Our Sensitive Clay

A recent article in the Ottawa Citizen reminds us of the hazards of building on what was once the bottom of the Champlain Sea. "Leda" clay, which covers much of the city's core, can liquify almost instantly in conditions of moisture and vibration.

"Ottawa’s notoriously unstable soil conditions have long challenged architects and builders and they may again be behind setbacks for at least one south-end construction project [this one?]. While digging into Ottawa’s soil has become a lot more predictable as emerging research maps where exactly the soft soil is and how it may respond to building weight, architects and engineers say it still presents challenges ..."

The image above is a detail from a 1982 Geological Survey map of soil types in the Ottawa area. Pink indicates sedimentary rock (shale, limestone etc.) at or near the surface. Green shows "ice age" glacial till while yellow and orange denote sand and sandy soil. Blue areas are covered in clay.

We can see that almost all of the downtown core between Bank and Elgin has been built on Leda clay, likewise much of the Golden Triangle, Sandy Hill, Old Ottawa East, the Glebe and Old Ottawa South.

I took this photo of 121 MacDonald (built c. 1900, Golden Triangle) in April of 2006. The 2½-storey wooden house sat atop a limestone foundation which, over the decades, sank unevenly into the clay soil, like a ship listing sadly to port. It was demolished shortly thereafter and replaced by a house with a lower centre of gravity.

we brake for Men's Fashion

Freiman's before the Bay, Rideau Street Ottawa — March 1927, the Ottawa Journal.

408 Bank Street, Centretown Ottawa

J.Y. Caldwell's adverisment for a building on the NW corner of Blank and Florence appeared in the Ottawa Citizen in mid-March 1912. It wasn't a new building — Directory listings suggest it was built c. 1895. The ground floor had been home to one of Thomas Birkett's Hardware Stores. A successful businessman, Birkett would briefly serve as Ottawa's mayor (1891) before becoming the MP for Ottawa City (1900-1904.)

Curiously, the building stood next to a vacant lot of equal width (on its north side) which remained so for much their shared lifetimes, while the storefronts hosted various small businesses over the years.That lifetime ended suddenly in the early hours of March 23 2005 — Milano City Pizza was occupying the ground floor at the time — an explosion and fire destroyed the entire building. The now twin vacant lots would sit empty for the next 19 years, until the construction of a new block began in 2024.

The clipping and image reporting on the fire are both from the Ottawa Citizen, published March 24 2005.

Construction begins at 408 Bank (Street View 2024), the proposed design appears in an architect's rendering. Directly to the north, the James House condo tower nears completion. Who remembers the James Street Feed Company?

1 Frank Street, Golden Triangle, Ottawa

#1 Frank was built some time between 1916 and 1923 (per the Directories), a stone's throw from the Federal (now Queen Elizabeth) Driveway. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the property been part of the Bronson & Weston lumber yard. 

Designed as a side-gabled 1½-storey build, the house featured Craftsman/Prairie styling, though its modest lot-size precluded the sort of spread one might associate with those styles. The roof boasted an ample shed dormer and was finished with asphalt shingles. Street View and aerial images confirm that the roof was tilted upward (front and back) c. 2020 to create a full second storey. The deep red roof tiles recall Mission-revival style, also popular when the house was built.

192 Glebe Avenue, the Glebe

This ad appeared in the Ottawa Citizen on March 16, 1912. The address doesn't appear on the Goad plans for that year because so few houses had been built there at the time. Back then, largely unoccupied Glebe Ave was regarded as an eastern extension of Carling Ave, even though it was separated from its western limb by some 600 metres.

Yes, the copy is a bit of a challenge to read — I interpret it as ...

"Containing hall, drawing-room, library, dining room, kitchen, butler's pantry; second floor has sitting room, three bedrooms, separate bath and lavatory; third floor — four bedrooms and bath; hot water heating; complete cellar, hardwood floor in two flats [?], three mantels, oak finish downstair, finely decorated. Lot 50 ft. frontage. For full particulars apply... [etc.]"

This detail from the 1914 Geological Survey map shows the Glebe between Bronson and Bank still largely undeveloped. Indeed, the so-called "Glebe Annex" west of Bronson already boasts much more housing, albeit of a more working-class nature. The red arrows indicate Carling/Glebe Avenue in what might be described as a large and empty field.

More Friendless Women

Another Topley shot, this one thought to be c. 1916. The new Home for Friendless Women opened on September 30 1914, at 37 Turner St. (now 327 Cambridge between Gladstone and Arlington) in the City's south end, on land not previously built upon.

The accompanying article, published in the Ottawa Citizen the following day, raises a few interesting points —

• The Home was forced to move when the Federal Government took over its premises on Wellington, part of the razing of old Upper Town and the eventual creation of a ceremonial route / Parliamentary Precinct?
• That the opening was conducted by the wife of the then-Prime-Minister certainly framed the event as prestigious and implies federal patronage.
• Notice that the residents are referred to as "inmates." And remember that Ontario women didn't get the right to vote until the spring of 1917.
• There is specific mention a "most up-to-date laundry" — were the women still taking in washing? I notice what could be construed as a small loading dock at the side of the building.
• The religious tenor of the opening ceremony is unmistakable and continues in the latter part of the article, not included here. To what degree were these women wards of the church?

The building stands in good repair to this day and is now the Dukes of Cambridge Apartments.

Lady Laura (Bond) Borden and PM Sir Robert Boren, 1912

For more on the Magdalene model of Catholic "charity," do check this out.

Wellington Street, Topley 1891

This April 1891 photo by William James Topley is titled "Home for Friendless Women, 412 Wellington Street, west of Bay Street" — note the late-season snow. #412 is the 2½-storey building with the quoining, two dormers and a light brick finish in the right foreground. 

A "Home for Friendless Women" referred to 19th-century charitable institutions for marginalized women. These historical homes provided shelter to "fallen" women, unwed mothers, and widows, often enforcing strict religious, reformative work, frequently in industrial laundries. 

The sequence of buildings appears on Goad's 188 sheet 43 (detail with updates applied) under the word "Wellington. Topley's position is indicated with a yellow "T" — he faced east. Goad indicates a laundry directly east of 412 where the "friendless" women would have worked. We clearly see the entrance of a passage leading to the rear courtyard just to the right of the utility pole. It appears as "P" on the plan.

Topley's approximate PoV is recreated in the Street View capture. The strip of land is now the NE corner of the Garden of the Provinces at Wellington and Bay.

226 Maclaren Street, Centretown Ottawa

 Built circa 1890, now home to a legal firm, Grant & Dawn. The rear of the PSA HQ on Gilmour (that weird oval building) makes for a nice backdrop.

photo 2025-08-11 iPhone 15 Pro

Splendid Homes for Sale

J.Y. Caldwell, Ottawa Citizen 1908-03-14 p17. In the early decades of the 20th century, companies like Caldwell most often sold both real estate and insurance.

18-20-22 Perkins, LeBreton Flats

These three buildings at the south end of Perkins St. sit at the base of a limestone escarpment locally known as Nanny Goat Hill or Primrose Hill. This lower ground forms the SE edge of LeBreton Flats and was part of lands razed by the Great Fire of April 1900. The cliff in the background acted as a fire-break, protecting Upper Town and Ashburnham from the flames. 

In the background, atop the hill we see part of the former Our Lady of the Rosary Convent at 85 Primrose Avenue East, constructed in 1890.

All three Perkins addresses were built after the fire, the apartment block on the right at #22 being the most recent, constructed c. 2016, replacing a small bungalow.

The 1912 Goad map shows the relative position of Perkins St., Primrose with its convent, and the intervening escarpment. It serves as a testament to how quickly Lebreton Flats was rebuilt after the fire, only to be bulldozed in the 1960s.

59 Springhurst Avenue, Old Ottawa East

Aerial photography and newspaper mentions suggest a build date between 1928 and 1936. As far as I can tell, the entire house (well the front and sides at any rate) are clad in the same faux-stone veneer, comprising one-only mold design, suggestive of a Babylonian hieroglyph, each slab oriented the same way. Neat and orderly, but it kinda kills the verisimilitude.

photo 2025-08-09 iPhone 15 Pro

167 Glenora Street, Old Ottawa East

Built before 1908, a wooden worker's house in the latter 19th century style.

photo 2025-08-17 iPhone 15 Pro

9 Monkland Avenue, the Glebe

The Corlis Keyes house —this Tudor fairy-tale cottage was built in 1928-'29. The stucco conceals a modern cinder-block build while masonry around the front door completes the rustic effect — postcard colour treatment in Photoshop. Mr. Keyes sold some snazzy radios at his shop on Albert and Kent it certainly seems.

photo 2025-08-13 iPhone 15 Pro; clippings 1929-03-15

7 Monkland Avenue, the Glebe

Homebuilding on Monkland Avenue began in 1908; #7 dates to c. 1911, its stark prairie lines look brashly modern more than a century later. Goad 1912 shows it as brick-veneer on wood. The house was built for Frank R. Burgess of whom the City Directory writes "eng chf Hydro br Dept Naval Service." 

my photo 2025-08-13 iPhone 15 Pro; clipping, Ottawa Citizen 1912-03-16 p36

Sandstone

Ottawa was raised upon Limestone. That Limestone was built on a foundation of Sandstone, as featured on pages 122 and 123 of The Golden Nature Guide to Rocks and Minerals, P.R. Shaffer and Herbert S. Zim, before any of you were born.

50 Years of Harry Hayley's Concrete Blocks

Clipping from the Ottawa Citizen, August 31 1954 — during the first half of the 20th century, Harry Hayley was Ottawa's #1 manufacturer of concrete "cinder" blocks.

The 1958 aerial shows the Hayley plant at Hurdman and Lees (yellow), overlooking the Rideau River — we see the Queensway being built. Three labeled bridges have since been dismantled; the original Hurdman Bridge (H) and the CNoR and CAR rail bridges. The Lees Avenue abattoir sits directly north of the Hayley property. 

The Hayley acreage is now a municipal yard, sitting SE of what has of late become the rather fashionable Robinson Avenue enclave, see here for example.

 

More Small House Designs

CMHC designs, 1949 ... "One in a series of booklets containing attractive house plans designed by Canadian architects for Canadian requirements, SMALL HOUSE DESIGNS — 1½-STOREY has been published to provide prospective home-owners with suggestions for new homes in the form of standard plans and designs."

8 Monkland Avenue, the Glebe

The address first appears in the 1915 City Directory, listed as "vacant," then as occupied by Inez W. (Whelen) Shepard the following year. Given that there is no Mr. or Mrs. Shepard (of that spelling) in the '15 Directory, the clipping from the Ottawa Journal, February 2 1916 may be relevant.

photo 2025-08-13, iPhone 15 Pro

 

On to Archville; then and more recently

Archville, the northern-most portion of "Old" Ottawa East, was named for Archibald Stewart, the son of Bytown businessman, politician and landowner William Stewart. The 1895 wintertime scene was likely taken by James Ballantyne, who set up his tripod in the middle of Main Street, just south of the tracks of J.R. Booth's Canada Atlantic Railway (C.A.R.), pointing his camera north into the heart of the subdivision.

The 2016 Street View capture includes the shadow of the Queensway overpass. This part of the highway was built (mid-1960s) along the old railway right-of-way. The Queensway is wider than the old tracks and sits on a berm that further broadens its footprint.

An edit of Goad's 1912 sheet 159 puts what we're seeing into context. The yellow "B" just south of the tracks marks where Ballantyne set up his camera. Everything looks further away in the modern view because Street View cameras use relatively short focal-length ("wide angle") lenses. Note that the C.A.R. tracks were sold to the Grand Trunk Railway in 1904, hence the label.

The blue bar to Ballantyne's left approximates the width of the berm carrying the Queensway into Ottawa's core. Note how the construction of this earthwork obliterated Wildwood Avenue to the east of Main, along with a row of five businesses.

The red arrows above the word "Harvey" point to a wooden 2½-storey building, 43-45 Main, labeled "Meat" — a butcher's shop. We see the same building in the 1895 photo, its wood siding barely discernible if one views the large image and squints. A brick veneer was added later. The building stands to this day and currently houses "The Emporium" furniture store.

173 Drummond Street, Spenceville, Old Ottawa East

 A long, narrow house on a long, narrow lot, the Directories suggest that  #173 was built within the same 1901-1908 time-frame as many of its neighbours, yet our photo shows something of a later vintage.

While Goad 1912 shows a small wooden worker's cottage set well back from the road, this  structure, easily twice as large as the original, embraces bungalow styling and sits on a comically high concrete foundation. A newspaper want-ad from July 1931 gives us an idea of the rebuild date.

photo August 2025; iPhone 15 Pro.

Entrance Bay, then and more recently

Entrance Bay at the foot of the Ottawa Locks, looking west up the Ottawa River. We see timber rafts floating downstream with Pine/ Lone Pine (now Hull) Island to the right. This golden evening view was painted at Major's Hill Park, some time in the mid-1800s by the  Rev. Edmund Willoughby Sewell (1800-1890.)

177 Drummond Street, Old Ottawa East

Likely early-1930s construction; photo August 2025, iPhone 15 Pro.

Spenceville, Old Ottawa East

The plan of the subdivision of Spenceville, registered in December 1888 — the Spenceville section of Old Ottawa East (then simply "Ottawa East") was in fact the eastern end what we now call "the Glebe,"  part of Nepean Township, surveyed before the construction of the Rideau Canal. Named for the Reverend Alexander Spence, sales and development of these lots continued into the early 20th century.

Diagonal ground features were carved into the area's clay soil by the last dregs of water retreating from what was once the Champlain Sea, flowing toward the Ottawa River.

See "A History of Ottawa East."

183 Drummond Street, Spenceville OOE

A lovely old Spenceville gambrel (one of the few actually), built in the 19-aughts, likely first occupant "Ward Chas J, clerk supt's office Ry M S" [Mail Service?] per the 1908 Directory. Listed vacant the following year then a birth notice, the Bernard Gillis Jrs., April 1910.

photo 2025-08-05, iPhone 15 Pro

157 Drummond Street, Spenceville, Old Ottawa East

This building sits on lot 157 Drummond but includes the addresses 43 and 45 Herridge, It was apparently purpose built as a grocery store with living quarters, some time between 1901 and 1908. The owner (as of the latter date) was François-Xavier (FX) Leclerc. Goad shows the building in 1912 (sheet 161) coloured blue indicating stone or concrete construction, marked "concrete blocks" and "gro." for groceries. A lane with a stable originally looped around the back, but that part of the property was eventually sold for infill.

photo 2025-08-05, iPhone 15 Pro