CPR St-Jovite Station

 

The CPR St-Jovite Station in the Laurentians, north of Montreal, looks abandoned in this view from an old 1970s postcard, judging by the semaphores, now removed.  St-Jovite, which has now merged with the village of Mt-Tremblant, is situated about 130 km (± 80 miles)north of Montreal.

The first train arrived at St-Jovite in 1893 after the CPR purchased the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway (QMO&O) and extended the line. First a colonization railway, the line started to serve skiers when Herman Smith Johanssen (aka "Jack Rabbit") introduced cross-country skiing between railway stations. For many years thereafter, "Le P'tit train du Nord" (loose translation – The little train to the North Country) carried skiers in winter and cottagers in summer, first by steam than by RDC.

In 1990, the rails were removed and turned into a hiking trail, while the station was purchased and transported to a nearby location, then completely spruced up and turned into an Italian restaurant with a railway theme. View photos of the refurbished station at http://www.restaurantantipasto.com/en/.

One of the views shows the station in the early 1900s.

 

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Montreal Cemeteries

 

Genealogists tend to visit a lot of cemeteries, so if those are beautiful places, the experience can be a pleasure. Anyone with Montreal ancestors in either Notre-Dame-des-Neiges (Catholic) Cemetery or in the non-denominational Mount Royal Cemetery can consider themselves lucky: both cemeteries are located on the slopes of Mount Royal, both are filled with trees and wildlife, and both have services to assist genealogists find their relatives.

These cemeteries were opened in the middle of the 19^th century after the city’s population expanded, putting earlier burial grounds too close to residential areas. Hygienic concerns became particularly important when cholera epidemics swept the continent.

In fact, because of epidemics, poor sanitation and a lack of clean drinking water, many of the city’s dead were children…more

 

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Hôpital de la Miséricorde

 

Hôpital de la Miséricorde, 840-890 René Levesque Blvd. East, Montreal, QC – INSTITUTIONAL LANDMARK IN NEED OF REVITALIZATION

This large convent hospital complex built between 1853 and 1940 is a reminder of the essential role religious congregations played in 19th-century Montreal life. A landmark structure, its institutional architecture and symmetrical tree-filled courtyards that flank the central chapel hold a commanding presence in downtown Montreal. Built by the Sisters of Miséricorde, it began as a maternity hospital for unwed mothers, later becoming the Hôpital Général de la Miséricorde. It was acquired by the Province after the formation of the Ministry of Health and Social Services in the late 1960s. In 1975 it became the Centre hospitalier Jacques-Viger, a long-term care facility.

Although it has no formal provincial heritage status, the building is included on the City’s urban planning list both for its “exceptional heritage value” and for its location in an “exceptional heritage area.”

 

Jean-Francois Seguin

 

The Jacques-Viger long-term care hospital relocated two years ago due to the deterioration of parts of the masonry walls, leaving the building vacant. To date, there is no plan to adapt the facility to a new use. It remains without purpose, which is contributing to the building’s physical degradation. Masonry restoration is badly needed along with the revitalisation of the complex that comes with a conversion to a new use.

Where things stand

Heritage Montreal has been advocating for the conservation of this important downtown landmark for several years, stressing that without a long-term plan for the site, the vacant hospital is increasingly at risk. It joins other historic institutional structures in need of revitalization in the city and serves as an example of just how challenging it can be to manage the health sector’s built heritage.

 

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Sleuth Along Interstate Highways for your Ancestors

 

The thought of your ancestors of 100 or 200 years ago traveling along a modern-day interstate highway may seem amusing as interstate highways didn’t exist until the 1950s. Yet, it is quite possible that your ancestors traveled along the same routes as today’s interstates, plus or minus a very few miles… more

 

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The Grand Hotel

 

Located in the heart of Saint-Hyacinthe, in the face of the city, near the Park Dessaulles Hall, Palace of Justice, not far from the train station, and within walking distance of the Cascades Street and market square, the Grand Hotel was, for almost 77 years an institution could not be Chateau. It was the chosen place to celebrate all kinds of social events: intimate dinners, wedding receptions, banquets, dinners of Christmas or the new year, where people are coudoyaient and exchanged vows, in an almost family atmosphere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We would sometimes go to buy cigarettes or use the public telephone, but when there were always greeted kindly by the owner, the old Mr. Michel Dion, who was the guiding spirit for more than a quarter of a century.

 

The good reputation of this hospitality extended to Quebec City, and I remember that, when I was an official at the Ministry of Agriculture and an agronomist, a veterinarian, or what other government official left for Saint-Hyacinthe, we were always told: 'if something happens, you can reach me at the Grand Hotel. Leaving not to flatter my vanity Maskoutain.

And for my part, I recall with emotion that it is there, at the Grand Hotel, my friends gave me a farewell dinner, when I left the city to live in Quebec in 1930. It is still there, that people of the school of veterinary medicine met, on September 30, 1955, to celebrate 25 years of service to the use of Ministry of agriculture of the province of Quebec.

Its foundation dates back to more than three quarters of a century, since the first assembled shareholders of the "company of the Grand Hotel" took place on April 4, 1895, while gentlemen Louis Côté, former Mayor, Eusebius Morin, the Vanderbilt Chateau, (cf.), Alfred Thibodeau, Alphonse Denis and B.C. Desautels in were elected directors, and that the following may 4 one charged Mr. Théo Daoust, Montreal architect, to establish the necessary plans for the construction of a building which will be built on the location of housing said Eusebius Morin, Girouard and Mondor angle, facing the hotel Yamaska.

The contract for the execution of the construction of this building was awarded to Mr L.-P. Morin of this city. Put a subcontract was awarded to Mr. h. Morin, tinsmith-roofer for installation of coverage and other works of galvanized sheet metal. Those heating, lighting and plumbing, were entrusted to Messrs. A. Blondin & Cie. Finally, Mr o. Bernard, also of St-Hyacinthe, took charge of the masonry.

All these work actively continued since October 30, is completed to ask the roof and that workers could move inside to work there during the winter. At the end of November, it proceeded to establishing a huge galvanized sheet metal cornice which measured well nearly four feet in height. Inside, the divisions was completed and asking reek with Celerity.

In March 1897, at the annual meeting of the company of the Grand Hotel, where the same directors were re-elected, it announced that the facilities would be completed soon and that everything would be ready for the opening of school, set on May 1.

The Grand Hotel indeed opened its doors to the public on May 1, 1897. Later, in February 1899, the hotel announced the opening of 'his new bar' (sic). CF. The Bugle, February 2, 1899. However, soon after, on 30 March of the same year, Eusebius Morin and Mr. Alphonse Denis surrendered hotel owners, which led to the dissolution of the company had Grand Hotel.

Unoccupied for a few years, this building will be restored in June 1903 and is open even a boarding house, which will be headed by a Mr w.. Lebel. However, on July 30, Mr. Eusebius Morin sold the property to Mr. Ovila Perrault, agent of the CPR to St. Joseph, who acquired him for the sum of $30,000, and in December, Mr J.-D.Gauthier, Manager of the hotel Yamaska, leased the hotel to Mr. Perrault and took over management of the two institutions, until March 1904, while he gave up management board from the Yamaska hotel to focus now on one of the Grand Hotel.

Incidentally, we see in the Bugle of November 7, 1905, that the Philharmonic Society rented the basement of this building that its owner, Mr o. Perrault was converted to a theater.

Around 1910, the Grand Hotel was not yet strictly speaking an Inn: the Knights had their premises and the insurance company mutual trade, founded in 1907 by Sir T.-A. St. Germain was staying at this place as well as the company Union Saint-Joseph, who for some time was its offices.

Daigneault ladies held a restaurant that had enough look. This restaurant where we were going to eat ice cream in my younger years. Was decorated many Palm trees, here and there, arranged in large planters. It was located on the ground floor, Mondor and William corner (Calixa Lavallée now), almost ' at the same place where later, they opened the 'Grill' and, in recent years, the "wine cellar".

Almost all of the rest of the building was made up of small apartments rented to private individuals.

The tenants had access to the large superimposed galleries on each floor there and I remember is sitting often, time that the notary Horace Saint-Germain and his wife remained: were the father and the mother of my childhood friend Jean Saint-Germain.

Today, this building, passed from the hands of Mr. Aurèle Gaudet and his son Gilles, to those of Mr. Osias Lemieux, had been converted into small apartments and goes back, under the name of Grand Castle, to its role in the past. "There is also a restaurant named"The Auvergne"as well as a lounge bar: the Red pig."

The Grand Hotel was closed permanently March 1, 1974 and was literally ransacked by a gang of young thugs. 

A text of Camille Madore published on February 2, 1977 in Le courier de Saint-Hyacinthe .

Photos:
The Grand Hotel in 1927.
Collection History Center, CH119.

Staff of the Grill of the Grand Hotel, year unknown.
Collection History Center, CH116.

Translation may contain errors.

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Brief History of the Maples Inn

 

 

 

A unique place that should be in the history books.

 

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Accidents and Meaningless Deaths

 

The house was a wreck, and what they had not smashed the oil from the lamp had scorched.

Gazette, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 1895

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Spare a thought for poor John Griffin. In trying to act the peacemaker, he wound up in hospital – and then in jail to boot.

Griffin, a steamfitter, rented the lower floor of a small tenement on Hermine St., near the corner of today’s St. Antoine. Upstairs lived a labourer named Thomas O’Connor and his wife, Bridget O’Brien.

It was a cold Tuesday evening in 1895, and O’Connor and his wife were making a dreadful racket. Finally, Griffin could take no more. He set off for the stairs to separate the combatants, and got caught up in the fracas himself. It nearly cost him his life.

A man named McKenzie lived in a house on St. Antoine that overlooked the back yard of the Hermine St. tenement. Like Griffin, he couldn’t help being aware of the almighty row going on between the couple, but unlike Griffin he was content to keep his distance.

Suddenly, through the windows, McKenzie watched in horror as an oil lamp went flying through the air. Immediately after, as The Gazette reported, he was startled to see “a man running out into the cold with his head all ablaze.” The man was John Griffin.

McKenzie rushed out and with his overcoat smothered the flames enveloping Griffin. Other neighbours, meanwhile, rushed into the tenement and put out the fire that was beginning to spread before too much damage could be done.

The police arrived, arrested the warring couple and hauled them off to a nearby station. Griffin was taken in an ambulance to the Montreal General Hospital.

“At the hospital Griffin was found to have a half-dozen cuts, besides having all his hair and his ears nearly burned off,” we reported. He was patched up and sent back to the police station where he told the officers, “Mrs. O’Connor, the damn fool, threw the lamp at me, and look at me now.” (We can only guess he said “damn,” for our editors used a long dash instead.)

But then, the police added insult to the injury dished out by Bridget O’Brien. “A charge of drunk and disorderly was laid against [Griffin], so as to hold him as a witness,” we said, “while the other two were charged with aggravated assault.”

The outcome of the case is lost to us. Not so for another oil lamp mishap a few days earlier.

It occurred a few blocks away in a tiny, ramshackle house on St. Justin St., today’s Berger. The wife of a labourer named Israel Lebovitch knocked a lamp from a table onto the floor. It exploded, spreading its burning oil over her, and she died at Notre Dame Hospital three days later.

Alas, she was scarcely alone in her meaningless death. As she lay in agony at Notre Dame, a young Scottish immigrant named John Thompson stepped from the quarters he rented on St. Paul St. Perhaps he had been drinking; not long before, his wife had left him to return to her father’s house on Congregation St. In any event, Thompson stumbled, fell down the stairs and badly cracked his head. He was taken to the same hospital but died early the following morning.

Drink certainly figured in the death of a man named Martin Higgins. The same day Thompson died, an inquest concluded that Higgins’s excessive drinking had hastened the onset of pneumonia, which killed him.

That afternoon as well, a woman named Margaret Carson was buried. Like John Thompson, she also had fallen. In her case, it was in the middle of Peel St. and she did not survive long enough to be taken to a hospital. She died on the spot. Her brother ordered a coffin but then promptly absconded. The coroner ordered that she be buried at the city’s expense.

Death hovered in the background of a robbery trial then under way. One of the accused, we reported, was “in the last stages of consumption, and it is feared that imprisonment will kill him.” A different affliction had befallen his co-accused: the night he was arrested, his infant son died.

But elsewhere in the case, death was perhaps forestalled. The two men on trial accused a third of complicity in their scheme but the police decided, at least for the moment, not to arrest him. “The wife of the man had just given birth to a child,” we reported, “and it was feared that the arrest of the husband would kill her.”

courtesy – Montreal Gazette

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