Saturday, February 27, 2021
closed on Bank
Friday, February 26, 2021
a brutalist bodega
Sunday, February 21, 2021
the sculpted landscape
Saturday, February 20, 2021
mining the Gatineau Hills, an introduction
"The same geology that makes Gatineau Park a stunning panorama, from the Eardley Escarpment to the rolling landscape of the Meech Creek Valley, also made the area attractive to miners in the 19th and early 20th centuries. There is a certain romance in mines named "Eva" or "Pink," and their ruins and tailings can be spotted underneath the dense underbrush which has, for the most part, reclaimed them. The names recall some of the earliest landowners and entrepreneurs: Forsythe, Baldwin, Lawless, Pink, Morris, Headley, Eva, Fortin-Gravelle, Laurentide, Wallingford, Cliff, Fleury, Chaput-Payne and McCloskey..."
Graham then describes the mining of mica, iron, and molybdenum in the area. Read his full article here.
(photo of the Pink's Lake mica mine via Capital Gems)
Hurdman Park
Just south of the Queensway, bounded by the Rideau River and Riverside Drive, lies a swath of former farmland that has never been otherwise developed. Curiously, we owe the existence of this now-lovely park to the fact that for some three decades following WWII, the acreage was a dumpsite — literally — first for Ottawa's garbage, then for our snow, and finally as a landfill, possibly associated with the excavation of the Lees Avenue rapid transit station on the opposite bank of the Rideau.
Such landfill dumping was created an artificial hill which appeared circa 1982[?]. I'm standing on top of it. The myriad herringbone ski-tracks confirm that we're indeed looking down a slope. In the background we see the only buildings of significance in Hurdman Park, the Hurdman rapid transit bus station (early '80s) and behind it, the elevated tracks of the Hurdman LRT station, completed in 2019.
(D. Chouinard, iPhone 11 Pro)
the Jack Layton building
279 Laurier West (at Bank) was originally built as the A. A. Fournier Department Store, which opened for business on Monday, January 20 1919. Fournier had previously operated an outlet on the north side of Wellington, east of Lyon.
(D. Chouinard, iPhone 11 Pro)
"The Modern Fournier Store of Today"
(Ottawa Journal, June 2 1923)
a Golden Triangle curiosity
This set of four condominiums at 74 Somerset West was placed on the market in January of 1977. The building resembles nothing else in the neighbourhood — like a toaster in a cornfield. The lot was originally the site of a pre-1890, 2½-storey brick home.
semi-detatched in Tanglewood
Sometimes referred to as Tanglewood-Hillsdale, this Minto development is bounded by Merivale and Hunt Club Roads, Woodroffe Avenue and the CN Beechburg rail corridor. It was built between 1968 and the mid-1980s.
(Ottawa Journal, November 1970)
the last sunset of 2020
Constitution Square, Albert at Slater, west (side) elevation. This spectacular three-tower structure was completed in stages between 1986 and 2007.
Cardinal and Rothwell
The land that would become the post-war subdivisions of Cardinal Heights (red) and Rothwell Heights (green) is depicted by H. Belden in his map of Gloucester Township, 1879.