Capital Brewing Company

Ottawa brewery in business by at least 1900 on Wellington at Bay, moved c.1930 to 840 Wellington at Preston after federal expropriation, and bought by E. P. Taylor's Canadian Breweries in 1944 for $1.5 million, when Brading's moved into the plant as Brading's-Capital Brewery. NO FOUNDING YEAR: 'since at least 1900' is a floor. NO OWNERS NAMED before 1944. CONTRADICTION KEPT: many accounts say Capital joined Brading in the 1930 Brewing Corporation of Ontario; Rohmer 1978 (via the held Canadian Breweries source) and the Ottawa Citizen of 3 Feb 1944 (via Newall 2025) say 1944. Recorded as 1944. DISTINCT FROM capital-brewing-co (TB-Q4V4YK15), a live brewery elsewhere with the same trading name; never merge them. EVIDENCE: one secondary account (Newall 2025) citing dated Ottawa Citizen issues this archive has not read, and the held Canadian Breweries article. Confidence C. Sister record: brading-breweries-ottawa (TB-RXP9VXH3). Created INTERNAL 2026-09-24; not promoted. SECOND PASS 2026-09-24: nothing new proven. An OCR search of four digitised Ottawa directories on archive.org (1897-98, 1901, 1913, 1914 — Might's) found no "Capital Brewing" entry; microform OCR misses brewery listings routinely, so this is the NEXT AVENUE, not a negative: a human page-by-page read of the Might directories c.1900-1910 and c.1930, and the City of Ottawa Archives' run 1869/70-2006/07, for the founding year, officers and brand names. Also UNKNOWN: the federal project behind the expropriation; the 840 Wellington construction year and capacity before 1962; any independent confirmation of the $1.5 million / 3 Feb 1944 figures beyond Newall's Citizen citation. Site today: Tompkins Housing Co-operative and Walnut Court townhouses. DIRECTORIES READ 2026-09-24 (PRIMARY): absent 1901; listed 1903, 1908, 1909, 1913, 1916 at 385-389 Wellington, west of Bay. Founding narrowed to between the 1901 and 1903 volumes; founder and officers still UNKNOWN (no bold entry). Volumes for the 1920s and 1930s were not found on archive.org; the City of Ottawa Archives holds the run. DIRECTORIES 1917-1927 READ 2026-09-24: still 385 Wellington in 1927. Volumes for 1928-1935 are not on archive.org; the City of Ottawa Archives holds the run and is where the move date and any officer will be found.

A summary written during research. The sourced facts are in the sections below.

1. 1900
   Operating on Wellington Street at Bay

   Capital Brewing was in business by at least 1900 at Wellington St. at Bay St., around the bend from Brading's, on the present site of Library and Archives Canada. A floor, not a founding: no founding year is asserted.

2. 1903
   First listed: 385-389 Wellington Street

   Might's Ottawa directory for 1903 lists "Capital Brewing Co, Ltd" at 385-389 Wellington Street, the block west of Bay, with its drivers, a clerk and a traveller; the 1901 volume has no Capital Brewing at all. The company therefore appears between the 1901 and 1903 directories. Newall's "since at least 1900" is kept beside this as the other reading; his basis is not stated. At 385 Wellington in every volume searched thereafter — 1908, 1909, 1913, 1916, 1917, 1920, 1922, 1926 and 1927 — so the move to 840 Wellington at Preston came after 1927, consistent with "around 1930". No officer is named in any volume: the firm never bought a bold entry.

3. 1909
   One of Ottawa's three listed brewers

   The 1909 classified BREWERS list: Brading Brewing Co, Ltd, 451-461 Wellington; Capital Brewing Co, 385 Wellington; and Carling Brewing & Malting Co, Ltd, 144 Albert — the last a London, Ontario company's local address, not an Ottawa brewery.

4. 1910
   Advertising in Ottawa

   A Capital Brewing advertisement of 5 May 1910 is reproduced by Newall; an undated Capital Brewing serving tray also survives.

5. 1930
   Moves to 840 Wellington Street at Preston

   Around 1930 the brewery moved to 840 Wellington St. (that stretch is now Albert St.), south-west corner of Preston St., after the federal government expropriated the original site; which federal project took the Wellington-at-Bay land is not established. Newall's wording on the Waterloo connection is hedged and is kept as hedged: Capital "seems to have been related to Waterloo, Ontario's Kuntz Brewery" but "appears to have been its own separate entity, operated by a different faction of the Kuntz family". NOT part of E. P. Taylor's March 1930 Brewing Corporation of Ontario, which merged Brading with Kuntz (Rohmer 1978, via the Canadian Breweries and E. P. Taylor articles); Steam Whistle's history blog says otherwise, uncited — the CONTRADICTED reading.

6. 1944
   Bought by Canadian Breweries for $1.5 million; becomes Brading's-Capital

   Canadian Breweries Ltd. purchased Capital in 1944 (Ottawa Citizen, 3 Feb 1944, per Newall); the Canadian Breweries account lists "Capital Brewing (Ottawa) (acquired 1944, merged into Brading)". Brading's moved in at once and the plant was renamed Brading's-Capital Brewery. The end of Capital as a brewery in its own right (closedYear).

7. 1956
   The plant after Capital

   The 840 Wellington plant passed to O'Keefe's in 1956. In 1962, a $1 million expansion installed two new wort tanks "to boost production from 12 million to 18 million gallons per year" (Newall 2025); the same year the National Capital Commission expropriated the warehouse property across the street (Seccaspina 2019). O'Keefe's left at the end of 1969 (Ottawa Citizen, 13 Dec 1969, per Newall). The brewery was demolished in the 1970s and "replaced with the Tompkins Housing Co-Operative and the Walnut Court townhouse development"; the warehouse was demolished in 1983 "over the protests of heritage advocates" (Seccaspina 2019).