Fire destroys historic Stittsville building
Brick building was town’s social and geographic centre for 140 years
Structure had stood for almost 140 years as geographic, social centre of area,
The building that burned down in Stittsville on Monday had stood for almost 140 years near the corner of Stittsville Main and Abbott streets. For much of that time it was not only the geographic centre of the old Goulbourn Township, but the social centre as well.
Looking across the street from the ruins of 1518 Stittsville Main St. on Monday afternoon, Ted and Lynn Martin remembered the days when the building housed Bradley’s general store.
“It was THE store,” Lynn Martin said. “Everybody shopped there.”
“You could buy anything,” her husband added — from eggs to dynamite.
Many different people and businesses came through the site between the time William Alexander built it as a hotel in 1875 and Monday, when, just before noon, the fire department was called for what would turn out to be a twoalarm blaze causing an estimated $500,000 of damage, the loss of two apartments on the upper floor, and a considerable loss of town history.
Alexander’s son ran the hotel after him, and it was only in 1919 that Frederick Bradley bought the building and moved in his general store from up the street. Bradley operated the business until his death in 1943, when his wife and eldest son took over.
“It was in this store that Stittsville’s post office was located during the 1920s, and there are plenty of stories centred around this gathering spot, for it was the place to get the latest news and gossip,” wrote Bonny Riedel in her 1990 book, The Heritage of Goulbourn, A Driving Tour. “In the 1940s and ’50s, when the custom was to shop on Saturday evening, the women would be inside the shop and the men and children would sit on the front step and listen to Hockey Night in Canada on the radio.”
In 1973, a bricklayer named Karl Skoff bought the building from the Bradley family. Since then, the building has been rented to a series of tenants, including several restaurants, like The Royal Albert Tea Room, Louisiannie’s, and NOLA French Quarter Eatery.
Rick Kennedy, who spent a decade working for Skoff as a bricklayer, was also looking at the wreck of the place.
“I repaired it I don’t know how many times,” Kennedy said of the old brickwork, noting that the old bricks were much more sturdy than contemporary ones. Yet, despite the sturdiness of the original construction, the building’s prospects for survival were looking slim Monday night.
While the outer walls were still standing, the building was so badly damaged that it might be beyond salvation, said owner Stasia Skoff, whose husband died four years ago. Because the building stands so close to the street, fire officials feared it could collapse, she said.
That danger could mean reconstructing the heritage building would be impossible and demolition the only option. She said Monday evening that engineers were still evaluating it.
The building had been set for a major boost with the owners of the trendy Wellington Gastropub renovating it to open a new pub this fall called The Alexander. They had cleared out the elaborate cellar to put in a new furnace and other equipment.
Chris Skoff, Stasia’s son, said the two original barns behind it had been painted for the first time in at least 40 years the day before the fire.
It was fire that was responsible for the construction of the building. In 1870, a major fire destroyed much of the town’s original centre. That paved the way for new construction such as Alexander’s hotel. Now, residents must wait to see whether it can be saved, or, if not, what the next chapter will be.