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Crawley Films Building

Crawley Films (19 Fairmont Ave)

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Introduction

19 Fairmont Avenue is just off Wellington Street in the Hintonburg neighbourhood of Ottawa. It is an example of 1950s modernist architecture that has drawn on industrial design and did away with ornamentation to focus on the functionality, of creativity, and the business of making and selling motion pictures.

Ottawa architects William James Abra and Watson Balharrie designed the building in 1954. It was the modern headquarters for the trailblazing production company Crawley Films Limited. Under its founders, Frank Rutherford Crawley, affectionately called "Budge," and his wife Judith Crawley, the company officially operated from 1939 to 1982 when it was sold. Budge and Judith chose Ottawa as their head office and the creative command center for their film studios and administration. From its beginning, the Crawleys and their company won multiple awards and recognition for their films. Their continuous growth in expert staff, number of productions, and revenues necessitated a building that suited their development and rise in success. It was to be a building with an architecture for the times, larger in size, optimal for its creative and technological know-how, and prominence on the cinematographic landscape in Canada and worldwide. Their headquarters had to reflect innovation in audio-visual production.

However, in a typically Canadian manner, the residents of Hintonburg and Ottawa, as well as many Canadians, were and continue to be unaware of the importance of the accomplishments and successes of those who worked at Crawley Films Limited in this building. Ottawa citizens are unaware of the story and symbolism that represents 19 Fairmont Avenue. This online exhibition intends to raise awareness and celebrate the heritage of the building within the scope of the early years of Crawley Films Limited.

Sadly, in contrast to its novelty in its heyday, the edifice now serves as an all-purpose, functional three-storey building for the Ottawa Police Services Offices.

Overall, the fate of the 1950s and 1960s modernist buildings has resulted in demolition or redesign. The reaction to constructions like the 1955 Crawley Films building has been neglect or an adverse reaction because they seem “out-of-step with current design principles.”[1] Urban leaders, citizens, and architects look to remodel and reimagine these buildings, as has been the case here with 19 Fairmont Avenue. Luckily, there is a wind of hope where there is a move to protect and conserve modernist structures.[2]

[1] Aidan While, "Modernism vs Urban Renaissance: Negotiating Post-war Heritage in English City Centres," Urban Studies 43, no. 13 (2006): 2399, JSTOR.
[2] While, "Modernism vs Urban," 2399.
A Fine New Building
Hintonburg in the 1940s and 1950s consisted of many residential homes that dated to the early 1900s and 1910s. The buildings were built in a mix of architectural styles, including the “revival” styles of brick Romanesque, gabled structures, late Victorian pattern book wooden houses, and postwar designs.[1] The area was home to skilled tradesmen, civil servants, merchants, people attached to the churches and community services, and many others.[2] Commercial businesses were located on Wellington Street, the main thoroughfare.[3] Residents walked or drove by these businesses, the physical appearance of the buildings quickly and suggested through their large window displays and signage what product or service was being offered. These structures had a utilitarian look. They were straightforward, community-supported, and profit-oriented.

As a young married couple Judith and Budge Crawley lived on Wellington Street in Hintonburg, a neighborhood of Ottawa. Nearby was Crawley Films Limited in the old Church Hall at 19 Fairmont Avenue. However, as newspaper articles of 1953 indicate, the firm was planning a major expansion to double the capacity of Crawley Films’ Fairmont Avenue site, adding staff and venturing into television production in addition to its existing business of motion pictures. The two-floor addition represented 15,000 square feet in front of studios outside the St. Mathias Church Hall on Fairmont.[4]

A not-so-clear photograph in The Financial Post, April 9, 1949, shows Budge Crawley and a colleague discussing the addition in front of a model of the Old Church Hall and the grounds in front available for the expansion.[5] As Crawley Films Limited saw its number of productions increase by 32% in 1953, more assignments were completed, and prizes were received—52 motion pictures in 1953; eight new prizes brought the total awards to 35 in five years—the plans to expand workspace went from a two-storey model to a three-storey design, tripling the floor space.[6] The Crawley filmmaking facilities, which were 31,000 square feet, would be worth $250,000 in 1954 or $2,950,000 in today’s (2025) cost. However, articles from 1955, corresponding to when the new addition was completed, tell us that it cost $500,000 or about six million dollars if it were built in 2025.[7]

Ottawa architects William James Abra and Watson Balhourrie designed the new headquarters, which George A. Crain and Sons Limited were recruited to construct.[8] The 1955 flat-roofed, rectangular boxed glass and brick addition was characterized by architectural elements that presented a break with the architectural styles of the past and mirrored the social and economic sense of the 1950s beyond the post-war era. Key characteristics included a steel frame, a brick exterior with picture windows, and no representational decorative ornaments. The picture windows allowed for natural light and a connection to the outdoor scenery. While the style was modernist, the use of brick allowed for a touch of classic aesthetic that fit in with the neighbourhood south of Wellington Street. Notwithstanding the brick, the new 19 Fairmont Avenue captured the sense of modernist architecture with the minimalism of the 1950s as its model. The rectangular block shape with a horizontal expression of repetitive picture windows with horizontal layers of brick bands gave the structure the impression of simplicity, lightness, order and regularity expected in a modernist office building. Abra and Ballhourie’s design displayed the polished and visually appealing architectural style that emerged after the War.

While drawings by architects Abra and Balhourrie for the new Crawley Films' facilities at 19 Fairmont Avenue have not been located, functional requirements can be imagined as having included planning for a building that had to work with advancements in cinematographic, animation, and television technologies. The architectural and construction plan would likely speak to a message of progress and modernity, a move towards the future and an expression of Crawley Films’ Canadian and creative ambitions in production away from a wartime and historical aesthetic and towards Canada’s contemporary cultural and technological manifestation in animation, motion picture, and television.

Upon completion of the addition, newspapers reported on the interior of the building, which they described as "the most modern film studio in Canada."[9] They described the interior as painted in pastel colours, with dedicated rooms for film production. It had a sound recording suite with floating floors to eliminate noise and vibrations.[10] They explained the layout of each floor, with on the first floor a reception area, a state-of-the-art theatre for projections, the animation studios and their equipment, executive offices, a cafeteria, labs, and a power station.[11] On the second floor was a large sound stage for indoor and outdoor shots, nearby dressing rooms with make-up rooms, and set and prop storage space.[12] The music, engineering, and camera departments and studios were on this floor.[13] On the third floor could be found scriptwriter and production units.[14]

Unfortunately, photographs of the exterior and interior have not been located beyond those in this exhibit and those included in Barbara Wade Rose and James Forrester’s books and articles, Michal Crawley’s writings, and those cited in the bibliography of this site.

[1] John Leaning, Hintonburg and Mechanicsville: A Narrative History (Ottawa, ON: Hintonburg Community Association, 2003), 32.
[2] Leaning, Hintonburg and Mechanicsville, 20.
[3] Leaning, Hintonburg and Mechanicsville, 21.
[4] The Ottawa Journal, "Crawley Films Planning $250,000 Expansion," The Ottawa Journal (Ottawa, ON), September 24, 1953, 1, digital file.
[5] The Financial Post, "Man-Wife Movie-Making Team Find Profit in 'Shorts' for Industry," The Financial Post (Toronto, ON), April 9, 1949, 15, digital file.
[6] The Ottawa Journal, "Crawley Films Ltd. Let Contract for New Building," The Ottawa Journal (Ottawa, ON), January 11, 1954, 19, digital file.
[7] The Ottawa Journal, "Crawley Films," 19.; The Ottawa Citizen, "Crawley Films Limited Now Located in Fine New Building," The Ottawa Citizen (Ottawa, ON), May 14, 1955, 7, PDF.
[8] The Ottawa Journal, "Hospital Extension Tops $465,000 Building Permits," The Ottawa Journal (Ottawa, ON), June 4, 1954, 27, digital file.
[9] The Ottawa Citizen, "Assorted Advertisements," The Ottawa Citizen (Ottawa, ON), May 14, 1955, 7, digital file.
[10]The Ottawa Citizen, "Assorted Advertisements," 7.; The Ottawa Journal, "Handsome New Crawley Building Is Tribute to Film's Growth," The Ottawa Journal (Ottawa, ON), April 30, 1955, 31, digital file.
[11]The Ottawa Citizen, "Assorted Advertisements," 7.; The Ottawa Journal, "Handsome New Crawley," 31.
[12]The Ottawa Citizen, "Assorted Advertisements," 7.; The Ottawa Journal, "Handsome New Crawley," 31.
[13]The Ottawa Citizen, "Assorted Advertisements," 7.; The Ottawa Journal, "Handsome New Crawley," 31. These articles also detail the equipment in the various studios and units.
[14]The Ottawa Citizen, "Assorted Advertisements," 7.; The Ottawa Journal, "Handsome New Crawley," 31.