STEWART HALL EXHIBITION

rom the permanent exhibition called Visions of Stewart Hall 1885-1963

CHRONOLOGY

1855

Pointe-Claire opens its railway station.

1885

Thomas and Alice Amelia (Armstrong) Crane acquired a parcel of land in Pointe-Claire. Gradually they bought other lots. 

1890 

Upper-class families begin to look for summer homes for fresh air and rest in the country. Charlesvoix and suburban Montreal, along the St. Lawrence becomes a popular choice.

Construction of the villa finished called the Knoll. It was a building made of wood, with turrets, a colonial roof, and a black and white upper story (half-timbered look). There was a windmill that used gravity to provide the villa with water. 

1891

The Cranes owned from Lake St. Louis to the railway, St. Jean to Sunnyview Avenue. They were travelling between Montreal and Toronto for business. They lived in major hotels like the Windsor hotel.

1898

Farm operations were productive enough to require a distribution network for milk and eggs. There were cows, chickens, and pigs. 

1900

Bourgeoisie were increasing in number by the end of the nineteenth century. Most were men from “liberal professions”, but increasingly members of the merchant class. Modern transportations were predominantly trains and steamships. Two-thirds of Canadian fortunes belonged to Montreal’s English community, and the majority of them were of Scottish origin. Most wealthy families lived in homes in the Golden Square Mile or Saint- Antoine neighbour hood (at the foot of the mountain).

1901 

Hugh Andrew Allan buys the Knoll. (Crane keeps part of the land for the Canadian Nursery).

He was the president of the Montreal Ocean Steamship Company (the official carrier of Royal Mail across the Atlantic, and whose oceanliners were the first to be equipped with turbines in 1904), and director of several other corporations (Halifax and East Railway, Grand Trunk Railway, Shipping Federation of Canada)

He was the husband of Margaret Elizabeth. Guests of the Allans would spend the day playing cricket, tennis or enjoying water sports. In the evening, lavish meals, dancing, card game, and business discussions were common. There was even a telephone line installed as soon as it was possible.

Their Montreal residence was on Stanley Street in the Golden Square Mile.

1911

Charles MacLean buys the Knoll and begins constructing a farm. He is the first to live in Pointe-Claire full time.  The farmhouse was ultramodern, made of stone, with heated marble floors, and they played classical music for the cows to get their the best quality of milk. 

This is one year after his first wife, Martha Fulford and their newborn, died. 

Charles was raised in Lachine, and joined the Canadian Army in 1904, and served overseas from 1914-1918 with the Scottish Light Dragoons.

1915-6

The Knoll is demolished to make way for living year round in Pointe-Claire.

Mull Hall is built, inspired by Fulford Place in Brockville, and named after the memory of Clan MacLean’s ancestral home on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. Locally, it was called Château MacLean.

Robert Findlay was the architect of the neoclassical architecture building, with a symmetrical facade, except for the main entrance portico adorned with columns, and a formal colonnaded veranda out back overlooking the water. The walls are made of locally quarried limestone blocks, and the roof was originally covered with cedar shingles. The facade was symmetrical, except for the main entrance portico adorned with columns. The colonnaded veranda was formal in taste.

1917

Charles marries Doris, his second wife, in London.

1919

They returned from Europe to settle at Mull Hull with their first child Ian.

They live as “gentlemen farmers”, for pleasure, with about 25 employees doing the work. 

1920

Morna MacLean was born at a rented suite at the Ritz Carlton.

1931

Muriel MacLean was born.

The children ate most meals in their nursery, on the second floor, with a dumbwaiter bringing up food from the kitchen. When Nannie had the day off, they enjoyed the solarium (located on the west side with a wrought iron frame) or winter garden, with parrots, dogs, and mischief in the fountain!

1940

The Religious of Holy Cross arrived in Montreal in 1847, and are still active internationally today. In Quebec, they founded College de Saint-Laurent, Montreal’s College Notre-Dame, Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal, and Les Compagnons de Saint-Laurent (theatre). Saint Brother Andre (born Alfred Bessette, and initiated the construction of Saint-Joseph’s oratory) is their congregation’s most famous member.

The priests buy Mull Hall, and turn it into a noviciate, and operate the farm. They moved from Sainte-Genevieve, and called it Saint Joseph Novitiate. 

The attic was used as a dormitory. 

The chapel was in the room next to the solarium (grand salon) with the altar facing north where the stage sits now.

The basement housed a workshop to make candles for the Oratory. 

They made no major changes except adding a statue of St. Joseph in front of the portico. 

They kept in use the volleyball and tennis courts. 

The initial price was “derisory”, and the farm fed the community with surplus eggs and milk sent to the Saint-Croix priests’ college (now Cegep St Laurent), but it became a financial burden as the student numbers dwindled.

The priests lived reclusively during the 17 years there.

1950s 

Montreal suburbs experience a boom, and farmland starts to be subdivided and sold to developers.

1957

Development Corporation buys the property, with plans to tear down the mansion and build high-rises (in 1959)

1958

The farm is destroyed in a fire, and the abandoned Mull Hall suffers serious damage during the winter.

1959

Walter Montcrieff and “May” Beatrice Stewart (born in Jamaica, trained as nurse in Edinburgh) lived as neighbours to the MacLeans for nearly a decade just east of Mull House (now Stewart Avenue). They buy the property before the demolition occurred. 

Walter was heir to the Macdonald Tobacco fortune (shared with his brother Thomas Howard, their father Sir William Macdonald). He was the sole head of the business from the 1920s to 1968.

 He met May at the Royal Victoria Hosptial, and were philanthropists, donating to  Macedonian College, McGill University and the RVH. May wanted to save the MacLean house. They bought it anonymously before it could be demolished.

On September 12, the Stewarts sell it to the City of Pointe-Claire for $1, with the understanding that it would be developed as a park, and maintained in perpetuity.

The city opened dialogue with the citizens of Pointe-Claire to decide the future use of this newly acquired building. Vi Duncanson headed the committee that proposed to use it as a cultural Center, which the city accepts. The goals were to make culture more democratic and to provide access to high quality courses and content. 

1962 

Stewart Hall Cultural Center opens, with Vi(olet) Duncanson as the administrative director. She involved Jean-Paul Morissette (director of National Art Gallery), Evan Turner (director of Montreal Museum of Fine Arts), and Winthrop Judkins (McGill University professor and art historian) in the designing of the first policies. She hired Helen Judkins and Ruth Auersperg to develop the culture programs and art gallery.

It was inaugurated in 1963 by Governor General George Vanier.

It was remodelled with a new roof, HVAC, and to house the new functions. The third floor became the Art Gallery, the second a library, and the ground floor and basement housed various associations. Because of the Cold War, the Pointe-Claire Rifle Club was among the first, with a shooting gallery set up in the basement! Other groups included Claycrafters Pottery Studio, Lakeshore Weavers Guild, Lakeshore Camera Club, and The Stewart Hall Seniors.

1967

Art Rental and Sales Service starts and continues to present day.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Archives of the Lake St. Louis Historical Society 

City of Pointe-Claire Archives

Stewart Hall Archives

Album universal, Vol.22, no.1113, pp.560-561, Sept. 2, 1905 Bibliotheque Nationale du Quebec

INKTOBER

 In the month heading into NaNoWriMo, we have picked up a new daily habit of drawing and posting (to our fridge door) an ink sketch (preceded by a pencil draft), thanks to the prompts from Inktober. 

ANNE SULLIVAN: THE MIRACLE WORKER

This afternoon I took Princess Pirate to the her first play outside of kid's theatre and her affiliated high school. I was a little nervous when I saw the crowd, because I saw no other children in the lobby, but the character of Helen Keller was to be played by an 11 year old girl, so I thought it was the right story for her to hear. Lakeshore Players opened the season with The Miracle Worker.

The play, and movie, were familiar to me, although I am not entirely sure why. I don't have specific memories of seeing the play, or a movie, of which there are several, made for television and the big screen. I probably read a book after a movie came out, with the few memories I have are photos of Anne Sullivan in those round dark glasses, and it wasn't from real footage, but of an actress from a black and white version of the film. There are several movies made, but this is the one I recognized. Of note, there is a colour version by Disney that might be worth tracking down, and a couple of sequels to look for: Monday After The Miracle and Helen Keller: Miracle Continues.

We dressed up, and Brianne came with us. As requested, we all wore pearls! We were happily surprised to find out that row E was the second row in the theatre, and there was no one in front of PP, so her view was excellent. The play starts in Alabama, a fact I had totally forgotten. To me, her connection to Alexander Graham Bell put her in New England in my memory, where the Boston school of Deaf/Mute had invited AGB to instruct the "Visible Speech Language" that he had mastered, inspired by his phonetian father and deaf mother (during his childhood).

The theme of water was well done from beginning to end of the epiphany that broke down the barriers to Helen Keller's isolated world. At the time of the play, Helen Keller was the age of 6 and Anne Sullivan 20. From the age of 19 months, following a febrile illness, Helen Keller was deaf and blind. But as an infant she had learned the beginnings of speech, and her first word was recalled as "wa-wa", and the moment she finally connected the letters being signed into her hand was after actually pumping water she had spilt at the table on her return to her family, after being taken away for a short two weeks to gain her teacher's trust and reestablish discipline that her family was not able to give her out of their pity. This is the primordial story that I loved and carried with me.

But this time, from the title to the closing scene, I realized that this story was not about Helen Keller. It was about her teacher, and what a formidable educator she was! Blind herself, but restored surgically, she wore tinted glasses to relieve her from the glare of natural light. She had outlived her younger brother, who died in the Almhouse they were in after their mother's death. Because of another blind resident, she learned of the Perkins School for the Blind, and made an opportunity to introduce herself and was accepted as a pupil there. She entered illiterate, and left a teacher, with the rare skill of being already apt at commicating with another student there who was deaf blind: Laura Bridgman.

The spirit of Anne and her honesty about what she knows and does not was remarkable, and the essence of the play, written by William Gibson, a man who often wrote about woman triumphing, according to the playbill. I really enjoyed the brief glimpse into her life at this story telling. Now, having heard the story of Helen Keller, I want to get to known Anne Sullivan.

We laughed and we cried, and when the play came to a rapid close, we were left with a lot to talk about and a poster of the alphabet and a few memories of my grandma's roommate and her ability to teach American Sign Language (ASL) and a brief course at the library when I was a kid. PP took to it very quickly, and I just as quickly realized that I could spell, but had never learned to "read" sign language. So we spent a few minutes after the show circling the poster of the alphabet in ASL, and then an hour and a half in the grocery store getting 5 items, as PP acted mute, and patiently signed words to me over and over until I understood her.

So for the teachers reading this blog, and for the burgeoning teacher asleep in her bed, take inspiration from the story of Helen Keller, but remember that for her miracle to happen, she needed to meet Anne Sullivan! She was her companion for 50 years. Their friendship outlived Anne's married, and was the inspiration of many. Think of sign language as a language, and learn some! Read more of their stories. They are a great testament to Jung's idea: "The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemicals: they are both transformed!"

Who is your Helen? Who is your Anne? Today, be a student and a teacher. Who knows what might happen? As Helen is quoted as saying, "Life is a daring adventure or nothing. Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature." And, "One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar." But also remember, as Anne is quoted, " Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction."

WEST ISLAND TO THE OLD PORT: MANJIT CHATRIK

I love art. I love some artists especially. I realized that Mr. Manjit Singh Chatrik is one of those artists when I saw him at his booth on Place Jacques Cartier. I was happy to introduce my friends to his exquisite work. His works include animals and birds, and people and places around the world. He uses water colour, patterns in metallic paint and moonshapes to create fantasy and beauty in every painting. Today I learned he was previously an illustrator, which is where he developed his style. He also let me call him Mr. Singh, which was how I remembered his name, but I think he was just too polite to correct me! Strangely I couldn't find a website, but here are a few images. Check him out!

POINTE CLAIRE POINT OF VIEW

My friend Susanne Strater was commissioned to do this amazing painting of Pointe-Claire. Thanks to her, we were able to convince the secretary to let us in to the conference room to see it in situ. It was perfectly hung to see on entering the room by its main door.

MADAME SECRETARY SEASON 4 EPISODE 20

"You can't make a drawing without shadows; at least not a good one."

Mr. Shin, press

POP UP ART SHOW CARO ART

As an admirer of art, my favourite thing is to see the evolution over time of an artist. This is often best showcased in an artist's show. This one of Caro's was no exception. For the longest time she has been a photographer. She worked in oils and geometric squares from before I met her. She has done horizons from her travels, paintings of buildings, and other geometric shapes. Lately she did a few epoxy resin paintings which added a new elements. But always the colours speak, and she showed in latest art show that she has a lot to say. Take a look of a few facets of this amazing artist.