Marc Aubin
Out of the 500 crowded buildings that once stood in the eastern triangle that was bordered by King Edward Avenue, St. Patrick Street, and the Rideau River, only about 35 remain. Of those 500 buildings, we have been able to identify about 15 to 20 families that lived in the area for many years. The Carters were among them. A couple of summers ago, I caught up with one descendent, Georges Carter, in Toronto.
One would find the name Carter unusual when researching Lowertown of old. Typically, they were predominately French names. It turns out that the Carters are descended from United Empire Loyalists! Surgeon Major of the British Army, Christopher Carter came to Sorel, Canada, from Boston in 1783. His grandson, Edward Albert Wellington Carter, travelled to Ottawa’s Lowertown circa 1866 and married Angèle Couturier, a descendant of an early worker on the Rideau Canal.
Edward eventually began work at a local printing establishment and when the Government Printing Bureau was established on St Patrick Street in the late 1880s, Edward worked his way up to become foreman of Parliamentary Room No. 2. This large enterprise, located on the site of the current National Art Gallery, provided many Lowertown families with good, secure jobs.
The Carter family moved around Lowertown, but by the 1890s settled at 314 St. Andrew Street with their four sons and three daughters. The strong ties with the francophone community were evident when daughter Blanche married Jules Tremblay, a well-known French-Canadian author whose works included histories of Saint Anne Church and the Water Street Hospital, eventually known as the Ottawa General Hospital. The house at 314 St. Andrew remained in the family until the 1950s.
In 1915, according to the Ottawa Journal, one of the most impressive funerals ever to take place at Saint-Anne’s Church was that of Edward A. W. Carter. Over five hundred people attended; notably a large contingent from the Printing Bureau that included Irish Farrells and Gleesons as well as French Laverdures, Pinards, and Paradis. Not bad for a British Loyalist in Lowertown!
William George Carter, the eldest of Edward and Angele’s children, followed in his father’s footsteps and worked at the Printing Bureau for 40 years. His wife, Eugénie Labelle, and their children (Marcel, Hermance, and Jeanne) lived at 295 St. Andrew Street; Eugenie continued to live there after her husband’s death in 1937. Marcel became a vice-president at the CBC, and Hermance was a nurse at what was then the Ottawa General Hospital on Bruyère Street. Jeanne became a legal secretary after graduating from Rideau Convent.
Georges Carter, the son of Marcel Carter, shared his recollections of St. Andrew Street from 1945 to 1952. He frequently visited family at 314 St. Andrew, and his grandmother Eugénie and his aunt Jeanne at 295 St. Andrew. He recalls the house being made of wood, very narrow and long. He also recalls the glory days of the Rideau Street shopping district, which, in his opinion, now pales in comparison. It was on Rideau Street that he first took a transit ride some 52 years ago. He also recalls one of his distant cousins, former Councillor Georges Bédard, who lived nearby at 252 Bruyère with his hard-working mother, a young widow with a large family.
While 295 St. Andrew Street, and 297 next door, have changed quite a bit over the years, much of their original façades are likely hiding under the layers placed over them down the years. Could they one day be restored with the photos taken by the Carters? Will these examples of Lowertown working-class cottages, 2 of only 35 left out of 500, be restored one day and survive? Perhaps, and if they do it will be thanks to the photos left behind by the Carters.