Flora Street, is lined with houses that have small front lawns. Nestled between Bank and Bronson close to the Queenway, Flora was once a part of Stewarton, a small community built in the late 1800s and named for merchant William Stewart.
It may be the street was named for someone known to the community’s namesake. Stewarton was annexed by Ottawa in 1889.
Near the corner of Flora and Bank are a pawn shop and the purple storefront of Ragtime vintage clothing. It offers an eclectic mix of consignment and costume dress, an eccentric accent along the little street.
Flora narrows towards Bronson and the spaces between houses and the already tiny lawns get smaller or disappear. Near the west end of the street, some houses have peeling paint on the front steps and multiple bicycles locked to porches.
The houses are the mostly red brick originals from the 19th century, and as you get close to the centre of the street it gets so quiet that only parked cars remind you that it isn’t still the 1800s.
Flora ends with its biggest building, a multi-story apartment complex across from what is possibly the smallest building on Flora, a blue-sided cottage quietly standing its ground.