Lost Ottawa Facebook 2013
Here are all the Lost Ottawa posts that appeared on Facebook in 2013, starting with the most recent and going backwards.
You can view the posts in various ways. You can read the descriptions on this page and see the initial comments. You can click on the three dots at the bottom of a post to see more comments. You can click on the picture to see a “full screen” version of the picture with comments. You can view the original post on Facebook and leave more comments there.
At the bottom of the page there is a “Get More Posts” link that will load additional posts to the page. We are still working on a way to make the posts searchable.
A well-to-do Ottawa family, c.1881.About 25 years ago I paid $5 for a red flocked velvet photo album of portraits of someone's friends and relatives that I found in a flea market down near Morrisburg. It was a present to a woman from her cousin and the gift album was dated 1881. The photos seem to be family and friends, but I have never been able to identify anyone by trying to linking the few full names names attached to the folks (most were cousin Mary, Aunt whatever -- to current Ottawa families with photos of kin from the 1880s. My original thought was to find a family for whom the album had some real meaning, but I was totally unsuccessful, which I guess helps explain why it was in a box of junk at a flea market to begin with. I will post three of the photos I found in the album, all taken by Ottawa based photography studios.
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If it's too cold outside, you could always have yourself photographed on a toboggan in the studio, like Percy and Arthur Onderdonk here, circa 1890.
Tobogganing was so popular in Ottawa at the time, it was thought worthy of a portrait by Topley.
(City of Vancouver AM54-S4-: Port P587.08)
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Depression relief project wear from December of 1933.
The other day we mentioned that Ottawa had more than 20,000 people out of work in the Depression. A series of relief projects camps were set up for the unemployed otherwise homeless.
This is the clothing and kit you received when entering the camp at Rockcliffe Air Station. It would be about all you had in the world.
(PA-035183)
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Your Morning Commute: Assuming you aren't still on holiday -- here is the junction of Wellington and Rideau at Sapper's Bridge, just before 1900. Some nice empty streets. Just a few Ottawa ghosts.
Shot from the Corrie Building, the picture shows the road down to the canal, as well as a driveway in Majors Hill Park, where the Chateau Laurier would be about 15 years later.
(LAC PA-013123)
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End of the day in Constance Bay, up the river and out the March Road.This is a scan of a post card of a view of the Ottawa River from Constance Bay.
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Where are you going for New Year's Eve? How about going to see Ottawa fixture Jack McPartlin at the Beacon Arms on Albert. Rooms for the night only 15 bucks!
Jack McPartlin was one of Ottawa's most popular lounge musicians and comic presenter too. He died at age 62 in Year 2000.
And at the Fyfe and Drum -- Telemann. I'm finding it almost impossible to find information about this band apart from the fact that they seem to have been from Toronto.
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Season's Greetings from an early Ottawa band.A Card from the Staccatos
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More warming thoughts ...Another beach photo...this one is labelled, "Constance Beach" where there must have been lots of public beach and was quite the excursion from Ottawa in 1936! My father is the youngest in the photo and sits with his siblings and his mother. My uncle, with the hat, the one who still lives, is now 89.
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More thoughts of a warm summer day -- on the blustery winter one we seem to be having.This photo was taken in 1946 on the beach in Constance Bay. Another popular summer destination for families in the Ottawa area.
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Sunday Drive: Just a little farther up the Ottawa from Norway Bay was another favorite getaway spot -- the Pine Lodge Resort in Bristol.
This family owned resort was opened in 1919 and is still there. The Lodge was apparently built in the 1920s, but there were also cabins and a campground.
This is one of those businesses the advent of the automobile made possible -- or at least successful. Getting out of town was one of the main selling points for early cars.
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One of the old timey features of the Bristol/Norway area -- Pop Welche's Grocery. Selling both Pure Spring Pop and RC Cola to cool you down after a trip to the beach.
No date but 1950s or 60s?
(Photo: norwaybay.com)
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Sunday Drive: If this was the summer, you could take the 148 on the Quebec side and drive northwest from Ottawa to Scobie House on Norway Bay in about an hour.
Scobie House, originally called the River View Inn, was a resort hotel built in 1906 among the magnificent pines of the area. The resort was a popular destination for people who wanted to get out of the city. It closed in 1980, after a disastrous fire.
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Monsieur Saumure and his horse out and about around Ottawa, 1942This is my Father Jean-Paul Saumure with his horse Filou and Buggy in 1942 ..this was the only way of transportation .
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Heading out for a Saturday Night and some awesome entertainment? In December of 1976, you could have checked out disco band Spectacle -- at least I guess that's their name -- at Ottawa's Embassy West Motor Hotel. Seven guys must have made a helluva show (even if it was disco).
Confess now.
(Ad from the Ottawa Citizen)
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Did someone mention Norway Bay, up the Ottawa River? Not the best picture, but here is the beach in what looks like the 20s.
Dig the swimsuits on the ladies.
(Outaouais Heritage Web Magazine)
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One place you could go for New Year's Eve? Thought to be Al's Steak House in Bell's Corners, from back in the day.Anyone know where this is? I can't make out what it says on the side but it does say "Hotel"
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Kids out to play in the snow in an unidentified city park during Ottawa's Winter Carnival, in the 20s.
Bozo the dog refused to be harnessed to the toboggan for a little mushing, but still seems willing to help one of the youngsters with his skiing.
(Alberta on Record, Whyte Museum of the Rockies, CN181.)
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Having breakfast? Rivermen dine at the foot of a huge logjam in the Gatineau River, not far from the capital.
Scene looks tranquil, but the jam could burst at any time, and it was their job to free the logs. I think you can see how dangerous it was.
(Lost the source! Will put it in when I find it.)
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Yoyo, the recurrent craze ..."Sparks St Mall. The yoyo busker guy amusing an audience of little kids. Don't think he was going to get much pay for his act but look at their faces." -Norm Early 1970s. Photo by Norm MacLeod.
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While on the topic of horses ...First mounted parade of Lord Strathcona's Horse, B & C squadrons, Ottawa, by Steele and Co. March 7 1900
[The Aberdeen Pavilion, constructed 1898 by Moses C Edey]
Glenbow Archives, NA-3755-10
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So where are you heading on New Year's Eve? How about the Paddock, next to Connaught Park on the Aylmer Road. You've got Roland Deveze "direct from France," says this ad from the Ottawa Citizen for December 31, 1976.
I hope the "Coupe Paddock" was ... uh ... beef?
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When you are travelling up river ... there`s the Venice of America.Norway Bay Quebec
I believe this ad is from the early 1920's. Norway Bay is still a popular summer cottage destination for many families from Ottawa. Over the generations, as families moved away and expanded, many families still return year after year, from all over Canada, United States, South America and Europe. Prices are no longer $100 to $250!
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Check the prices on these excursions -- once a big deal in Ottawa -- combining boats and trains. Only $26 to Boston.Steam boat tourism
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So where are you going for New Year's Eve? Here's four choices for rockin' out from the Ottawa Citizen for December 31, 1977.
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Group of men in the main sleeping hut for Relief Project No. 27 at Ottawa Air Station, as the Rockcliffe Airport was originally known. Date is March 22, 1933.
By the end of that year, there were 22,000 men out of work in Ottawa (out of a total population of 126,872). Relief Project 27 was one of a series of camps across the country, organized by the government to provide men with food and shelter in exchange for work.
There were crowded wooden barracks at Rockcliffe, as well as shack settlements in Brewers Park, Plouffe Park, and the Lees Avenue Dump.
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Something you wouldn't want to do today. Three Rockcliffe Air Force Base personnel testing aircrew survival suits in the Ottawa River on December 27, 1943.
That would wake you up. Brrrr!
(LAC PA-064799)
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Someone mentioned Dome Hill in the Experimental Farm as an excellent spot for some winter activities back in the day. Here's Ottawa three skiers at Dome Hill, sunset in 1931.
This steep slope is actually in the Arboretum.
(CSTM CN34711, via Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies)
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Blustery day in Ottawa ...Ottawa can be beautiful in the winter too. Photo by Norm MacLeod. Early 1970s.
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An Xmas gift you might have got in the past. Dressed to the Nines. Portrait from Pittaway Jarvis no less.About 25 years ago I paid $5 for a red flocked velvet photo album of portraits of someone's friends and relatives that I found in a flea market down near Morrisburg. It was a present to a woman from her cousin and the gift album was dated 1881. The photos seem to be family and friends, but I have never been able to identify anyone by trying to linking the few full names names attached to the folks (most were cousin Mary, Aunt whatever -- to current Ottawa families with photos of kin from the 1880s. My original thought was to find a family for whom the album had some real meaning, but I was totally unsuccessful, which I guess helps explain why it was in a box of junk at a flea market to begin with. I will post three of the photos I found in the album, all taken by Ottawa based photography studios.
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A not so traditional way to spend an Ottawa Boxing Day -- Go Karting in Nepean. The pic says 2008.
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Traditional way to enjoy an Ottawa Boxing Day -- terrifying yourself on a toboggan run.
No place identified for this photo, circa 1952.
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Boxing Day story from the Ottawa Citizen for December 22, 1939. At the time, City Council was voting to make it a Civic Holiday -- so the workers could have a break and there would be no shopping.
Boxing Day has a British history, but story raises a question about how holidays were established before the war and even when Boxing Day became a true holiday.
In the story there were City Council Scrooges who of course declared: "Harrumph, Ottawa already has too many holidays."
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People working off their Christmas dinner, skiing and tobogganing near Bank Street in what I think is Central Park towards the end of Patterson Creek, in the 1920s.
It was the Ottawa improvement Commission that built the driveways, and many of the city's parks. They made a big difference to life here. I love seeing how much the parks are used. That doesn't happen everywhere.
(LAC PA-034354)
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From our friend over at the Ogilvy's page ...DAY 7: 1940 "Charles Ogilvy Limited CHRISTMAS CARD" (unsent w/ original envelope (not pictured)). This is from my personal collection.
I recently bought 35mm slides from a gentleman of the 1969 Fire on Rideau Street and when I got there to pick it up, he had located this also. This is super awesome.
As you can imagine, I'm protective of this piece, but it will be featured properly in my book. The only thing in the original are the foxing marks due to age.
Hope you enjoy this one, and I hope it was worth the "hype".
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!! Here's to a great 2014!! 🙂
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I'll bet quite a few Ottawa households were playing some fine Xmas music yesterday. I had Christmas albums by James Brown and, of course, the Charlie Brown Christmas album. How about you?A fund raising effort Christmas LP produced by CFMO (in the late 1980 I believe).
Workers' History Museum
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In 1998, I lived in Boston. This is what my Yankee pals gave me for Xmas, saying they had found something to represent the Canadian Dream, as opposed to the American Dream.
You don't see the red coats around Ottawa much these days. And there are darn few horses to kiss.
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Lost Ottawa (right) and his brother congratulate themselves on the superb giant turkey they have cooked. Okay ... it's true ... all we really did was measure the temperature to see that it was finally done.
Hey, we also took it out of the pan. And carved. That counts, right guys?
Hopefully, just about now, today's bird will come out just as nice!
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Lost Ottawa on Kitchen Patrol at my brother's house, a few years back.
Today, we're hosting the Christmas Dinner -- for 26 people -- so this is what I'm doing right about now.
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