The Alexander Fleck House on Laurier Avenue.
When the Alexander Fleck House was first built in 1902 on Laurier Avenue West, its owner and namesake would have been able to gaze through the red brick mansion’s ornate, stained-glass windows and see his foundry’s workforce in the industrial neighbourhood of LeBreton Flats below.
While the house’s exterior remains mostly unchanged, today it’s shadowed by high-rise apartments, and the former site of Fleck’s factory is a public garden.
The City of Ottawa is now moving to recognize this witness to Centretown’s history with a special heritage designation.
“This designation is important for the historical context and the architecture and craftsmanship,” says David Jeanes, vice-president at Heritage Ottawa, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving historic buildings.
Ottawa’s built heritage sub-committee was originally scheduled to launch the process that would lead to recognition under the Ontario Heritage Act on Sept. 4. However, when the owner of the property could not attend a meeting on that day, it was decided to push the item to the committee’s next meeting on Oct. 10. A designation would protect the building by making sure any major changes proposed to it in the future cannot go through without councils’ approval.
The city’s report describes the turn-of-the-century building, which sits on a hill near the corner of Bronson Avenue and Laurier Avenue West, as an “excellent example of Queen Anne Revival architecture in Ottawa” – citing its multi-sloped roof, varied window shapes, and large stone porch.
It has long been suspected that the house may have been the work of prominent Ottawa architect John W. H. Watts, who helped with preliminary drawings for the Library of Parliament.
The home’s original owner, Alexander Fleck Jr., was the owner of Vulcan Iron Works and a prominent figure in early 20th-century Ottawa. The Fleck family’s company did work for Ottawa’s street cars, the city’s large lumber industry, and the Canadian Atlantic Railway. They were also involved in local philanthropy, including donating the principal building for what is now known as Andrew Fleck Child Care Services.
Jeanes says when Fleck built the house, the area was dominated by the homes of wealthy industrialists and lumber barons.
“There used to be a fairly substantial collection of mansions in that end of Uppertown,” he says, “but they’re mostly gone now.”
A push towards urban intensification replaced many of the homes with larger-scale housing developments. “It’s practically a wall of apartments from Bronson to Lyon Street,” says Jeanes. The Fleck House followed this trend and its interior was divvied up in the 1940s.
City officials say it may take some time before a final decision is reached.