By Marc Aubin
The old Germain City Tannery was once located at the southwest corner of Murray and Friel Streets. Looking at old depictions of Lowertown one can see some smokestacks in the middle of Lowertown East among all the tiny wooden houses. However, no known photograph exists of this old industrial building.
Edmond Germain came to Ottawa in 1850. The Ottawa directories show him living and working at 337 Clarence in 1862. His 1.5-storey wooden house was at 337 Clarence while his tannery, which employed 10 people, was behind the house and along Friel Street. The tannery was a 2.5-storey building that processed raw animal hides into leather. Besides running his business, Germain was also a well-regarded alderman (city councillor) for the area in the 1880s.
In the late 1800s, Murray Street at this end of Lowertown did not exist, as shown in the map above. Anglesea Square was just a swamp and there were only a few houses on Nelson Street. The tannery was described in one newspaper account as being in an open field. Unlike other tanneries, Mr. Germain`s did not need to be near a river because he had sunk a well on the property.
By 1887, Mr. Germain had built one of the finest brick houses in Lowertown at 339 Clarence next to his old wooden house at 337 Clarence. Unfortunately, that year, according to newspaper accounts, Mr. Germain lost his tannery to another local tanner, William Mackey, to whom he had mortgaged his business and home. Germain blamed protectionist tariffs placed on the U.S. by the Liberal government for destroying his business. The tannery property and all the equipment were sold at auction on October 11, 1887.
After 37 years in Ottawa, it appears that Edmond Germain moved to Quebec City. Two of his sons, Edmond and Gaspard, were listed as tanners in that city’s directory of 1890-91 at 285 St. Valier Street under the name Edmond Germain & Cie.
At the time of his death, Edmond Germain was living in Montcalmville near Quebec City with another of his sons, Alphonse. Despite having left Ottawa years before, Germain was brought back to Ottawa for his funeral at Notre-Dame Cathedral in 1909 and is buried at Notre-Dame Cemetery on Montreal Road. He left behind four sons and two daughters.
The tannery building was used as a planing mill by Desrivières and Company for a short time, but the business soon moved to another location in Lowertown West. By 1891, the Ottawa Canning Company was using the building, and by 1901 the building was occupied by the Watson Carriage Company. Research indicates that Watson tried to woo automobile manufacturers from Detroit to build cars on the premises. The building burned down in 1914 and the lot appears to have remained vacant for many years until some art deco apartment blocks and doubles were built on that corner of Friel and Murray. These brick buildings remain on the property to this day.