Tag Archives: Centretown

Adult High School, 300 Rochester Street

In 1965 on the corner of Rochester and Gladstone, an anticipated new school building to house The High School of Commerce (1929 – 1990) was being built as the high school had outgrown its previous locations. The High School of Commerce operated from 300 Rochester St. from 1966 until 1990 when its slowly reducing student population became too small to sustain and it became the Adult High School to fulfill a growing population niche.

I feel that this reinvention of the space and school name is rather fitting as it echo’s the sentiments of Frank Patten who was interviewed in March 1961 before the school was to be transferred. At that time he indicated that while 60% of the Collegiate Institute Board students were taking academic courses to enter university, only 15% of each grade 9 student body would actually continue to university. In rechristening the space it takes direction from Frank’s sentiment and fulfills the needs of the students.

Looking into one moment always leads me to more rabbit holes to venture through. The professional life of Dr. Frank G. Patten voted “Citizen of the Year”, who was previously a Superintendent for Ottawa’s Collegiate Institute Board also deserves a deeper dive. There is also a book on the Collegiate Institute Board of Ottawa, but until I can safely visit the library’s Ottawa room to reference a book by Janet Keith, The Collegiate Institute Board of Ottawa; a short history, 1843 – 1969, I can only wistfully wait.

Solving my own Missing Building Mystery

Separate from my ongoing plaque hunts, since moving into the city from the suburbs, I have been looking for a particular funeral home because of its proximity to a nearby church. In retrospect, it was the event that really made me focus and wonder about my surroundings. In 1991 my grandfather died. I was 16 and this was my first introduction to death. My family lived on the outskirts of Ottawa before my city was incorporated as part of the megacity in 1999. I was overwhelmed by the capital, its many close streets and cars compared to where I grew up. A particular memory of that time I remember getting some air on the veranda of the funeral home with the sun setting in my eyes. But what really sealed the building in my memory was that we didn’t need a hearse to take my grandfather to the church, the pall-bearers carried him from there to the church across the street. I wondered if this was a standard thing (no it isn’t). There can’t be very many funeral homes where you can do that?

Retrospectively I was pretty sure this all happened in Centretown and I have been wandering around looking for this funeral home for my own genealogy purposes. I was sure that the building would be on the east side of the street to account for the setting sun in my eyes. Last Wednesday I realized I had walked all of the areas that I had thought it could be. This was a troubling thought, how could I have missed it when I am specifically looking for hidden and forgotten things? 

With my brand new newspapers.com subscription, I finally found his obituary which contained both the funeral home address, as well as the corresponding church. The church was the one I thought it was but I was somewhat confounded as to how I missed the funeral home as I had just been on that street. A repeating theme resonating with my obsession to document the location of plaques, you cannot find a building that isn’t there anymore. A google search on the address and I discover that it is now condo towers with a nice explanatory article by the ottawamagazine.com posted in 2011. 

McEvoy Shields Funeral Home, 245 Kent Street. Photo credit Ottawamagazine.com

I am relieved that I have found it now. One more mystery put to bed. For my genealogy research, I now know exactly which church I will be directing my next course of correspondence. 

Reference:

https://ottawamagazine.com/homes/from-the-print-edition-from-georgian-style-funeral-parlour-to-art-deco-condo-towers/ Then and Now: From Georgian-style funeral parlour to art deco condo towers. Posted October 4, 2011, accessed November 18, 2020.