219 Bank Street

Please excuse the snow, that's the kind of winter it's been. This lovely-but-neglected 3-storey commercial building on Bank Street was completed in the summer of 1910. I took my photo not quite 103 years later, on a lunchtime grocery-run.

Here's an image of Bank Street between Nepean and Lisgar Streets in the earliest days of its development. Charles Goad (or one of his draughtsmen) drew this plan (Ottawa, Volume 1, sheet 38 detail, edited) circa 1878, when Bank had not yet emerged as a commercial thoroughfare. Red arrows indicate #219, then a humble single-storey wooden house, set among a scattering of such houses on a dirt road leading south to Billings Bridge and the farmlands beyond. Goad's 1878 drawings of the city core don't extend any farther south than Lisgar because there was little if anything south of Lisgar to draw.

Ten years later, Goad would depict a different house at #219, again made of wood, this time rising a full 1½ storeys. Notice how it was set at an angle to Bank Street. Perhaps someone wanted to make the most of the early afternoon sun. The built rows on the west side of Bank, drawn on darker paper, are edits to the original plan, added (pasted on) some time after 1888.

The address was the site of a newsworth kitchen fire in 1902 (Ottawa Citizen, March 4.)

St. Luke's Hospital, where Mrs. Marchand was treated, was located on Elgin Street at the present site of St. Luke's Park, between Frank and Gladstone.

The present structure was completed in the summer of 1910 (July most likely) as the Empire Theatre, indicated as "moving pictures" on Goad's 1912 plan below. At the time here was a minor brouhaha regarding the legality of a canopy overhanging the sidewalk. Minor details. We mustn't confuse the Empire with the Imperial Theatre (imperialism coming and going) farther south on Bank. The Imperial would eventually become Barrymore's Music Hall. 

Notice that the cinema is shown to be of brick construction (pink), rising to three storeys (as it does to this day.) "Reading roofing" seems to have been a style of roof-finish popular at the time, likely bitumen-based.

I find no mention of the first movie shown at the Empire. In those earliest years, the theatre's newspaper listings simply read "moving pictures" — which was more than enough to draw a crowd. It could well have been something like this.

Remember, 1910 was still in the "silent era" — people (over)-acted with their faces!

On Sundays, the Empire served as a temporary home for the First Congregational Church, pending the completion of their building at Florence and Kent (extant.) Sunday movie showings did not become legal in Ottawa until January 1963, so parishioners pretty much had the theatre to themselves for the day. 

The Empire Theatre closed some time in the late winter / early spring of 1918. Projectors and ticket machines were put up for sale in March, and this ad appeared in the Ottawa Journal the following month...

"For Sale — SEVERAL HUNDRED opera chairs at $1.00 each. Apply Empire Theatre 219 Bank St. Thursday morning." *

Once the opera chairs had been cleared out, 219 Bank became a dance hall. The space (three floors, remember) also hosted a restaurant. Private halls were rented out — notably to labour and socialist groups. The first ad below is from February 1919, while the "Elegant" placement touts New Year's Eve dining on December 31 1920.

In September of 1925, the "Dansant" stepped aside and a furniture store moved in.

As this September 8 ad indicates, Stewart & Co. were vacating a Rideau Street address (59-61), directly west of A. J. Freiman's. That location is now the west end of the Bay store on the north side of the street.

Owner John Stewart died in the fall of 1934. On March 6 the following spring, 219 Bank was the one-day venue for a lavish Stewart estate auction. Oh, to have a time machine ...

Here's an interesting ad that appeared in the Ottawa Journal on Saturday, May 27 1944. The "dream house" depicted was the subject of a war effort "victory" raffle (shares $1.00 each) sponsored by Ottawa's Rotary Club (chapter established 1916.) The cozy-looking house at 12 Madawaska Drive still stands, easily recognised.

The ad was evidently placed by Stewart & Co. — the copy deals almost exclusively with the home's furnishings. I won't pretend to know what "feather crotch mahogany of the Master bedroom suite" is supposed to be, but it surely hearkens back to the days when furniture was made from actual wood, from actual trees.

If I seem to be drifting away from the subject of 219 Bank, well, I'm not. The above ad, from the latter days of WWII, is one of, if not the last newspaper mention of Stewart & Co. citing the Bank Street address. For that matter, it's one of the last mentions of Stewart Furniture, period.

Small ads citing 219 Bank between 1945 and early 1970 are in keeping with those one would expect from a more modest furniture and appliance store — a gas range here, a driver wanted there. Remembering that the OPL is open again, I dropped by for a peek at the Ottawa City Directories and found this from 1949 ...

Looks about right.

The building was listed for sale (C. A. Fitzsimmons, realtor) in August of 1969. In August 1970, want ads seeking a "saleslady for a new store" appeared in the dailies. Peacock Imports opened the following month.

And when someone said "sheepskin" in 1970,  just remember — Keith Richards was ahead of that curve.

Continuing in a furry vein, Peacock was replaced by M. Caplan Furs in May 1982.

If the 1910 opening of the Empire Theatre was part of Bank Street's emergence as a prestigious business address, one might cite M. Caplan's tenure as the beginning of its end.  The "category 4" recession of 1990-1992 forced many Ottawa merchants to tighten their belts and downsize their business models. Bank Street was transitioning toward the "funky," "down-market" strip (I'm frantically trying not to offend anyone here) that we know well today. Consider this article from the Ottawa Citizen, November 28 1990.

This ad appeared in January 1991 — nota bene — "Everything we own is for sale ... even the real estate."

We hear very little about 219 Bank until the summer of 1992. Here's some copy from an ad that ran in July of that year.

"Maggies! The New Designer Store

Our new owners have bought out the assets of one of North America's finest Designer Companies at unbelievably low prices, with major savings to our customers. Thousands of quality name brand items at unbeatable prices.

We have two convenient locations to serve you — 190 Colonnade Road South / 219 Bank Street

Nobody beats Maggies! In clothes!"

Here's an ad that ran one month later. Note the proliferation of stores!

By October, Maggie's had opened an 8th Ottawa area outlet.

Of course, heavy storms don't last. By March 1995, 219 Bank would be up for rent again. Its next tenant was Grace Ottawa, a groceteria-sized "ethnic" (mostly Asian) food store occupying the entire first floor. I won't pretend to have done much buying there, but it was enlightening to see fresh turmeric roots for the first time, and I was sorely tempted to buy a jar of pickled gouramis, you know, just because.

June 1996 — Grace Ottawa International Food takes its place among the many businesses participating in the 1996 Bank Street Promenade Sidewalk sale! Don't squint! View the image full-sized!

Some time between May 2016 and August 2017 (per Google Street View), Grace Ottawa shut down and was replaced by The Value Hunter's Corner and Picture Works Framing, a rag-tag jumble of consignment goods, almost-antiques, random framed prints, bad art, and kitschy doodads (see actual doodad from Value Hunter's window below, summer 2022.)

Well, it's now early spring, 2023. Value Hunter closed at some point over the past winter. Someone has boarded the windows (including the broken ones on the second and third floor) and slapped on a a quick, much-needed coat of paint. We can only wonder what "someone" has planned for the old girl.

(Hint — see the next post.)

*My research assistant, Kay-El, raises the question of whether the closure of the Empire Theatre was causally related to the Great ("Spanish") Influenza Pandemic of 1918.