By John Chenier
The designation of parts of Lowertown as a historical district means different things to different people. For some it is seen as a hindrance to their plans for demolition and re-development. For others like Donna Kearns and Peter Thomas Gaby, it is an opportunity to preserve and showcase the history of our community. They have heavily invested both time and money to return three properties in the historic district to a state as close to the original as possible. 146 Dalhousie
Their adventure began in 1996 when the building at 146 Dalhousie came up for sale. After renting a shop on Dalhousie for many years, Donna was keen to relocate her business to a single place she could call her own, rather than the three different locations she had previously.
However, the building, built in 1899, was much the worse for wear. The brickwork had been painted numerous times over the years and was suffering from moisture damage and neglect. The ornate tinwork — done by the same person who did the tin house hanging on the wall of Tin House Court, Honoré Foisy — was hidden under layers of paint. Hardly an ideal image for Donna’s clothing and interior design shop.
Restoration began with both the interior and exterior. The interior had to be renovated first for both the retail and workshop of Donna’s business. Over several years, the exterior was restored, wall by wall, with paint removed from the brick. Damaged bricks were replaced, and each wall was repointed with mortar to the original formula and colour.
While the work on the exterior brickwork was underway, the many layers of paint on the ornamental tin work were removed. Peter cut out damaged and rusted portions of the cornice, reproduced the missing sections, and then reinstalled them. It should be noted that in addition to being a trained City and Guilds coppersmith, Peter is a man with many other talents and even more tools. In his workshop, he restores antique furniture and woodwork to their former glory. He also indulges his passion for restoration of vintage cars and motorcycles.
Like many older buildings in Lowertown, 146 Dalhousie served several purposes over the years. At one time it was a tobacconist and a pool hall operated by Jean Baptiste Foisy, who lived in an apartment above the store. Faded lettering advertising his business was revealed under the layers of paint on the tin work during the restoration process and was documented.
There have been several reconfigurations of the apartments above the shop. A partial restoration of the upper floors, completed in 1984, was altered after Donna and Peter purchased the property, to suit its new function as retail and workshop spaces.
144 – 146 Cathcart
In 2002, they purchased the building next door to the shop. This double was originally built in 1876 by William Kipp, a Dutch immigrant. He lived in one side and used the other to provide rental income. The building has been through many alterations since. Sometime in the past, the two units were converted into one and have served at different times as a boarding house and residential facility.
While their first restoration project on Dalhousie St. dealt extensively with the exterior brick, 144-146 Cathcart’s major problem was structural. Many of the internal beams and supports were cut away at different points in its long history and the framework was compromised. The skeleton of the building was constructed using the horizontal plank method which was common in Ottawa at a time when lumber was plentiful. The best way to visualize this method is to think of a log cabin built of square planks instead of logs. The structure consists of three-inch planks stacked one on top of the other with the outer walls interlocked at the corners.
Like log cabins, these walls have a tendency to shrink over the years from drying and compression. The grain in the wood can cause waves inwards and outwards along the wall. All the damaged interior walls and floors were removed and new internal structural supports installed. A 2×4 frame construction and additional floor beams were erected on the interior, level by level. The horizontal plank walls were stabilized and secured to the new interior framing. Most of the original plank floors were reinstalled. Once this was completed, a mill in South Mountain reproduced interior moldings and trim along with the clapboard needed to restore the exterior to the original specifications.
During the restoration of the interior, Peter and Donna lived for some time in the attic. In the beginning, they were running their hot water through a garden hose from Donna’s shop next door. As you might have guessed, not much of the original interior had been retained through the many previous changes. Most of the interior doors had been replaced by fire doors to meet building code requirements for a boarding house. Typical of its time, the wooden windows were replaced with aluminum and all traces of the original house were obliterated to satisfy modern tastes and economy.
During the extensive restoration of 146 Dalhousie, Peter had located a craftsman who made custom windows and doors. Peter installed these, along with historically accurate locks, hinges and door knobs. He was lucky to find someone on eBay who was selling some of the architectural salvage hardware he needed.
120 Boteler
In 2007, while still renovating their Cathcart home, the untimely death of a friend, John Bingham (a descendent of Samuel Bingham, once mayor of Ottawa, a city benefactor and donor of Bingham Park) resulted in their purchase of the Bingham family home at 120 Boteler. This house had always been the family residence and most exterior features were original. The windows and the fascia along the roof line had rotted away and needed restoration, as did the front porch. The brickwork was repointed and the rotted exterior wooden windowsills were replaced with stone, and a couple were raised to accommodate the height of kitchen counters.
The interior was gutted and the work of restoration began to bring the house up to modern standards of insulation, plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling. Once this was completed, the task of reproducing, the design elements of the original interior began. Doors, windows and moldings were again reproduced from the original.
Another major project Peter and Donna undertook was the basement. The low height made the basement difficult to access. They decided to excavate four feet to make the basement a fully functional part of the house. They dug out a ramp at the back of the house and cut the foundation to allow for a small excavator to enter and a Bobcat to go in and out carrying the dirt in the bucket.
Peter describes the experience as something that would make the Keystone Cops look good. That summer there was a lot of rain, and the ramp going into the basement was so muddy that the Bobcat was constantly getting stuck, and when it wasn’t stuckthe ramp was dangerously slippery. They had to resort to carting the dirt in wheelbarrows on planks to a conveyor belt which carried the dirt out to the bucket of the Bobcat which then dumped it into the back yard for removal.
During their excavation, they encountered both Leda clay and several very large boulders. However, the biggest challenge was creating new footings under the existing stone foundation. For obvious reasons this had to be done in small sections; excavate, compact the soil, build a frame and pour the new section of wall and footing. First they tried bringing the cement in by wheelbarrow, but after a very brief trial-and-error period they realized that pumping and piping the concrete in was the only way they could do the job.
Peter chuckles when he recounts the surprise they had when they realized they were totally unable to lift and move the 20-foot pipe filled with concrete over to the next frame. You get the impression that he learned just enough to know how to do the job if he had to do it again, but also enough to know he wouldn’t want to.
The whole restoration project took just over two years of intensive work. In 2011, Bingham House at 120 Boteler received an Award of Excellence from the Ottawa Architectural Conservation Committee.
Seventeen Years later
The restoration of their home on Cathcart is now nearly complete. After years of searching, their great stroke of luck occurred when Marc Aubin uncovered a photograph from the early 1900s which clearly showed their house.
Marc’s photo was instrumental in providing Peter with the information he needed to reproduce the missing elements of a historically accurate front porch and façade. Work was completed in 2015 and shortly after the front porch restoration the house received an Award of Merit from the Ottawa Architectural Conservation Committee.
The last remaining restoration challenge on Cathcart, is the third floor interior and some exterior details and handrails.
While the two sides of the building are still combined into one unit, throughout the restoration Peter and Donna have been careful to ensure that the house can be returned to the way it was built, as two separate houses. The access which allows them to move from one side to the other is designed so that it can be closed off in future. This means that all walls between the units, including the attic, must meet current building codes and provide firebreaks.
Obviously, the skills that Donna and Peter have between them were important to the undertaking and completion of all these projects. The restoration has been a constant overlap of their professional lives and their personal interests. They have worked together on many other projects, but this was an opportunity to follow their own very specific ideas of living in a heritage building.
Along with a desire to live in a historically significant building, they hope to encourage others to preserve the heritage character of the neighbourhood. The residents of Lowertown who can admire the results of their efforts every time they walk by are glad that they did.