Thanks, those are great pictures! Elgin looks like it may have been nicer back then.
I believe this is Queen Elizabeth Driveway looking north. Pretoria Bridge would have been to the right. The driveway was not continuous. You had to turn left onto Elgin at the bridge, go through the subway and then turn right again to get back onto the driveway.
I believe this is Queen Elizabeth Driveway looking north. Pretoria Bridge would have been to the right. The driveway was not continuous. You had to turn left onto Elgin at the bridge, go through the subway and then turn right again to get back onto the driveway.
So kind of a similar layout to today, except for the QED portion?
Vanier Towers / Place Vanier, announced January 1968 #Vanier #Ottawa
project completed in 1969, the year Eastview was renamed Vanier. a third, shorter tower ('C') was added some time before 1976, per aerial photos.
Paul Howard @PaulHoward_IMIT
Aerial view of the Rideau Centre, Westin Hotel and old #Ottawa Congress Centre 1983.
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Also was the death knell to Sparks Street shopping 🛍.
I agree. The opening of the Rideau Centre was the death knell of Sparks Street shopping. Many stores moved from Sparks to the Rideau Centre. For example, the long-standing Birks store. W.H. Smith Books also moved to the Rideau Centre. They greatly reduced their store on Sparks and eventually closed it. Eatons also had an impact on Sparks although a few blocks away. Eatons had been at Bank and Laurier.
The other major killer was the Hudson Bay mergers. They had bought out Montreal's Morgan's and Toronto's Simpson's, both of which had stores on Sparks. The merger brought the closure of both stores. Of course, Simpson's had been previously local retailer Murphy-Gamble's.
Wow it's crazy how much worse Dalhousie looks today vs 1938. Imagine having a sidewalk wider then 5ft and not brushing shoulders with people you pass in a high density area of the city...
I agree. The opening of the Rideau Centre was the death knell of Sparks Street shopping. Many stores moved from Sparks to the Rideau Centre. For example, the long-standing Birks store. W.H. Smith Books also moved to the Rideau Centre. They greatly reduced their store on Sparks and eventually closed it. Eatons also had an impact on Sparks although a few blocks away. Eatons had been at Bank and Laurier.
The other major killer was the Hudson Bay mergers. They had bought out Montreal's Morgan's and Toronto's Simpson's, both of which had stores on Sparks. The merger brought the closure of both stores. Of course, Simpson's had been previously local retailer Murphy-Gamble's.
Maybe just an Ottawa thing but how come in Toronto, many of these stores can have a location in the Eaton Centre and still manage to have a second streetfront location a few blocks away (H&M or Indigo Chapters, for example)?
Maybe just an Ottawa thing but how come in Toronto, many of these stores can have a location in the Eaton Centre and still manage to have a second streetfront location a few blocks away (H&M or Indigo Chapters, for example)?
Place du Portage in Hull u/c, early 70s. In the 60s and 70s, the Feds raised huge swaths of Hull for a promised 75/25 balance of Federal jobs between Ottawa and the Quebec side of the River. This has, do this day, never been achieved. In a pandemic/post-pandemic world with many working from home on a part or full-time basis, it will be even harder to figure out.
Actually some people are arguing that the 75-25 has actually been achieved and surpassed by a decent margin due to the pandemic as more than a quarter of the feds' workforce actually lives in Quebec, so when working from home they're actually based and working in Quebec.
I read that recently as well however, the benefits of that split, as per the original intention (taxes and money in the economy), is all but lost with wfh.
That said, the split as presented was never clear. Was it jobs or square footage? Seems to have been jobs originally, but the Harper Government claimed victory on office space after building three towers in Hull a decade ago.
Strange that this all comes up now in the present campaign when the entire idea is even more ambiguous with the current situation.
Certainly in terms of property taxes it's a loss (or at least a potential loss - the owners of Terrasses de la Chaudière are still paying their taxes as the feds are still paying rent).
In terms of Vieux-Hull businesses the relied on public servants yeah it sucks.
But businesses in other parts of Gatineau have probably seen a bit of an uptick in terms of how things were pre-pandemic.
All of those people who worked in Ottawa and ate there and shopped there on their lunch break or in the late afternoon are doing a lot more of their business on the Gatineau side these days.
Unless you are on a full time formal telework agreement your work location is still designated as the office wherever that is located... so I may still live in Ottawa but my work location is Gatineau or vice versa.
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