There is beauty in everything

Even garbage, piled up against a wall. 

Outside Station Lucien L'Allier Metro

Dorchester, now René Lévesque Boulevard - A Little History

More stories from my 'hood.

When I head south for my walk, I pass by these properties which are a mere ten minutes from my flat and situated side by side. Yesterday, while I was taking these photos, I managed to flag down a young man walking to his car to ask him about these homes, whether they were still occupied, etc.

The first one (below) is the Judah House, also known as Villa Rosa, which dates to around 1874. Located at the corner of René Lévesque and Fort Street, this house was built for a lawyer named Frederick Thomas Judah, director of the Montreal City and District Savings Bank. The Judah family owned it until 1949 after which it was given to the Franciscans. It was originally part of the Franciscan Domain and there was a church next door, but sadly that burned down a couple of years ago.

The second house is the Maison Joseph-Wilfrid Antoine-Masson. It is a gorgeous baroque, house built around 1850, and one of the oldest still standing on Dorchester Avenue (renamed René Lévesque Boulevard.)

George Winks took over ownership of the house in 1860 and added a porch and mansard style roof, then it was John Hope, then George Hall, a coal baron. From 1934 until 1943 it was abandoned. The Franciscans bought it, and there are commercial tenants in there now.  Unfortunately the church between these two homes burned to the ground in 2010 and now there's just a big empty lot.

Read the article about the fire and see photos HERE.



Apparently there are still manicured Franciscan gardens in the back of both houses. That will be my next mission - find and photograph the secret gardens with Buddy the wonder sleuth.

Villa Rosa AKA the Judah House. One of my cameras converts photos to drawings, in camera.

The Judah House

Railing outside Joseph-Wilfrid Antoine-Raymond Masson House

Maison Joseph-Wilfrid Antoine-Raymond Masson House

More detail of the railing

Another Walkabout in Downtown Montreal

This is the view from the fort I wrote about a few months ago. You are looking straight down, well, Fort Street towards the St. Lawrence River.

Spot the Bud.

Canadian Centre for Architecture. Eldest's boyfriend is an architect. I bought him a book in the gift shop for a Christmas present. They took away my shopping cart right after entering the building, and the girl with short black bangs and an even shorter tight black skirt watched me closely, following me up the stairs and into the chi chi foo foo shop. I realized that with my cart, coupled with my usual flair for fashion - toque, yoga pants, baggy coat and sneakers - I did, in fact, look like a bag lady up to no good. When I sang the Swedish Chef song in an attempt to remember the name of the author (Herzberg - tell me you can't hear the Swedish Chef in your head?) I sealed my fate as the most terminally unhip person ever to darken their doors. Why couldn't he have asked for a new drill or a bottle of Scotch? I would have felt at home in those stores.

Big scary front door where haughty girls with short bangs cull the herd and ambush the weak.

The other side of the Centre for Architecture. I assume it's supposed to reflect Montreal with its modern buildings cosying up to ancient ones. Pretty cool mansion. I'd live there.

I would take my afternoon tea here, brought to me by my manservant Bartholomew. He had a tough upbringing, but he has the heart of a lion and the manners of a Victorian lady. Do not call him Bart as he will take offense.

This is my bedroom. My ladies maid would turn down my sheets every night. (I may have been watching too much Downton Abbey.) Also she would brush my hair and serve me a single malt from a silver tray. My dream, my rules.

This sits opposite the Centre. I think it's symbolic. Or ironic.

This Chair is Not for Sitting. It is ART.

Spot the Doug and the Bud.

This is the view from the photo above looking towards the remains of the fort.

I just liked this house. Typical of Montreal architecture.

To answer a couple of questions in the comments:

Picture #8 is the Esplanade Ernest-Cormier, or sculpture garden, not actual ruins. It's meant to mimic the centre across the street. 

Ernest Cormier designed a number of high profile buildings in Montreal, including Cormier House, which became Pierre Trudeau's home on Pine Avenue. I think his son still lives there. It's not that far from where I live and I have walked past it many times with the Budster. Not too long ago, I watched them cut down the only tree out front. Not sure which of us was more sad, me or Buddy. 

The mansion attached to the CCA is Shaughnessy House mansion. Read about that here:

City Walk # 146 The Fort Around the Corner

How many of you can boast of having a fort in your backyard?

Montreal is steeped like a teabag in history and culture. Take this, for instance. It's mere steps away from where I live, in the heart of the city:

Bastion # 1

Interior, seen through the little red door

Collège de Montréal, right behind it, founded in 1767

View down Fort Street, taken from the footprint of the original fort, looking down toward the St. Lawrence River

These are the two remaining bastions of Fort de la Montagne, also known as Fort des Messieurs de Saint Sulpice or Fort Belmont.

Bastion #2

Back in 1683, over 200 aboriginal people (Iroquois, Algonquins and Hurons) lived on this site, literally around the corner from my new flat. Then the Sulpicians showed up, and in order to protect themselves from Iroquois attack, the priests built this fort in 1685. Everything was destroyed in 1854 except these two towers which still stand today.

These towers, each 43 feet tall, were part of that mission, built under the direction of, and personally funded by, one François Vachon de Belmont, a wealthy Burgundian and Sulpician i.e., a member of the Society of St. Sulpice in France.

Sulpicians attest they were mostly concerned with the academic and spiritual formation of priests. They also played a major role in the formation of Montreal and bought huge tracts of land. They (and the government) out and out deceived the Mohawks and took their prime hunting land on the St. Lawrence River. The Mohawks had been established there since the 16th century, and other tribes can be traced back to over 1,000 years, so to have been conned out of it is something that rankles to this day.

(Kanehsatake remains a Mohawk settlement, one of the Seven Nations of Canada, and self-governed by the Mohawks. They continue to fight to maintain their rights to their land. The Oka Crisis is the most recent example of this ongoing battle. This was a 78 day stand-off brought triggered by the neighbouring town of Oka attempting to extend a private golf course not only over an old pine grove, but also a sacred burial ground. Not cool.)

Anyway, this explains the need for the bastions so the priests could have a little hide-out when things got heated.

My goal is to get inside one of them. And the chapel in behind. Not sure if that's allowed, but you know what they say - where's there's a Pam, there's a way.

I haven't even shown you the old section of Montreal yet. So much to see and do here in La Belle Province!

Habitat, Surfers and Montreal

Last weekend we had dinner with friends at their Habitat 67 condo in Montreal. I've seen photos of Habitat, and I've viewed it from downtown, but I've never been inside one of the units. The architect, Moshe Safdie, designed this complex as part of Expo 67, initially as an exhibit and it served both as a pavilion for visitors and as housing for dignitaries. Safdie's vision was to build a thousand of these units, but only 158 were completed. Once Expo was over, they turned into permanent housing for a lucky few.

These are stacked, modular units with more than a dozen different floor plans, made out of concrete and designed to give "privacy, fresh air, sunlight and suburban amenities in an urban location." The units are surrounded by water - the harbor was to the north, and the rapids of the Saint Lawrence to the south. It presents almost like a child's set of building blocks left on the floor but it's described as being in the shape of a ziggurat. (Yes, I had to look it up 'ziggurat' too.)

There's real movement and excitement when walking through the complex and your eyes can't stay in one spot long because there's so much to see. Pedestrian walkways zigzag throughout, and there's a covered walkway along the roof to a shared deck area. Despite being minutes from downtown Montreal, you feel as though you are in a special oasis. Each condo is designed to have its own private deck, which then forms the roof of the unit below. It really was an amazing place.

Luckily I had the foresight to bring my camera, because when we went up to the rooftop deck, this is what I saw. See that little black speck in the rapids?

That's a surfer. In Montreal. In the rapids of the Saint Lawrence River. A surfer.

They surf on what is known as a 'standing wave' or stationary wave. This is a spot in the rapids that remains constant, so these crazy souls propel themselves via a giant rubber band into the river and ride the wave until they get tired, or they fall and are swept away, like this guy:


There's also something called a 'recycling hole' which can suck you in, and spin you around and around until you drown. It was freaky seeing these guys fall off their boards and get swept down the river, I'll tell you.

I followed their progress downriver and spied this, our famous geodesic dome, the Montreal Biosphere, formerly the American Pavilion of Expo 67, designed by R. Buckminster Fuller.
And as the sun began to set, I was coaxed back to the party. The rest of the gang was drawn to the TV and the Stanley Cup playoff game. (Hey, it's Montreal. Hockey is a religion, not a sport.) So I sat on the deck, sipped my drink and ate exquisite appetizers offered by a tuxedoed young man. The breeze lifted my hair and cooled me, the faint roar of the rapids lulled me, and I watched as the city slipped into night.

All in all, not a bad way to spend a weekend.