By Nancy Miller Chenier
Who was John Gunn and how would he feel in 2022 about his family house at 262 Cathcart Street? Now painted a cheerful yellow and sitting in a distinctive heritage streetscape, this venerable Lowertown house is visibly loved and appreciated. What is the story of this house, now such a significant contributor to our Lowertown West Heritage Conservation District (HCD)? What is the substance behind this pretty façade?
In 1894, the Ottawa Citizen had an article about John Gunn’s 95th birthday with a headline that read “Oldest Native Born Citizen”. It reported that John Gunn was born in 1819 across the Ottawa River at Pointe Gatineau. This was a pre-Bytown era when the Rideau Canal was still just a plan on paper. When he died in 1915, he was extolled as a pioneer of the district, “one of most widely esteemed men of the city.”
In the 1851 census, John Gunn, his wife Anna Burgess, two children and a servant were living in a one- storey log building in the ward, perhaps built on this location in the 1840s. The 1860s Ottawa directories confirm that John Gunn was living on Cathcart Street between Cumberland and King. By 1881, John and Anne had four girls and three boys living with them. Evidently, the Gunn family were attached to this place and in 1948, almost 100 years after the log building, 262 Cathcart Street was occupied by John and Ann’s daughter, Jane Gunn McDonnell. Even into the 1970s, John and Anne’s grandson, Osmond McDonnell, lived next door at 266 Cathcart.
John Gunn’s work as a lumber culler, skilled work that involved measuring and assessing different types of wood for quality and eventual use, seems to have given the family financial security and opportunity. He worked in early days for J. M. Currier at his Rideau Falls lumber mill and then, with his training, was hired by McLaren Lumber to be in charge of its culling operations along the upper Gatineau River.
During his lifetime, Gunn owned several properties on Cathcart Street, including the rare double at 266-268 next door. He was a supporter of the Notre Dame, St Brigid and St Joseph parishes and served on the board of the Irish Catholic Temperance Society, crediting his longevity to temperance.
The Gunn children moved on to new lives. One son, T.J. Gunn, became a well known grocer at the corner of Rideau and Dalhousie and later a prolific letter writer to the Ottawa Citizen, promoting a renewed ByWard market for farmers. A daughter, Anna, married Felix McCullough, a prominent Ottawa contractor, who among other buildings, constructed the McCullough Apartments at 8 Tormey Street.
The house moved slowly to the heritage status that it now claims. In 1976, it was included in the heritage preservation zone recommended by the Lower Town West plan of Murray and Murray. In 1981, 262 Cathcart and 266-268 Cathcart were on the agenda of the city’s Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee to be considered for individual heritage designation. No action on the designation was mentioned when 262 Cathcart was evaluated for the 1992 HCD study. The evaluation did acknowledge that the building constructed prior to 1861 was a rare example of an early Lowertown dwelling.
This 1992 HCD study was the impetus that gave the house a new lease on life. In the 1990s, it got a facelift and wooden shingles as well as an addition at the back that conformed to the HCD infill guidelines. When it was advertised for sale in 2006, it was described as a unique ByWard heritage renovation. Its outward appearance as a single worker’s cottage concealed the expanded addition at the back. The current owners have enhanced the streetscape and neighbourhood engagement with a small front seating area using wood salvaged from the ongoing renovation at 266 Cathcart.
John Gunn was proud to be part of this neighbourhood that grew from humble beginnings. He laboured in and contributed to the growth of Ottawa’s early lumber industries. He built a solid house for his growing family and gave our community a distinctive architectural gem. He was one of the resilient Lowertowners that is now honoured by the respect for and preservation of his house.