The Soviet Line on Gilmour

The Gilmour Inn, 431 Gilmour (November 2013)

This one will just be a quick hit for you this gloomy Sunday afternoon. 

It really doesn’t take a powerful suggestion for me to engage in some research on something. Sometimes it’s just a question that pops into my head when walking by, sometimes it comes from a question that someone asks me, and other times, it could be as innocuous as being followed on Twitter or Instagram. In this case, it was a 70-30 split between the last and the first. The Gilmour Inn followed me on Twitter, I wondered, and I searched. Although I am aware it was not the same for many people, when I was young, one of the most important lessons that I was taught was that an unanswered question is one of the saddest things in the world (*cue violins*). This boundless curiosity has caused me untold amounts of joy, has helped to satisfy the curiosities of others, and has put others to sleep. Of course, if you’re represented in the latter group, you’d probably not be reading this.

The house at 431 Gilmour was constructed around 1895 for Zaccheus J. Fowler, the Chief Engineer for Grand Trunk subsidiary, Midland Railway Company of Canada (and previously of the Indiantown Branch of the Intercolonial Railway in New Brunswick). Though it was originally addressed as 389 Gilmour, the growing city necessitated the renumbering of many blocks throughout the city, this one being no exception.

Extract from Goad's 1888 (1901 revision)
Extract from Goad’s 1888 (1901 revision)

At some point after 1909, the property was sold by Fowler to fellow New Brunswicker, the prolific and Honourable George. E. Foster, who remained resident there for some time. By 1923, the property had been picked up by William Charles Mitchell, the former publisher of the Ottawa Free Press and local property owner (who, at his death, owned the Ottawa Free Press building at Elgin and Queen and the nearby Shorncliffe Apartments, among others). Following his death in 1927, his son Fred and his family took up residence in the home. The couple remained there until the death of his wife Florida in 1941. After than, he sold the home and moved into a hotel on Bank, where he died in 1945.

While I’m unsure of the specific course of events following the sale of the house in 1941, the home was, by 1942 or 1943, converted into to the Canadian headquarters for the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (Russian: Телеграфное агентство Советского Союза), shortened to “TASS” in English. TASS wasn’t itself an intelligence agency. It was just the newswire service agency responsible for the collection of national and international news for Soviet newspapers. Unlike the Canadian Press, Associated Press, or Reuters, it enjoyed a monopoly in that position. It nevertheless was frequently used by the NKVD/KGB and GRU for intelligence-gathering purposes.

Coming soon to Ottawa: a TASS Office. Source, Montreal Gazette, July 25, 1942.
Coming soon to Ottawa: a TASS Office. Source, Montreal Gazette, July 25, 1942.

On July 24, 1942, the Montreal Gazette reported that, much like its New York office, TASS official Nicholas Zhivaynov was poised to open a Canadian headquarters in Ottawa. As this was during World War 2 and the Soviets were allied (albeit with trepidation given the official public ideology), so an office for their wire service probably wasn’t considered much of a threat.

That, of course, all changed with the defection of Soviet cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko. Without recounting the entire event, Gouzenko was working for the Russian foreign service at 14 Range Road. He became concerned when it became clear that the Soviet government was spying on the Canadian, hoping to acquire nuclear secrets from the United States. When Gouzenko first attempted to inform the RCMP and the national media he wasn’t believed. When some “officials” (the NKVD) attempted to pay him an unfriendly visit at his apartment (511 Somerset, Apartment 4) it became clear that his story may have had some merit. It was this event that served as sort of the official kickoff to the Cold War.

1946-02-20-Journal-Spy-Case-Page-9
In February of 1946, news of the espionage exploded in the national media. The picture to the right is 431 Gilmour. The veranda has long since been removed. Source: Ottawa Journal, February 20, 1946.

The resulting Royal Commission to Investigate the Facts Relating to and the Circumstances Surrounding the Communication, by Public Officials and Other Persons in Positions of Trust of Secret and Confidential Information to Agents of a Foreign Power (quite a mouthful, hence it being better known as the Kellock-Taschereau Commission) uncovered what was then very startling information. Leaving most of the specifics of the event to the Cold War historians, the Commission’s findings, which were tabled later in the year, uncovered that Zhivaynov, working out of the TASS office was a central figure in the whole intrigue.

The Kellock-Taschereau Commission's "Cast of Characters".
The Kellock-Taschereau Commission’s “Cast of Characters”.

In spite of the Commission’s findings, the agency remained active in Canada (as it does today), though after it became clear in 1949 that another one of their agents was at least questionable. Subsequently their reporters had to prove clean in order to receive their Press Gallery credentials.

Another operative. This time he violated - rather than confirmed - expectations. Source: Windsor Daily Star, April 14, 1954.
Another operative. This time he violated – rather than confirmed – expectations. Source: Windsor Daily Star, April 14, 1954.

It appears that the TASS office quickly relocated from 431 Gilmour as my searches tend to result in regular classified ads (ie. goods for sale, rooms for rent) and local information (obituaries) at that address for several decades. In 1979, Annice Kronick relocated her “decorators studio” business, Accents Incorporated, to that address from 323 Somerset W. By the mid-1980s, it was the Raven Café (specializing in live folk and blues), and after that the Savana Café.

Today, the ITAR-TASS Agency in Ottawa is located in unit 1305 of the Champlain Towers Apartments in Lindenlea.

 

 

Stopwatch in the White House

White House Apartments, Entrance.
White House Apartments, Entrance. I’ll bet you didn’t know that it has a name: The White House Apartments.

Note: I know that I was supposed to write a piece about the former Soviet TASS office at 431 Gilmour (now the Gilmour Inn), I have decided that my own apartment deserves a bit of a spotlight. Outside of a brief year living in an architecturally-similar walk-up in Vanier on Deschamps St. in 2006, I’ve not lived in a building that has seen so much action. Of course, it goes without saying that it’s much nicer when you’re not part of that “action”. It is therefore fortunate and wonderful that the building, as it exists today, it silent, clean and the landlord is attentive, professional, and a source great conversation to boot. 

In urban life, it is quite often the most nondescript buildings that have the greatest number of stories to tell. To be certain, they’re not normally the most profound, important, or grand of tales, but they certainly make for some interesting narratives all the same. As the histori-dork that I am, I tend to research every apartment that I have moved into, searching for interesting events, well-known people, and the most run-of-the-mill information such as how much it cost, when it was constructed, for whom it was constructed, and – if available – the architect. In nearly all cases (9 of 11 places), I have come across at least something of interest.

When I moved into this apartment at 161 Somerset West in September, however, I did not think that I would find so much that wouldn’t be out of place in an action movie or at least a network crime drama.

Mrs. White appointed to the Milk Board of Ontario. Source: Ottawa Citizen, February 21, 1940.
Mrs. White appointed to the Milk Board of Ontario. Source: Ottawa Citizen, February 21, 1940.

Much like the Mackenzie Apartments at McLeod and Elgin or the Harmon Apartments on Elgin, the White House Apartments were named after the owners of the home which previously occupied the lot. In this case, it was well-known local, Walter Russell White (1883-1961). Russell (as he was better known) spent most of his career working in the surveys division of the Department of Indian Affairs. Adding to his profile in social circles, he was a member of the Doric Lodge, the first president of the Ottawa Property Owners’ Association, active in the Ottawa Hunt and Curling clubs, and an upstanding and popular member of the Chalmers (now Dominion-Chalmers) Church.

His wife (Eva Alma, but always in print, “Mrs. W. Russell White”. Thanks patriarchy) certainly made a name for herself. She was featured hundreds of times on the local social pages, was exceptionally active in the city as the president of the Local Council of Women, and in 1940 was appointed at the official consumers’ representative on the Milk Board of Ontario. Probably a function of the anonymity of the Civil Service, a search of the Journal’s database for “W. Russell White” yields 289 hits, the vast majority are in reference to her. While her name and good standing may have been anchored to him, it is her public profile that looms larger today.

On the whole, the family enjoyed a high profile locally and their son David even featured in the papers for thwarting a young purse thief in the summer of 1940. David would later be sent overseas with the Algonquin Regiment to fight in the Netherlands.

Ottawans received Diphtheria immunizations at the White House in 1945. Source: Ottawa Journal, November 16, 1945
Ottawans received Diphtheria immunizations at the White House in 1945. Their son, Bertram, still lived at that address.  Source: Ottawa Journal, November 16, 1945

By the late 1940s, it appears that the family had moved on (to a home on MacLaren) and the home was subdivided into apartments. It was even used as a vaccination clinic at one point.  Beginning around this time, mentions of the White family being resident at this address came to disappear, with the sons growing older and moving on, Walter and Eva relocated to the stately home at 584 MacLaren, near Dundonald Park. Doubtlessly a sought-after and well-regarded address befitting a couple as prominent in the city as they were. Although I have not located any relevant information to suggest it, it seems most likely that the family held on to the property themselves. Nevertheless, by the early 1950s, it is easy to find advertisements like the following:

CENTRAL., ground floor, available July 1. Suite 3 adults, each will have a private bedroom and share large living room, kitchen, bath and verandah. At $45 each, including electricity. Apply on premises, 161 Somerset St West.


Detailed advertisement. Source: Ottawa Journal, July 24, 1957.
Detailed advertisement. Source: Ottawa Journal, July 24, 1957.

In the Spring of 1957, the advertisements changed. The subdivided family home was demolished that year (it remains visible on the 1956 Goad’s Fire Insurance Map) and a new walk-up building consisting entirely of bachelor units was constructed (twenty-eight in total, as it remains today). In an environment of high demand for rental units, much like the building at 92 MacLaren, this one also rented out quickly. As with the MacKenzie Apartments on McLeod and the Harman Apartments on Elgin, this one was named for the most recent (and likely then current) owner of the property whose home (or business, in the case of Miss Harmon) it replaced. One point of interest is that using the Bank of Canada’s inflation calculator, it is clear that the current rents charged in the building are generally in line with inflation. This is somewhat unlike 1 or 2 bedroom units which have tended to run at least somewhat ahead. As the rental apartment field became more competitive, later advertisements for the building tended to highlight other amenities, such as the parquet flooring (still present), tiled four-piece bathrooms (still present and awesome – mine’s pistachio tiles with black trim), and a shared television antenna (not present, but in this time of digital OTA, would be very much welcome).

geoOttawa1958
1958 aerial shot of the block. The large building is the then nearly-complete Elgin IGA (Goldstein’s, now Dollarama). The structure at the corner of Elgin and Somerset is where the TD Bank stands today (constructed in the mid-1960s), and of course, the shiny new White House Apartments directly behind it.
McKay shot in the alleyway. Source: Ottawa Citizen, November 1, 1968.
McKay shot in the alleyway. Source: Ottawa Citizen, November 1, 1968.

Like a large number or urban areas in Canada during the late 1960s, Centretown came to experience some turbulence. The sorts of activities we tend to associated with certain other parts of the city were present in the area. For example, on a cold October evening in 1968, Constable Thomas McKay of the Ottawa Police was walking his beat when he noticed a man wearing a white trench coat lurking in the alley between the apartment and the IGA. When he approached him, the man (Eugene Tanguay, of no fixed address) fired on him with a 12-gauge shotgun. The Crown filed charges of attempted murder, but Tanguay’s defence Counsel, Arthur Cogan (who is still practicing today) successfully had him acquitted. The jury found McKay’s testimony to be inconsistent. The Journal reported that he still had most of the pellets were still in McKay’s leg a year following the incident.

Things appeared to calm down following the incident. The building’s residents went on with their lives, winning small charitable raffles and students winning awards for academic achievements. In 1975 that all changed due to the actions of two of the building’s tenants: one for a string of armed robberies and one for his role in alleged international drug smuggling and gold heist plots. I’ll deal with these in order.

Demonstrating that perhaps no matter how well set our tables in life are, we’ll sometimes find ourselves sobbing underneath them is Richard Soper. Unlike Eugene Tanguay above, Soper was born into privilege. His grandfather was none other than Ottawa Electric Railway Company co-founder Warren Y. Soper. With the family money and his own reasonably successful photography business, it’s not likely that troubles were expected. However, in 1975 at age 50, his considerable inheritance had been spent, his marriage failed, and he began to drink excessively. To get money he began to rob local banks, beginning shortly after the New Year. In an eight week span, he robbed four local banks – all on a Friday afternoon when things were calm, earning the moniker of the “Friday Afternoon Bandit”. He was busted in March when Ottawa Police Constable Ted Kacsynski found him asleep in a stolen car parked in the Unity Bank parking lot at Elgin and Gloucester with a gun, a holdup note, and a fake beard in his possession.

Richard Soper, the "Benevolent Bandit" Source: Ottawa Journal, September 23, 1975.
Richard Soper, the “Benevolent Bandit” Source: Ottawa Journal, September 23, 1975.

Although it is probably somewhat inappropriate to suggest, Soper was therefore somewhat lucky that his mother passed while he was in jail awaiting trial. She left him an inheritance of $600,000 (about $2.5 million today), but $500,000 of that was in an irrevocable trust. She was obviously quite aware of his expenditure management issues. With this inheritance, he was able to easily make restitution (the four robberies netted him only about $5500 in total).

For their own part, both the Citizen and the Journal didn’t seem to take his armed robberies particularly seriously: the Journal identified him as the “Benevolent bandit” and both papers stressed that he was depressed when he committed the armed robberies. During his trial, it was revealed that he suffered from a disease that has been known to afflict the upper classes short on lucre: he needed to repay “loans from ‘substantial’ people in town.” It has, after all, normally been the case that one does not descend the socioeconomic ladder willingly or easily. Provincial Judge Patrick White (no immediate relation to the White family described above that I could locate) sentenced him to two years less a day in light of his mental state and his lack of previous criminal record.

The Citizen characterized him as a "spendthrift millionaire". Source, Ottawa Citizen, September 22, 1975.
The Citizen characterized him as a “spendthrift millionaire”. Source, Ottawa Citizen, September 22, 1975.

The White House didn’t only appear in the news during 1975 for Soper’s indiscretions, however. Another of the building’s tenants was one Charles Gaul. Without inventing some sort of biography, Gaul’s upbringing was considerably less privileged, but was no means anonymous. Gaul’s name was a common feature in the the local papers, but unlike Soper, whose portraiture business made his name common in the papers, Gaul’s was published frequently for his rap sheet, which grew rapidly through the 1960s and 1970s. For example, at the tender age of 19 in 1961 he plead guilty to driving without a permit and fleeing the scene of an accident, for which he was chased into Hull by “three Hull motorists and Hull Constable Gilles Froment.” Later that year, he was picked up for possession of stolen goods and of housebreaking tools. The following year he was sentenced to 75 days for theft. In nearly all of the reporting on his crimes, reporters had a different address and more often than not, it was no fixed address. And so it went.

By 1975, however, it was clear that Gaul was on to more substantial crimes and involved with some fairly unsavoury characters in their own right. As Soper was nearing the end of his tenure as a criminal, Gaul appeared to be ramping up his efforts. In the March 5, 1975 edition of the Journal, it was reported that Gaul was a co-conspirator with one Patrick Mitchell in the importation of hashish. Mitchell, for his own part, was arrested in the same investigation for an armed robbery of $168,000 in gold from the Air Canada Cargo warehouse at the airport (it was destined for the Mint). Other co-conspirators were also charged with importing cocaine. This seems to have been the beginning of the end for Gaul, however.

Gaul involved with crimes larger than the petty thefts he was previously involved in. Source: Ottawa Journal, March 5, 1975.
Gaul involved with crimes larger than the petty thefts he was previously involved in. Source: Ottawa Journal, March 5, 1975.

On September 29, the Citizen reported that Gaul had been found dead in his unit at 161 Somerset:

Charles Gaul, 33, was found in his apartment at 161 Somerset St. West at 5:30 p.m.

His girlfriend became concerned when she didn’t hear from him for several days and went to his apartment with the building superintendent.

They found his fully-clothed body lying on the floor near the entrance to the apartment. He had been dead for several days.

Mr. Gaul was one of the eight men named in indictments signed earlier this month by Justice Minister Otto Lang alleging three conspiracies to import narcotics into Canada.

Gaul's death notice, published in the Journal, October 1, 1975.
Gaul’s death notice, published in the Journal, October 1, 1975.

It was on the following day that Ottawa police reported that it was most likely that he died of an overdose and had been dead for around a day before he was found. The Crown proceeded with the trial that was due to begin on October 6. The media circus surrounding the case caused the Ontario Supreme Court to change the trial’s venue to London.

When I described Gaul on my #didyouknowseries entry on Instagram as “small potatoes”, it was clear that he really was. He may have even just been useful to the real mastermind behind the heist: Patrick “Paddy” Mitchell. Even Mitchell’s lawyer suggested that Gaul and the others caught up in the drug trafficking scheme were duped.

If Mitchell’s name sounds familiar, it should. He was the leading member of the infamous Stopwatch Gang. At around $15,000,000 in a total haul, they were arguably the most successful North American bank robbers in recent memory. For his gold heist and cocaine importation scheme, Mitchell was sentenced to twenty years (he quickly escaped from prison by feigning a heart attack). It is, of course, way beyond the scope of this piece to recount their deeds and misdeeds. Given that both Mitchell and Gaul were of a similar age, were of a similar class, grew up in the same area (Preston-Lebreton), they were likely at least somewhat acquainted before that first big score in 1974. The gold from it (actually valued at more than $375,000) was never recovered.

If you’re interested in the activities of the Stopwatch Gang and its members, including Paddy Mitchell, he was not only a regular blogger, but the National Film Board produced a short film about his accomplice , Stephen Reid entitled Inside Time. Following Mitchell’s death (from Lung Cancer) in 2007, a large amount of material was produced on his exploits and is easily located online as well.

[Updated!] Midcentury Imperialism

The Imperial Building, from the southwest corner of Bank and Cooper.
The Imperial Building, from the southwest corner of Bank and Cooper.

As someone who has generally studied Ottawa’s urban history through the lens of residential development more so than its commercial or industrial development, the construction of office space in the city appears to be related, but different. That is, there is no question that we’re all dominated by the ebbs and flows of federal government growth and activity, but office space seems to (in my own casual observation) to lag relative to residential construction. Having been here for 13 years (and seeking answers to my questions for as long), it always seems that the city either has a surplus or a deficit of office space, with the opposite impending in all projections.

1957-03-07-Need-Office-Space-Page-5In any event, the Imperial Building was constructed in 1957 for Brouse Holdings (an organization which continues to operate today) in the midst of an acute shortage of office space. The building’s architect was J. Morris Wolfson (who, among other things designed the Tiffany Apartments in the Deep Cut and would go on to design McArthur Plaza) and the contractor was James More and Sons. It was to cost $325,000. Much like the Wesley Building at Holland and Wellington, the Imperial Building was also designed such that floors could be added at a later date as demand increased.

The federal government, significantly larger than it was prior to the war, had snapped up much of what was available in the city and was hungry for more: much more. It didn’t help that Ottawa’s private sector had the same heightened demands.

Brouse Holdings was created following the death of Mr. Harry Brouse on August 8, 1924. As he did not leave a final will and testament, the courts divided his estate – chiefly real estate valued at over $500,000 (approximately $6.8 million today) – between his widow and two children. Rather than quickly liquidate the assets, the tradition of investment and development continued long after his sudden, surprise passing. An article in the April 23, 1925 edition of the Journal listed am impressive number of assets.**

The new Imperial Building opened in the Spring of 1957 and was announced in the same way that new office blocks and apartments were at the time: with a full-page newspaper spread complete with picture and advertisements of the contractors who worked on it.

"Imperial Bldg. New Landmark" Ottawa Journal, April 29, 1957
“Imperial Bldg. New Landmark” Ottawa Journal, April 29, 1957
Call Vic Henry at CE2-2214 for a quote.
Call Vic Henry at CE2-2214 for a quote.

As can be seen from the above, the building was first completed at four stories and was later extended to the seven that it is today. Like many of the offices on Bank constructed during 50s and 60s, the tradition of ground floor, street-facing retail was continued. No inward-facing, maze-like mall space.

delfino
Delfino is fast asleep on a 7th Heaven futon.

At opening, the two main retail tenants were Chuck Delfino Men’s Wear (whose plaques still grace the building’s exterior), and Sol Kronick Furniture (who had relocated from across the street into the modern new store). Among the longer-lasting office tenants of the upper floors were law firms, real estate firms, and perhaps most interestingly, an insurance firm that specialized in the coverage of hockey players and other athletes.

Gord Lomer had his finger on the pulse of the city.
Gord Lomer had his finger on the pulse of the city.

Although I am uncertain as to the specific date that the Imperial was renovated to add the new floors (it does not seem to be in place on geoOttawa’s 1965 aerial map, but most certainly is apparent by the 1976 aerial photos), it does seem that they were added rather quickly. The Journal’s Gord Lomer reported at the end of 1964 that Art MacDonald, a member of the Centennial Commission had his office on the building’s sixth floor.

 

 

Sol Kronick in his new digs, March 28, 1957
Sol Kronick in his new digs, March 28, 1957

——————-

** For the purposes of retaining focus in this short piece, I’ll mention here that Harry Brouse was an exceptionally interesting figure in the development of Ottawa during the early part of the 20th century. As the developer of numerous office blocks, the Imperial (Barrymore’s) and Family theatres, as well as the inventor of a gum vending machine (Peerless Vending Co.), the Brouse name both loomed – and continues to loom – large in the Ottawa area. I will be assembling a piece on him as well.