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!"