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Ottawa and Parent – Then and Now

So the Streetcar exhibition is gearing up at the Art Gallery of Windsor. The show opens next weekend, October 3rd and runs through January 3, 2010. So make a plan to come see it. This afternoon all the material is turned in and the framing and hanging begins…

One of what I think will be one of the more interesting parts of the exhibition will be the “Then & Now” shots.

Photo above, looking east along Ottawa St. from Parent Ave. c. 1938. Photo from the Bernie Drouillard Collection.

Photo above, looking east along Ottawa St. from Parent Ave. 2009.

Andrew

View Comments

  • It's interesting that the building that used to house Scores has had every bit of detail removed over the years to become a boring ugly box. The front gable, the decorative brickwork over the facade, even the step down along the side all gone. Not to mention the windows bricked up. It almost looks like a different building.

  • Keith I believe the buliding you are referring to is the building on the right which in the "now" pic, is gone. If you look closely the buliding on the left is theone in the "now" picture though missing the small ornamentation on the top.

    Check out the fantastic streetlights (far right of the picture). It sure is better than those "funky" ones that are downtown now.

  • Keith, the Scores/Ottawa Tavern building is the farther of the two in the old photo. The photo is not the best, but you can see "HOTEL" down the side of the bar building.

    The building next to it met its end to allow for a bigger gas station.

  • I have to admit, as much as I like streetcars, I don't like that web of overhead wires. I guess people got used to looking at the sky through a lot of wires, but it looks confining to me. I know modern systems use less wires, but some are still required, I guess, unless the cars are self-powered.

  • look at the 2 photos of ottawa street the more modern one and the one from 1938 notice how much better shape the road surface is in the earlier photo the entire length of ottawa stre is shit i don't know why this city lets road surfaces get to the point that most of them now are in andrew do you have any photos of the old gas staion that is just showing the edge of the overhang in the photo from 1938? that would be nice to see i'm betting it's an old suptst gas statio

  • mmm i don't know about those road conditions gary. looks like a bunch of patch work pavment over lumpy old bricks that constantly get shifted out of place by streetcars and snow plows.

  • The brick work at the intersections, was part of trying to give Ottawa St. a distinctive look, along with the arches at each end. Not old bricks but from late 70's early 80's. Supertest was a chain of gas stations bases in London On. They where very different from other because of their design.

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