NEWSLETIFE1980 Vol

MARCHNEWSLETIFE1980 Vol . 8, No . 2 John Leaning, President RJennifer Roddick, Editor Julian Smith, Artist ISSN 0708-0506 HERITAGE OTTAWA MEETING COMMITTEE VOLUNTEER NEEDED Architect Barry Padolsky will give a The Cartier Square Advisory Committee is technical talk and tour of the Billings seeking help from Heritage Ottawa in the Estate, April 10th at 7 :30 p .m . form of a volunteer to attend their weekly meetings on Thursdays from 5-7 Due to the rather limited on-ground p .m . If any of our members would be parking available and because parking on interested in helping this worthwhile the streets is also limited we ask that cause by donating some of their time and you not bring your cars, if at all energy please contact the Committee possible . offices at 232-3482 . HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF THE GATINEAU SCHOOLHOUSE RENOVATIONS The 9th Annual Essay Contest sponsored by Planned renovations to the Fraser the Historical Society of the Gatineau is Schoolhouse are under discussion with underway . Your submission of 3,000 words, the National Capital Commission, owners in English or French, pertaining to the of the building . history of the Gatineau Valley (places, people, events) must reach Sheila Strang, Remodelling will enable tenants to make Secretary-Treasurer (Old Chelsea, Qu6bec better use of the limited space JOX 2NO) on or before 15 September 1980 . available . Winners will share over $1,000 in prize money and may be published in the newsletter "Up the Gatineau" . EXHIBITION CONTINUES The exhibition of photographs by John Flanders continues at the Fraser Schoolhouse Gallery, 62 John Street . Entitled "Rural Architecture in the Ottawa Valley" the collection of National Film Board photographs depicts historically interesting homes and farms in the valley . ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Heritage Ottawa's Annual General Meeting and election of board members will be held May 27th . Time and location will be announced in the April Newsletter . Please phone in your nominations for the election to Anne MacDonald at 563-1324 or 563-3592 . as part of the Merchants Bank, one THE RIDEAU CLUB WALL of the many financial institutions lining Wellington Street and Strolling along Wellington environs, making it a centre of Street I stopped to watch the high finance and solid, Victorian clean1up operations on the site architecture . Plans for the 1911 of the ruins of the Rideau Club expansion were drawn up by H .C . which burnt down on October 24, Stone, an Ottawa architect, and 1979 .1 Musing on the loss of that among the many changes made, the impressive and historic external protuberances of the two building, not only to the bank buildings were removed and a wellington Street vista but to terracotta veneer was applied . (An our cultural landscape, my eyes ingenious trick to meet a crisis . travelled across the heaps of Didn't you think the Rideau Club the yellow-helmeted rubble,,past was constructed of stone blocks? workers and over the noisy Not so . Due to a shortage of bulldozer until they came to stone, the architect decided to rest on a massive brick substitute terracotta, fashioned structure at the' back of the to resemble stone blocks, rather .lAs my eyes and mind site than to wait for the real thing .) focussed, I realized that it was The wall in question "looked into" the back wall of the Rideau meeting rooms still being used by Club . It seemed that it was Club members at the time of the the wrecker's being spared fire . ball . Why, I wondered . To stand alreminder to Ottawans and as Looking at the wall and the Molson our visitors of the. fine old Building from Metcalfe Street, it building that once graced that can be seen that the cornices site? To contribute to our sense which top the columns on the right historical continuity as of side of the Molson Building appear embodied in the buildings in the to have been sheared off . This was Parliament Hill area and the another of H .C . Stone's government's plans for its i modifications . The Italianate future? style of the Merchant's Bank was identical to that of the Molson Ienquiry from the Department Upon Building with a dominant cornice . I that of Public Works learned His new design for the enlarged the wall still stands for a more Rideau Club building was simpler, Since it adjoins mundane reason . in the Classical style, so he took Molson Bank the side wall'of the off the extra elements on the the wall Building next door, if Merchants Bank which had been go, the Bank might werelto contiguous with the cornices on wall was collapse . In fact, the the Molson Bank, leaving the damaged by the fire which latter looking somewhat the Rideau Club, so destroyed unfinished . much so that the Bank's threatened ; stability was From Wellington Street the outline apparently even the floors might of a bricked-in arched door can if the wall had have fallen away be seen high up on the wall . at the same time been demolished This door opened up to a the Rideau as the remains of connecting passageway between Department of Public Club . The the Rideau Club and the Molson Works has "tied" the wall to the Building which led, in turn, to Bank Building with steel an elevator . Thus it appears the rods whose square retaining Club at one time could be against heads can be seen flush reached by entering the Molson from Wellington theibricks Building on Metcalfe Street, Street . I riding up in the elevator and crossing through the connecting What is the story of the wall? passageway into its quiet The~Rideau Club Building was elegance . an amalgamation of three structures . The Merchants Bank on Just an old brick wall, you Metcalfe Street and the Ontario might say, what does it mean? Bank on the corner of Metcalfe and But its presence in the heart of Wellington were both constructed Ottawa started me off on a train about 1878 . The third building, of thought leading to further west along Wellington consideration of the "good old Street was built in 1911 when it. days" at the turn of the Century was, decided to expand the Rideau in this lumber town . Ottawa was Club premises, hitherto housed on a flourishing industrial city, the second floor of the Ontario the centre of the lumbering Bank . The wall, then, started out industry of Eastern Ontario . Wilfred Laurier was Prime BOARD MEMBER PROFILE Minister and the Chateau Judy Burns Laurier, the Langevin Block and other stately buildings were After many years of volunteer appearing on Ottawa's streets . work in the community, Judy Women wore bustles and Burns feels she can now devote leg-of-mutton sleeves ; men wore more time to the preservation of wing collars and waistcoats (a Ottawa's past . Although born and gold watch chain looped from one raised in Montreal, Judy's roots pocket to another across are in the Ottawa Valley : her expansive "corporations") ; motor father came from Centretown and cars were coming into vogue, the her mother's family helped ages of flight and of motion settle Chelsea, Quebec . Her pictures were beginning . Members marriage to John Burns connected of the Rideau Club sat in seats her to another set of Ottawa of power -- political, economic, roots, the Stewarts, who came to social . Think of the political the area at the time of Colonel rhetoric, the high-powered By . Apart from John, Judy's financial discussions, family consists of two far-reaching decisions and daughters, Barbara and Pamela, perhaps even a few discreet and two grandsons . double crosses which that wall has been privy to! No doubt An Ottawa resident for 34 years, certain aspects of our lives, Judy has been active in her even today, are affected by neighbourhood (Manor Park), her events that occurred in the Church (St . Columba's) and such rarefied atmosphere of the organizations as the May Court Rideau Club. Club of Ottawa and the Children's Aid Society . She The wall, and other witnesses to served on the Board of Directors the history of Ottawa serve to of both these organizations for remind us that yesterday is with many years ; she conducted a us today, that continuity exists feasibility study on a volunteer between the present and the program for the CAS and her past, that we do not live in recommendations were later isolation from history but we implemented . are what our history makes us . A real sense of satisfaction comes The preservation of Ottawa's from looking at this remnant of heritage buildings and the our past and musing on the tales exploration of this City's it could tell . But we should history have fascinated Judy for hurry if we want to have a look years . Her concept of heritage at the wall and soak in its extends beyond the preservation meaning . of old buildings, however . The protections of our most basic Although plans are tentative as heritage - Nature has also been yet, the wall's future may be in her concern : she helped organize jeopardy . Because it is in such the first pollution committee in bad condition and cannot support the Perth area where the Burns the Molson Building the wall may have a summer cottage . have to be replaced . The NCC, in its role as caretaker of the Personal heritage is equally capital, plans to replace the important, as evidenced by her wall with another which would collection of antiques, most of hopefully add to the them inherited, which she has attractiveness of the new plaza enhanced with her own quilting planned for the ex-Rideau Club and needlepoint .

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