Posted by: Steve Adamson

Featured in the April 2021 OSCAR.

I was organizing my late parents’ slides and found five aerial photos of what was then called Ottawa South which I believe were taken by my father, Ted Adamson, in 1967. Here are some of the differences I noticed between then and now.

Photo by Ted Adamson.

Bank Street

  • Building with Alta Vista Flowers is not there. From Belmont to the building that housed Subway was a Ford car dealership
  • The Campanile Building (now Global Pet Foods and the Bridgehead Coffee Shop) had a bus parking lot and a small bus terminal. The #7, then called the 1A, pulled into the parking lot for a time stop. Previous to that, the street cars would turn around there (I believe – street cars were before my time)
  • There was a small movie theatre, The Strand, where Tim Horton’s is located
  • Where Quickie is located, there was a gas station, probably BP (British Petroleum)
  • Lansdowne looks very different
  • Trinity Anglican Church had a front lawn
  • There were 3 gas stations on west side of Bank Street from Sunnyside to Aylmer

Hopewell Public School

  • the building was smaller than the current one
  • the boys school yard on east side of school at corner of Hopewell and Bank St.
  • the girls school yard on west side of school
  • the toddlers yard on northwest was a parking lot for teachers
  • the yard between Glen and Hopewell was gravel not grass
  • the smaller building on east side of main building was the gym

Perley Veterans Home

The home was on Aylmer Avenue where the Colonel By Residence is currently located.

Intersection of Avenue Rd and Riverdale

This was a 5-way intersection with traffic coming from Riverdale (north & southbound), Avenue Rd. and Echo Dr. (North & southbound). There was just a yellow flashing light on a post in the middle of the intersection warning drivers to be careful. I saw at least one collision at this dangerous intersection.

Photo by Ted Adamson.

Block of Scotia Place, Willard, and Bellwood

This was the site of St. Margaret Mary Catholic Elementary School.

St Margaret Mary Church

There were no houses on the east side of the church, just trees which made a great play area and fantastic tobogganing in the winter.

Brewer Park

Had a swimming pond with beach and a change building. All is naturalized now and the building was recently demolished.

Monastery of the Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood

There were no houses on Sunnyside Avenue across the street from the Firehall where the Monastery’s yard had a tall wooden fence at the edge of the road along Sunnyside Ave.

Photo by Ted Adamson.

Firehall

The Firehall was still Number 10 Fire Station. The fire station soon after moved out of OOS to its current location on Fifth Avenue because the doors and bays were too small for the new larger fire trucks.

Windsor Park

The park was just open space and included a city work yard at the end of Windsor Ave. There were no play structures (just one climbing frame behind the #5 bus shelter on Riverdale), but in winter there was a skating rink.

Steve Adamson grew up, and still lives, in OOS.