The residence at 24 Sussex Drive is gradually decaying at the expense of Ottawa’s taxpayers.

The rooftop needs to be restored, the windows replaced, the asbestos removed and the plumbing repaired – all to make up for neglecting the building since the 1950s. The National Capital Commission released a draft plan in 2017 that promised to “renew and transform the prime minister of Canada’s official residence.” But the renovations have yet to begin.

For now, the house stands still, deserted and unlivable – which was not the case when it was built in 1868.

The first owner of 24 Sussex Drive was Joseph Merrill Currier – a lumber magnate from North Troy, Vermont, who moved to the town of New Edinburgh in 1853 to grow his business. Although his career as a businessman and member of parliament was always prosperous, the same couldn’t be said about his personal life.

In 1855, he lost three of his children to infant mortality. Three years later, his wife, Christina Stenhouse Wilson, passed away of grief. His second wife, Anna Crosby, gruesomely died at a flour mill co-owned by Currier. She was walking through the mill during its anniversary party in 1861, when she lost her balance and fell into a water turbine that caught her dress.

It was his third marriage to Hannah Wright that put a stop to his personal tragedy.

The granddaughter of Philemon Wright (founder of present-day Gatineau), Hannah Wright was known for her talents as a hostess. So as a wedding gift, Currier promised to build her a house that was fit for a grand party – a building that later became 24 Sussex Drive.

The construction lasted between 1866 and 1868. By the time it was nearly complete, an article by the Ottawa Citizen in 1867 called the “beautiful villa” gothic, and the design of the house “chaste and elegant.” The article also mentioned that the house featured marble mantelpieces, walnut floors, an oak staircase and “ornamental work in every room.”

According to David Jeanes, the president of Heritage Ottawa, what was unique about the house was that “it was twice as long as it was wide” (25 by 12 metres). Jeanes studied the building at 24 Sussex Drive as part of a larger research project that focused on Confederation-era mansions in Ottawa. He thinks the building was unusually lengthy “because it was along the river, to take advantage of views to the North.” The Ottawa Citizen confirmed Jeanes’ theory – overlooking the Ottawa river, luscious fields and distant hills, the article from 1867 said the view from Currier’s property embodied a “quiet beauty” like no other in Ottawa.

When the construction was finalized, Currier named his home Gorffwysfa, which translates to “a place to rest” from Welsh.

“The funny thing, is that I have not been able to find the evidence that there was any Welsh blood,” says Jeanes about Currier’s family. He believes the name came to Currier when he visited or read about a place in North Wales called Gorphwysfa, “where people rested before making the final climb to the top of Mount Snowdon,” says Jeanes.

Currier died in 1884, and after his wife passed away in 1901, Currier’s son James sold the house to William Cameron Edwards, a Canadian businessman and parliamentarian.

In 1943, the house was expropriated by the federal government and significantly renovated in 1949 to become the official residence for the prime minister of Canada. The building was stripped of its Victorian features and replaced by the modern architecture of the 1950s.

“There isn’t very much that’s left that was original from Joseph Currier’s house,” says Jeanes.

The first prime minister to live at the residence was Louis St. Laurent, who moved in in 1951. Since then, nine prime ministers have resided at the house originally built by Joseph Merrill Currier.

But given the poor state of the current residence, whether the building at 24 Sussex Drive will live to see another prime minister is still unknown.

Supporting Documentation Information Sheet

Supporting Document #1

Supporting Document #2

Featured image: Fire Insurance Plan, Ottawa 1888. Photograph: from the online database of Library and Archives Canada.

The City of Ottawa Archives has increased a printing service by 843.6%, according to an analysis of the proposed budget numbers from 2018.

Obtained from the city’s website, the City Clerk and Solicitor budget shows that the fees for printing oversize photographs substantially rose in 2018. In the last two years, the City of Ottawa Archives was charging $6.12 per square foot for colour prints and $2.04 for black and white prints. But in 2018, the price surged up to $19.25 for both types of photographs, increasing colour printing by 214.5% and black and white printing by 843.6%.

But City Archivist Paul Henry guarantees that this hefty increase is justified. Following a number of requests from researchers and city staff, the City of Ottawa Archives decided to run the service of oversize printing as a pilot project in 2016. After offering the service for two years, they realized that the fees they were charging did not cover the costs of printing photographs larger than 20 by 24 inches. Henry says that they “normalized the numbers based on the pilot results” to calculate the new fee.

Glenn Charron, the man behind the printers, explains that the fees had to go up in order to efficiently deliver the product, meet particular demands, and do so without any financial losses. The charges initially changed to recover the costs of ink and paper used during the printing process. But given that certain researchers wanted their photographs printed on speciality paper, the fees needed to be boosted even higher. Not to mention that oversize prints require additional retouching before they are handed over to the client. This takes up more staff time, and in turn, more costs.

“I generally scan for client orders from the reference room, for exhibitions, and for preservation reasons,” says Charron. According to him, the most common orders are maps, architectural plans, technical drawings and panoramic photographs.

Although the fee for oversize printing substantially increased, Henry is confident that his prices are a steal in comparison to his non-governmental competitors. “If you were to go to a commercial provider, you will pay four times as much as we do for the same thing,” says Henry.

Even with reasonable prices, the demand for large format prints recently dropped. When the City of Ottawa Archives launched the pilot in 2016, they sold 24 pieces – 12 in colour and 12 in black and white. But their sales in 2017 amounted to nothing. When it comes to oversize photographs, Henry believes that their sales missed the mark due to the push towards a digital future.

“If I was to prognosticate, I would suggest that in 2018, you are going to see more of a movement to scanning than print copies,” says Henry.

Seeing as how most of the people using printing services are researchers and city staff, scanning is a convenient and cost-efficient option to take advantage of. On the other hand, printing an oversized map or photograph usually comes into play when the client values aesthetics.

For Henry, digitization is key. Although the thought of an archive resonates with the past, he firmly believes that the City of Ottawa Archives is no relic.

“We’re not a dusty room, in a dank corner of a basement. I don’t have a tweed jacket. I don’t have elbow patches. We’re a modern archival facility.”

But increasing the fees for an old-fashioned service still doesn’t faze Henry – even when the demand plummeted.

“There are things we can do on the digital side that are far better than what we can do on the paper side,” says Henry. “But people love paper.”