Elgin & Sparks – 1901 c. 2012

5 comments

1. Another photo where the before looks better than the after, except for the hydro poles. Anyone know the name of the building at the end of the street in the 1901 photo. Looks like a tower of some sort.

   The NAC bunker has got to be one of the ugliest buildings in Ottawa. The DND building are almost as bad.

2. The one with the empty flag post (I think that what it is) is the Russell House. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_House_(Ottawa).

   The one at the very back is the old City Hall.  But I am not sure.

3. You’re right, it is the former city hall.

   http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Second_City_Hall,_Ottawa.jpg

   I’m sure Ottawa was far from perfect back in 1901, but the downtown area looked much nicer than it does today.  Even the center block of Parliament Hill is a disappointment – they should have rebuild in the same style as the east and west block.  

4. Yes, that’s the old City Hall, which burned down in the late ’30s. City administration worked out of the Transportation building at Rideau/Waller (now connected to the Rideau Centre) until the new, Modernist City Hall was built in the ’50s on Green Island at 111 Sussex.

5. Certainly it looked – probably was – a far busier part of town in the earlier picture.