The Mulroneys of Dalhousie

By Marc Aubin

Lowertown’s Irish community was dotted across the neighbourhood much like the silver lakes that dot the old Emerald Isle from which they came. The Mulroneys were one such family, and lived at 121-123 Dalhousie Street. It is said that the property was given to the Mulroney family by a lumber baron to pay a debt.

The building appears on the old fire insurance maps as early as 1878. James Mulrooney [sic], a local boom man, is listed in the directory in 1891 as residing at 123 Dalhousie Street. His wife, Sophia Mulroney, is listed at the same address as a grocer. In 1912, the Mulroneys built their second home in the backyard at 155-157 Bolton Street.

A 1935 obituary describes Sophia as one of the first members of St. Brigid’s parish. She was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Louis St. Amand, who had come to Ottawa from Rigaud, Quebec around 1860. Louis had a corner grocer at 247 Clarence at the corner of King Edward. It was likely here that Sophia learned the trade.

The Mulroneys of Lowertown have been described as a matriarchal family. The women of the family have always been strong leaders. Sophia, pictured in the photograph in front of her shop and home, is probably the first of these strong women. Viola Smith, a granddaughter who lived to be 101 years, grew up on Bolton Street surrounded by this strength and carried it into her foreign service career that took her to Japan after the Second World War and to Italy and the United States in later years.  The architecture of the house and shop were very typical of early Dalhousie Street commercial properties. A similar corner store serves as another bookend to Dalhousie at the corner of Rideau. The arched window panes evoke a Dickensian age. The cornice above the doorway is now a rare site in Lowertown.

Some residents might remember the corner store as it was in the 1980s. The outside had been covered by a grey pebble stucco veneer. After a fire in the 1990s, one of Sophia’s great-grandsons, who was an engineer, took up the challenge of restoring the building. It was a big task, but made much easier by the fact that the building was constructed of solid timbers throughout.

Descendants of the Muloneys still live at 121-123 Dalhousie Street up to the present day! This might very well make them the oldest Irish Lowertown family still in the neighbourhood.