326 Somerset Street West: Chamberlain House

the House with the Turret

  The 1884 City Directory lists no homes on the south side of Somerset between Bank and O'Connor. The house above does appear on Goad's 1888, sheet 53 as a solid brick building numbered 352 328 (eventually 326.) While this might suggest that it dates to some time between 1884 and 1888, a plaque on the house reads (source)...

1894
Chamberlain House
First occupied by David G. Chamberlain
Civil Servant

   Whatever. The source cited above also tells us that...

"This is a two and one half storey brick house of the Eastlake* model of the Queen Anne Style. The property on which the building is situated was part of the estate of John By, which was one of the most important parcels of land in the development of 19th century Ottawa.
D.C. Chamberlain, was an accountant with the House of Commons, lived in the house until 1901 when he sold it to a relative, Hiram W. Chamberlain.
Reference: Some early Ottawa Buildings, by C.J. Tayler, Historical Research Section, Canadian Inventory of Historic Building. 1975"

   The Might Directory agrees that a Hiram W. Chamberlain did live at (then) #328 in 1901.

   If anyone is wondering why parts of Centretown and Sandy Hill are thick with these red-brick "Queen Anne" houses dating to the reign of Queen Victoria...

   There was indeed a Queen Anne, whose short reign spanned the years 1704 to 1707, well before that of Victoria. What we call "Queen Anne Style" — this massing of bays, dormers, overhanging gables, fancy woodwork and yes, turrets — is supposed to mark the revival of a whimsical style popular in the early 1700s. Except that houses built in the revival style don't look all that much like actual Queen Anne architecture. Go figure.
  
   And yes, that's a wee "For Sale" sign stuck in the snow by the tree. Royal Lepage describes #326 as a "STUNNING VICTORIAN OFFICE BUILDING, CAREFULLY RESTORED AND UPGRADED..."(caps theirs), listed for sale at $1,495,000.00. 

   This block of Somerset (between O'Connor and Bank) features several of these late-Victorian houses, now serving as offices, pubs, bistros, hair salons and the like, collectively calling themselves "Somerset Village" for the purposes of tourism and real-estate. 

(go get 'em Getm!!!)

  
   If you're heading west, you'll know you're leaving the Village when you see the thing that looks like an elephant's backside painted orange.

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*Not a body of water but Charles Eastlake (1836-1906), an American architect who gave us his own particular spin on the Q.A.R. style.