Here are some Sparks Street then-and-now quickies.
The middle of three Romanesque Revival buildings on Sparks between Bank and O'Connor was hastily converted into a Nickelodeon movie theatre. In fact I think that this was 'The Nickle' The owners simply tore off the storefront, added some bracing and built a box office in behind.
In the 1920s it was remodelled in black glass tiles and chrome trim as Dover's Sporting Goods and Hardware. A 1990s restoration by PWGSC re-instated an historic-looking shop front.
Lindsay's Furniture store at 187 Sparks Street was home of the bargain three-piece suite and layaways. It was evicted in 1960 when the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company announced that the three buildings would be needed for their head office's expansion.
When the size of the Met Life addition was scaled back, the buildings were spared and eventually restored by Public Works. It appears to be kept empty as swing space for the huge Met Life/Wellington Building's gut rehab happening next door.
The Centre (later the Mall) Theatre had a narrow storefront entrance on Sparks. A ramp took you to the auditorium, which reached through to Queen. This is one of the 1967 permanent Mall fountains. For a brief period in the 170s the Murphy Gamble Department store operated as a small Simpsons.
The facade of the commercial row (known as the Sims Building for the furrier who did business here) awaits a restaurant as part of the ReHotel project.
I recycle this shot a lot, but it's a usefully encyclopedic mid-block mid-century view of Sparks Street.
Sandwiched between the Ottawa Hydro Electric Building and the Royal Bank/90 Sparks Street/D'Arcy McGee Building is the Imperial Bank of Canada (1936, possibly Darling and Pearson), an art moderne building clad in a warm honey-coloured stone. Anyone know what kind it is?
It was merged with the Canadian Bank of Commerce in the early 1960s to become a CIBC branch, but closed shortly after that. It has finally found a new use as a stamp store and its restrained 1930s interior can once again be visited.
Next door was a row of commercial Italianate buildings from the 1870s and 80s. The second floor bay window above Laura Secord and Read's was added much later.
66 Sparks Street had been built for John Murphy & Co. Dry Goods.
To the west was the Ahearn and Soper Building. They were the founders of the Ottawa Electric Railway Company, and were the first store to market electric stoves in Ottawa.
The buildings were eventually incorporated into R. Devlin's, a fancy goods department store. At the corner of Sparks and Metcalfe, the Hotel Windsor was a holdover from Sparks Streets' Confederation era stone buildings.
It was demolished in the summer of 1960 (the year of the first temporary Sparks Street mall)for a new Royal Bank of Canada main branch, an opulently finished modernist building that lasted barely 20 years.
Here are some Sparks Street then-and-now quickies.
The middle of three Romanesque Revival buildings on Sparks between Bank and O'Connor was hastily converted into a Nickelodeon movie theatre. In fact I think that this was 'The Nickle' The owners simply tore off the storefront, added some bracing and built a box office in behind.
In the 1920s it was remodelled in black glass tiles and chrome trim as Dover's Sporting Goods and Hardware. A 1990s restoration by PWGSC re-instated an historic-looking shop front.
Lindsay's Furniture store at 187 Sparks Street was home of the bargain three-piece suite and layaways. It was evicted in 1960 when the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company announced that the three buildings would be needed for their head office's expansion.
When the size of the Met Life addition was scaled back, the buildings were spared and eventually restored by Public Works. It appears to be kept empty as swing space for the huge Met Life/Wellington Building's gut rehab happening next door.
The Centre (later the Mall) Theatre had a narrow storefront entrance on Sparks. A ramp took you to the auditorium, which reached through to Queen. This is one of the 1967 permanent Mall fountains. For a brief period in the 170s the Murphy Gamble Department store operated as a small Simpsons.
The facade of the commercial row (known as the Sims Building for the furrier who did business here) awaits a restaurant as part of the ReHotel project.
I recycle this shot a lot, but it's a usefully encyclopedic mid-block mid-century view of Sparks Street.
Sandwiched between the Ottawa Hydro Electric Building and the Royal Bank/90 Sparks Street/D'Arcy McGee Building is the Imperial Bank of Canada (1936, possibly Darling and Pearson), an art moderne building clad in a warm honey-coloured stone. Anyone know what kind it is?
It was merged with the Canadian Bank of Commerce in the early 1960s to become a CIBC branch, but closed shortly after that. It has finally found a new use as a stamp store and its restrained 1930s interior can once again be visited.
Next door was a row of commercial Italianate buildings from the 1870s and 80s. The second floor bay window above Laura Secord and Read's was added much later.
66 Sparks Street had been built for John Murphy & Co. Dry Goods.
To the west was the Ahearn and Soper Building. They were the founders of the Ottawa Electric Railway Company, and were the first store to market electric stoves in Ottawa.
The buildings were eventually incorporated into R. Devlin's, a fancy goods department store. At the corner of Sparks and Metcalfe, the Hotel Windsor was a holdover from Sparks Streets' Confederation era stone buildings.
It was demolished in the summer of 1960 (the year of the first temporary Sparks Street mall)for a new Royal Bank of Canada main branch, an opulently finished modernist building that lasted barely 20 years. 
To answer your question, the facade of 62 Sparks is ochre-coloured sandstone on a base of polished black granite.
ReplyDeleteIf you have any pictures of the Windsor Hotel could yu post some??Im trying to get more history on this building- supposedly there was a fire there but in what year??
ReplyDelete