Somerset House - Ottawa, Ontario - Artistically Decorated Utility Boxes on Waymarking.com

The Somerset House, a large multi storied building, as it appeared shortly after it was built, adorns one side of the utility box while a turn of the century advertisement related to Crosby, Carruthers and Company, the owners of Somerset House, decorates another side of the same utility box.

"The building at the corner of Somerset Street and Bank Street was constructed in 1896 in a commercial Queen Anne style for J. Frank Crosby and James A. Carruthers. As the advertisement you are looking at suggests, they specialized in “dry goods” and were the modern pre-curser to a department store, selling wholesale fabric, ties, hats, shirts etc. In 1902, an apartment building was added at the rear, called Somerset Apartments.

In the 1930s, the building was purchased by C.W. Mitchell, one of the founders of The Ottawa Free Press. Ownership passed to his son Edgar and the building became the Ritz Hotel, which featured a dining salon and dance hall. In the 1970s its basement became a jazz lounge called C.W.’s which featured not only jazz but Celtic punk. The lounge later became the Duke of Somerset, a haven for British soccer and rugby fans, and the upstairs became the Lockmaster Tavern.

The building stayed in the Mitchell family for 68 years before being sold to Tony Shahrasebi’s TKS Holdings in 2004. Although a partial collapse in October 2007 led to the building being slated for demolition, it was saved and is currently being renovated."

Source: (visit link)

Title of the Art: Somerset House Year Decorated: 2019 Name of Artist: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
When visiting a waymark, please take a picture that clearly shows the artistically decorated utility box. If you have a picture with yourself at the utility box, that would be great too. Also, tell us if you liked the art on the box.

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Date Logged Log User Rating   02/19/2020 elyob visited it