Wellington Village heritage retained in development

In this era of disappearing pieces of the past from our streets and neighbourhoods, I think it's important to highlight when extra effort is being made to retain part of it, especially when it wasn't even required. 

Such is the case at 1248-1252 Wellington Street West, where I'm sure you've all noticed by now the big rehabilitation-renovation job happening in the former law office/tea shop at the corner of Huron, just a block west of Holland.

This building is an important one on the Wellington Street West streetscape. It may not meet all the criteria required to earn it heritage status, but it's a mixed commercial-residential building that has been a part of Wellington Village for nearly as long as the neighbourhood itself has existed. That alone makes it an important building in our community, and to see it demolished would have been a major change to out streetscape.

So kudos to the new owners and developers, who have gone to extra lengths to maintain some of the historical elements of the building, including its unique front façade. Most of the interior of the building, as we've seen, has been gutted, and there will be a whole new look along the side and especially at the rear, where there will be a new three-storey addition at the back (thankfully only three stories, which is a big win for Huron Avenue). The front though, I'm excited to say, will look very similar to how it has for the last 97 years. 

The building has a long history with many varied businesses and tenants, and I was happy to take a deeper dive into its history for the purposes of a Museum post. So here we go!

The beginning

Would you believe the story of this building begins with a Dominion grocery store? It's true! Dominion was the first to occupy space in the new building when it opened on Thursday February 23rd, 1928 to serve the growing Wellington Village population. 

Ottawa Citizen
February 23, 1928

Alexander Kirk had purchased the vacant lot from the Ottawa Land Association in late fall of 1927 for exactly $1,000, and had taken out the building permit right away. The permit was listed in the Journal's summary article in early December as one of the many permits issued during in November, a busy month in a busy era of building and growth in Ottawa (the great depression was coming, but no one knew yet of course).

Ottawa Journal - December 8, 1927

I'm not sure who Alexander Kirk was, I don't believe he lived in Ottawa, and I don't think he was directly tied to the Dominion Grocery firm. I think he was just an independent real estate investor, who saw opportunity in constructing a mixed commercial-residential building in the booming neighbourhood of Wellington Village. 

He accomplished this feat quickly - considering the permit was issued in mid-November, and the store opened February 23rd, it must have been a dizzying winter. 

Dominion Grocery had a dizzying startup story of its own. Dominion had come out of nowhere in 1919, established as a single store in Toronto which grew to a chain of 61 stores in less than a year, and over 500 stores in Ontario and Quebec alone by early 1928. In fact in Ottawa at the time had 30 other Dominion stores - there were even two others just a little east on Wellington in Hintonburg. (Dominion would go on to be Canada's number one grocery chain from the 1950s to the early 1980s). 

Dominion was one of the first companies to reap the benefits (and profits) of becoming a national grocery store chain. Prior to WWI, grocery stores were independently owned and operated, with each shopkeeper responsible for stocking their shelves through dealings with producers and distributors, or even farmers themselves. Most stores still provided groceries on delivery or by filling lists behind the counter - self-service supermarkets were still years away.

In a spread-out country like Canada, and with limited transportation options in place, it was challenging and expensive to maintain regular stock. With the arrivals of roadways, highways, cars and trucks, distribution could be accomplished more easily. And chain grocery stores could take advantage of the discount of bulk purchasing - important in an era of inflation. Canada's population grew 18% between 1921 and 1930, and so the demand for affordable groceries was high. Though many Dominion stores were small, they were everywhere, and while opening a small storefront in Wellington Village may seem like a strange business plan, being spread out allowed them to corner the market, and get the jump on other chains starting up like Loblaws, A&P and Safeway.

When 1248-1252 Wellington West was first built, it had two ground floor commercial units, each equally the same at 18.5 feet of width. Dominion opened in the west half of the building (1252 Wellington) at the corner of Huron, while the east half of the building (1248 Wellington) did not have a tenant right away.

I wish I had a photo of the store from the earliest years, but sadly I do not. The sample photo and illustration below from the same time period at least give a good idea of what it might have looked like, though even these examples show a much wider shop than what would have opened at 1252 Wellington.

Dominion Stores - circa 1930 (www.canadiangrocer.com)

Toronto Star - September 15, 1927

So the store opened in late February 1928, and just three weeks later, suffered its first break-in, with the eye-catching, headline-worthy story that the thieves hung around and ate some cookies and sardines during their overnight theft: 

Ottawa Citizen - March 14, 1928

Built upstairs above the commercial spaces were two apartment units. The first occupants of these units were Asa J. and Margaret Lasalle, with their young children Frances and Thelma (Asa was manager of a grocery store at 72 Cambridge Street) in one unite, and Edwin and Annie Hornsby (Edwin was a civil servant with the Department of Soldiers' Civil Re-establishment) in the other. The upstairs portion was initially given the civic address 1250 Wellington. 

The two new apartments up for lease for the first time:

Ottawa Citizen - March 21, 1928

The early renovation/addition

When the building first opened it was set quite a ways back from Wellington Street, a good 12-16 feet back from the sidewalk. The front of the building today has a 1-storey addition, but that was not built until I believe between 1934-1935.

I believe the setback and odd angle of the front was an effort (or even a requirement I'm not aware of) to maintain some kind of straight line of building fronts on Wellington. This block between Holland and Huron is actually where Wellington Street takes a slight curl to the north, so Wellington comes in from the east on a southwardly path, but then takes a northerly turn nearly in front of the building. So that in part explains why even today this block has odd angles of building fronts. But if you look at the angle of the fronts of the TD bank and the Pottery Shop, and follow that line towards 1248-1252 Wellington, you can see it aligns perfectly with the original front angle of the building. 

Modern day aerial view of the block (GeoOttawa)

So it appears in 1934, it was decided this setback only created wasted space in front of the building, and so a new 1-storey addition was added on. It is only about 12 feet deep at the eastern end, but 16 feet deep at the western end, but squares it to the street. This can best be shown in aerial photos:

Aerial view showing detail of front addition

Kirk had sold the building in September of 1931 to William J. Leland for $13,000 (and he was probably lucky to do so in the midst of the depression). Leland was an electrician for Freiman's department store. Leland and his wife Harriet moved into apartment 2 upstairs (overtop of 1252 Wellington), and it was he who was responsible for the 1933-1934 renos.

It appears the major renovation to the building occurred, as mentioned, sometime between 1934-1935. The 1-storey addition was attached to the front of the building, and the ground floor was altered significantly, converted from two commercial units into three (as it would remain until 2024). The new middle unit was smaller than the other two. 

Up until 1934, the civic address 1250 Wellington was used for the upstairs apartment, but with the addition of a middle unit, the address 1250 Wellington was instead assigned to it, and the upstairs apartments were given a new civic address of 157 Huron Avenue. 

The Lelands maintained ownership until Harriet Leland died at age 61 in November of 1945, and perhaps that influenced William's decision to sell the building the following year, in April of 1946, for the surprisingly low amount of $17,000. The building was acquired by the DioGuardi family, who continued to own the property until recently. More on their story further below. 

As this article continues, I've split the building into the individual histories of each unit:

The West Commercial Half (1252 Wellington Street West)

The Dominion grocery store was forced out when a new massive Loblaw's grocery store was constructed and opened next door at 1246 Wellington Street (which now is home to Dollarama) in November of 1933. A Dominion grocery store would return to Wellington Village a few years later though, opening at the corner of Clarendon at 1318 Wellington in 1936.

However after Dominion closed in late 1933, this storefront at 1252 sat vacant for well over two years.  Eventually, Harold G. Roger opened up a confectionary. tobacco and "soda fountain" shop sometime between 1935-1936, which he operated for about five years. 

In 1940, he sold the business to William James Irvine (1940-1942) who re-christened it the Corner Soda Bar, which was alternatively called the Corner Restaurant. It became a popular local spot, and seemingly a good place to work for local teen girls, as evidenced by the regular classified ads run by the business looking for girls to work the soda fountain. I found it interesting that in 1942, one such ad also noted that the Corner offered "curb service", which must have been an early form of drive-in or drive-thru service.

Ottawa Citizen - June 25, 1942

By 1946, it appears the focus was more on the restaurant, as the call was regularly for waitresses, and less so soda fountain girls. The Corner was operated by John Ladas, a long-time Ottawa restaurateur and first-generation son of Greek immigrants. 

In my collection of local history items, I actually have an old matchbook from the Corner Bar:

Vintage Matchbook

Sometime in early 1949, 1252 Wellington became the Victoria Tea Room. The name was likely selected because of the Victoria Theatre, a movie theatre, which operated across the street. It was opened by two women, Nellie Foster and Pearl Lachapelle. 

Ottawa Citizen - December 6, 1949

The Victoria Tea Room remained in operation until about 1961-1962. Nellie Foster left the business in 1956 to open a new snack bar and restaurant, called the Elmgrove, in the Lancaster Shopping Centre on Merivale Road.

1949 photograph that shows the Victoria Tea Room sign
at right. Looking east down Wellington towards Holland.

I wish I could find more information about the Victoria Tea Room, or a photo, but again, very difficult to find. 

1252 then became home to the Aroma Restaurant, which had a nearly 20 year run in this location, with a series of different owners. 

In December of 1979, it was purchased by 30-year old Mohamed Ibrahim. He would not own it for long. Less than a year later, Ibrahim would be found guilty of arson when he set fire to the restaurant just before 7 p.m. on June 25th, 1980. 

One eye witness said "I looked and heard a muffled bang - then someone jumped right through the glass in the door with his clothing ablaze. He tore off his apron, jumped into his car and sped around the corner", she said. 

"Seconds later, several loud explosions came from inside the building, and the restaurant's front windows were blown into the street, followed by a sheet of flame", reported the Citizen. The blaze then spread to the upstairs apartments which suffered smoke and water damage. Investigators on scene immediately suspected arson due to the speed which the fire spread.

David Simpson, a resident of Huron Street said he heard a loud "pop" from his home, half a block from the fire site. "My wife was upstairs with our baby and I just yelled to her 'let's get the hell out of here. I looked out and the flames were gushing one-quarter of the way across the street - it looked for a minute like this thing was going to be disastrous."

Inspectors immediately found the fire suspicious, and it was deemed arson from the get-go.

Ibrahim argued that it was arson, contending that the restaurant was "too successful" and had an imminent sale, and he was simply working in the basement cleaning up when the fire began on the main floor. He ran from the scene, but later claimed that he had burnt his hands when the fire started and was driving himself to the hospital, and was also nervous that "there might be someone on the street ready to shoot him or throw a bomb", claiming he had been receiving threatening phone calls for months, and that he had been in arguments and fights with the previous owners.

However witnesses saw Ibrahim stooped over inside the restaurant just moments before it became engulfed in flames, and that there was no explosion hole in the window, as claimed by Ibrahim when he jumped through it. A three day trial in September 1981 showed Ibrahim's sale of the restaurant had actually fallen through, and that there were holes in his testimony. The arson charge stuck.

Ottawa Citizen - June 26, 1980

Ottawa Journal - June 26, 1980

The building was renovated and made available for lease again in early 1981. A health food store, Earth and Sun opened up here for only six months, which was followed by Diet Specialties Food Co-Op Inc. In 1983, Wild Willy's Plants and Flowers moved into this space (they had opened in August 1979 at 1258 Wellington) and they remained here until moving out in 2022. 

The middle unit (1250 Wellington Street West)

This unit was created in the 1934-1935 renovation. It was first home to a small tailor shop run by Jacob Gold and his wife Pearl, and the city directory of 1936 lists the business "Victoria Tailors & Furriers" occupying the unit, which may have been the same company. Regardless, it didn't last long, and by 1937, Dorothy Hasley had opened the "Hasley Millinery Shop" at 1250.

Ottawa Citizen - May 16, 1939

A millinery shop was basically a hatmaker's shop, which would produce, alter and sell hats, typically for women. 

Hasley would remain in the building for over 12 years, at first in 1250, but then she moved next door into 1248 from 1943-1947, before returning to 1250 from 1947 until she closed the business in June of 1949.

In the mid-1940s, 1250 Wellington was briefly home to the Doric Beauty Salon (1944), the Orma-Jean Photo Shop (1946) and the Orma-Jean children's wear shop. Info is hard to find on the Orma-Jean company, but it was run by a woman in her early 20s, Jean Steel, who in January of 1947 was found guilty, along with a male friend, of smashing the windows of the electric railway waiting station near Britannia. Strange story! By mid-1947, Orma-Jean was out of 1250, and Hasley had moved back in for two more years.

The 1950s saw a series of different businesses occupy 1250 Wellington: Lyell Blackell Ltd., a dry cleaners (1949-1954), Modern Shoe Re-Builders (1955-1956), West End Paint Shop (1957-1958), Capital Watch Repair (1958-1959), and Invisible Menders (1959-1960). 

Ottawa Journal - September 12, 1949 

Ottawa Journal - July 5, 1957

Ottawa Citizen - May 6, 1960

Here is a photo of how the building storefront looked when Invisible Menders opened in July of 1959:

1250 Wellington in July of 1959

In late 1960 or early 1961, Alex Rollin a barber opened his barber shop (aka "The Alex Barber Shop") at 1250 Wellington and he would become a mainstay here until 1973. Unfortunately I couldn't find too much on the barber shop, but Alex's 2006 obituary was really well-written, and included a photo which may help long-time neighbours remember him:

March 31, 2006

In 1976, Garv Towell and Ted Vallee opened the "House of Nostalgia" here, which sold vintage movie posters, comic books and records. 

Ottawa Citizen - February 5, 1977

It was later called "Nostalgia Records" in 1979, but had closed by late 1980.

In 1981, Aston's Antiques opened here for barely a year, then Capital City Cards opened in 1982 (they would soon relocate to Second Avenue in the Glebe, where I was a regular customer as a kid in the late 1980s - I did not know they were originally so close by on Wellington. How handy that would have been!). They were certainly ahead of the curve of sports cards, which took off with a major boom in the late 1980s. By 1984, the unit was "Missing Parts", a jewelry shop. 

A few other store names I could find over the years included "March Craft" in 1995 and The Garlic Gourmet in 1999. Nectar Fine Teas arrived in 2004 and remained in business until 2018.  Between 2007-2009, Nectar expanded and took over the east portion of the building as well, at 1248 Wellington.

The East Commercial Half (1248 Wellington Street West)

When the building opened, this space was vacant for some time, but for a brief period, a business called the "Elmdale Bakery" opened here for less than year in the 1928-1929 time frame. No details can be found on the bakery, other than a classified ad listing a Hubbard oven and store fixtures for sale in August of 1929. (It was likely a Hubbard Portable Oven, a Canadian invention that was popular in bakeries in the early 20th century). 

Other than this bakery, it seems this half of the building sat vacant for most of the first 4-5 years of its life. It was advertised for rent throughout 1931 at $32 per month rent, but seemingly had no takers for a long time. Not too surprising, mid-depression.

In 1932, Armand Cloutier opened what he called the "Novel Book Store", which sold books and stationery. Cloutier's would have a Wellington Street West presence for the next almost 50 years, best remembered for operating his business in what is now the Bagel Shop building, which they occupied from 1945-1980.

In 1936, Parker's dry cleaners opened a branch of their growing chain at 1248 Wellington. They would remain here about three years.

Ottawa Citizen - February 29, 1936

The unit would then sit vacant for several years through part of WWII, until Dorothy Hasley moved her millinery business next door to the larger storefront from 1943 to 1947 (when she would move back upstairs to 1250 Wellington). 

In 1947, Philip's Smoke Shop (named for the owner, Philip DioGuardi) opened at 1248, which was a barber shop and tobacco store that would be the mainstay in this location for over 50 years. It was still operating by 1998 and I think even a few years afterwards.

The building had been purchased in April of 1946 under the name of Sarah Dicola and Laura DioGuardi (sister and wife of Philip DioGuardi) for $17,000 (in 1958 it would be purchased by Laura and Philip outright). 

Philip spent his childhood in central New York State, the son of Italian immigrants who had arrived at Ellis Island in 1902. A family quarrel in 1912 when Philip was only 7 saw his father murdered by his father's brother-in-law, which may have prompted the family to move north to Ottawa, which they did apparently in 1915. They located in Hintonburg soon after, and Philip briefly opened the West End Fruit Market at 1093 Wellington around 1932-1933. 

Philip's Smoke Shop was a landmark on Wellington West, and I can still remember going in myself as a kid in the 1988-1990 time frame, as they were one of the few places in the neighbourhood which sold packs of bubblegum hockey and baseball cards. I took many a bike ride up to Philip's from Gilchrist Avenue, with my couple dollars to buy a few packs of cards. I can still recall the fine smell of cigars and tobacco as soon as you walked inside, the fancy wooden display cases, and the kindly gentleman who ran the shop (it wasn't Philip unfortunately, he had passed away in 1985).

Back in 1971, the DioGuardis sold the building to Subaru Ltd. for $60,000, and it was Subaru Ltd. who still owned the building in 2021 when it was sold. I'm not sure if Subaru Ltd. is the Japanese car manufacturer that oddly would have purchased this building in Ottawa, or was just a registered company name the DioGuardi family used in 1971. It seems like the latter is more plausible, especially as Philip's would stay around another 30 years and the DioGuardi family was still involved with the building until 2022. But I'm not sure.

Philip's Smoke Shop operated until around 1998, possibly as long as 2002 when the unit was advertised as available for lease. I'm not sure who came in after, but around 2007-2009, Nectar Fine Teas expanded from 1250 Wellington, increasing their floor space to include 1248. They occupied this space until 2018. 

When Nectar left, the law offices of DioGuardi law moved in, occupying both 1250 and 1248 Wellington Street West. Paul and Brigitte DioGuardi were the son and granddaughter of Philip DioGuardi who were (and still are) the co-owners of the firm. 

The Recent Sale

In August of 2021, the building was sold to a company called Wellington Huron Commercial Inc. which is associated with Domicile Developments, for the sale price of $1.8M. 

The DioGuardi firm moved to 1505 Laperriere Avenue not long after the sale of the building. 

As the various units were vacated over the next year or so, Wellington Huron Commercial Inc. went through the various development applications for their proposed renovation, which is now underway. You can see a few current photos taken last week (just before the snow arrived), as well as images of the final planned building. 

When I walked by the site last week, I asked someone on the site if there was plans to re-use all of the brick that had been removed from the side and back of the building, and he said no, but that they've kept a large pile to fill in some spots and help transition to the new, but similar brick to be used in the final product. But it does appear that the original brick on the front of the building, and at the southwest corner, will remain. Which is great news! I'm excited to see the project progress over the winter!

Construction progress - December 3, 2024
(photo by Dave Allston)

Construction progress - December 3, 2024
(photo by Dave Allston)

Construction progress - December 3, 2024
(photo by Dave Allston)

Drawing of planned final build
(Fotenn Planning Rationale & Design Brief - May 2022)

Drawing of planned final build
(Fotenn Planning Rationale & Design Brief - May 2022)

I hope you enjoyed this detailed history of this important and historic Wellington Village building!