Lowertown Lost and Found: McCormick’s Stone Bakery on Dalhousie Street
By Nancy Miller Chenier
Dalhousie Street north of Murray went under the heritage microscope this summer as the LCA Canada Summer Jobs students directed their attention to the people and buildings in this part of Lowertown. The small stone building between St. Andrew and Guigues with its Award of Excellence plaque has always aroused the curiosity of residents and this was the chance to find out more about its story.
Stone buildings are a rarity in Lowertown and a bakery that survived fire even more remarkable. Although this area was the most populated part of early Bytown, investment in permanent stone and brick buildings was limited due to reluctance of the dominant landowner, the Ordnance branch of the British government, to release lots for sale rather than rent.
Dalhousie Street was formally opened in the early 1840s and Henry McCormick was already identified as living on this lot at the time. A published reminiscence suggests that the stone bakery was built around this time and that an early baker was Francis Best, perhaps some relation to McCormick’s wife, Mary Eliza Best. The bakery specialized in shanty biscuits that were long lasting and could be carried into the woods with the workers. It also delivered bread using two-wheeled carts that could navigate the muddy streets.
In 1865, Henry McCormick advertised the lease of a stone bakery and brick dwelling house located at Church (now Guigues) and Dalhousie. The bakery had two splendid furnace ovens, the house had five rooms and a kitchen, and there was good stabling. The suggested use was as a government bakery, presumably expecting special trade as Ottawa moved closer to becoming the capital of the Dominion of Canada McCormick was a very public person in the community. He was present at the September 1849 Stoney Monday Riot and gave testimony at the ensuing trial.
By 1857, he was listed in Lovell’s Canada Directory as a baker and a common school trustee. After offering the bakery for lease, he moved to Sparks Street with his family where his business specialized in flour, feed and grain. His grist mill in Hull employed six men and ground about seventy thousand bushels of wheat per annum. Over the years, he was president of the Building Society, treasurer of the Irish Protestant Benevolent Association, secretary of a Loyal Orange District Lodge and director at Beechwood Cemetery. He later moved his home and mill to Hintonburg, where a park bears the family name.
The stone building continued to be associated with bakers for many decades. Names such as Thomas Iliffe, David Lee, Pierre Pauze have been forgotten in the community, but the legacy of Oscar Gravelle still resonates. Initially, the Gravelle family lived and worked in the cluster of buildings attached to the stone bakery along Dalhousie. In the 1950s, the confectionary business was opened next door, where the large window could be used to display the goods.
Recollections by Lowertown residents often recount the aromatic as well as the visual experience of the bakery. Rita Morel, in Sharing 90 years of Lowertown memories told how she still expected the stones of Gravelle bakery to be warm when she walked by and how on baking day the whole of Lowertown was permeated with its wonderful smells. In her book Coming of Age in Lowertown, Doris Lee-Momy described the diverse confectionaries made by Mr and Mrs. Gravelle – “every kind of dainty delicacies possible: Napoleons, cream puffs, éclairs, marguerites, Jelly rolls, elaborate wedding cakes, fruit pies, doughnuts, butterfly danish, palm leaves…”
In 1980, Domicile Developments Incorporated restored 210 Dalhousie for office use and in 1982, the building was honoured with a plaque. This noteworthy early Bytown bakery received a special treat – the first City of Ottawa Architectural Conservation Award for a commercial building.