172 O'Connor — O'Connor House, formerly The Rothesay

O'Connor House, formerly the Rothesay Apartments

I do like to get a clean shot when I take pictures of buildings. Then again, today's mess will be tomorrow's historical detail. I was surprised to learn that #172 is over 100 years old but I shouldn't have been — the limestone foundation pushes its date back to the first decade and a half of the 20th century. Goad (sheet 38, block 233) drew it as a fait accompli in his 1912 "reprint" maps.

The all-brick, three-storey Rothesay Apartments had a nearly-square footprint and an idiosyncratic rear light-well that penetrated to the heart of the building in a three-segmented curve. The adjacent houses at 168 O'Connor and 137 Nepean still stand. The stables were operated by a Mr. James Kennedy. Horses, as you can see below, have been replaced by cars and a gas station, the latter recently taken over by Andalos Shawarma.

Might didn't list the Rothesay in 1909. His 1913 Directory (presumably based on 1912 data) mentioned it by name but without tenants. 1914 did list tenants, so I'm guessing at a construction year of 1912. I'm unsure at what point it was renamed "O'Connor House".

This Google Street View screenshot confirms that O'Connor House is indeed the former Rothesay — the peculiar light-well is identical the one in Goad's drawing. The building is now occupied by Cornerstone Housing for Women. CCTV and window-bars guard the perimeter and the light-well, which I would have loved to explore, has been fenced off.

You can make out the little front-gabled one-time-house next door at #168. It's been a convenience store for as long as I can remember — wasn't it Heck's Confectionery back in the day?

Heck's, from Google Street View, April 2015

 The above photo is Street View's last record of 168 O'Connor operating as Heck's Confectionery. By May of 2016 it was empty, awaiting a new tenant. From a June 1976 Ottawa Journal article by Colleen Anderson Kong...

"...Heck's, 168 O'Connor St., ... owned since 1953 by former tailor Harry Hecht from Rumania*, who married an Ottawa girl, sells 150 papers a day, twice that on weekends, as well as all the popular magazines. "My customers, from cabinet ministers to street sweepers, are all my friends," declares Mr. Hecht. "A heck of a good store," giggled a lady customer..."

I've already mentioned "Dow" and his work for The Journal — here's his illustration for Ms. Anderson Kong's piece, an appreciation of downtown news-vendors...

"Read all about it!" — "Newsy" drawing by Dow, June 1976

Both Goad and Woodburn show the house that would eventually become Heck's back in 1888, making it at least 130 years old — not too shabby for a tiny wooden building.

*No "sic" here, "Rumania" was accepted spelling back in the day.