Sunday 20 December 2009

PIERRE DU CALVET'S HOUSE - Old Montreal


























401, Bonsecours Street

The houses built under the French regime are rather scarce in Montreal. Pierre du Calvet’s house was however built shortly after the English conquest in 1770 but strangely in the French style. It is located in front of the Notre-Dame du Bonsecours chapel. Several years ago it housed a cozy coffee shop where we used to drink a delicious coffee. Then its vocation changed several times during its history. Its stone walls are very thick and exceed the roof to form a firewall, which was mandatory at the time due to a large fire that had destroyed many little houses in the city.

Its constructor, Pierre Du Calvet, a Huguenot (so a protestant) arrived in Montreal in 1761, two years after the battle of “Les Plaines d’Abraham”. He was coming from Acadia where he lived a few years before. Originally the house was three times larger because he had built a warehouse on the back yard on St. Paul Street. Thus Du Calvet could boast that “in the first and second floor, there are 20 beautiful rooms and at least half as that could be built on the third floor”. Being a protestant merchant, he was permitted to get administrative positions then reserved only to Protestants. He was appointed justice of the peace.


His problems started after the invasion of the U.S. troops in 1775 - 76. He was accused of selling food to the rebels and was kept in prison for three years without any trial. He then traveled to the United States, to London and Paris to defend his case and be reimbursed for the goods the American army had stolen him. The US Congress finally accepted to compensate him for half of his claims (he was luckier than the Ursulines Sisters of Trois-Rivières!). In travelling to England in 1786, he perished in the sinking of the vessel.

The House has had several owners as one can imagine. Even Jacques Viger, the first mayor of Montreal, acquired it. The building has been used as hostel, grocery, barbershop, restaurant and even furniture museum. It has also been part of the Pierre Du Calvet Hotel as a restaurant. Now a sculptor uses it as a show room. Needless to say that we don’t go anymore to celebrate our three o’clock “coffee-cult”!







Saturday 12 December 2009

BUILDING ALFRED – TURGEON


311, rue Saint-Paul East

Built in 1860 by the lawyer Joseph - Octave - Alfred Turgeon, this building is also known by three other designations: Inn Félix-Villeneuve, hotel Bonsecours and hotel Payette. It is primarily a hostel that occupied the place then followed restaurants and groceries as well as the hotel Bonsecours owned by Félix Villeneuve. The place became a pension under a new owner, Napoleon Lefebvre, a jeweller who owned it from 1875 to 1892 while his succession retained it until 1912.

Many grocery stores have opened their door on the ground floor for nearly a century while the upper floors sheltered tenants. Legault and Masse, a grocery store in wholesale and retail, did business from 1931 to 1960 but Narcisse Legault was already present on the premises since the beginning of the 1920s. From 1970s, the same restaurant occupied the place for 20 years. Today, a similar trade operates on the first floor while the upper ones have been turned into commercial condominiums with offices.

The building was not much transformed since its construction. As it is located in the historic Borough of Montreal, it is protected by the provincial legislation and is under the municipal jurisdiction.

Sunday 6 December 2009

HOBOKEN.: ERIE-LACKAWANNA TERMINAL
























Built in 1907, this Beaux-Arts style train station is a real beauty. Its four story façade is covered with copper that oxidized in a beautiful dark green. The stained glass representing floral and Greek revival motifs were designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany.

The original 225 foot clock tower had to be dismantled at the beginning of the 1950s. Fortunately, a new one has been erected in 2007 replicating the original.

The Erie-Lackawanna Terminal has witnessed a few “firsts”. It’s here that Thomas Edison, in 1930, was at the controls of a regular service electrified train departing for the first time from Hoboken to Montclair NJ. It is also said that the Terminal was the first to install a central air-conditioning device in a public space.

The Terminal has also been used for a few movies: Funny Girl, Three Days of the Condor, Once Upon a Time in America, The Station Agent, Julie and Julia and a few others.

Wednesday 2 December 2009

STEVEN GATE HOUSE - HOBOKEN N.J.


NOTRE-DAME DE BON SECOURS CHAPEL - Montréal
























Twelve years after the founding of Montréal, Marguerite Bourgeoys built the first sanctuary of the city. It was a small wooden chapel thirty feet by forty around 400 yards of the city limits. It lasted only a few years due to its destruction by fire. The founder of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame rebuilt the Chapel, this time a stone one and slightly larger. She asked everyone to bring a stone, inviting also the workers to give a few days of work. It was in 1673.

On a trip to France, Marguerite Bourgeoys returned with a small statue of the Virgin eight inches high. This statue came from a Belgium Castle where it had been worshipped for more than a century. In the 1754 fire, the statue was saved and it became an object of profound veneration. In 1771, it was decided to rebuild a new chapel on the same foundations , thus saving a place coveted by the British army to build barracks.

But the chapel was still a small one. At its side the Bonsecours Market had been built in great style to cause the admiration of the passengers arriving by boat. It has been in the same spirit that it was decided to reshape the chapel. The front on the Bonsecours Street was added as well as an “outgrowth” facing the River. A monumental statue of the protective Virgin of sailors was placed facing the river but the top of the support proved too weak and had to be shortened. It was in 1893.

In the nineteenth century the chapel became a place much frequented by sailors. Miniature ships have been suspended in the vault in thanks to the Virgin Mary for having rescued these sailors in dangers at sea. In 1831, the miraculous statue disappeared without anyone knowing where it was. It was found again in 1894 in a niche of the sanctuary. It is now on the left side altar. Marguerite Bourgeoys also are returned in the chapel in 2005, on the 350e anniversary of the Chapel. She is now buried under the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours statuette.