Actual treasure map to the “beer train tunnel” under Albert Street

Today’s Citizen has a fun story * by Ian McLeod  on the fabled beer train tunnel under Albert Street (this section was formerly known as Wellington Street). Every time there is major work in the area, the rumours spread of vast underground caches of beer, chilled and ready to take home by the lucky workers who can find them. This was a great motivation for the Perez workers who built the 1980’s townhouses on Walnut Court (the southwest end of the tunnel and former brewery site). Let’s just say there was lots of excavation superintendents at the time. Ditto for the workers … Continue reading Actual treasure map to the “beer train tunnel” under Albert Street

Heritage repair

Many west siders will be familiar with this, reputed to be  the oldest house in Ottawa: It is located a half block east of the Westboro Loblaws. Work has been going on for a while to stabilize and repair the structure. Like a lot of building restoration work, or art restoration, much effort goes into undoing the previous version of restoration. In this case, the previous work involved adding a smooth coat of mortar between the stones. Alas, that mortar dried hard and waterproof. This trapped moisture between the stone inside the wall, which then liquified/eroded the sand-lime mixture inside … Continue reading Heritage repair