Poor ol' Magee!

This neighbourhood has a fair bit of history by Ontario standards. My house is over 100-years old, which is almost as old as it gets. Almost...but not quite the oldest. There are some buildings in the area from the 1870s.

So it's sad when something happens to one of those older buildings. Just a couple of weeks ago, this happened just down the street from where we lived during a rain storm:

Why do I sense a lawsuit here...?

Luckily no one was hurt.

Apparently this building was known as "Magee House" after its original owner who was a "energetic Irish widow who became a shrewd real estate speculator." In subsequent years it had a diverse history as a bank, catering service headquarters, menswear store, hardware store and even had a car dealership.

We were actually in Newfoundland when the building collapse occurred so we didn't hear about it right away but the media appears to have picked up on the story. Probably because buildings of this age are pretty rare in Ottawa.

I wonder what will happen now? Another heritage building in downtown Ottawa partially collapsed in 2007 and over 10 years later it still hasn't been reconstructed. Hmmm. Is endless discussions, delay and litigation the future here too? Hintonburg has a good community spirit so hopefully we'll have a more positive and timely outcome.