A Shoebox on Albert

 There's something to be said for taking pictures with a "real" camera instead of one's cellie, including the fact that people treat you differently when you wield an actual model, even a small one. A car actually stopped in the middle of traffic so as not to drive through my shot while I took the above. The Sony DSC RX 100 (2012) may be slender enough to slip into a jacket pocket, but it boasts 20 megapixels on a full 1" sensor, delivering resolution i'd never get from my iPhone. You know the drill — click on the image to check out the fine details.

The Copeland building was completed in the summer of 1950. The little blue shoebox to its right (our left) was apparently squeezed into place circa 1990 — a full thirty years later. It was home to a series of Indian restaurants beginning with the Mahal and ending with the India Palace which, sadly, didn't survive the pandemic.

Announcing the Copeland back in the day, the Ottawa Journal, August 3 1950 — the POV faces east from the corner of Albert and Kent. The blue arrows point to the alley where the Mahal Restaurant would eventually be built.

The construction blocks mentioned in the ad were of course provided by Harry Hayley, Ottawa's cinder-block king. The ad below appeared the same year the Copeland was built.