By Marc Aubin
Wurtemburg Street, running north from Rideau Street to Laframboise Place in historic Lowertown East, could justifiably be renamed St-Georges Street. After all, it’s likely that no other family has lived in greater numbers or for a longer period on Wurtemburg than the St-Georges family. The legacy begins with William (Guillaume) and Rose-Alma (née Beaudet) St-Georges.
Married at Eglise Sainte-Anne in 1912, the young married couple moved to Wurtemburg Street a few years later. The area was one of the last sections of Lowertown to be fully developed; it was the final frontier of Lowertown in the easternmost part of the neighbourhood between the St. Patrick and Cummings bridges. Around 1910, the land was sold to the Riverview Property Limited, a syndicate of local investors. Over the next year, the company extended Wurtemburg Street through to St. Patrick and began to sell lots. Here, buyers were required to situate no closer than 10 feet from the street line, to lay a stone foundation, to build a minimum of 2-1/2 storeys and to face the outside with stone, brick or stucco.
This part of Lowertown was very different from the rest of the neighbourhood. With the newly landscaped Macdonald Gardens Park (known by many as Borden Park) nearby, there was plenty of green space. As the area developed, the houses that were built were larger, often made out of brick and more evenly spaced out. This was a more residential, suburban pattern of land development, without a lot of commercial activity. The tranquility of the area was in stark contrast to the hustle and bustle down on St Patrick Street or around Anglesea Square.
All of these qualities made Wurtemburg Street the perfect place to raise children, which was exactly what William and Rose-Alma did. Their seven daughters (Alberte, Fernande, Jacqueline, Madeleine, Marguerite, Marie-Paule, Thérèse) and two sons (Marcel and Maurice) all grew up on Wurtemburg. Alberte recalled sledding at the nearby park with her many siblings, picking fresh strawberries and herbs known as cressons (watercress) in summer, and hopping on an electric tram to Britannia Beach.
Several years ago in a conversation with Alberte St-Georges Carisse, the story of William St-Georges the builder emerged. Alberte remembered both her parents as honest and hardworking individuals with calm demeanors. Rose-Alma worked to maintain the household of nine children while William worked as a contractor focused on masonry with a particular specialization in bricklaying. Among his many jobs, she recalls him working on a church in Cyrville as well as an Ottawa theatre.
More notable for the family, he built three small apartment blocks along Wurtemburg over the course of two decades. The first building occupied by William and family was 96 Wurtemburg with six units, built circa 1913. About a decade later, around 1925, he constructed 94 Wurtemburg, with four units. Finally by 1931, he had built and was living in one of the four units of 92 Wurtemburg. The family probably didn’t know it at the time, but these three houses would eventually become a small village of several generations of St-Georges members. By the 1950s, seven of William and Rose-Alma’s children, with the exception of Thérèse and Marguerite, were living on Wurtemburg Street.
A century later, the cluster of brick houses built by William St-Georges still stand strong. The small low-rise apartment building with the mansard roof at 96 Wurtemburg is on the City of Ottawa Heritage Register. The small charmer at 92 Wurtemburg retains most of its original features, including the decorative brick work created by William, while 94 Wurtemburg is much altered but still provides rental homes for Lowertowners.