Ottawa’s Building Permits, 1947

“You really should be working on your thesis.”

That’s something I tell myself frequently, so it was a little surprising to hear it coming from the list of building permits issued in 1947 replicated in Ottawa Building Inspector C. Maxwell Taylor’s 1947 Annual Report. What was the source of those whispers?

Since my thesis has to do with the early years affordable rental housing initiatives in Ottawa, there were two. The single largest permit issued by the City of Ottawa in 1947 was for the Mann Avenue Project. Better known today as Strathcona Heights, the project was originally comprised of 64 buildings for a total of 418 apartments. As one of the last planned during the short existence of Housing Enterprises Limited, it was subsequently taken over by the CMHC and seen to completion.¹There is much more to write about the project, but I did put a little something together in my story “Ottawa’s Apartments, 1955” this summer.

The second initiative was led by a private sector consortium headed by William Hayley, son of Harry Hayley, Ottawa’s cinderblock king, and was dubbed Economy Housing Limited. The project’s point was, in short, to demonstrate that the private for profit housing sector was capable of solving the housing crisis of the day.²There are many more details to the project, but the goal was to demonstrate that basic homes of about the same size could be constructed for about half the cost of those on Merivale. “Company Formed to Build 35 Cinder Block Houses,” Ottawa Journal, July 16, 1947, p. 13; “Houses for 33 Veterans,” Ottawa Journal, September 15, 1947, p. 4. In both of these cases, the project’s successes and failures were instructive to the limited dividend approach that was ultimately taken by Charlotte Whitton and Cecil Morrison for the Ottawa Lowren (“Low Rent” or “Low Rental”) Housing Company.

Owner	Description	Location	Value
A. Molot	Stores and 3 Apartment Building	Bank Street	30000
Loblaw Groceterias Co.	Repairs to Stores and Apartment Building	Bank Street	25000
Lumor Realty Corp.	Addition to Stores	Slater Street	20000
Canadian National Railways	Hotel Alterations (Cocktail Lounge)	Wellington Street	75000
Mrs. George Stevens	Hotel Alterations (Cocktail Lounge)	Sparks Street	20000
Grey Nuns of the Cross	Addition to Boiler House of Hospital	Cambridge Street	24000
E. Claude	Alterations to Apartment Building	Daly Avenue	22000
The Citizen Publishing	Addition to Office Building	Queen Street	50000
Bell Telephone Company	Alterations to Two Storey Office Building	First Avenue	60000
Royal Bank of Canada	New One Storey Bank Building	Wellington Street	20000
Bradings Capital Brewery	Four Storey Storage and Fermentation Building	Wellington Street	400000
Bradings Capital Brewery	Alterations to Storage Building	Wellington Street	50000
M.W. Kosub	Single residence	Range Road	15500
P. Horowitz, R. McClelland	Four Storey Apartment Building (15 Apartments)	Chapel Street	70000
Capuchin Fathers	Alterations to Church Entrance	Wellington Street	22000
H. Racine & Landreville	Two Storey Funeral Parlour with Three Apartments	Besserer Street	45000
E. Jabour	Store	Wellington Street	21000
Jas. Beauchamp	Addition to Store and Office Building	Wellington Street	30000
Dr. & Mrs. Eaman	Altering Duplex to 5 Apartments	First Avenue	15000
Mrs. J.M. Hill	Single Residence	Openogo Road	18000
International Harvester	Two Storey Office, Showroom, Service and Warehouse	Carling Avenue	450000
M. Landreville, Sr.	Three Storey and Basement Public Garage	Albert Street	80000
H.H. Sugarman	Store	Rideau Street	28000
Chas. Ogilvie Ltd.	Alterations to Workshop Machinery Bldg.	Rideau Street	20500
United Century Theatres Ltd.	Addition to Theatre	Elgin Street	40000
H. Thoms	Five Suite Apartment Building	Hawthorne Avenue	20000
University of Ottawa	Office Building	Stewart Street	50000
R. Beach	Single Residence	Ruskin Avenue	18000
P. Sinclair	Double Residence	Herridge Street	15000
J.R. Beach & R.C. Greig	Eight Storey Apartment Building, 56 Suites	Metcalfe Street	400000
A.J. Freiman Ltd.	Garage, one Storey	York Street	20000
McFarlane Prop	Alterations to Public Garage	Laurier Avenue West	19500
Chateau Cheese Co.	Addition to Mfg. Bldg.	York Street	15000
T.F. Ahearn	Alterations to Single Residence	Rideau Gate	15000
Corporation of Ottawa	New Pathology Laboratory, Civic Hospital	Carling Avenue	161848
Department of Public Works	Alteratons to Government Mint	Sussex Street	15700
Murphy-Gamble	Addition to Department Store	Sparks Street	75000
L. Wolfe	New Theatre Building	Bank Street	60000
Dr. L.W. Nixon	Single Residence to Nine Suites	Bronson Avenue	20000
W. Legere	New Office Building	Bayswater Avenue	22000
Northern Electric Co.	New Office and Warehouse Building	Catherine Street	103000
W.T. Touhey	Hotel Addition	Daly Avenue	18000
Wm. Sparks	Addition to Garage and Workshop	Breezehill Avenue	15000
Capital Wire Cloth & Mfg. Co.	Addition to Mfg. Bldg.	Hinton Avenue	38500
H. St. Louis	Two Storey, Two Stores and Apartment	Wellington Street	15000
Economy Housing Limited	Thirty-three new Single residences	Lees Avenue	99000
E.B. Milks	Apartment Building, Six Suites	Somerset Street East	20000
L. Petergorsky	Five Storey Apartment Bldg., Five Suites	Daly Avenue	250000
McMullen Perkins Ltd.	Addition to Machine Shop	Laurier Avenue West	15000
Trinity Anglican Church	Repairs to Church	Bank Street	75000
H.K. Phillips	Store	Wellington Street	20000
University of Ottawa	Addition to Office Building	Stewart Street	20000
Wartime Housing Ltd.	Sixty-four Apartment Bldgs., 418 Suites	Mann Avenue	2000000
P. Weltman	New Two Storey Store and Bowling Alley	Rideau Street	100000
Kemp Edwards	One Storey Office and Storage Building	Bayswater Avenue	17500
Hon. A.C. Hardy	Repairs to Store and Office Building	Sparks Street	32000
Muream Realty	Elevator Top in Dept. Store	Sparks Street	40000
E.R. Fisher Ltd.	Alterations to Store	Sparks Street	100000
Bradings Capital Brewery	Alterations to Brewery	Wellington Street	150000
Dept. of Public Works	Repairs to N.R.C. Laboratory	Sussex Street	130000
A.J. Freiman Ltd.	Alterations to Department Store	Rideau Street	150000