By Elisabeth Krug
In the 1870s and 1880s, Lowertown was growing at a phenomenal rate. Accounts of that period show that Ottawa architect James R. Bowes (1851-1892) was as close as it comes to an official city architect during a good part of those decades. The Kingston-born architect of Irish origin helmed numerous and impressive building projects. St. Brigid’s (formerly spelled St. Bridget’s) Roman Catholic Church (1890, contractor John J. Lyons) was one of his most notable and final achievements, as he died tragically young, in 1892, in a building fire in California.
He had served an early apprenticeship/partnership with his architect father, John Bowes, who worked for the federal Department of Public Works. In the 1875-1877 building-boom years, J.R. Bowes was responsible for at least six prominent buildings in Lowertown:
The Convent of the Good Shepherd, or the Couvent des Révérendes Soeurs du Bon Pasteur, an institution to house “the reclamation of fallen women” on land granted to the sisters by the late Bishop Guigues, was built on Park Street, (a year later renamed St. Andrew, now the new St. Patrick St.) on the south bank of the Ottawa River. It was a Gothic Revival four-storey limestone structure with attic and pitched roof, destroyed by fire in 1938. The cornerstone was laid on July 12, 1875. Presiding clergy included Bishop Duhamel, Vicar General Jouvent, Revs. Fathers Pallier, Arnois, and Foley. The builder/ contractor was Alderman O.A. Rocque, with Mr. Fink, plasterer, and Mr. Folsy, stonecutter. It was completed in 1877. It was also known as the Monastère de Notre-Dame de Charité de Bon-Pasteur d’Angers. It now houses the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China to Canada.
The French Canadian Institute or L’institut canadien-français d’Ottawa, still standing, after a great fire in 1887, at 18-20 York Street, between Sussex and ByWard Market. The three-storey limestone structure with Mansard roof with ornamental iron tower opened to great ceremony June 19, 1877, to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Institute. It housed offices, library, billiard and lecture rooms, a theatre and opera hall and it accommodated chess, rehearsals and gymnastic exercises. Mr. James Bowes was the architect, Mr. F.X. L’heureux, the contractor, Mr. Robert Crane, masonry, Mr. Pierre Marier, stone cutting, Mr. E. G. Laverdure, gas and water pipes, Mr. T. Pruneau, for painting, M.M. Capello and Parizza for decorating. Mr. Joseph Tassé, the Chairman of the Building Committee, gave the inaugural address. The Institute was leased to various travelling theatrical groups, including, in 1884, the York Street Circus.
Improvements to Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica on Sussex, involved the placement of galleries to run the length of the interior on both sides, affording 120 extra pews, as well as a new ceiling. The architects were Messrs. Bowles [sic] and Son (misspelling by The Daily Citizen, December 6, 1875), contractor John McDougal. These were subsequently altered by Rev. Canon Georges Bouillon.
‘Cottages’ fronting Major’s Hill for Aldermen Heney and McDougal, two-storey double tenements with two-storey verandahs, in a Gothic Revival style in Toronto white brick. Major’s Hill was also known as ‘Barrack Hill’ and considered part of Parliament Hill. Trespassing was prohibited in order to preserve the ‘picturesque beauty …on the escarpments’. There was a new awareness of the beauty on the broad face of the ‘small lumber town’. A movement to petition for a public park had begun in 1861. The government had wanted to build a new Government House for the Governor General on the site and a new City Hall was proposed for it in the early 1870s. The site became a public park with a private residential street, Park Avenue, for residents ‘of a superior class’. (Michael Newton, Lower Town Ottawa Volume 2, 1854-1900, (Ottawa, 1981) pp. 271-291.)
Landreau’s block on the corner of Murray and Sussex, three storeys high in white brick, 12 bays facing Sussex, 12 bays facing Murray, containing two stores. Contractors were S. Gregson, masonry, Jacob Rackey “for the rest” (Michael Newton, p. 571). The mortgage was with La Société de Construction Canadien d’Ottawa. It was destroyed by fire in the late 1960s. “On” Sandy Hill, a new wing of the Ottawa College, predicted, in 1875, to become one of the largest of its kind in Ontario, five stories high with attic, with an interior, exhibition hall, recreation room and dormitory in the latest design. This building burned down in 1903.
In the late 1880s, the Citizen and the periodical Canadian Architect and Builder reported on more of James Bowes’ buildings. He was responsible for the building of four separate schools, including Our Lady’s School for girls on the corner of Murray and Cumberland in 1888, adjacent to St. Brigid’s Church. It was rebuilt in the first decade of the 20th century, now dilapidated and cause of Ottawa Heritage concern.
In 1888, J.R. Bowes was the architect of the Congregational Church on the north-east corner of Elgin and Albert, and of the new Central Police Station on Elgin Street, and, in 1889, for a new Fire Station in Dalhousie Ward. These buildings are no longer standing.