By Nancy Miller Chenier
Louis Francis Tradburks arrived in Canada from Austria at a time when apartment houses were becoming fashionable in Ottawa. The Ottawa Journal was headlining stories about the popularity of living in a flat for middle-class families, and Tradburks pursued the trend seriously.
When he established his general contracting business in 1909, he was only 21 years of age. Around then, York Street had just opened up from King Street to Chapel Street, and by1912 Tradburks had purchased land at the corner of York and Nelson. Here he planned to build a large three-storey walk-up apartment building.
The scale of the Intercolonial Court Apartments was ambitious, with 29 residential flats and 1 commercial unit. On completion, the Intercolonial Court Apartments had 3separate entrances with 8 units at 253 York, 7 units at 255 York and 14 units at 257 York. Occupants of the apartments began to be listed in the Ottawa directories in 1915. By 1916, Louis Tradburks was recorded as a resident at 255 York. Max Appel and Fanny Tradburks who was Louis’s sister were early residents, and early storekeepers in the commercial space at the corner of Nelson.
The building is recognized on the current City of Ottawa heritage register as an example of Edwardian Classicism. It is described as a large red-brick apartment building with a bracketed cornice with overhanging eaves. It also has diamond medallions of brick above the third floor and horizontal brick banding between the stories. Both of these features reveal cream-coloured brick under white paint.
No record has been found of the origins of the building’s design, but speculation leads to the thought that perhaps the architectural features were influenced by the proximity of Tradburks’ office to those of architects Henry Ballantyne and Moses Edey in the same Sparks Street building.
Tradburks seems to have been a youthful risk taker in the real-estate field, with accounts of multiple early endeavours. Within a year of starting his business, it was reported that he planned to build near the corner of Somerset and Lebreton. When he bought land for the Intercolonial Court Apartments, he already had a small apartment building at 508 Besserer Street. In 1911, he purchased property in south Ottawa. By 1914, there were rumours of a large project involving residential and commercial space near the Ottawa Journal Building on Elgin Street.
But his real-estate career seems to have ended abruptly when in 1916 at the age of 28 he suffered a mental breakdown that led to his hospitalization in Brockville. A dramatic court case ensued when his family contested a very short-lived marriage to his former secretary, Agnes Bothwell. News reports at the time estimated his property wealth at about $70,000.
The Intercolonial Court survived the urban renewal demolitions that changed much of Lowertown east of King Edward Avenue. Currently it is totally empty of residents and is undergoing major interior renovations. Is this a new beginning for this unique Lowertown apartment building?