Fifty years ago, on September 7th and 8th, 1973, the demolition of the Van Horne House took place in Montreal. Located at the intersection of Sherbrooke and Stanley Streets, this residence was built around 1870 by architect JW Hopkins. It was purchased in 1889 by Sir William Van Horne, then president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and at his request was expanded to include 52 rooms, the main rooms of which were redecorated by Edward Colonna. The result was a remarkable historic home, Victorian on the outside and Art Nouveau on the inside.

In 1973, entrepreneur David Azrieli decided to buy this house on the condition that he would be allowed to demolish it, which provoked strong reactions from both English-speaking and French-speaking citizens. The then Minister of Culture, François Cloutier, then decided to intervene, but four months later withdrew from the matter under pressure from Mayor Jean Drapeau, who was more interested in development projects. The demolition permit was issued on September 7, 1973 to the contractor, who began demolishing the house that same day. A seventeen-story office building of little architectural interest was subsequently constructed on the site.

After the Second World War, the West experienced a phase of catching up in urban development, driven by economic growth. The result was a blindness to built heritage in Montreal, particularly on the part of French-speaking leaders. To get an idea of ​​this, let’s remember that at that time there was talk of laying a highway through Old Montreal.

The 1970s saw the emergence of a new mentality towards built and urban heritage, a mentality that could be described as “reappropriation”, with the aim of improving the quality of life in the city. The Espaces vertes association was founded in 1971, followed in 1973 by Sauvons Montréal. The Rally of Montreal Citizens (RCM) was founded in 1974 and Phyllis Lambert, the dominant figure of these years of reappropriation, founded Héritage Montréal in 1975.

A positive effect

The demolition of the Van Horne House had a positive impact on the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, located on Sherbrooke Street, three blocks west of the site of this historic residence. In search of space and a desire to maintain a desirable urban environment for their institution, the members of the board of directors on which I served at the time began to fear that the nearby Erskine and American Church, its Presbyterian congregation, would lose believers or sold to a developer to be demolished and replaced with an office tower, as was the case with the Van Horne House.

They then tried to buy this church, which was not easy because all of the church’s believers had to agree to this sale. In short, it took time and patience, but fortunately the operation was ultimately successful.

This acquisition by the museum enabled the construction of the Canadian and Quebec Art Pavilion behind the church and its conversion into a concert hall, the famous Bourgie Hall, unique in the metropolis with its sublime Tiffany stained glass windows. This shows that preservation of built heritage not only represents a protection of the values ​​of the past, but can also prove to be a means of germinating the future, as was the case with the recycling of the Erskine and American churches.

To watch in the video