Category: Transcript

Mayor Whitton on Housing, 1952

In her 1952 inaugural address, Mayor Whitton tried to spark Council into action. Image: Ottawa Journal / LAC Accession 1979-203 NPC Box 04438.

Coming only four months after her Fall inaugural address, Mayor Whitton spared her Council colleagues by delivering a much shorter address1By her standards. It was still much longer than those delivered by her predecessors. that focused on developing a sense of urgency and the setting aside of small differences. The Mayor’s address listed 10 points, with housing placed right at the top.

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Notes

Notes
↥1 By her standards. It was still much longer than those delivered by her predecessors.

Mayor Lewis on Housing, 1945

Ottawa Mayor, J.E. Stanley Lewis on December 15, 1946. Image: City of Ottawa Archives MG393-AN-P-000242-003.

Keeping up with the theme of mayors and their thoughts on housing, I thought it would be fun to reach back a little further. In 1945, the Second World War was coming to a close and Ottawa’s longest serving mayor, J.E. Stanley Lewis, faced with a critical housing shortage.

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Mayor Whitton on Housing, 1951

Charlotte Whitton with Robert Campeau, a developer she would frequently do battle with. Image: Dominion Wide / LAC Acc. 1979-203 NPC, Box 04438.

After having shared excerpts from Mayor Charlotte Whitton’s 1953 inaugural address about housing on Saturday, I thought it might be somewhat interesting to share them from 1951, when she took over as mayor from Grenville Goodwin who passed away suddenly that August 28.1”Seven Hour Seizure; Mayor Stricken When Shopping on Mann Avenue,” Ottawa Journal, August 28, 1951, 1, 17.

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Notes

Notes
↥1 ”Seven Hour Seizure; Mayor Stricken When Shopping on Mann Avenue,” Ottawa Journal, August 28, 1951, 1, 17.

Mayor Whitton on Housing, 1953

Mayor Charlotte Whitton, as captured by Maclean’s Magazine’s Walter Curtin, March 1957. Image: LAC Accession 1981-262 NPC Box 06354 Assignment 574-1.

As I’ve noted previously, I have been working on a thesis about the Ottawa Lowren Housing Company, which was Ottawa’s city-owned, privately-operated limited dividend housing company. Although she was not the inventor of the limited dividend approach to housing, Mayor Charlotte Whitton was among the first Canadian municipal leaders to have any real measure of success making use of the National Housing Act provision and became an enthusiastic booster of its use.

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Ottawa’s Building Permits, 1941

The Jackson Building received a $327,000 addition at the rear along Slater in 1941 for the RCAF. Image: geoOttawa.

1941 Ottawa was Wartime Ottawa. Of the top five building permits issued that year, four were issued to the Dominion Government to accommodate the expansion is wartime bureaucracy, and of those four, three were for the wooden so-called wartime “temporary” buildings.

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Ottawa’s Building Permits, 1945

James Beach and R.C. Greig teamed up to construct this apartment on Second Avenue at Bronson in 1945. Image: Google Maps (May 2016).
James Beach and R.C. Greig teamed up to construct this apartment on Second Avenue at Bronson in 1945. Image: Google Maps (May 2016).

Due to the wartime material and labour shortages I noted yesterday, construction in 1945 was, to say the least, pokey. Where there were 55 “important” building permits listed in the 1946 Annual Report, the number was only 24 in 1945.

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Ottawa’s Building Permits, 1946

Vignette of the British American Banknote Company's Gladstone Avenue facility. Source: British American Banknote Company. "90 Years of Security Printing: The story of the British American Bank Note Company Limited, 1866-1956."
Vignette of the British American Banknote Company’s Gladstone Avenue facility. At $800,000, it was the largest building permit issued for Ottawa in 1946. Source: British American Banknote Company. “90 Years of Security Printing: The story of the British American Bank Note Company Limited, 1866-1956.”

Although the Second World War had ended the previous year, in 1946, shifting Canada’s economy back from wartime production had proven a somewhat lengthier enterprise. Both materials and capital remained in short supply and, in spite of exceptional need, construction had not yet picked up. In spite of this, there were a few bright spots in Ottawa’s construction industry.

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Ottawa’s Building Permits, 1947

Strathcona Heights in 1984, before the 1989 restoration project. Source: Ottawa. City of Ottawa. City Living Developments. Ottawa: City Living Ottawa, 1984, p. 15.
The largest permit issued in 1947 was valued at $2,000,000 and for the Mann Avenue rental housing project. Image: Ottawa. City of Ottawa. City Living Developments. Ottawa: City Living Ottawa, 1984, p. 15.

“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?

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Ottawa’s Building Permits, 1948

Archibald, David, and Jacob Bennett, better known by their company Principal Investments, were already active in Ottawa before they became Canada's shopping mall kings. Image: Maclean's Magazine, February 4, 1956, p. 9.
Archibald, David, and Jacob Bennett, better known by their company Principal Investments, were already active in Ottawa before they became Canada’s shopping mall kings. As the developer behind both Billings Bridge Plaza and the Carlingwood Shopping Centre, Principal Investments would bring Ottawa retailing into the modern era. Image: Maclean’s Magazine, February 4, 1956, p. 9.

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.

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Notes

Notes
↥1 Janet Keith. The Collegiate Institute Board of Ottawa: A Short History, 1843-1969 (Ottawa: Kent Reproduction, 1970): 37.