Brief: Civic Pharmacy – “Ottawa’s Answer to Genuine Shopping Pleasure”

That sign. That legendary sign. It has been a presence on the corner of Carling and Holland since 1960. Photo: April 2014.
That sign. That legendary sign. It has been a presence on the corner of Carling and Holland since 1960. Photo: April 2014.

Nearly 54 years ago, one of Ottawa’s best mid-century commercial signs was affixed to a newly-constructed two story commercial building at the corner of Carling and Holland – “the crossroads of the west end”. The Civic Pharmacy officially opened on Saturday, September 17, 1960.

A one-and-a-half-page spread in the Journal. Source: Ottawa Journal, September 16, 1960
A one-and-a-half-page spread in the Journal. When it opened, the “Civic” sign’s letters apparently rotated. Source: Ottawa Journal, September 16, 1960, pp. 16-17.

The Civic Pharmacy was a venture of Wallace “Wally” Cherun, who’s father Alexander Cherun ran a grocery in the Deep Cut (now Golden Triangle) at 61 Waverley.