Hilson's original school building

I'm intentionally skipping the rest of the 1950s, 60s and 70s here, which is probably annoying to some readers who attended the school during this era and were hoping to see photographs from this time frame. If I tracked some down and included them, it would make this already overly-lengthy article worse. But in general, there were few changes to the school during this era. The enrollment stayed relatively consistent early on before slowly decreasing, there was no new construction, and the surrounding neighbourhood was fully built up by the 1950s.

After the Baby Boom years, school enrollment declined dramatically. An important development for Hilson came in 1979 when the Children's Centre was established in the school's original wing. 

A new playground was added in 1982:

Ottawa Citizen, July 2, 1982

Here is an aerial photo from 1984:

Aerial photo, August 28, 1984

Hilson held a 75th Anniversary celebration on April 29th, 1989, which included alumni events and a large party in the gym, as well as the burial of a time capsule (was this dug up when the school was demolished a decade later??). At that time, Mr. R. Squires was principal of 240 students at Hilson. 

Photo Gallery of the original school:

The photos below were all taken in approximately February 1991:









The replacement of original Hilson School (1997-2000)

In what would become one of the longest running political and education battles of the 90s, the fight to rebuild a decaying Hilson School was a painful one that galvanized parents and local residents, in a battle that was derailed multiple times, and in a last minute surprise move, almost saw the permanent end of Hilson Avenue Public School.

Budget pressures and population shifts left parents and students holding their breath for most of the decade as school trustees dithered, backtracked and finally proceeded on a new school. It was a never ending challenge (that is forever ongoing in the management of schools within a board) between weighing schools with high student counts but inadequate space, versus schools with lots of space and not enough kids. The solution is never easy; and more often than not, it pits the city against the suburbs.

In the early 1990s, the Department of Planning, Economic Development and Housing (PEDH) surveyed the OBE's 11 pre-1930 built schools and evaluated them according to the City Council-approved "Handbook for Evaluating Heritage Buildings and Areas."  Hilson ranked 11th out of the 11 schools, indicating that the history, architecture and environment of the building were not noteworthy compared to the Board's other schools. "The loss of the (original 1914) building's context due to unsympathetic post World War 2 additions and the poor condition brick contributed to its low score", noted PEDH, who further wrote that the significance of the school extended only to the role it has played in the community, rather than the building itself. 

In 1996, after years of discussion that had started back in 1991, Hilson had reached the top of the OBE's priority list for a major project (rehabilitation or replacement). In early 1997, it was announced by the OBE that Hilson would be demolished and rebuilt, but not until at least 1998. 

The OBE commissioned J. L. Richards & Associates to conduct a Feasibility Study for the renewal of Hilson, which would examine options for the future of the school. In December of 1996, five options were on the table for Hilson: three options retained all or a portion of the existing building, while two options were to have a completely new structure. 

The Board's Planning Committee selected that a new structure was the best option, due to the excessive cost of rehabilitating the building (especially the 1914 portion), and the fact that consolidating buildings into one larger facility would help maximize outdoor space on the limited-sized site. 

A last-ditch attempt at heritage designation for the original school built in 1914 was made, as a subcommittee of LACAC (the Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee) noted the original section was of sufficient heritage interest to recommend designation, which LACAC agreed with. But ultimately it but failed. Planning and Economic Development Committee rejected the proposal in March 1997.

From the original LACAC report, here was the architectural significance of the original 1914 structure:


As the story continues, just as in 1950, politics were now in play as it was known that the OBE would soon be amalgamated with the Carleton Board into the new OCDSB at the end of 1997. 

With the pending amalgamation, the provincial government in Toronto had used their Education Improvement Commission (EIC) that would typically oversee expenditures of local boards to pay particular attention to expenses in amalgamating boards. The Ottawa-area public boards formed a Local Education Improvement Committee (LEIC) with five trustees representing each of the Ottawa-area boards, which reported up to the provincial EIC. 

In a bold move, with the future of the school still cloudy, in the spring of 1997, the OBE suddenly and unexpectedly announced that construction plans would go ahead right away, a day after the LEIC questioned the plans to do anything with Hilson before amalgamation. 

The OBE had quickly held a special meeting to approve demolition and a reconstruction of the school, and announced that the existing staff and students would be temporarily packed up and moved over to a wing of Fisher Park School that fall. A demolition tender was even published soon after:

Ottawa Citizen, May 22, 1997

But all this was done without local LEIC or provincial approval from the EIC. The OBE was told it must find the full $7+ million for the rebuild in the OBE's 1997 budget. The original allocation made by the OBE for Hilson was only $2.95 million, which would have left the remaining $4 million in costs to be covered by the new OCDSB.

But this project was highly contentious, and ensuing discussions considered whether a new school was even necessary once original Hilson was to be demolished. There were 259 students enrolled at Hilson in 1997, but there was space in most nearby schools. It was difficult to justify a $7 million expense to build a new school, particularly as the growing suburbs had urgent needs for new schools that would serve 500+ students. 

The OBE boldly pushed on, even posting tenders for the construction of the new school in June 1997, through J.L. Richards & Associates: 

Ottawa Citizen, June 17, 1997

The school proceeded with demolition plans, but the issue was far from settled. Though local residents pushed enthusiastically for the school rebuild, there was pushback from all other angles.

The OBE committing to constructing a new school on the eve of that amalgamation was seen as selecting a project that would ultimately be paid for by the new board. Randall Denley in the Citizen wrote in August 1997 that "the (new) board will inherit a half-built school it doesn't need. The time to stop it is now."

Demolition of the old school ultimately began in August of 1997, with all of the post-1914 additions removed together at once. The original 1914 structure remained standing a little longer, coming down on October 30th, 1997, 83 years after it was built by Robert E. Ralphs and his crew.

Below are some great photos of the demolition of the school in 1997, provided by Hilson from their archives (and scanned/photographed by my son Xavier Allston at school in the fall):

One of the final photos of Hilson just prior to the
demolition of the original school - July 31, 1997

October 28, 1997

October 30, 1997

October 30, 1997

October 30, 1997

However, by September, with the old school a pile of rubble, it was looking more and more likely that amalgamation was going to put a permanent end to Hilson. Hilson School appeared on a list of 12 schools being considered for closure (including Devonshire) after the merger. Local school trustee Elda Allen was quoted to the Citizen as saying that the death of Hilson may lead to "a breakdown of the community", and fought aggressively for the community to save Hilson, lobbying the province to save Hilson.

Meanwhile, Hilson parents were "baffled and angry". Vice-chair of Hilson school council Lynn Hawkins told the Citizen "We would never have let them tear it down if we knew it wasn't going to go back up." The slogan for the fight for the rebuild became "What goes down, must go up again." 

Ottawa Citizen, September 20, 1997

OBE Chair Ted Best cut off discussions at the OBE, citing rules that said that once a topic had been discussed at a meeting (as it had been in the summer), it could not be discussed again, angering a large group of parents who attended the September board meeting. Best forwarded the issue to the Education Improvement Commission. 

The OBE explored options to pay for the school in 1997, including the sale of 7 pieces of land that had previously been purchased by the board prior to 1980 and slated for school construction, but later declared surplus when those schools weren't needed (five vacant lots, including 19 acres in the south end, and two lots with buildings, including an unused administration building sitting on 1.3 acres in the Glebe), hoping to net $6 million ($2 of which was already accounted for in the 1997 budget, and the other $4 million to cover off Hilson). Below is the full list of properties proposed to be sold to save Hilson:

Ottawa Citizen, September 17, 1997

The Board began advertising the properties in late September. However, it was unknown if the sales would even happen, let alone so quickly as to be finalized by year end, in time to save Hilson. (The OBE had to have the money in the bank by January 1st when the merger would occur). The commercial real estate market was very slow at the time. Ted Best described one of the sites (at Dumaurier and Grenon) as a "terrible piece of property" that he didn't think anyone would want. Two of the properties were not even cleared for sale, as they were required to be offered to other agencies such as municipalities and other school boards, before the OBE was even allowed to offer them for sale. On top of that, the Education Improvement Commission had only approved the OBE to sell land up to $2 million; the extra $4 million in real estate sales would need to be approved through them. 

In mid-October the Local Education Improvement Commission finally approved the expenditure to rebuild Hilson. However, the celebration of local residents was short lived, as trustees of the OBE internally did not agree, and a debate was to ensue days later. 

Once again frustrating politics intervened, as the OBE debate never occurred, as the 90-minute meeting was spent largely on procedural discussion whether to even discuss the issue, which resulted in a 5-5 tie, cancelling the debate. Frustrated parents in attendance to support the Hilson rebuild left even angrier.

At the next meeting on Tuesday October 28th, 1997, the trustees narrowly voted in favour of rebuilding Hilson, even though the school could still theoretically be closed by the new OCDSB. A short, scathing editorial appeared in the Citizen the next day.

Ottawa Citizen, October 29, 1997

In the end, the properties were not sold in time, and in effect, the new OCDSB was put on the hook for the $4.3M of construction after the OBE paid the $2.7M it could afford.

The good news was though, that Hilson would be rebuilt! A groundbreaking ceremony was held just before Christmas of 1997. 

Groundbreaking ceremony December 1997
(Source: Newswest February 1998)

Meanwhile during all of the discussions, the Children's Centre was approved for $800,000 of the $1 million they needed to rebuild the centre, from a grant from the RMOC. (The tender for its construction went out in May 1998, it was constructed a little after Hilson was completed).

Construction crews worked throughout the winter of 1998. In January of 1998, the foundation was poured, and the walls began going up in February. (Again thank you to the Hilson School archives for these great photos):

January 23, 1998

February 19, 1998

February 19, 1998

April 24, 1998

April 24, 1998

June 25, 1998

August 24, 1998

The new Hilson Avenue Public School opened in the fall of 1998, with a capacity of 442 students - already nearly 24 years ago!

* * *

Acknowledgements

For this exhaustive article, I had a few sources I'd like to acknowledge. I want to thank Avery Marshall from the Heritage Planning team at the City of Ottawa for hunting down and scanning for me the old files from the 1997 heritage designation application (which included many of the great photos from the 1990s of the original building). I also want to thank Bruce Elliott (as I can never do enough) for his great book "The City Beyond" which is always my starting point for any project. I'd like to thank all-star current Hilson Principal Nadine Saikaley for allowing access to the archives, Xavier's teacher Miss Maria for accompanying him while he went through old boxes as a special project (and the school was inaccessible to parents due to Covid restrictions), and to my son Xavier for scanning and photographing the interesting items in the archives to help make this project better - hopefully the first of many history project's he'll be a part of in the future!