Six Landmarks And One Abomination

 On my way over to photograph Strathcona Park for yesterday's post, I decided to photograph some spots along the way in Sandy Hill. I started with this. Toller House dates to 1875 and today is home to the embassy of Croatia. I have been inside here for Doors Open.

A couple of blocks away stands Laurier House, a home to two prime ministers and a national historic site. Built in the Second Empire style and initially built in 1878, it became home to Wilfred and Zoe Laurier, and after her death was willed to the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, William Lyon Mackenzie King, who would be our longest serving PM. Artifacts of the Lauriers and King are inside, and it is open to the public during part of the year. Well, when there's not Covid. Hopefully later in the year I'll get a chance to get back inside.

Across from Laurier House stands the former All Saints Anglican Church, a place with plenty of history of its own. After the parish moved on, it was acquired by an organizer with a vision; she created allsaints, an event space and arts centre. A restaurant has taken up quarters in what was the church basement, something that had been in planning stages when I was last here during a Doors Open visit.

Two more views of Laurier House.

Just down the street stands Stadacona Hall. Dating to 1871 and built for a timber baron, it was subsequently home to our first Prime Minister, John A. Macdonald, and his family, for a few years before they moved off to Earnscliffe not so far away. Today it is an embassy, the High Commission for Brunei Darussalam. For those who might not be aware, high commissions are the term used for any embassy for a Commonwealth member in another country that's part of the Commonwealth.

A peek between hedge bushes. I've been inside a couple of times, during Doors Open, which usually happens the first weekend of June here. Covid being as it is, odds are Doors Open won't happen again this year.

And a bit further up the street, with a view looking down into Strathcona Park. This building dates to 1877, in the Tudor Revival style. What was a mansion now houses a restaurant and culinary art institute in one setting. Signatures is the restaurant side of things, and Le Cordon Bleu is the other side of it. Also a mainstay of Doors Open, and a popular one. I mentioned in yesterday's post about a building with a dash of blue seen from in the park. This is it.

And yet another regular feature at Doors Open, and one I've visited several times. Fleck-Paterson House dates to 1901, built by the timber baron J.R. Booth for his daughter Gertrude Fleck. It later came into the hands of a senator, Norman Paterson. Today it is home to the embassy of Algeria.

Six beautiful buildings above.

Now for the abomination.

The Russian embassy stands close to the Algerian embassy; if standing in the backyard of the latter and looking at the west side of the property perimeter, you're looking up at the back wall of the place. This is the view of the front of the embassy, from the intersection of Laurier Avenue and Charlotte Street. The place looks like a bunker. Hideous. Out of place. Unfriendly.

I took a couple of shots, wondering if I was being watched.

To which I'll say this much to the occupants of this monstrosity: your embassy is ugly, and your president Vladimir is a petty little despotic wanker of a human being with sticky fingers, the pallor of a corpse, a mad-on against the universe just because he was born, and a desperate need to compensate for being overly short, along with other shortcomings- especially south of the beltline.

I don't think Putin's going to invite me for dinner. 

Lives Of Two Prime Ministers

Picking up where we left off yesterday, here are some of the paintings of Josh Silburt, who followed up his editorial cartooning career by focusing on his art. In the days of Laurier and King, these corridors and rooms were servants quarters and offices for staff, and this was my first time back in this area, which has usually been off limits to the public.

This level includes items from both prime ministers, such as these in what was a formal guest room.

The player piano below occupies the Laurier Library. Wilfred used it as his personal office, while King made use of it as a guest room.

Here we have a view of the master bedroom. The Lauriers used it for that, and King did later. It is still decorated much as King would have left it.

Upstairs on the top floor is a room that would have been used by the head housekeeper in the Laurier days, while King turned it into his breakfast room, taking meals in here when he wasn't entertaining. His study was across the hall in a room that Laurier had used for billiards.

This room includes a peculiar set of artifacts- the Liberal Party of Canada gifted these to King. Abraham Lincoln had plaster casts made of his face at the time of the 1860 Republican nomination and his hands before his departure for Washington, done by Leonard Volk. Three copies of the Volk casting exist- one in the Smithsonian, one in a private collection in the United States, and the last one here. 

I headed back downstairs, pausing in the drawing room on the ground floor.

Then I stepped out onto the spacious terrace wrapping around this part of the house.

A Prime Ministerial Residence

Yesterday I featured the neighbour to this building, and today I feature Laurier House, a prominent fixture and National Historic Site here in the Sandy Hill area. The residence of two prime ministers, it is administered by Parks Canada and open to visitors through the summer. It regularly participates in Doors Open. The equipment on the front lawn was only there temporarily- new glass panes were being installed.

This Second Empire manor dates to the 19th century, and starting in 1897 was the residence for Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier and his wife Zoe. She outlived him by a couple of years, and willed it to the new leader of the Liberal Party, William Lyon Mackenzie King, who used it as his in-town residence and pretty much ran the country from his study. Artifacts of the Lauriers and King can be found within. This is the Morning Room on the ground floor.

A small office off this room was used in King's day by the Mounties as a security post. A uniform remains today, while a photograph of King George VI with Queen Elizabeth share the wall with one of Mackenzie King and Winston Churchill. The latter stayed here in Laurier House during wartime visits.

This room is the formal dining room, used by both the Lauriers and King for entertaining.

Laurier House is hosting an exhibit this summer on Josh Silburt, a Canadian editorial cartoonist and artist whose work in the first dates to the 1930s and 1940s, ranging from national to international subjects, with a sly sense of humour to them. Some of his paintings, from after that period, are also included, and I'll show you them in tomorrow's post.

A Prime Ministerial Home

Picking up where I left off yesterday in Laurier House, here in the Laurier Library, a player piano sits. Parks Canada guides are to be found on each floor, and one started up the piano to play some ragtime- note the depressed keys as the piano plays itself. The boxes you see on top are marked from a company that still makes these scrolls for player pianos.

Across the hall from this room is the master bedroom. The Lauriers slept here, and King did as well when the place became his home.

The top floor takes in this room, a favourite for me in the house. Laurier used this room as a billiards room, and it's easily big enough to fit a table for that, with room to spare around it. King used it for his study, and it has been left that way. He essentially ran the country from this room. Many of his books are in the bookshelves, safely behind glass.

Across the central hall is a room that was used by the head housekeeper in the days of the Lauriers. King turned it into a breakfast room for himself, and had most of his meals here when he wasn't entertaining visitors.

Among the items belonging to King in this room are plaster casts of the hands and face of Abraham Lincoln, done in 1860 at the time of the Republican nomination by artist Leonard Volk. These are one of three or four sets in the world, and how they came into the hands of the Canadian Liberals at the time are a mystery, but they're in a good place- artifacts of one great leader in the home of two other great leaders.

This sculpture has always drawn my eye. How a sculptor could get that veil effect with marble is a mystery.

Here we return to where we started, with the spacious front veranda. If you are ever in Ottawa, I recommend paying a visit to this place.

A Return To Laurier House

I returned to Laurier House one afternoon in October before the place closed up for the winter. A National Historic Site, this was home to two Liberal prime ministers in turn- Wilfred Laurier and William Lyon Mackenzie King. First built in 1878 with modifications and additions afterwards, it incorporates elements of Italianate and Second Empire architecture. Wilfred and his wife Zoe made it their Ottawa home in 1897; upon his death, she remained here until her death two years later in 1921. She willed it to King, who had become the leader of the Liberal party, and he lived there while in the city, leaving it and his estate in the Gatineau Hills to the people of Canada in his will.

The visitor sees several rooms on three levels, with items belonging to the Lauriers and King to be found throughout. The drawing room was used to entertain guests. The ladder you see here is part of maintenance- the chandeliers through the house get thorough cleanings on a regular schedule, and I just happened to be visiting while that was happening.

Photographs in the room include President Truman on the cabinet, and Queen Elizabeth and King George VI on the table.

This is the formal dining room. 

A section was open here on the first floor that hasn't been opened in the past, leading back to the kitchen, which looks like it would have been in King's time. During the tenure of both Prime Ministers, the house had a staff- cooks and housemaids, who had rooms of their own, often in the north side of the structure. This radio in the hallway caught my eye.

These rationing posters caught my eye. The kitchen had a number of items out on display- wax copies of food, for instance.

Up a flight of stairs we come to one of the guest rooms, filled with furnishings and art. A formal portrait of Laurier is at the left.

This sculpture stands in what is today called the Laurier Library. Laurier used the space for his office, and some of his books are present, while King used it as a guest room. I have more from here tomorrow.