Dedicated to Preserving Our Built Heritage Spring 2012 Volume 39, No. 2 Missing heritage plaque returns home to the “Hollywood Parade” By William R. Price City of Ottawa Heritage Planner, Lesley Collins, taking hanks to the sharp eyes of delivery from Heritage Ottawa of the missing heritage plaque. T Jean-Marc Moreau, an employee of the Montreal recycling firm Arté, a French plaque were mounted on designated City of Ottawa heritage plaque missing buildings). We expressed our gratitude from the heritage-designated for their remarkable efforts to return the “Hollywood Parade” row houses on plaque and we agreed to deliver it to James Street, has found its way back the City of Ottawa Heritage Planners to where it belongs. Jean-Marc recognized arrange for its re-installation alongside the plaque as not being a normal piece of the English plaque still mounted to the illiam R. Price scrap bronze and retrieved it for further wall of the “Hollywood Parade”. examination. He phoned his friend and Later that day, we dropped off the plaque Photos: W Ottawa resident, Mario Larochelle, to help find to Lesley Collins, Heritage Planner, who gratefully where in Ottawa the plaque had come from and accepted it on behalf of the City and promised that how it could be returned to its proper location. it would be cleaned and re-installed as soon as Their quick search on the internet turned up possible. Later that day Lesley phoned Heritage Heritage Ottawa’s name in an article on the Ottawa to advise that both Jean-Marc Moreau in “Hollywood Parade” and they reasonably assumed Montreal and Mario Larochelle in Ottawa will be that the plaque may have been installed by receiving a personal letter from City of Ottawa Heritage Ottawa. Mario Mayor Jim Watson praising called Heritage Ottawa them for their high and left a message standard of citizenship. asking if we would Note to owners of take possession of the heritage-designated plaque. Needless to say, buildings – please inform we drove right over Heritage Services at the to meet with Mario City of Ottawa if your and hear the story of its plaque is missing so that discovery in Montreal and they can take appropriate return to Ottawa. It was action. in fact a City of Ottawa French heritage plaque William R. Price is a member and Secretary of the Board of (in earlier years, a “Hollywood Parade”, designed and built in 1892 on James Street Heritage Ottawa. separate English and by James Corry. 1 Gordon Cullingham Research and A New Heritage Ally – IODE Publication Grant Awarded to Andrew Elliott Laurentian Chapter By Janet Uren On Heritage Day, February 21 2012, assisted by members of the Glebe Heritage Ottawa President Community Association n June 8 and 9, when an historic house tour walking tours in Leslie Maitland presented the Heritage Committee including of Sandy Hill opens doors to a fascinating old Ottawa – focusing Gordon Cullingham Research Lynn Armstrong, a specialist in O and Publication Grant to Glebe landscape architecture. Lynn neighbourhood, heritage in Ottawa will gain a new ally. on the exterior resident and heritage advocate Armstrong’s research will focus It’s a marriage made in heaven – heritage and of houses only – Andrew Elliott for his research on the creation of the landscaped one of Ottawa's oldest charitable organizations. The was a sign, proposal on built heritage in the boulevards of Clemow and Laurentian Chapter of the IODE, producer for over surely, that a Glebe. Andrew Elliott is an archivist Monkland Avenues, the design half a century of an annual House & Garden Tour, heritage-themed Photo: Bill Price and has just completed a secondment and building of the Rideau Canal house tour would at the Canadian Register of Historic Driveway (now Queen Elizabeth Drive) is something of a heritage asset in itself. find a ready Photos: Jan Soetermans Places at Parks Canada. He is a and the Patterson Creek Parks This branch of a national women’s service Janet Irwin, the widow of the late Gordon Cullingham, market in frequent contributor on heritage (including Central Park east group was created 106 years ago and has deep Leslie Maitland, President of Heritage Ottawa, Ottawa. Besserer House, the oldest house in Sandy issues for the Glebe Report and the Andrew Elliott, Lynn Armstrong. and west of Bank Street) by the roots in Old Ottawa. Even today, Laurentian’s Hill, built by Louis-Théodore Besserer in the Peterborough Examiner. Ottawa Improvement membership includes descendants of such Ottawa The introduction mid-19th century, seen here with historic Commission in the early 1900s. Heritage Ottawa is plaques in view. The Gordon Cullingham Research and Publication luminaries as lumber baron John Rudolphus Booth. of heritage as a Grant is named in honour of the late Gordon Cullingham, confident that the information gathered will be a major theme for the contribution to knowledge of the built heritage of this Laurentian is the oldest of five Ottawa chapters journalist, broadcaster, editor and heritage activist. The anniversary year in 2011 was accompanied by important and unique part of the City. of the IODE. In 1910, Laurentian donated $17,000 to grant program was created by Heritage Ottawa in 2008 another significant change – neighbourhood focus. build and furnish a tuberculosis sanatorium (later the and supports work on all aspects of the preservation of This research will contribute to a detailed under- For the 50th tour, Laurentian opted to join forces Ottawa’s built heritage, such as architectural history, standing of the homes, their owners and residents, Royal Ottawa Hospital). Recently, when the hospital with the New Edinburgh Community Alliance biography, material and technological history, heritage their architects and architectural styles and of the was rebuilt, the chapter contributed the same amount (NECA) and, instead of recruiting properties citywide, conservation, cultural landscape and heritage planning. history of property development in this important (this time, it was only enough to furnish a single to focus the tour on a single old village on the Grants can be awarded to assist research on an appropriate section of Ottawa. Mr. Elliott hopes to involve owners room). The group’s mandate is to raise funds that go topic or to contribute to the publication of a book in the research, and in doing so, will try to build a eastern banks of the Rideau River. The chapter to education and community service. In 2012, funds or article. sense of pride and interest in protecting the Glebe’s presented the houses, as always, while the community from the House & Garden Tour will go mainly to Andrew Elliott’s proposal involves research and heritage streetscapes, parks and landscapes for future provided walking tours and lemonade stands. generations. Nelson House, a shelter for abused women. house histories for some of the 135 buildings along the The one-day tour was a success. Participation In 1961, Laurentian organized the city’s very former ceremonial route designed by the Ottawa An example of the results of Andrew Elliott’s grew by a modest 20 percent, but the response of Improvement Commission in the early 20th century research was recently published in the Glebe Report: first house tour. There are a number of such tours the ticket-holders to the new format was warmly which crossed the Glebe along Monkland and Clemow http://www.glebereport.ca/Issues/2012/APRIL_2012_ today, but Laurentian's is the oldest at 50 years Avenues between the Canal and Bronson Avenue. The GR_LOW_RES.pdf page 10 and counting. As the chapter's central fund-raising work will be undertaken by Andrew Elliott who will be event, the tour has allowed Laurentian to provide over half a million dollars in support to various Leslie Maitland Heather Perrault individuals and institutions in the past 30 years President Webmaster alone – everything from wheelchairs for the David B. Flemming Directors: disabled to books for Aboriginal school children. Past-President Jay Baltz, Richard Belliveau, In the lead-up to its 50th anniversary of the tour, David Jeanes Katherine Charbonneau, Heritage Ottawa is a non-profit organization dedicated to Vice-President Operations Laurentian took a long, hard look at its event and the preservation of Ottawa’s built heritage. Ken Elder, Ian Ferguson, Brigid Phillips Janssen sought a relevant theme and a new alliance to help Linda Hoad, Nancy Oakley, Linda Hoad Heritage Ottawa Vice-President Programs focus the celebratory tour and attract a new Katherine Spencer-Ross, Editor 2 Daly Avenue Willam R. Price audience. One of the members stood up and pointed Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6E2 Carolyn Quinn. Jan Soetermans Secretary to the long history of the chapter in Ottawa. Why Graphic Designer Tel: 613-230-8841 David Ivison Heritage Ottawa acknowledges the not build on that strength, she asked, by allying Fax: 613-564-4428 Tina & Company Treasurer financial support of the City of Email: [email protected] Laurentian with the heritage community in its Printing (vacant) Ottawa and the Ontario Ministry Web: www.heritageottawa.org Legal Consultant of Culture struggle to build awareness of precious heritage Besserer House, from the street front view. Notice the sloping stone assets in the city. The popularity of heritage-themed wall along King Edward Avenue. 2 3 approving. Cars – those useful but intrusive machines on the tour, including Besserer House (Sandy Hill’s David Jeanes, Vice-President of Heritage Ottawa, in years to come, Heritage Ottawa will find itself that have transformed the streets of Ottawa in the oldest surviving house), Wallis House (the 1873 will be presenting an illustrated talk on architect with a new ally in the struggle to preserve built past century – were parked early, and people took Protestant Hospital, now renovated as luxury James Mather at the newly restored St.