Old Ottawa Workshops

Unknown: Sitting on the periphery of what is known as Lebreton Flats, the old Ottawa workshops are about to get a heritage designation and gain new life (as film and creative studios) along with adjacent new office buildings. Invest Ottawa made the announcement in winter 2013.  Does anyone have the full history to this building situated on Bayview?

This street has some significance in my family as my mother spent years working for Zagerman's as a book-keeper in the 1950s and then part time in the 1960s.  She was there to hear some of the stories of the flats.  She lived in Hintonburg where her father ran a furniture store on Wellington West.  The family home no longer exists due to construction of the Queensway.

On this street, the old Ottawa workshops remain along with the building that was once known as Keyes supply (below) which sold auto-parts amoungst other things.  The workshops are closer to the current parkway, Keyes Supply (now NCC yards) is halfway to Somerset, and the former Zagerman's (now another business) is very close to where the old roundhouse was, which is now the Tom Brown arena.

She would walk to work through Hintonburg towards mechanicsville and Zagerman's, and would zig-zag (no pun intended) through the tiny streets like Hilda which exist to this day.