What’s in a (street) name? The Clemows and Powells

Editor’s note: I am saddened to say that this article is the last in the series “What’s in a (street) name” by Christa Zeller Thomas, a talented historian and writer who suffered an untimely death in early January.

Two of the Glebe’s most fascinating streets surely are Clemow and Powell avenues, because they are not just exceptionally good-looking (wide boulevards, grand old homes, plenty of trees) but also because they exude an aura of influence and prestige. Even without knowing anything about the men and women behind these two names, one can easily surmise that they were part of Ottawa’s elite. But reading about Francis Clemow, the family patriarch, I find that counting him among Ottawa’s early “in” crowd is almost an understatement: the man was such a wheeler and dealer, so “firmly entrenched in the sinecures of the city corporation,” as John Taylor observed in his illustrated history of Ottawa, that it seems as though he had a hand in a great many of the city’s affairs.
As though that were not enough, and being “possessed of great energy and the initiative spirit” according to the History of the Ottawa Collegiate Institute (now Lisgar Collegiate), whose sixth chairman was Clemow, he also lobbied the city for the construction of its first waterworks. Action was accordingly taken in 1871 and in 1874 the project was completed on land (donated by another great Ottawa man, Henry Franklin Bronson), near the Chaudière Falls.
Still not satisfied, Clemow also became manager and later president of the Ottawa Gas Works, a lucrative job since gas provided city lighting at the time. And when electricity replaced gas – in the 1880s, Ottawa was lauded as “the only city in Canada that is entirely lighted by electricity” – Clemow fortuitously became the managing director of the electric company.
In addition, and aside from a whole number of other public offices he held, including that of city councillor, Clemow served in the Senate after being appointed by Prime Minister Macdonald in 1885. He held the position until his death in 1902.
After the couple’s deaths (Francis in 1902, and Margaret after a lengthy period of invalidism, in 1907), their eldest daughter, Henrietta Adelaide Clemow (“Ada”), inherited the estate. Despite being a very private person, Henrietta Clemow ventured into public life when she and her cousin William Frederick Powell (Jr.), whose father had been a Conservative MPP and Sheriff of Carleton County, formed Clemora Realty to develop their estate portions in the Glebe.
William Powell moved to 85 Glebe Avenue, into the beautiful home designed for him by W. E. Noffke (now the Vietnamese embassy). The building to this day reflects by its gravitas and location the influence of the Clemow and Powell families.
Christa Thomas wrote several articles about the history of the Glebe for the Glebe Report. Her contributions will be greatly missed.