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| 258 Argyle Avenue, east of Bank Street |
This is how one glues a brutalist concrete cuboid onto the side of a century-old baronial-style church. The method calls to mind a golem wearing a jumper with bunnies printed on it — incongruous but actually quite likeable. Prominent front and angled corner balconies, applied to a two-stage facade soften the street-side impact. Stone (or is that "stone"?) cladding and verdigris accents play Zelig to the Centretown United Church, originally Stewarton Presbyterian, a thin slice of which can be seen along the right hand edge of my photo. The rooftop forest is, of course, the sweet green icing on the cake.
The morning sun cuts across this Google Street View image of the corner of Argyle and Bank. From the street, Centretown United Church seems a good deal larger than #258 — here we can see that the two buildings are a fairly even match for size. If a lion and a tiger got in a fight, who do
you think would win?
Remarkably, the lot at #258 seems to have had no permanent building on it prior to the present apartment block, built some time during the 1990s (per aerial photos). The crane looming in the background is associated with the construction of the
"SoBa" condominium tower (Brad J. Lamb Realty). The SoBa ("south on Bank") is going up on an interesting piece of "lost" Ottawa real estate...
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| Goad, reprinted 1912 — I've indicated the position of 258 Argyle in red type. |
Here, Goad shows us the extensive Scrim greenhouses, across Catherine Street street from the bustling Grand Trunk rail-yard / linear industrial park what-have-you, now the Queensway. Charles Scrim lived at 240 Argyle, just to the right of the "AV" in Avenue. His widow was listed at that address in the 1923 City Directory. The house now serves as the Embassy of Afghanistan. The business was passed down to an employee and continues to operate from it
present location on Elgin Street.
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| The Ottawa Journal, March 1907 |
