By 1954, her third full year as mayor, Charlotte Whitton had found her stride as the Housing Mayor.
Mayor Whitton on Housing, 1952
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.
Continue reading Mayor Whitton on Housing, 1952
Notes
↥1 | By her standards. It was still much longer than those delivered by her predecessors. |
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Mayor Lewis on Housing, 1946
It should come as no surprise that the end of the Second World War changed the tone of Mayor Stanley Lewis’ subsequent inaugural address, given on January 7.
Mayor Lewis on Housing, 1945
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.
Mayor Whitton on Housing, 1951
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.
Continue reading Mayor Whitton on Housing, 1951
Notes
↥1 | ”Seven Hour Seizure; Mayor Stricken When Shopping on Mann Avenue,” Ottawa Journal, August 28, 1951, 1, 17. |
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Mayor Whitton on Housing, 1953
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.
Then & Now: Woodbine at Queen East
It has not been often that I’ve posted “then and now” photos here on Margins. While browsing the photographs that have been digitized by the Toronto Public Library this evening, I was reminded of one of the more influential-to-me discussion threads on the Urban Toronto boards: Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now. Although it has slowed down considerably in recent times, the nearly 900 page discussion is a rich one.
Another Sort of Municipal Archive
If the built environment is not an archive, then it’s a darn good book. At least that’s how it has always felt to me. Not only are all aspects of the urban fabric laden with the uses and values that informed their construction and assembly, but the life story of each building is too.1I’m referring, of course, to Stewart Brand’s How Buildings Learn. The whole vista will tell you stories (or serve as a sort of record) and whenever I’m out and about – whether in Ottawa, Toronto, or elsewhere – my eyes are peeled.
Continue reading Another Sort of Municipal Archive
Notes
↥1 | I’m referring, of course, to Stewart Brand’s How Buildings Learn. |
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Ottawa’s Building Permits, 1941
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.
Ottawa’s Building Permits, 1944
Moving on back, the list of “important” building permits issued in 1944 was a short one, with just 22 in total and a minimum value of $12,000.
Ottawa’s Building Permits, 1945
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.
Ottawa’s Building Permits, 1946
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.