555 Somerset West, Centretown, Ottawa

This delightful Victwardian hotchpotch would make a great Hallowe'en advent calendar — an assignation here, a bathtub electrocution there ... this may not be San Francisco, but it always reminds me of Armistead Maupin's, "Tales of the City" if only for its spirit of place.

City Directories date the house to some time between 1901 and 1909. In the latter year, the address was that of Henry Smith, contractor. #555 replaced a previous corner-lot house that had faced onto Bay Street. We see that original on the 1888 Goad Plan, variously numbered 324 or 344, built c. 1887.