In 1826 Nicholas married Sarah Wright - the widow of Philemon Wright Jr. and with her nine children, moved to this side of the Ottawa river to purchase 200 acres of land with a log cabin for 95 pounds (approximately $235.00 Canadian).

In approximately 1848 he cut Sparks Street through his property from Bank Street to Biddy's Lane - known today as Elgin Street.  His property actually stretched across to where the Wenstin Hotel stands and part of it was expropriated for the Rideau Canal - Sparks donated land for a church, fire station, and other public building sites such as the City Hall - which today is the side of the National Arts Centre.

Nicholas Sparks also served on the first town council for Bytown in 1847 and for the City of Ottawa Council in 1854.  He died in 1862 and is buried in St. James Cemetery in Hull Across the Ottawa River in Quebec.  Descendants of the Sparks family are still in the Ottawa area and were recently in contacted by the Sparks Street Mall Management Board regarding the history of their family.

There are over 30 building of heritage and historical significance to the City of Ottawa.  These building have been documented in a heritage study conducted by the City of Ottawa and Sparks Street has been designated as a Heritage District.   Sparks Street is home to longtime retail stores and businesses that have been owned by generations of Ottawa families.  Some of Canada's largest banks are still located in prestigious locations and buildings on the Mall. (Building tours follows).
 
 

Welcome, friends to my street.  It is the pleasant fate of men and women who make their mark on history that they become streets when they die, and that is what happened to me.  My name is Nicholas Sparks, and this grand thoroughfare, a drop of the hat from the great Canadian hall of debate, is Sparks Street.  But not so long ago, instead of this fine crop of architecture, nothing but trees grew here.  Maples and pines as tall as the highest church spire.  That is how it was when I came to the valley of the Ottawa river, in the memorable year of 1816, a mere year after the glorious defeat of Napolean at Waterloo.

I come from a long line of enterprising men called Nicholas Sparks.   My father, his father, his father and his father were all named Nicholas, as was my first son, the first of us Nicks to be born in Canada.  I myself was born, at a vry young age, Ireland, in the county of Wexford, the same green cradle that nutured my famous contemporary Mr. Thomas D'Arcy McGee, who you may chance to run across today on my street.   Ireland, as you know, was the spawning ground for so many of the legions of settlers who acquired unborken land in this vally, and replaced the trap line of the native with the spilt rail fence.

I remember clearly the day Mr. Ruggles Wright, son of Philomen, the American pioner who founded the city across the river across the river you call Hull, crossed my path in Liverpool, as I prepared to leave for a new life.  I was 24, and Mr. Ruggles contracted me and two friends, Daniel and Thomas, to work for his father on the very western edgw of Lower Canada.  I was a man with an eye on the horizon even then, eager to own land that would work for me.  Canada, Mr. Ruggles assured me, could not fit the whole of Ireland in its pocket, and a man not afraid of work and hard thinking could soon own more acres that you could shakea walking stick at.  And once you own land, my friends, the wind never blows so cold again.

After 30 days at sea on the Dorris we can to a new uncultivated, unopened world,  My two companions broke their bond as stayed where we landed, but by summer's end I travelled alone to Wrightstown, and gave Mr. Wright my labour.  Soon enough he saw that my head was better suited for business than staring at treetops, and I travelled to Quebec and Montreal on his behalf to purchase supplies.  After five years making 50 pounds a year I was owed a fair sum in back wages, which Mr. Wright paid me in land, a few acres and some oxen onthe south side of the river, a swampy, mosquitoed wilderness almost void of people.  To this I added 200 acres acquired from Mr. John Burrows Honey, bought for 95 pounds.  With it came my first long home.  This was in 1821, and I had not enough neighbours within a morning's ride to fill a hay cart. 

It took another five years and much paperwork before I owned my land clear, for it transpired that Honey's land was not as sweet as first seemed; he was himself awaiting title.  But by 1826 Lot C in the township of Nepean was mine.   In the meantime I had added another wood house, and gained incomce from cleared land and the treees upon it.  That was also the year I married, into the very family that brought me here!  My dear Sarah was the widow of Philomen Wright Junior, killed in a coach accident the year five years earlier.  I built us a fine stone house that ran between this very street and the next.  The house remained active until 1954, when it was cruelly leveled and replaced by one of the many palaces of government that plague this city.

In that same busy year in which I married, 1826, another Irishman, one Colonel John By, came to our township to join Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers by means of a canal.  The route of the Rideau canal, which lies just east of where we stand now, passed like a gold mine through my estate.  I gladly gave the Colonel the lands needed eithee side of his waterway, and sold many of the lots beside it to settlers in our newborn town for a hundredfold more than I had paid.  My fortune was made.  Soon I was able to lend the seeed money for a new life to newcomers and reap even more profit.   bytown was then, if 1836, although several are now rooted to this street.

I recall one debtor who could not repay me, and I took back the land I had helped him buy.  Before my next meal I had sold it for 600 pounds, though the debt was only 75!

When the Colonel, a far-sighted engineer but a short-sighted developer who refused my reasonable price of 500 pounds for Barrack's Hill, which you would now call Parliament hill, seized my land anyway under cover of a state-sanctioned act of theft, I fought back.  The fight went many rounds and lasted 20 years, but in 1846 a board of arbitration proved me right, and I was awarded 27 thousand pounds.  You will recall that I paid only 95 pounds for the entire lot, no much more than Mr. Styvestant paid for the island of Manhatten.

Ten years later Bytown became the capital of the united Canadas, and you could say that it my capital that helped make it the city you are visiting today.  I donated the site where the elegant Christ Church cathedral now stands, at the end of Wellington Street, which is on another holding I donated.  The site of the jail and court-house, essential parts of any decent town, was given by me, and it now holds and artistic centre for drama, music and such wonders as landscapes that resemble spilt paint as are enjoued by my fellow modern day citizens.

My death came, as all deaths do, too early at the age of 70 in the year 1862, and my corporal remains are to be found alongside Sarah's in a churchyard across the river on the Aylmer road.  The Ottawa Citizen, which began life with offices on this very street, said of me that "He loved honesty, and highly valued those in whom he found it."  For once I can praise them for their accuracy of reporting.

As I stand here again on my mall, I recall with pride many things.   The family of three children who all survived me, the first prize I won for horse-breeding for my draught stallion at the township's first agricultual fair, and my service as a councillor for the west ward.  I would not have beleived, on the day I crossed the Ottawa river and took up residence here with a handful of others, that by the time of my death that home for mosquitos would become the shining capital of Ottawa, home to 15,000 people.  So, my good friends, enjoy the stolling arcade that is my legacy, the Sparks Street mall, any many Ottawa be as good to you as it was to me.
 
 

If you will gather closely before me, I will fill your ears with tragedy.   The tragedy is my own death, which happened on this very spot.  We will come soon enough to the details, but before death, there must be a life.

The years that formed me were spent in dear, troubled Ireland, and my family shared in those troubles.  My father was in the servies of the Coast Guard, and my mother, may she rest for ever in peace, died when I was eight.  I waited another ten years; and then took passage to the Americas, ad did 93,000 Irish men, women and children that year.  I ended up in boston, looking for work.

I was only seventeen, but I knew what I wanted to be:  a patriotic poet, and that is what I became funny amongst many other things including journalist, editor of several of my own newspapers, rebel, respected author - read my "A populr History of Ireland" for proof of that claim - politician, the finest orator of my time - go ask Sir John A. Macdonald up on the hill if you are troubled by my own estimate.   That, and a seeker of a cure, (other than death), for varicose veins, which gave me more vexation in life that the British Tories ever did.

Tories are stubborn , I believe that no man's mind is a fixed thing; it is not a status unable to take up a new position.  Several times in my life, as I matured and saw the true colour of life, not just the black and white, I let my opinions take a new course:  I distanced myself from the Catholic church, and rejoined it.
 
 

I my mad youth I defended the Fenians in their quest for a free Ireland, but later renounced their rebellious pland and foolish invasion of Canada.  Though dreary I never ceased to dram of an unfettered Ireland.  I know I made enemies doing so, as we shall see.  At one time, if you are able to credit this, I beleived that Canada should annex itself to the American republic!
 
 

OH CANADA!  But once I had visited this noble land, the result of God's greates care, and then settled in the bustling metropolis of Montreal, I knew that a united Canada, united, as the Bible says, from sea to sea, from the Maritime colonies to the western Hudson's Bay lands, was my true dream, and I devoted my life to it.  On July 1st, 1867, which you now celebrate as Canada Day, that dream of unity came true.

And now we come to the night of my unjust death.  Turn, if you please, to look to the east, to the corner of this street and Metcalfe.  It is close to two o'clock in the morning, on a frosty April 7th, 1868.  We see light snow on the ground and two men standing on the cormer.  One is myself, smoking a cigar and heading home to my rooms after a long night's speechifying in Parliament.  The other is a fellow member.  We part, my last words are "God bless you," and I walk towards us, hand in my coat pocket, searching for my door key.

And look, another man comes behind me.  He is the tailor Patrick James Whelan, an old nemesism who had stood not an hour earlier in the public gallery of the chamber and bared his teeth at my pronouncements, his mind twisted by the subversive mob of the St. Patrick's Society.

In my hand now, A key, but in his, a gun!  Muffled by the snow he is behind me without noise.  The gun is put against my head, and fired.  The bullet rushes through this well-exercised brain, passes out the ever-active mouth and buries itself in the door I will never again enter.  I die in mid-thought.  The act that will fix me in history was witnessed only by a returning page and a frightened lumberjack, the smallest of audiences for my most notorious moment.

The next day before a shocked Parliament Sir John A. Macdonald had these sober words to say about me.  "He has lived a short life, respected and beloved, and died a heroic death; a martyr to the cause of his country."  I am pleased to note that my martyrdom has borne fruit and that this country is still one.

Should you wish to stand before my grave, you will have to travel to Montreal, where my body was interred on Easter Monday, the day that would have been my forty-third birthday.  Patrick James Whelan was hanged on a cold February 11th 1869 at an Ottawa jail, his life taken for the taking of mine.  I am remembered now in history books and in the name of lively hostelry on the corner of this street.  And, as I had hoped, I am remembered as a poet.  Let us let the poet have the last words.

Rob me of all the joys of sense Curse me with all but impotence  Fling me upon an ocean or  Cast me upon a savage shore  Kill me!  But own above my bier  The man now gone still held while here the jewel, Independence.
 
 

1.    Our first group of buidlings on the tour is the Chambers block of buildings which were beautifully restored several years ago as part of a plan to relocate the National Capital Commission headquarters.

In the middle you will notice one smaller building.  this is the Bell Block, constructed in 1867 - the year of the Confederation of Canada.  It is the oldest surviving buildidng facing unto Confederation Square.  It was build to house J.G. Bell of the publishers Bell & Woodburn and is a commercial Italianate style of architecture.  It was designed by William Hodgson, and Englishman who emigrated to Canada in 1859.  hodgson designed variety of prominent buildings in Ottawa such as The Windsor Hotel; residences for notable citizens such as Sir John A. MacDonald and J.R. Booth; schools for the Ottawa Board of Education.

To the corner of Queen Street is the Central Chambers - built in 1890 for offices of lumber firms, the Canadian Atlantic Railway and the Ottawa and Gatineau Valley Railway.  Today it is the home to the National Capital commission at 40 Elgin Street,  Built by the dry goods firm of Edward Seybold and James Gibson, the Central Chambers building was one of the largest undertakings of its time - 1890 - 91 and one of Ottawa's most prestigius addresses.  It replaced an earlier two-storey structure and was part of the second wave of commercial buildings to appear around Sparks Street in the 1880's.  It was desigend by John James Browne, the son of a famous Montreal architect.

2. 42-50 Sparks Street, Scottish Ontario Chambers - 1883, William Hodgson, Architect built by the Scottish Ontario and Manitoba Land Company it reflects the increasing dominance of Sparks Street as a major thoroughfare in downtown Ottawa.  It was one of the last large scale brick or stone commercial structures built for rental purposes during the 19th century.  It accomodated professionals in particular lawyers and real estate agents.  In 1886 it was sold to the N.C.C. in 1965.  Its restoration in 1995 by Brisbin, Brooks, Beynon in 1996 won a City of Ottawa Heritage award. 

3. 47 Sparks Street Central Post Office - 1937, W.E. Noffke, Architect Desigend in the Chateau Style as part of Confederation Square, it remains the oldest federal building devoted to local use in Ottawa.  It was constructed accoding to the Jacques Greber original master plan of the area that called for a grand boulevard in the Beaux Arts fashion.  An earlier Post office was situated where Confederation Square is.  The roof is copper, the base is black granite, and it is sheathed with limestone.  Notice that carved lions decorate all three entranceways.  W.E. Noffke undertook over 1300 commissions mostlry in Eastern Ontario.  He is one of Ottawa's most noted architects.

4.56 Sparks Street Ottawa Electric Building - 1926, Albert Ewan - Architect Built by Thomas Ahearn and Warren Soper, founders of the Ottawa Electric Company.  They developed water power and sold electricity, electrical appliances and owned the Ottawa Electric Railway lines, a system of streetcars in the city which was taken overy by the City of Ottawa in 1948 - Ottawa Electric was the forerunner of OTC - Ottawa Transportation Commission, now OC Transpo - the regional bus system.   The building reflects a 1910 bylaw which permitted highrises inthe core of the city.  The facade is called Queen Facade and the name of the building is engraved - Architect J. Albert Ewart was among the first gradguates from the architect programme at the University of Toronto.

5.62 Sparks Street Imperial Bank of Commerce - 1937 This temple style bank building features Art Deco ornamentation and is the only building in Ottawa faced in ochre-coloured sandstone.  The base is polished black granite.   The architect is unknown, however it is a Barott inspired design.  There are only several bank buildings like this across Canada.

6.61 Sparks Street Hope Chambers/Bible House - 1910, W.E. Noffke, Architect Built by James Hope, a prominent bookseller since before Confederation, the Edwardian Commercial Style of this building reflects the increasing sophistication of Sparks Street as Ottawa's core business district.  It is the City's oldest "high-rise" building.  Notice on the top storey the English glazed terra cotta panels produced by the Doulton potteries of Leeds, England and the statue representing "Hope".

7.65-69 Sparks Street Robinson Block - 1871, William Hodgson, Architect The oldest building on this block, it was erected by Hiram Robinson, a prominint lumber baron.  The timber trade of the Ottawa Valley made a number of individuals "lumber barons" in the early days of Confederation - whether it was Thomas Grace from the Gatineau Hills or J.R. Booth, the great pines from the Valleys today continue to provide economic development and beauty for the Ottawa region.

9.83 Sparks Street. Blackburn Building - 1908, W.E. Noffke, Architect Local entrepeneur Robert Blackburn built this distinctive building in the early 20th centrue.  It was constructed in two stafes startin 1908 and finishing in 1915.  robert Blackburn was also a Member of Parliament who played a major role in the decelopment of the city of Ottawa south of laurier and north of the glebe.  He was also a founding Director of the Ottawa Agricultural Insurance Company.  You will note that the top three floors are an addition to the original 7 storey building that at one time was a hotel.

10.14 Metcalfe St. Molson's Bank 1881 - William Hodgson, Architect The Italianate and Romanesque Revival architectural style are combined well in this building resulting in a lively and eclectiv design.  the building was the former Molson's Bank Chambers and was deceloped as a speculative investments by McLeod Stewart, a prominent lawyer and Mayor of Ottawa.  He and architect William Hodgson shared a business partnership during the late 19th century real estate boom.  The building was initially part of Banker's Row-which developed on the south side of Wellington Street between Metcalfe & Bank after 1870, following the completion of the Parliament Building.  Among the first occupants were; the Union Bank of Lower Canada (1882) and Molson's Bank (1892) and the Department of Labour (1903 - 1912).  It was also a retail store for Kirkman Marshall for a number of years.  The Canadian government expropriated it in 1973.

11.93 Sparks Street The Montreal Telegraph Building - 1870 King    Architect Business Empire. Charles Bate became Mayor of Ottawa.   His brother Henry was the first Chariman of the Ottawa Improvement Commission founded in 1898.  He was knighted for his civic and philanthropic activities in 1910.   Architects Stent & Laver were British trained and came to Ottawa in the 1850's attracted by its new capital status.  They also designed the East and West Blocks to the Parliament Building.  The Bate Building is a mixture of classical and Palladian motifs.  The upper storeys added in 1904 more Romanesque Revival style.

15.115 Sparks Street. e.R. Fisher Building - 1868, Architect Unknown This buildingis illustrative of the prosperous period following the arrical of government when Sparks Street was transformed into a fashionalble Uppertown status. Facade changes and interior renovations occurred after a fire in 1908 and the storefront was modified in 1948.  Various businesses that were located here include Gowan's Music Store, the Confederation Life Assurance Company, A. Rosenthal & Sons; and E.R. Fisher, an Ottawa tailor and clothier.

16.118 Sparks Street Murphy-Gamble Department Store - 1909, C.P. Meredith Architect Popular Murphy-Gamble's was part of a tren along Spark's Street during the early 20th century.  Morgan's - another store was situated where the Royal Bank Plaza complex is now located.  there was also the C.Ross department Store; and Bryson-Graham's which we will be visiting shortly.  the Murphy-Gamble Store reflected the continuing dominance of Sparks Street as the commercial centre of Ottawa.  It was eventually sold to the Simpson's chain stores before sold to the Bank of Nova Scotia - Architect C.P. Meredith was born in Ottawa and trained at the School of Practical Science in Toronto.  His father was Deputy Minister of the Department of the Interior in the Government of Canada.

17.119 Sparks Street. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce - 1922, Darling & Pearson, Architects This is a fine exapmle of the Beaux-Arts construction in Canada that was erected by a financial institution that took an interest in the development of the Ottawa region's timber and lumber trade.  The location on this site also marked the gradual shift of banks from ":Bankers Row" on Wellington Street to Sparks Street.  there are four Corinthian colums made of smooth limestone from Indiana, U.S.A. The name of the bank is inscribed on the parapet.  the classical facade represents the earliest phase of "modern Classicism in Canada.   the next time you are inside the Bank look up - high on the wall are large coins all around the interior.  The architects were from Toronto and the construction companmy belonged to the neighbourhood on Cooper Street - opposite to D. roy Harris, owner of Brady & Harris the city's first Irish Catholic Funeral Home.  This kind of Ottawa networking exists even today as the City still retains a sort of small town personable charm unlike other large North American cities.

18.125 Sparks Street Bank of Nova Scotia - 1924 John M. Lyle, Architect  similar to the other bank building the facade is Beaux-Arts, borrowing as much from  Roman and Renaissance as from the Greek influences.  the detailing is very interesting, there are antique vases with palmettes; horns of plenty and wags festoon, with references to Canadian economic activities - agriculture, fishing, finance and lumber.  It is made of pale limestone.  Architect was John Lyle who was born in Belfast, Ireland.  Lyle represented a 'new' generation of Canadian architects.  His work has been the subject of considerable study and is considered of national historic and architectural significance.  He was also responsible for main branches of the Bank of Nova Scotia across Canada.  the design for teh Ottawa branch was Lyle's Diploma piece for entry into the royal Canadian Academy of Arts.  A watercolour rendering of the design is in the National Gallery of Canada prints and drawings collection.  The Bank of Nova Scotia was chartered in 1832 but it remained largely a regional institution until the late 19th century.  In 1919 it purchased the Bank of Ottawa to become a major influence in the financial life of the capital.

19.126 Sparks Street Home Bank of Canada - 1919 This more modest style of bank was one of many banks which opened during the 1929's.  It is also of a beaus-Arts style.  this style was first utilized on a grand scale at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

20.130 Sparks Street The Hardy Arcade - 1928, Davidson & Smith /Architect A rare Canadian example of a shopping arcade, this Art Deco inspired building was built by the Hon. Arthur C. hardy.  Hardy was considered a key figure in Ontario liberalism who served as President of the Ontario Liberal Party from 1919 to 1932; was called to the Senate in 1922 to 1930.  The famous portrait photographer, Yusef Karsh, rented a space on the upper floor for a studio from the time the building opened until the 1960's when he moved to the Chateau Laurier.  The Embassy of Haiti also occupied a portion of the upper floor during the 50's.  the building was constructed by Doran Construction Co. one of Ottawa's major firms that are still in business today.

21.134 Sparks St. Bowles Lunch - 1913, Architect Unknow This building was home to Bowles Lunch - a popular 24 hour eatery frequented by parliamentarians, journalists and sports figures.  The architecture is called Spanish colonial Revival which was inspired by the Spanish colonizers of the southwest U.S.A. that was popular from the 1910's to the 1940's.  It is not often you see this style used for commercial buildings as it is more common for residential use.

22.146 - 154 Sparks Street Bryson-Graham Department Store - 1874, Architect Unknown.

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