The #OC150 Awards

December 2017 was also a memorable month for me, as I was very proudly selected as one of the award recipients for the #OC150 Awards "recognizing community members who have contributed Ottawa Centre in one of the following ways: Celebrating diversity/inclusion; Building community/capacity; Protecting the heritage of Ottawa Centre; Protecting the environment; and Promoting a healthy community." This was a special ceremony done as part of the Canada 150 celebrations.

http://www.yasirnaqvi.onmpp.ca/News/14852?l=EN

My sincere thanks to MPP Yasir Naqvi for first of all hosting these awards, and for the exhaustive work I am sure he and his office staff put into making it happen. I am beyond honoured to have been chosen for this award, and after the ceremony in December where I had a chance to meet and learn about many of the 150 winners, I appreciate it even more. I thank Minister Naqvi for including heritage protection in his award criteria, and the acknowledgement to me and the Kitchissippi Museum is sincerely appreciated.

I've been at this blog for over three years now, and enjoy it as much as ever. It is the feedback and the support I receive that really drives me to keep going. There is of course no money in this for me, it is strictly a love of the community and its history that keeps me digging, writing and sharing. I meet a lot of people (through email or in person) who have sincerely appreciated a particular topic or article I've written; that I've helped bring back happy memories of the past for them, or revealed a family story they never knew about. It's these kinds of things that make it all worthwhile, and so for that I am grateful. An award like this is significant to me, and reminds me that my little niche hobby is seemingly contributing to the neighbourhood in a meaningful way. 

Ottawa Magazine and new Hintonburg hot spot 'The Third'

I was pleased to have received a mention in Ottawa Magazine in December, in an article on new Hintonburg restaurant-bar-social spot 'The Third' at 1017 Wellington Street West. If you haven't visited the Third yet (in the location that was recently the Blackpepper Pub) I highly recommend checking it out, as does Ottawa Magazine.

You can read the article here:
https://ottawamagazine.com/eating-and-drinking/city-bites/where-everybody-knows-your-name-the-third-brings-small-town-feel-to-bustling-corner/

The building has a long history, which I wrote about in great detail two years ago in one of my favourite articles I've written, on the topic of Chinese Laundries. You can view that article here: http://kitchissippimuseum.blogspot.ca/2016/01/the-chinese-laundry-long-lost.html

This fall when The Third was renovating towards their grand opening, owners Ashley and John were keen to try to bring a substantial local history flavour into the restaurant, and to really highlight the building's long history as a Chinese hand laundry. In fact at one point they were debating using part of the original "Hintonburgh Hand Laundry" name as part of their new name. They reached out to me about securing some old photographs, advertisements, artifacts, etc., and of course I was more than happy to assist any way I could. So the end result is impressive, and already I have someone every day or two either recommending I go see it, or asking if I had a hand in it :)

The Third at 1017 Wellington Street West
in 1955, as the Hintonburgh Hand Laundry
(City of Ottawa Archives, CA-36115)

Kitchissippi Museum and Gallery 150

I'm a little behind in sharing some of the exciting things I participated in back in December. One of the most interesting was a project that I am really proud to have been a part of. In the summer of 2017, I was approached by the Wellington West BIA about a project they were planning as part of the Canada 150 celebrations. A new permanent outdoor gallery was to be installed along the wall at Wellington Street West and Pinhey Street, along the GT Express. For the opening display, the Kitchissippi Museum was asked to contribute photographs and text about the earliest days of Hintonburg, and some of the events which shaped the community as it is today.

On the chilly morning of Monday November 27th, the grand unveiling was held on Wellington Street, to launch the new gallery. Mayor Jim Watson, MP Catherine McKenna, Councillor Jeff Leiper, and members of the BIA and Hintonburg Community Association were present for the unveiling, along with myself (and my son Emmett!).

Source: http://wellingtonwest.ca/latest-news/gallery-150-brings-history-to-life.htm

The story was covered in several media locations, the Metro Ottawa West News did a great story in particular: https://www.ottawacommunitynews.com/news-story/7966635-outdoor-gallery-shows-off-hintonburg-s-history/

Here is a photo of Emmett helping Mayor Watson pull the ceremonial cord to unveil the Gallery:

The gallery included three huge photos and detailed captions showing a fire insurance plan from 1898 detailing all of the houses in Hintonburg; a photo of the village council from 1897 (from when Hintonburg was independent from Nepean, prior to joining the City of Ottawa); and a photo of the Great Hull-Ottawa Fire of 1900, which was instrumental in the boom of Hintonburg and Mechanicsville soon after, particularly with displaced francophones from Hull and Lebreton Flats.

The gallery will continue to display these photos for the next 6 months or so, at which time the BIA has expressed interest in potentially doing another history display, brought up to the 1920s-1930s. The BIA has also mentioned the idea of doing another gallery at the western end of Wellington West, nearer to Island Park Drive, which would be great!

Here are three photos of the gallery (but obviously, it is much more impressive to see in person!). My thanks to Paul Richer for all of these photos in this post!

 

The Westboro Legacy of Mrs. Shirley Shorter

The article below ran as the cover story for the final Newswest issue of 2017. Mrs. Shirley Shorter was THE original historian for the Westboro area, and it was a true pleasure to speak to her on a number of occasions. Shirley was doing work on local history research and heritage preservation years before anyone else was. Her efforts contributed to several heritage buildings in Westboro being saved. She was also one of the key leaders in the establishment of Newswest itself. The online edition of the article can be found at https://issuu.com/greatrivermedia/docs/kitt_20171207/14, but the full text of the article is reprinted below:

"Shirley Shorter, 1921-2017. Historian, Activist, Citizen"

2017 was a year of celebration and ceremony, with many important anniversaries of historical significance. However, 2017 also will hold importance for the loss of one of Westboro’s most dedicated residents, whose contributions to the community live on today.

Shirley Shorter passed away May 4th at the age of 96. Shirley was an early advocate for history and heritage recognition in an era when it was almost unheard of. She was years ahead of her time in recognizing the value of protecting the character of a neighbourhood, but also the elements of a community which made it so much better. She was instrumental in the establishment of Newswest and for many years gave so much not only to the development of the newspaper, but to Westboro itself.

Born in Ottawa in 1921 as Shirley Geldert, she clearly was never destined to live a quiet, unassuming life. Shirley was involved in acting as a young child, and later became one of Ottawa’s top badminton and tennis players as a teenager, while attending Elmwood School. 

Her father Dr. George McKinley Geldert, an anesthetist at the Civic Hospital, in 1924 converted the dining room of their home at 282 Somerset Street West into a studio for Canada’s first private radio station CKCO (later renamed CKOY, now better known as CIWW, aka 1310News) A transmitter was located inside the living room, and each night, furniture would be moved, radio equipment set up, and broadcasting would begin. Shirley’s family home became a venue for musicians, celebrities, political debates and important newscasts. Mackenzie King made the first Prime Minster broadcast steps from her childhood bedroom. 

Shirley attended Havergal College, and then the University of Toronto, where she continued winning championships on the court, while also achieving her B.A. in 1943. She married her husband Gord, then a Lieutenant with the Royal Canadian Navy, in September of 1944. The couple had three children, Sandy, Gord and Bill. 

While raising her family, Shirley continued to play tennis out of the Rideau Tennis Club, and later became an avid curler out of the Granite Curling Club. She also began a new hobby, antique bottle collecting (milks, sodas, beers, medicines, etc.); a passion she would continue for the remainder of her life. Her collection would eventually become the pinnacle of the Ottawa area.

By the early 1970s, Shirley also turned her attention on community affairs, and became actively involved in the Westboro neighbourhood. She contributed to the Village Voice, then Westboro’s community newspaper which ceased publishing around 1976. 

In 1978, Shirley was part of a group of residents who initiated the return of a much-needed community newspaper. The first issue of Newswest came out in November of 1978, featuring a full-page article written by Shirley on the history of Maplelawn. For more than ten years she would contribute regular heritage columns, profiling the personalities and places of historic Westboro. This was long before the internet or digitized newspapers; Shirley’s research was all done through interviews and personal recollections, capturing the true stories of early Westboro. 

Shirley also contributed the monthly "Neighbourly News" column, with updates and tidbits on the people, shops and sites of the west end. There was seemingly no one better connected during this era than Shirley Shorter.

She established a group known as “Heritage Westboro” which worked with the city on the establishment of the original heritage register, and published a reprint of the 1927 “History of Westboro: The Town of Possibilities” booklet. Most importantly was the protection of Westboro’s threatened historic structures, notably the preservation of the McKellar-Bingham House (then the headquarters of CKOY). It is thanks to the efforts of Shirley and others she helped coordinate that several area heritage buildings still stand today.

Shirley gradually began to focus on different activities over the last 20 years of her life, but she still assisted many an author writing on local history. A trip down memory lane with Shirley was a remarkable experience, and I am thankful that I had the opportunity on several occasions. Shirley was still passionate in her love of Westboro, and her memories still strong right to the end. With gracious thanks to her family, many of her files, notes, interviews and photos were recently passed along to me, and I will be proud to carry on her legacy as best I can. 

Rest in Peace, Mrs. Shirley Shorter, after a life well and thoroughly lived.

The evolution of fire-fighting in Kitchissippi

The new Kitchissippi Times is out today, and inside you'll find two articles that I contributed. The first one is my usual "Early Days" column, and its focus this week is on two important structures that were important to the community for a long time - the Churchill Avenue and Parkdale Avenue fire stations. The article covers the earliest days of fire fighting in the area, and tracks how technology and progress led to changes over time. Long-time residents will likely have memories of both stations, which closed in 1985. The Churchill station is long demolished, but luckily Parkdale was given heritage status in the 90s, and later added to the Canadian Register of Historic Places.


You can read the full article, with several photos here:


https://kitchissippi.com/2017/12/07/the-evolution-of-fire-fighting-in-kitchissippi/

Short-lived Westboro Datsun

I came across this photo today which struck me as interesting, because Datsun really was a company that was popular in the 1970s, and then kind of disappeared in the mid-80s. Nowadays, Datsun has attained cult status, with a loyal fan base who manage to keep a few on the road to catch our eye every once in a while. But for sure it interested me to find out that there was actually a dedicated Datsun dealership in Westboro in the late 1970s!

Westboro Datsun at 225 Richmond Road, circa 1979

So Westboro Datsun was located at the northwest corner of Richmond Road and McRae. It's now the Otto's Subaru tall showroom at the corner. They renovated extensively back around 2006, and I'm pretty sure they completely replaced the entirety of he original building that had been there. However they kept the same footprint (though added the curved corner), so perhaps to get around zoning they had to keep a portion of the original building or something. So it's possible some of the original structure is still there. 

If original structure is still there, it dates back to 1935. That was when the first service station opened in this spot, in the most easterly part of the building, right alongside McRae. It was a Shell Oil station operated by a name likely more familiar to longer-term Westboro residents, Ken Workman. It stayed as Workman's right up until July of 1975. Workman had expanded the building sometime in the early 1950s to the full size it still is today.

Workman sold in 1975 and it appears it passed through a couple of hands. But for one brief and unique period saw it become "Westboro Datsun", during the height of the popularity of the Datsun. It opened as Westboro Datsun in January of 1978. A quick check of some newspapers from 1978-1979 yielded a few interesting old ads for the shop:

Ottawa Journal, January 18, 1978

Ottawa Journal, February 25, 1978

Interestingly, they had their grand opening four months after they opened... plus they had 1,000 steaks on a bun!

Ottawa Journal, May 11, 1978

Ottawa Journal, June 15, 1978

 

Ottawa Journal, September 13, 1978

The Westboro Datsun location was short-lived. It closed at the end of October 1979. In it's place came Westboro Auto Imports, where you could by a Lada, direct from cold war enemy Russia!

Journal, Nov 14, 1979

Westboro Auto Imports was of course operated by Otto Koller, who since 1969 had been running a service station and sales (Canada's first BMW seller) in a separate building on Richmond, but at the Tweedsmuir corner. It appears sometime in the early 1970s, Koller acquired the two old residential houses in between the Tweedsmuir lot and the old Workman's garage, tore them down and built a huge complex out of the whole block. Here is what Richmond looked like in 1963 before the Otto's development (Tweedsmuir at left, McRae at right, north is up):

1963 fire insurance plan of Ottawa

In the late 1980s Otto would change the name of the entire business to simply "Otto's", the name which is still attached today, and managed by his wife Huguette and daughter Sonia. (for more history of Otto's check out their webpage at http://www.bmwottos.ca/en/ottos_story.php)

But for a little less than two years, Westboro Datsun had a brief life that was captured by a random photograph in 1979, and now shared today at the Kitchissippi Museum!

The Richmond Road tollhouse - photo found!

For the past two-plus years, I have been saddened by the realization that the days are numbered for the O'Neil House on Wellington Street West (better known today as Bella's restaurant). This great old house, which dates back to 1896, will be torn down as part of the development of the Mizrahi building. You can read more about its history here, in an article I wrote in 2015: http://kitchissippimuseum.blogspot.ca/2015/11/expanding-on-old-richmond-road.html

That article was a follow-on to my published article in the Kitchissppi Times on the Richmond Road toll house which used to stand next to it for many years:

https://kitchissippi.com/2015/10/16/landmark-building-of-wellington-st/

The Bella's house is significant because it is the last remaining vestige in this area of what Richmond Road originally was (the original road west, the first maintained road, a toll road, a country road line with the impressive estates and villas of some of the area's most esteemed residents of the era). The loss of Bella's marks a true end of that era for Richmond Road/Wellington in the Wellington Village area.

I searched hard in 2015 for a photo of the old toll house to use in my articles, but was unsuccessful. However, within the last few weeks, I acquired an amazing archive of local history photos and documents, and included in it, was a photo from 1911-1912, of the toll house! So I am happy to be able to share that today below. Keep in mind, the toll house would have stood almost at the corner of what is today Island Park Drive.

Richmond Road toll house, circa 1911-1912.
Pictured is toll master Richard Bassett and likely his wife.

Richmond Road continued to operate as a toll road until 1922 (the opposite end of the toll road was in Bells Corners), and the toll house was eventually torn down in 1929 to make way for the gas station that operated in this location for many years.

Here is the 1920 photo of Bella's that I've shared previously. Note there would have been a house in between the toll house and Bella's (which I have yet to find a photo of as well!)

O'Neil House in 1920 (now Bella's) on Wellington West

Always a good feeling to find a much-sought after photo!

Cheers!