Men's Coats, coming and going at Rea's

The late, great "Daly Building" was originally built to house the Thomas Lindsay Department Store, opening as such in June 1905. In 1909, Lindsay sold the building to the Rea brothers of Toronto. "Rea's" would have been open for less than a year when these ads ran, the first from November 15 '09, the second from a mere seven weeks later. Clearly, the Rea's understood the importance of moving inventory.

Business smarts notwithstanding, the Reas eventually overextended themselves and the store passed to one H.J. Daly in 1918, hence the name it would carry for the decades to follow. For a detailed history of the building, see the Historical Society of Ottawa's excellent article here.

The undated photo shows Rea's in its heyday, note the car, the streetcar and the cyclist, along with several horse-drawn carriages. I'm intrigued by the plume of smoke on the horizon — perhaps one of the now-abandoned quarries on St. Laurent Blvd., Lang's Rd. or Montreal Rd.?

The Daly Building was vacated by 1978 and demolished over 1991-'92.