The Artefact on Argyle, south Centretown, Ottawa

 As advertised at an Elgin Street bus stop —

A Work in Progress nears completion,

both images late July 2026

I'm guessing "Artefact" to be a playful quip on the fact that this 12-storey rental block sits across from the Museum of Nature. See an announcement from not quite two years ago here and the rental portal here.

And remember, when you see the words "boutique" and "luxury" in promotional copy, get ready to fork out.

606 O'Connor Street, the Glebe, Ottawa

This post-war rental walkup is very much of the style one sees dotted here and there throughout the city, wherever developers were able to find property parcels. Six units are arranged bilaterally around a front-facing, windowed stairwell. This example, finished in sand-coloured brick, sits at the SW corner of 4th Avenue and O'Connor. Ads first appeared in the summer of 1958 — the block replaced a 1½-storey wooden house facing onto 4th Avenue, built in the latter 1890s.

While this configuration was (as best I can tell) originally meant to face the street (as we see above) ideally overlooking at least a token spread of lawn-space, builders often found themselves forced to make the best of long, narrow domestic lots as they became available. Thus we find buildings arranged like this —

— the plan has been rotated by 90° and the building wedged in sideways. aesthetics be damned. This block at 185 Frank was completed in the summer of 1951. If it looks cramped, that's because it was built on what had been a service lane / parking area behind the Kenniston Apartments (on Elgin.)

#185's twin, 200 Waverley (per the ad above, now numbered 196) was built the previous year, at the north end of the same laneway.

105 Strathcona Avenue, the Glebe, Ottawa

A relatively late construction in the Bloomingvale neighborhood on the north edge of the Glebe, #105 is (per Goad 1912) one of the few solid brick builds on its block.

The house is described as "vacant" in the 1908 City Directory, but is listed as the home of Emerson R. Fisher in the 1909 edition. Of that resident, the latter volume describes Mr. Fisher's occupation as "clothing, 134 Sparks St." Any true Ottawan will immediately recognize the address as that of E.R. Fisher, clothier, est. 1905.

Back to School Collegiate Styles for Young Men,

the Ottawa Citizen 1908-09-22

Post Script — 

On researching the Fisher family business, I found this article about the company's current president, Sonia Fisher, great-grand-daughter of the above-mentioned Emerson R. Do take a few moments to read Natalya Anderson's interview/account of how "the third generation member of the family that founded E.R. Fisher menswear ... went from her own career direction to buying the firm."

11 Clemow Avenue, the Glebe, Ottawa

 A lovely house, built for Ottawa mayor Charles Hopewell in the Craftsman style, 1912-1913, W.E. Noffke architect.

Researching this house and the neighbouring mini-castle (poking into the left side of the frame) is a bit tricky because of early address changes. Goad 1912 depicts the building as #71, under construction. Both homes are first listed in the 1913 directory as being directly west of newly-built Colbalt Avenue, thus — 

We see the Hopewell house at #7 and Brownlee's castle at #11. "At some point" between then and now, those numbers became 11 and 15, respectively.

Brownlee, incidentally, was into building and contracting. His medieval pile (architect unknown) was erected a year or less after Hopewell's dwelling was completed.

48 Fourth Avenue, the Glebe, Ottawa

 Very much like the houses we've been looking at of late, though if Goad is to be trusted, his 1912 plan indicates that this is an all brick build on a street otherwise dominated by brick veneer houses. Again, constructed between 1901 and 1908 for Allan H. Edwards, a partner in the Edwards & Latham Co., machinists, at 137 Second Avenue just east of Bank. The shop occupied the eastern half of a long, 2-storey building that still stands, presently the home of Avalon Studios and Eye Love Beauty.

87 Fourth Avenue, the Glebe, Ottawa

This is one of the very first houses built on Fourth Avenue. The 1893-'94 directory tells us that Fourth was not yet built on, while the '95-'96 lists a meagre handful of homes, including that of Samuel Brouse, a carpenter, at #87.

Goad 1912 show the property thus (highlighted yellow.)

Note the small brick-veneered 2½-storey front section, with a narrower 1½-storey wooden midsection reaching back to a shed and a stable, the whole arrangement creating somewhat of a courtyard. Aerial photos show that the midsection has been renovated over the years while the shed and stable are long gone, making room for a cozy back garden.

 

86 Fourth Avenue, the Glebe, Ottawa

#86 Fourth is a bit older and larger than our preceding subjects, built c. 1887-'88 and first occupied by one James Skead. Now before you go jumping up and down all over the furniture, this was not THE James Skead, lumber baron and brother to Robert. No, this was James Skead, civil servant.

This 1908 directory entry lists James Sr., statistical clerk and (presumably) his son, James Jr., at the time a bank teller. I expect the younger James lived in the house from the get-go, but was only listed when he reached age of majority. That he found work as bank teller indicates that he was, at the very least, decently-educated.

83 Fourth Avenue, the Glebe, Ottawa

A house very much in the style of the preceding — again, built in the 1901-1908 timeframe.

I often make a point of removing a lot of the clutter from my photos (wires, garbage bins, cars) especially if I'm editing them to black & white, hopefully to emphasize building design and to get a better idea of what a house looked like when it was first built. This time I decided to forgo the cleanup and show how the building has survived into the 21st century (that said, I did remove parts of three cars from this image.)

#83 was first occupied (rented? owned? sadly I have no idea) by one William Morris who, the 1908 Might Directory tells us, worked as "trav." or traveller. A bit of digging reveals that the term indeed denotes a travelling salesman. I make no apologies for quoting Google AI directly.

In Canadian city directories from the early 1900s, the abbreviation trav. stands for a commercial traveller, which was the historical term for a traveling salesman or wholesale agent. These workers did not travel for leisure; rather, they traveled by train, horse, or buggy to visit rural general stores, independent merchants, and regional businesses to pitch goods, display physical product samples, and write wholesale orders on behalf of big-city manufacturing and importing firms.

#83 appears on Goad's 1912 sheet 149 as a small building, as least as narrow as its narrowest neighbours, and with a square footprint rather than a long or deep one. Aerial photos show that it was extended backward twice, once in the 1960s or '70s and again c. 2015, affording it roughly three times the area the of original design.

45 Fourth Avenue, the Glebe, Ottawa

 Another 2½-storey brick-veneered ("BV") on wood, very much in the style of so many homes in this part of the Glebe. It was built in the first decade of the 20th century in what seems to have been a clean, tidy, middle-class neighbourhood from the outset. The house was first occupied by Robert J. Brown, a teacher at the Percy Street Public School. 

That school stood on the NE corner of Percy and Gilmour — Robert Smythe has written a history of the school and its Centretown surroundings that you can read here.

The school burned down in April 1979 — arson was suspected.

The Ottawa Journal, 1979-04-17

77 Fourth Avenue, the Glebe, Ottawa

#77 was built some time between 1901 and 1908, first occupied by "Yonson Thomas, trav"per the 1908 City Directory, which explains the abbreviation as meaning "traveller," which is what I would have guessed, though it raises more questions than it answers.

50 Fourth Avenue, the Glebe

 Built some time between 1901 and 1908 per the City Directories, the house was first occupied by one Joseph Lamoureux.

Lamoureux as he is listed in the 1908 Might Directory — while he lived in the Glebe, we note the preponderance of French Canadians with addresses in Lower Town. The scan has captured some unusually clean typesetting artifacts, as on "Wks" in Joseph's entry as well as on "Phydime" — a lovely name now seldom encountered.

another (former) theatre

... this one in the Glebe at the NW corner of Bank Street and Second Avenue.

Construction on the Avalon Theatre began in April 1928. Aerial photos from that summer show an indecipherable mess of textures, which I take to be construction, on what was previously a vacant lot (per Goad 1912.) Note the pert little deco-style parapet-crest above what was the main entrance. The Avalon was later renamed the Glebe Theatre and later still it became a car dealership — now it's the home of Home Hardware, one of the few decently sized and stocked hardware stores in the downtown vicinity.

the Ottawa Citizen, 1928-11-16

We learn that Feleena's Mexican Canteena occupies what was originally the theatre's offices and ticket  booth. The tone of the grand-opening announcement reminds there was a time when anything that had anything to do with Hollywood was seen as impossibly glamorous.

That opening feature, "Dress Parade," was released in 1927. Which is to say that back then, Canada wasn't always screening Tinseltown's latest offerings — sometimes we had to wait our turn. The plot of this silent title was basically blond, clean-shaven hunk (former boxer) joins the military and gets the girl — think "Top Gun" without the jets, and a Wurlitzer organ instead of Berlin.

Standing on the Corner (II)

 ... of Bank and Gladstone where once again, we veer off on a tangent.

I don't have the photographer's name but the consensus seems to be that the shot was taken in the summer of 1911. A mailman with a horse-drawn buggy is retrieving mail from a drop-box. Behind him a streetcar passes by — we can see the steel tracks embedded in the pavement and the trolley-pole reaching up to the catenary wires strung above. Behind the horse a car drives by, a blur of speed. Notice the sign for a Chinese laundry, "Wing Lee," above the horse's back. Behind the streetcar rise the distinctively arched 2nd floor windows of 425-427 Bank. The building still stands, presently home to "Fauna," a restaurant that, going by its name, probably serves animals.*

Here's is Goad's depiction of the intersection from pretty much the same time the photo was taken — it's a detail from his 1912 reprint, sheet 66.

The yellow arrows indicate roughly where the photographer stood and their direction of gaze. We can see a druggist's on the NW corner of the intersection and the Chinese Laundry on the E side of Bank. On the W side, an alley still runs behind the buildings facing onto Bank between Florence and Gladstone. The small "Post Office" sign on the side of the druggist's building tells us that the idea of tucking a post office in the rear of a drugstore is not a new one.

Here are the City Directory listings for the Florence/Frank to Gladstone block — the E side ...

... and the W.

I've found another photo of the intersection from roughly the same angle, taken we are told, in 1940. The photographer is again unknown, the image somewhat blurry. The bare tree suggests either spring or fall, so half-a-year to a year after the start of WWII. We still find a druggist's at the NW corner, though now the proprietor looks to be one A.R. Barnes. 

Of course we can't pretend not to have noticed "Rialto Theatre" (the Rathole, for those old enough to remember), painted on the side of the building directly behind the streetcar turning onto Gladstone. A bit of time-lining is called for, starting with a jump back to Goad's 1912, when the NE corner of Bank and Frank hosted four houses, the two facing onto Bank being wooden and minuscule (highlighted blue.) The northern half of this lot would shortly become the site of a movie theatre, occasioning the demolition to the two wooden homes.

The Rialto wasn't always the Rialto. It opened as the Clarey on October 12 1914 — this article excerpt from the Ottawa Journal, the 24th of that month.

Theatres at this point in time were starting to transition from staging live performances to showing movies and many were designed to accommodate both. The Clarey was named for its owner, former City Controller Thomas Clarey, who within months found himself embroiled in no end of legal brouhaha relating to the theatre and the land on which it stood. At some point, the Clarey stopped showing movies and became a meeting hall for various service and religious organizations.

In the summer of 1918, the Clarey re-opened as the Fern — here is the earliest ad I can find, published on July 31 of that year.

In the Ottawa Journal, September 4 1931, we find a list of building permits issued, including the following — "Polwin and Levinson, alterations and addition to Fern Theatre, Bank Street, $12,000."

The renovated Fern reopened as the Rialto Theatre on Wednesday, December 30 1931. The new name referred to the historic district in Venice, Italy, home to the iconic Rialto Bridge spanning the Grand Canal and the bustling 16th-century Rialto Market.

Others have written about the Rialto's decades-long slide into a sleazy grind-house venue. Search "Rialto rat-hole Ottawa" — you'll get an eyeful.

The Rialto closed in 1979 then reopened as an arthouse theatre, the Phoenix, the following year. The Phoenix closed in 1991 and was demolished shortly thereafter. The footprint remains a parking lot to this day.

* Re the Fauna, sorry, I couldn't help but think of Bette Midler's line from the Janis Joplin quasi-biopic "The Rose." Passing through a small "hick" town, Rose and her entourage stop for lunch at a diner. When a short-order cook tells the group, "We don't serve hippies here," Rose immediately fires back: "Well, that's OK, because we don't eat them neither!"

Standing on the Corner

 ... of Montreal and St Laurent.

"Cities Service Station" — NE corner of Montreal Road and St Laurent Boulevard. No date or photo credit, but def post-war, let's say c. 1955. Auto-coloured in Ps. Wikipedia summarizes the history of Cities Service thus.

Here's an ad that Cities ran in October of 1945, a mere month after the end of WWII — note the war references in the copy (view large.)

By the mid-sixties, this location had become Pip's BP (British Petroleum) Service Station. 

A 1958 aerial shows the photographer's PoV — notice how the frame includes the front office of the Rideau Tourist Court motel (533 Montreal Rd) as well as a few of the individual cabins.

the Ottawa Journal, 1967-02-03

This piece dates from 1967, Canada's Centennial Year, roughly a decade after our top photo was taken. The sun suggests late afternoon. Note the awning and part of a cabin, which also appears in that image. The limestone bluff that was developed as Rockledge Terrace in the mid-'50s, rises in the background.

The Rideau Tourist Court sat next to the Roland Motel (originally Roland's) at #545. Unlike the Rideau with its cabins, the Roland featured rooms joined in a long strip, which was the emerging post-war style. In the summer of 1960, the Roland had an outdoor pool built and that was quite something at the time.

the Ottawa Citizen, 1960-06-24

 

Ermagerd it's Les Lye, that dashing young fellow, dashing here, dashing there ... and who remembers the Roland's "diving lady" neon sign? A local landmark for sure. This postcard view dates roughly to 1970.

The image across the bottom shows the rooms arranged in a strip, with the famous swimming pool to the right. In the background we can see Notre Dame Cemetery as well as the top of the Red Barn Restaurant, which opened in October 1969. This announcement dates from the 24th of that month, as it appeared in the Ottawa Citizen.

"Red Barney" the Clown is thought to have looked something like this.