Then And Now: ByWard Market Dominion

The store closed in 1983.

I knew that I had seen it, in my teens, but it would have been in the final years. The very first Dominion grocery store that I had known was in the K-mart Plaza, on Merivale Road, in Nepean. My house was one of the many garden homes behind the store, separated by a field, a grove of trees and bushes (known as Hippie Hideout), and a creek.

As a young kid, my dad would write a note for me to take to the store, with a couple of bucks, to get a pack of smokes. I was allowed to keep the change. For 10 cents, I could buy myself a bag of Hostess Potato Chips. I usually went for barbecue, though I distinctly remember that for a brief time, I was hooked on grape-flavoured chips.

When our Dominion store eventually closed its doors, I thought I would never see the stylized D again. But in my mid teens, I saw it again, in the ByWard Market.

National Archives photo, circa 1970.

Today, that space is occupied by the Blue Cactus restaurant. Though the letters are gone, the overhang still protects pedestrians from the rain.

I can't remember if there had been another restaurant or bar in that location between Dominion and the Blue Cactus, but the Blue Cactus has been there for decades. It's a hopping strip, with Lux restaurant, Zak's Diner and Cantina, and below, a set of escape rooms.

What's your earliest memory of this part of Byward Market Square, between York Street and Clarence? Did you shop in this Dominion?

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