London Arms is falling down, with some help

151 Metcalfe at Gloucester, winter 2017-'18 — Morguard's "Performance Court", background right

I don't know much about about architectural photography but I do know that there's a point beyond which rectifying your verticals makes a building look more like Joan Crawford than Joan Crawford and I'd rather not go there, so I just lined up the near corner of my subject and let everything else fall into place. BTW I must say I'm very happy with the results I'm getting from the little TG-4 I bought late last summer when I was still blind — great RAW from such a small sensor. I thought 16 millipiggles crammed onto a half-inch chip would be asking for trouble but that's me, a worry-wart to the end. As always, click the pic to embiggen.

The four-storey, forty-eight unit* London Arms Apartments at 151 Metcalfe Street first availed themselves for rent on October 1, 1938. Originally christened the "Midtown Apartments" then quickly renamed (more cachet, less mediocrity?), the building featured an "automatic elevator" — which means no-one had to hire an operator. This is interesting because it helps firm up the demarcation between a walk-up and something taller as somewhere between the third and fourth floor. Ottawa housing historian Chris Ryan put together an excellent article about the London Arms back in the summer of 2014 and I strongly urge you to read it here.

Of course, I'm not here to duplicate Mr. Ryan's work, but simply to say "Oh look, they've boarded up the London Arms, WTF?" According to Google Street View this was done at least as far back as last summer but I only noticed a few weeks ago. At any rate, it spells the end of an era.

A screen-grab from Google shows 151 Metcalfe surrounded by taller and newer (mostly office) buildings. Twin side light-wells give the building an H-shaped profile — you can see the top of the elevator on the front half. Oh go shoot a rock video already.

*     *     *

The first permanent building of note on the site was the Racquet Court which opened circa 1880 and, name notwithstanding, served for decades as a dance academy. I know I would have shot a rock video there. It was demolished after a series of fires. Grant House and the First Baptist Church (do check out the masonry) are the only 19th Century buildings left on the block.

The owner of the then "Midtown" published a full-page advertorial some three weeks before opening his building to rentals. From the Saturday, September 10 1938 issue of The Ottawa Journal...

To those who desire modern comfort and convenience combined with delightful surroundings and easy access to churches, stores, theatres and railway transportation "The Midtown Apartments" on Metcalfe street, at Gloucester, offers an opportunity well worth investigating [...]

The article, largely if not entirely the work of developer J. Harold Shenkman continues, extolling the charm of the building's "spaciousness, light and warmth" and a rooftop garden that "blends harmoniously with the foliage of nearby trees" before the latter succumbed to Dutch elm disease and the Place Bell building. Honorable mention goes to a "hospitably" wide main doorway / entrance hall featuring Terazzo-with-a-capital-T floors and indirect lighting. It goes without saying that the "suites of 2, 3, and 4 rooms" were as modern as tomorrow in every way possible, but the copy spares no pain or expense to say just that, loud and proud. One of the charmingly dated (this was before TV of course) features was the "long and short wave aerial connections for radio". Also, scientifically designed kitchens (to reduce walking to a minimum, viz Cheaper by the Dozen). Oh, and built-in bookshelves, again pre-TV — well it was either read, knit, or actually look at each other.

#151 is presently owned by Morguard, who erected the rear-adjacent "Performance Court" tower at #150 Elgin (which partly engulfs the old Grant House, home to the Beckta Restaurant at the time of writing). While a City of Ottawa notice on the front of the London Arms acknowledges the owner's application to demolish, heaps of what looks like old floorboards in the light-wells and behind the building suggest that Morguard has already taken the building beyond the point of no return. Documents relating to assessment and demolition may be viewed here.

Perhaps tellingly, someone, it may have been two summers ago, started to clean the exterior brickwork, then was told not to bother. Hence the large, vitiligous splotch visible in my photo.

* 4x floor-numbered apartments (n00-n11) = 4 x 12 = 48. Robert Smythe give 49 — there is/was also an "apartment #1" per City Directories, perhaps set aside for a superintendent. Take your pick.

post script...

 ... for the amusement of my friend and research associate Kay-El. This ad appeared (with several others) alongside The Journal's September 10 article. Harry Hayley specialized in concrete cinder block as an alternative to poured-on-site concrete. He operated from a plant at the corner of "Hurdman's" Road and Lees Avenue, now the city yard at 29 Hurdman — you know, right next to where the old abattoir used to be.

Hayley is locally known for his basement-less "Hayley houses" or "Chestnut Street flat-tops" that were built immediately after WWII in Old Ottawa East. It will be fun to see how durable his blocks really are when the London Arms comes tumbling down. I look forward to the demolition if only to see how the blocks were integrated into the construction.