15-17-19-21 Hawthorne Avenue, Old Ottawa East

Likely built after 1901, the 1908 City Directory shows all four units occupied.

This 1958 aerial shows 15-thru-21 in context, coloured in blue, on the north side of Hawthorne, on what we could call the "Ballantyne block." The J.&T. Ballantyne coal bins (originally coal and lumber) sit to the north of the 4-row on either side of the CN tracks, facing Echo Drive. #3-5 from the previous post pops in green. 

The block is dominated by Ballantyne Park, seen here with a diagonal footpath cutting across it from Hawthorne to Main Street, as such paths inevitably do. This park had previously been the homestead of James Ballantyne, whose not-ostentatious late Victorian 2½-storey house faced onto Main. Less than a decade after his photo was taken, the Queensway would replace the train tracks — the coal bins were removed (heating oil was fast usurping domestic coal by then so hey) and the northern part of the park (red) was sadly buried under Ottawa's very own cross-town freeway.

The yellow building at the NE corner of Hawthorne and Echo (221 of the latter) served as a drugstore for much of the early 20th century. Starting in the '70s it became home to a series of tres hip cafés, most notably Café Pigeon Bleu (Ray Desforges) and The Black Cat (1st incarnation, Max Roux and Richard Urquhart)* — the kinds of place where you could lose a fortune at Backgammon or order a pot brownie with your cappuchino — if you knew (or were) the secret password.

*Richard, I assume, is a vampire.

I only see him at night and he doesn't age.

221 Echo Drive, lately the Gray Jay, now dark 

— at the time of writing the building is still up for rent.