Bingham House – 127 years old – welcomes its third owner.

By Dave Bowen

The sale of Bingham House in February of this year marks the end of an era for the venerable two and a half story brick house at 120 Boteler Street. Donna Kearns and Peter Gaby sold the house after having spent years and countless hours restoring one of Lowertown’s architectural jewels to its former glory.

The house was built in 1899 by Samuel Bingham and remained in the family until Peter and Donna bought the house from the estate of Jack Bingham in 2007. Born in Lowertown, Samuel Bingham was mayor of Ottawa from 1897 to 1898, and alderman from 1880 to 1893. He was a successful businessman, and like other barons of the era, made his fortune in the lumber business. He died a tragic death in 1905, drowning in the Gatineau River near Wakefield when he fell asleep after a long night clearing a log jam and his horsedrawn carriage was swept away in the river. Bingham Park, located around the corner from the house, off Dalhousie Street between Bolton and Cathcart Streets, was established on land he donated to the city.

Donna and Peter have a long history of preserving Lowertown’s architectural jewels. They first purchased the commercial building at the corner of Cathcart and Dalhousie, which was the home of Donna’s custom clothing and interior design shop until 2012. This was the third of her businesses in the neighbourhood after she originally established a store in what had been the Mandia grocer at the corner of Dalhousie and St. Patrick Street. In 2002, they purchased William Kipp House at 144 Cathcart and began extensive renovations to the dilapidated 1877 property. Peter’s expertise is in period housing and historical accuracy and was essential for the restoration of all three properties.

They had met Jack Bingham when he introduced himself to them as a fellow 1899 building owner and showed them around the house on Boteler. When he saw the work underway on the Cathcart property, he encouraged them to buy and restore his house so he could move and play golf all day. They bought the house in 2007 after Jack’s sudden death and began renovations a year later, but given both were occupied fulltime with other projects the renovations weren’t completed until 2010.

The house hadn’t been updated for many years but still had most of the original details including the front porch, doors, windows and mouldings, giving them a solid base to work from. The work was quite extensive, replacing all the plumbing and electrical infrastructure, restoring the original woodwork, sourcing custom heritage windows, and updating the kitchen and bathrooms. The biggest challenge was excavating the basement, lowering it by four feet to turn it from a dark storage area into a bright, liveable space. It was a labour of love, restoring the house to its original state and reflecting the craftmanship of the era, while at the same time upgrading it to modern standards. The work on the house was recognized with an Ottawa Architectural Conservation award in 2011.

Peter and Donna had originally planned to downsize and move to the house, but circumstances changed and the Kipp House on Cathcart will remain their home. Christopher MacLean and Roswitha Diehl-MacLean have just moved in and are getting to know the neighbourhood, happy to be taking on the responsibility of being only the third owners of Bingham House.