Special Events

The Rideau Aquatic Canoe Club races on the Rideau Canal were a big event. They took place between the Bank Street and Pretoria Bridges. St. Paul's Lutheran Church Annual Picnic took place on the Rideau River, just south of where the hydro power lines cross the river. All kinds of games, races, and contests were held.

Corpus Christi was an elaborate religious parade held by the French Roman Catholics in Ottawa East. It started at the Scholasti-cate, the stone building near Oblate Avenue, set way back from Main Street. The parade route was marked by poles with colourful banners on them, set at the sidewalk curb. A house would be selected and ornately decorated as the focal point of the parade. The clergy and parishioners would walk from the Scholasticate through the streets to the shrine house and return singing and chan- ting as they walked. It was very colourful and interesting (no vandalism to the decorations on the route).

Annual Exhibition

This ten-day affair was always an event to look forward to. If you had an extra nickel, you would take a rowboat ferry across the Canal from the end of Herridge Street, to save walking up to Pretoria Bridge and back along the other side. It was especially welcome at night when you went home very tired. Our Ex spending money was earned at the Ex. The cattle, horses and other livestock were unloaded at the Elgin Street railway station and cattle yard, located in the area where the Metcalfe (East) on-ramp to the Queensway is now. To get them to the Exhibition Grounds we would lead one or two animals at a time, by the halter, down Metcalfe Street, which ran to the Ex grounds. For that you got a quarter, maybe fifty cents. For two weeks afterwards your arm was numb, and your feet were sore. Compare that to a $10 grass-cutting job
today. Sometimes we got pocket money by collecting bottles, old iron, etc., to sell to roaming rag beggars.

Main Street - 1914

Here's a tour up Main Street, as we remember it. Let's start, say, in 1914, at the corner where Riverdale Avenue comes into Main Street at the south end. Main Street from this intersection south to the river was just a weed-filled right-of-way for many years. Travelling north from the corner, there was a beautiful home on the east-side of Main, (Mr. Turner's, still existing) and "The Pines," a grand old house on the west side (Mrs. Brown's, where now stands the Cuban Embassy). Newcome's white house sat on the lane from Main to the Canal, next to "The Pines." Trick's garden was also situated on this lane.

On to the Stone Pillars, with no other houses on either side until Clegg Street and Slattery's Field, an open cattle field from Main Street to Echo Drive. Main Street at this time was mostly gravel.
The centre, 15-foot strip was a liquid-applied tar surface. From the centre strip to the sidewalk curb was grass and weeds. Traffic, both horse and car, came from the area on the .other side of Billings Bridge (and still does, multiplied many times).

From Clegg to Herridge, the west side of Main Street had houses, each with garden lots beside them. Every house had a picket fence in front of it. Houses continued on the west side up to Oblate Avenue. On the east side, the Oblate property had a thorn hedge and no sidewalk. Wooden sidewalks on the west side had just been replaced with concrete.

About opposite 228 Main Street, the Oblates had a large gate into their property, which led onto a curved path up to the grey stone Scholasticate. Towering over this path, down either side, were "cathedral- like" elm trees, about 60 to 70 feet high. The main entrance to St. Paul University is
located there now.

Continuing up Main, from Herridge to Hazel, (on the east, Oblate side) was located a French Roman Catholic school, at demolished to make way for the north wing s of St. Paul Seminary. From Hazel to Oblate Avenue was an open field. On Oblate Avenue, set back from Main Street about 200 to 300 feet, was a French Roman Catholic church, now demolished. On the west side, from Hazel almost up to Oblate, were more houses. A lumber mill and a blacksmith shop ended the development at the south end of St. Patrick's College property, now an Algonquin College parking area.

From Oblate (east side) to the railway line (Queensway), Main was built up with houses, and the Calvary Baptist Church.

Old Town Hall

The Town Hall on the corner of Main and Hawthorne was the council chamber for the Village of Ottawa East, a meeting place, election poll and police station - there was a jail cell in the basement, mostly for drunks. The building housed a kindergarten and a French school for a time, and had many other uses. It is a real landmark.

From the north of the Town Hall to the railway line was a row of small stores -now long demolished. Business was good at that time: the Nova Scotia Bank was located in this row in early days.

Main Street, where the Queensway overpass is, was crossed by a railway line. Trains from outside Ottawa were brought to Main Crossing to be "switched back" to Union Station (the Conference Centre) on Rideau Street. A switcher in a hut at the intersection of the rail line and Main lowered a guard rail across the street to stop road traffic. This brought loud protests and horn-honking from motorists. Some cars smashed through the guard rails. Motorists would climb up to the switch cabin to threaten the switcher or punch him if he was too slow.

Pranks

When you go along Harvey Street, north of the Main Street Queensway overpass, and west of the bookstore and post office, continue to the Rideau Canal. There was a wooden pedestrian bridge there, which was opened for water traffic by a man-operated winch with a long handle. The little devil boys used to hide the handle. So when a boat came along, there was panic for a while, because boats had no brakes. After the bridge was rammed a few times the. police caught up with the culprits. Oh, what simple fun in the old days.

Old Hotel

At the top of Main Street, where it intersects Old Echo Drive and to the east down toward Concord Street, was a Hotel. Farmers on their way home from the market would stop at the Hotel for a few beers. Quite often we would have two farmers racing down Main with their teams and wagons, hell-bent for leather. We kids liked this.

Everyday Events

A fire in Ottawa East brought the fire engines up Main Street from Ottawa South at break-neck speed. A huge boiler, to make steam pressure for the high-pressure water pump, was supported on a wooden platform by large wooden-spoked wheels, with hard rubber tires. The whole vehicle was a highly enamelled red, with nickel trim, and drawn by beautiful, dapple-grey horses, manes flowing, smoke belching from the coal fire in the boiler - what a thrill.

A more somber event was the horse "death wagon," a long, low wagon, big enough to fit the dead horses. Some of us followed the cart to the end of Lees A venue where the animal was burned in a furnace with a 5 to 6 foot-diameter chimney, very high, located at the east end of Lees, near where the overpass bridge is.

Main Street Cattle Drive

Every so often a cloud of dust would appear at the south end of Main Street (not totally paved). The cloud signaled that a herd of cattle, 10,20 or 30 of them, was being herded up Main to the Slattery's slaughterhouse, about where Elliot Avenue is, at a spring halfway from Main to the Rideau River. This always created excitement for us kids because some cows got away and had to be rounded up. The cattle destroyed property as they went along, and also left their "trademarks" on the street.

Road Paving

The road-paving days were "Mother's breakdown days." Piles of sand or gravel were dumped on the sidewalks every few feet. Next, a horse-drawn tank, five feet in diameter by 10 or 12 feet long, would spew hot tar from a pipe at the rear. This tar would be spread by men with push brooms, followed quickly by a gang of men with shovels, spreading the sand over the hot tar There was plenty of "uncovered tar" for kids, people's shoes, carts, etc., to pick up and track into the house for days after. Some streets wouldn't solidify for weeks.

Electric Streetcars

This also was a big treat; for a while the fare was 5 cents. From uptown the route branched off Elgin Street at Argyle Avenue, went over Pretoria Bridge, down Hawthorne Avenue then turned south on Main down to Clegg, where it looped around, in that little park, and returned to Elgin Street. This service did not last too many years, I don't know why. Summer service was frequently interrupted by the Pretoria lift-bridge having to be raised to let boat traffic pass under it.

Farm Produce

On farm market days, many farmers would sell all of their produce - potatoes in 100-lb bags, milk, butter, fowl, meat cuts, live geese - right on Main Street. People from the area would come up and bargain with them. Twenty or 30 bags of potatoes would often end up in one house for a winter's supply. Honey, eggs, real cream at 25 cents a quart, stove-wood, clothing all were good buys on Main.

Walking along the east-side of the Rideau Canal was always interesting. The shore was open (no concrete wall) from Bank Street bridge to Nicholas Street. Low-lying places - Echo Drive and the end of Herridge and Hazel Streets - were sometimes flooded over temporarily from high motorboat waves.

Thoughts on Ottawa East and Main Street Today

ArthurWinges:

Yes, we and many more Ottawa East residents have thoughts and ideas for Main Street today, but we are fighting a non-elected Regional government that seems determined to spend millions of our tax dollars to convert Main Street into a high-speed roadway for people living miles away in outlying developments to use as the shortest and quickest way to get to centretown and home again.

I feel Echo Drive, from Pretoria Bridge south to the Riverdale intersection, should be widened to take two-way traffic.Yes, there are a few places where it might be tight, but generally there is room, and today's engineers can do anything.

Remember, not long ago, Nicholas Street in front of the Ottawa U. buildings was only a two-way street; they made it wider, and now it has tremendous traffic volume.

There were problems, like Colonel By Drive and the high embankment, but concrete and steel can do it. Opening up Echo Drive would bring great relief to Main Street.

Gai Winges:

At 81 years, I look down Main Street and remember back - fond memories.

Things have to change - even on Main. Some old homes are still there as I remember them; some have been modified.

Not many of us oldies left now in Ottawa East to look down Main Street in 1990. Do we like what we see? Good question. I like what I remember better than what I see today. We hope that, someday, something will be done to stop Main Street from being the heavy traffic short-cut for cars from all other areas, ripping through Main to get downtown. Ottawa must find a way to open up Echo Drive to through traffic - and it can be done.

Nicholas Street in front of Ottawa U. is a good example where a narrow street was widened without it affecting Colonel By Drive in any way. There are just two places on Echo Drive that are narrow; the remainder to Pretoria Bridge could easily be widened to reduce the heavy flow of traffic on Main Street.

A footnote:

Mr. Gerhardt (Gai) Winges died recently in his 82nd year. His widow Verla lives on Springhurst Avenue. The staff of the MainStreeter join the friends and neighbours of the Wingeses in offering their condolences to Mrs. Winges and to their two daughters, Susan Winges, in Vancouver, B.C..and Mrs. Judy Galloway, in Nepean, Susan's husband, Keith Galloway, and their children. Neil and Heather.

Arthur's and Gai's sister Frieda, Mrs. M. Pillen, aged 90. lives in Provost. Alberta.

They were born in the attractive white house at 228 Main Street, corner of Herridge and Main, where Arthur still lives, now with his daughter Gloria and son-in-law Garry Ryan. Another daughter, Wanda, lives in Toronto. Arthur, 88 was widowed in 1960.

As befits their status as 'Oldest Inhabitants', gentlemen were and are entitled to their opinions about the changes that have come about in the neighbourhood and in society over their lifetimes.

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