4. A Description of the Cultural Heritage Value and Heritage Attributes of Lower Lorne Avenue

4.1 Cultural Heritage Value or Interest of Lower Lorne Avenue
4.2 Heritage Attributes of Lower Lorne Avenue

The description of the cultural heritage value and the heritage attributes of the study area is important because it defines what is to be conserved by the guidelines. The description also helps to promote an understanding of the heritage character of the lower Lorne Avenue streetscape and provides a means for evaluating the compatibility of a proposed development.

4.1 Cultural Heritage Value or Interest of Lower Lorne Avenue

Lower Lorne Avenue (between Albert Street and Primrose Avenue) is a homogeneous, well-preserved streetscape, typical of the type of housing built in Ottawa for the working class from 1900 – 1907. The history of lower Lorne Avenue, located directly adjacent to the LeBreton Flats, is associated with the development of the LeBreton Flats as an industrial centre and as a residential area for the mill and railway workers who worked there. In the early 1850s, only a handful of labourers lived in the LeBreton Flats area. However, the sawn lumber industry expanded in the 1860s and new lands were subdivided to house workers within walking distance of the mills and railway yards located on the LeBreton Flats. The Perkins Block, the current location of lower Lorne Avenue, was surveyed and registered in 1860.

The fire of Thursday, April 26, 1900 is a pivotal event in the history of Ottawa. It destroyed 400 acres of the west end of Ottawa, including all of the buildings on lower Lorne Avenue. Within a short period of time following the fire the residential and industrial buildings in the LeBreton Flats area were rebuilt. The rapid rebuilding that followed the fire resulted in the construction of the architecturally homogeneous streetscape on lower Lorne Avenue. These modest, brick, two-storey row houses were an affordable solution to the problem of finding a housing form that could replace the wood frame buildings that were destroyed by the fire.

Areas adjacent to lower Lorne Avenue present streetscapes that have a different development history, being composed of buildings constructed before and after the fire of 1900. Streetscapes to the south of Lorne Avenue that were not destroyed by the fire have had infill development over the years, resulting in a more heterogeneous architectural streetscape character. Lorne Avenue’s cultural heritage significance is enhanced by the fact that its character is representative of the type of streetscape that was eliminated when the LeBreton Flats community was levelled in the early 1960s, leaving lower Lorne Avenue as a significant working class streetscape to be conserved.

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4.2 Heritage Attributes of Lower Lorne Avenue

The modest two-storey, singles and rowhouses on lower Lorne Avenue were built in the vernacular Italianate style between 1900 and 1907. These red brick buildings are generally uniform in appearance and display elements typical of the vernacular Italianate style including modest brick surface ornamentation such as corbeling and stringcourses. Other elements typical of the vernacular Italianate style include a shallow projecting bay on the front façade and a flat roof with building cornice of wood or pressed metal. Many of the buildings have some or all of the original cornice brackets. The building cornices are a unifying element in the streetscape. A continuous line of building cornices extends along the length of lower Lorne Avenue.

The window openings are generally rectangular, with voussoirs and masonry window sills. All of the buildings have a front porch with modest wood ornamentation. A shed roof with a decorative pediment detail is the most common porch roof form.

There is a vertical emphasis to the building massing, a result of the narrowness of the typical width of a single unit in a row, relative to the height of the building. All of the rows are broken into a series of narrow divisions, two bays wide. The front yard setback is relatively uniform, with minor variations in the streetscape. The side yards setbacks are zero or are very narrow. Parking is usually at the side or rear of the property, accessed by a narrow driveway from the street or from Perkins Street.

Front yards display a layering of landscape elements including annuals, perennials, shrubs, climbing vines, small areas of lawn and small trees. The regularly spaced, small, flowering street trees in the shallow front yards provide shade and help to screen views into residences. The narrow street and lot dimensions were established by the survey completed in 1860. The narrow front and side yard setbacks are a result of the desire to construct the largest building possible on the narrow lots. The height of the buildings relative to the width of the street and the proximity of the front façade to the sidewalk establishes a particular relationship unique to Lorne Avenue; the narrow street and continuous wall of uniformly set back buildings produce a shallow tunnel effect. This, combined with the soft edge of layered landscaping in the front yards, results in a streetscape that is pleasantly sheltered and pedestrian in scale.

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