It’s quitting time for the ugly old pigeon-riddled structure at the back of Quitters Coffee on Stittsville Main Street.
The coffee shop is temporarily closed to day so that they can demolish the structures out in the back lot. Here are some pics shared by the coffee shop so far.
(They’re also doing a live video on Facebook.) Continue reading
Canadian musician Bryan Adams and comedian Russell Peters will be the hosts of this year’s JUNO awards at one of Stittsville’s top entertainment venues. Continue reading
UPDATE ON HAZELDEAN CAR DEALERSHIP
There’s a revised site plan online for the proposed car dealership at 5835 Hazeldean Road. The property is currently a gravel lot for the Canadian Auto Mall, with a temporary sales trailer on site. Continue reading
THE EVOLUTION OF WICHES CAULDRON
Posted today on the Wiches Cauldron Facebook page:
“We had no idea when we opened our service window November 11th 2016, that it would be our last service at 1195 Carp Road. We want to thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for all of the love and support we have received over the last 4 seasons. Opening the food truck was such a leap of faith, and we couldn’t have imagined it being as rewarding and successful as it has been. We lost our current spot, but thanks to you we are moving on from the food truck world and looking at locations for a year-round store front shoppe in Stittsville…. onward and up! SO, if we don’t see you in the spring, don’t fret….. there are exciting things coming up!
All our love,
YOUR local ‘Wiches”
I was messaging Jim Bryson on Facebook earlier today and asked him how long he’s been playing his holiday shows at the Blacksheep Inn in Wakefield. Continue reading
If you were standing in front of Quitters during last Saturday’s Parade of Lights, you might have seen a little bit of holiday magic. Josh Gibeault, a volunteer firefighter from Stittsville’s Station 81, proposed to his longtime girlfriend Megan Faulkner, a nurse at the Granite Ridge Care Community.
Canadian singer-songwriter Oh Susanna (aka Suzie Ungerleider) will play an intimate show at Quitters this Sunday night: “Folk Crossing Borders: An amazing co-bill featuring renowned and featuring Oh Susanna performing with UK folk duo Hannah Sanders and Ben Savage. Incredible melodies. Beautiful harmonies. Top notch songwriting. $25 ticket Doors: 7:00PM Showtime: 7:30PM.” More information via Facebook… Continue reading
About 45 people packed into Quitters on Monday night to take part in a panel discussion called Re-Inventing Stittsville Main.
I organized the event along with the Stittsville Village Association, the West Ottawa Board of Trade and Rick Tremblay from Quitters, with a goal of starting a conversation about the future of Stittsville Main. Continue reading
MORE MUSIC AT QUITTERS
I was at Quitters on Saturday night for trivia and two notable things happened.
For one, my team won. That’s a first. Congrats to J, Lorrie and Greg, aka the smart people on my team.
Second, Quizmaster Rick announced that Quitters will be launching some new programming this fall, including a live music series featuring Kathleen Edwards and other musicians. Watch for details soon.
(via Quitters)
Hey Stittsville: Tragically Hip viewing party tomorrow here at the shop. Swing by and catch the historic event in our friendly environs. We’ll play some greatmusic prior and compare Hip tall tales from our collective halcyonic days. The Ceeb’s airing of the Concert proper begins at 8:30. We’ll start playing ‘In Sarnia’ on repeat at about 7. Cheaper than stub hub.
(PHOTO: Kathleen Edwards and her guitar with Russell Mason and his dogs Riggin and Beans, standing at the bench in Bell Park where Mason found the instrument. Photo by Barry Gray.)
RUSSELL MASON OF CHERRY DRIVE WAS OUT WALKING HIS DOGS IN BELL PARK ON MONDAY, when he noticed a garbage bag leaning up against a bench. He thought it looked like a guitar shape, and thought it was a bit strange, but left it alone.
Then he went back Tuesday morning, and the bag was still there. But now it was wide open, and there were two guitars leaning up against the bench.
Kathleen Edwards / Photo via National Arts Centre
Quitters owner and Stittsville resident Kathleen Edwards will be one of four featured performers in the National Arts Centre’s CROSSROADS Jazz Series this fall. Here’s a press release from the NAC.
“There were no houses behind here, and we had dirt bikes and we used to drive through the bushes, we used to snowmobile around. There were all these bike trails that went through the bush and we built forts in the woods.”
Jim Bryson is releasing his fifth album on Friday, called Somewhere We Will Find Our Place, and will play three sold out shows at Quitters this week from Thursday to Saturday. Bryson grew up in Stittsville, moved away, and then found his way back when he bought his parents’ house and settled here with his young family. When he’s not performing with other musicians (he’s toured with Kathleen Edwards and the Tragically Hip in the past), you might find him producing or recording inside a small studio that he built in his back yard. Glen Gower spoke to him earlier this week about his new album and his life in Stittsville. Here’s an edited version of that conversation. Photos by Barry Gray.
(ABOVE: Renee Saunders, owner of the recently-opened Sweet Room Bakery Boutique on Stittsville Main Street. Photo by Barry Gray.)
If Stittsville’s small-town feel is something that’s important to you, take some time this week to support the local merchants who help give our community its personality.
A lot of my conversations lately have been turning towards the role that locally-owned businesses play in shaping the character of Stittsville. Continue reading
UPDATE: The second show also sold out really, really quickly, so Jim has added a third show on Saturday, February 20. Check his web site for ticket info.
Jim Bryson’s show at Quitters on Friday, February 19 sold out in a matter of minutes, so he’s added a second show the night before. But you’ll have to act fast.
Tickets for the new show on Thursday, February 18 go on sale Tuesday morning, January 19 at 10:00am at jimbryson.org Continue reading
(Quitters is encouraging customers and neighbours to drop off a donation for Chrysalis House, a local women’s shelter, from now until the end of December. Here’s more info about the initiative, via Quitters.)
We would like to spread the word about a very important shelter in OUR community that supports women and their dependents seeking a safe place from abusive partners or family members.
Our staff was incredibly moved by a recent visit to Chrysalis House, and we hope you will support us in raising money or donating a gift certificate for someone who, in most cases, has left everything they own in hopes of starting a new life for themselves and their children.
In many cases, just simple things are hugely useful: OC Transpo tickets, toiletries, crafts for children, small gift certificates for basic essentials.
This is HERE. In our community. Our small gestures can have a huge impact on the lives of others. We would be happy to tell you more about what the shelter does day to day, for kids, for women, and how a donation is helping give them a renewed hope for a future free of abuse. Please join us during this time when we have so much to be grateful for. Accepting donations now through the end of December.
Thanks so much for your consideration.
For more info about items needed or to make a donation, click here.
We want to hear from our readers about how you’re celebrating the season.
Maybe it’s with some epic decorating, like Amanda here from Quitters. She’s showing off the replica gingerbread house that she made with a bit of help from her family. (Idea: Next year let’s see a gingerbread replica of all of Main Street.)
Maybe you have an epic Christmas light display, or you’re going out with your neighbours to do some carolling. Tell us about it or snap a pic and send it to feedback@stittsvillecentral.ca so that we can share it with our readers.
Happy holidays!
(Photo by Barry Gray.)
Next time you visit Quitters, have a close look at the brick building right next door on the corner of Orville Street. You can still see a faint line marking where a second-storey white balcony and veranda used to wrap around three sides of the house.
Today the house is rented out as apartments, but decades ago it was known as the Temperance Hotel and was a popular stop-over for travelers when they were passing through by horse or train.
The building dates back to around 1875. It was originally built as a hotel (pre-dating the temperance era) and legend has it that Sir John A. MacDonald once made a speech from the balcony, possibly in the 1880s. It was later converted to a private home.
I’m not totally clear on when it was turned back into a hotel, but it appears to have coincided with when Stittsville went “dry”, banning the sale of alcohol. The Ontario Temperance Act was passed in 1916, prohibiting the sale of alcohol in the province, although some municipalities went dry well before that. It looks like Stittsville enacted a ban in 1907. (The act was repealed in 1927.)
The alcohol ban closed down most of the traditional hotels in the area (including Green’s hotel across the street, now home to Hudson Insurance). But it created an opportunity for Joe and Agnes (Brown) Lewis, who owned the brick house just south of the train tracks (now the Trans Canada Trail):
“The house had nine bedrooms, some with two beds, and Mrs. Lewis served and prepared all of the meals, making 25 pies some evenings and moving her children out of their beds to sleep on the living room floor to accommodate more guests,” writes Bonny Riedel in “The Heritage of Goulbourn: A Driving Tour”.
They called it the Temperence Hotel to leave no doubt that they were in compliance with the law.
Besides the hotel, Joe Lewis was also well known as a horse breeder. He built stables in behind the building, and later on ran a horse farm in an area that’s now part of Amberwood. He collected urine from pregnant mares for use in cosmetics. No kidding.
Agnes Lewis lived from 1864-1943 and is buried at St. Paul’s United Cemetery on Carp Road. Joe Lewis was born in Munster in 1871 and passed away in Stittsville in 1949.
Back in September, Quitters owner Kathleen Edwards mused about opening a music venue next to her coffee shop. Could she be reviving the Temperance Hotel after all these years? It would be nice to see the building turned back into a place of hospitality… although maybe without the temperance part this time.
If you’re interested in learning more about the temperance movement in Ottawa, the Ottawa Archives has an exhibition called Taverns and Troublemakers running until March 16, 2016. It’s at the James K. Bartleman Centre, 100 Tallwood Dr. (corner of Woodroffe)
in Centrepointe.
This article was based on research from “The Heritage of Goulbourn: A Driving Tour” by Bonny Riedel, available at the library on Stittsville Main Street.
Met w/ lawyer and insurance this week. Days away from deciding to open an acoustic living room style venue next to @QuittersCoffee
— Kathleen Edwards (@kittythefool) September 22, 2015
