Ottawa’s Building Permits, 1948

Continuing to work back on the building permits issued by the City of Ottawa, what really stands out about 1948 is that there were comparatively few large-scale or expensive projects that year. At $1,188,000, the construction of Fisher Park (Collegiate) High was the most expensive project and Ottawa’s first Comprehensive high school.¹Janet Keith. The Collegiate Institute Board of Ottawa: A Short History, 1843-1969 (Ottawa: Kent Reproduction, 1970): 37.

The single largest private sector²Although for some, Coca-Cola is every bit as much of an institution as any state enterprise. project permitted in 1948 was construction of the Coca-Cola bottling plant on Bronson Avenue for $850,000. The neat-as-a-pin Mathers and Haldenby designed plant didn’t spend much time filling the company’s distinctive glass bottles, however. It was expropriated in 1962 to make room for the Queensway.³Robert Smythe. “Queensway Remembered,” Urbsite (June 23, 2010). Although its fate was sealed, it was not until 2015 that it would be demolished.

The Rideau Street Metropolitan store. Image: City of Ottawa Archives, Item CA023142.

Rideau Street, complete with the Metropolitan Store. Image: City of Ottawa Archives, Item CA035014.

Rideau Street, looking west. Image: Albert Lee / Lost Ottawa (Facebook).

Among all of the permits issued in 1948 it was those in the name of Principal Investments that stood out most to me. One of their permits was for a $30,000 renovation to an office building on Sparks Street and the other for the construction of a $225,000 store on Rideau Street at Mosgrove, better known as the Rideau Street Metropolitan.⁴Robert Smythe. “Metropolitan Stores,” Urbsite (May 14, 2015). Principal Investments, and the three Bennett brothers behind it, is one of those stories of Canadian business that appears to have been long forgotten.⁵I’ve found that business history is another one of those fields that was long ago ceded to other disciplines, which is a pity, given how much these interests have shaped things. In short, Principal Investments was a developer of stores that got into the construction of suburban shopping malls in the mid-1950s and soon became the largest mall developer in the country.⁶Peter C. Newman. “These three men are Canada’s biggest landlords,” Maclean’s, February 4, 1956, pp. 7-9; 52-56. Also see John Leaning. “The Canadian Shopping Centre” (MA Thesis: McGill, 1957).

In Ottawa, they were only narrowly beaten to the punch by Steinberg’s Ivanhoe and its Westgate Shopping Centre.⁷Dave Allston. “Did you know that Ottawa’s first mall was built in Kitchissippi?” Kitchissippi Times (May 20, 2015). The Bennett brothers and their Principal Investments followed quickly and brought the city both  Billings Bridge Plaza and the Carlingwood Shopping Centre. With perhaps a little more ambition than their Montreal-based competitors, Bennett and Principal also set out to fight against Ottawa’s early closing bylaw.⁸The short version is that in the face of a conservative business culture and a determined Charlotte Whitton, they lost. I plan to explore the issue more thoroughly at a later date. See “Proceeding Through Injunction,” Ottawa Journal, November 23, 1955, p. 1.

Below is a table with the 1948 permits outlined in that year’s Annual Report.