This eye-catching West End apartment building is facing demolition, as owner Paolina Di Stefano-Giancarli has put the property at 5590 St. James Street West up for sale for $1.5 million.
The value of the property lies in its land, apparently. A purchaser would logically demolish the building and build something commercial on the spot.
City authorities have apparently given their blessings to the demolition.
The quirky structure has been the only home on the south side of the street since its construction around 1910.
It was initially inhabited by Robert Brodie's widow Mary Brodie whose family lived in the now-demolished farmhouse across the street in what's now Oxford Park.
(The city demolished that beautiful stone farmhouse across the street after making an unsigned agreement to maintain it for public purposes after the Brodie family sold its farm to the city in 1949 for $75,000.)
There has been talk that this building is haunted but but I asked a resident of one of the four apartments, who told me that she been unbothered by any ghost factory.
The building is set on 13,000 square feet but much of that cannot be built upon as it sits on the cliff, which is unsuitable for construction.
Municipal taxes cost $3,500 annually on a municipal evaluation of $428,000, as the land is evaluated at $181,00 and the building at $247,000.
So the $1.5 million asking price is over three times the municipal evaluation.
Coolopolis has previously argued that this building should be protected as a heritage monument.
What IS amazing is that the structure appears to NOT have any graffiti on it's visible surfaces.
ReplyDeleteThank You.
I've commented on this house before but around 1994 a Brodie daughter, then in her 80s, showed me the outside of the house. She said that when she was a girl there was a beautiful rose garden on the east side. The Brodie property went all the way from upper NDG, past this house and down as far as the Lachine Canal. Old maps show the extent of the land.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why people insist on saying the house was built in 1910, when it's clear from the design of the ornamental false mansard roof and dormers on the west and east sides, that the style is of the 1880s or a bit earlier.
It's also obvious they would never have built a house like this so close to the street, and the front façade is typical of the 20s. The conclusion is that the city widened Upper Lachine Road (now St. Jacques W.) in the 20s and a few feet of the front of the house were chopped off and closed off with the bland façade. For sure there would have been at least a balcony or vestibule on this front side, and probably a small garden between the front wall of the house and the original sidewalk.
Sorry, I was Wrong, ( again! )
ReplyDeleteThere is a innocuous patch of white to rear of building.
No excuse, just sloppy.
Thank You.
Mtc - Thanks for the comment. The city evaluation lists its origins to 1910. The Lovells prior to about 1912 is quite imprecise when it comes to this area, so that's where this date comes from. You'll note that the other Brodie buildings were made of stone, not brick, so this would suggest that this is from a later date.
ReplyDeleteI’m no architect but I notice building styles and features. The windows of the false mansard of the Brodie house remind me of an old house in St. Marc street, No. 1255, the first one on the east side, north of the yellow-brick Claridge Apartments at Tupper. Originally there was a fairly big house where the Claridge is, #47 in the old system. Number 1255 was originally #49 and first appears in the 1880 Lovell’s directory.
ReplyDeleteNo 1255 is the dark house to the left of 1251.
https://www.google.ca/maps/@45.4923971,-73.5796942,3a,37.1y,34.21h,102.93t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s8mTUgOwCYgBFkQwHNVRV4A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
If that was the style in vogue at that time, presumably the Brodie house dates from around that same era: late 1870s to early 1880s. The 1880 Lovell’s lists Hugh Brodie of Brodie and Harvey “res Coteau St. Pierre Lachine Road” so that might have been the house in question, or the old stone one.
Off Topic.
ReplyDeleteHere is a view of a piece of Montreal's Rwy history.
Napierville Junction locomotives NJ 4050 and NJ 4051 cross over to the Southbound Track to cross the CPR'S St. LawrenceRiver/Lachine Bridge @ LaSalle/Highland.
http://www.railpictures.net/images/d1/6/1/0/5610.1393041990.jpg
Must be Spring, as the rail joints have been oiled by Section to allow expansion in warmer weather to come.
Both these locomotives were built by MLW, being among the first 'Road' locomotives from Dickson St. R&S 20 at Exporail is just a slight bit older.
Napierville Junction operated in Canada btwn Montreal St Luc Yard and Lacolle/Rouses Point NY where it connected with the Delaware and Hudson., and, once, the Rutland RR.
Circa 1961 both locomotives were rebuilt in Canada, the NJ 4051 becoming Blue and Grey to mirror the-then new D&H paint scheme on their Diesels, then, for some reason, NJ 4050 came back to work in a modified Black and Yellow paint job.
NJ 4051 and NJ 4050 after retirement @ East side MLW Works. I understand they were reconditioned and sent to Cuba. The Maple Leaf on front of NJ 4051 is a nice touch for Canadaophiles.
http://yourrailwaypictures.com/OldDiesels/IMG_0016%20%281%29.jpg
The word 'LaSalle' is on station sign to left of engines in top view. A CPR 1800 HP RS18 switches to right. Both the LaSalle Loop Line and, further beyond, the CPR Canal Bank Line on S side Lachine Canal branch to the East, the latter going all the way East parallel to the Canal to the Island Street Yard and the Northern Electric plant @ Shearer, where, once, dial tone was manufactured and shipped in crates by the box car-load to remote telephone exchanges across Canada.
A Stub Spur was once to right of right platform. A pedestrian underpass beneath track by wooden fence.
To right rear beyond switching locomotive in above image is row of apartments, one of which exploded due to natural gas buildup a few years before.
D&H 3032 on lease to CPR Switching in Montreal.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=353318
D&H Passenger from New York and Albany climbing grade from South Jct. to Montreal West Station. Ballast for once double-track, removed 1960, visible beyond engine.
http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/photos/us/DH_4012.jpg
D&H did some odd things, as here, which, once, apparently made a Montreal Turn @ nite ex Rouses Point?
http://img12.deviantart.net/5e60/i/2012/115/e/1/delaware_and_hudson_sharknose_diesels_by_riverine69-d4xj0rw.jpg
D&H train for Albany and New York descending from Montreal West @ South Jct.. and will soon cross CNR 4 tracks by Northern Electric Cable Plant.
http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/photos/us/DH_18_19.jpg
The gate thru the fence @ West end of Consumer's Glass is down the bank to right.
Blah, Blah, Blah.
Thank You.
J'ai reçu ce commentaire via ma page flickr suite à la publication d'une photo de cet édifice :
ReplyDelete«Cette maison était une résidence de la famille Brodie. Sur la carte d’Hopkins de 1879 ‘Atlas of the City and Island of Montreal’ on remarque que la ferme de Robert Brodie commençait aux berges du canal Lachine au sud et se terminait au nord au niveau du boulevard Monkland à Notre Dame de Grace.
J’ai connu une dame de cette famille qui aurait été née vers 1912 et qui, pendant sa jeunesse, fréquentait souvent cette maison. La maison aurait été construite c. 1875-80 selon les ornements de la fenestration de la fausse mansarde. En plus, sa façade noble était toujours celle du nord. Si l’on regarde à travers la porte d’entrée, l’escalier principal et original est toujours visible près de la rue.
L’explication pour l’apparence bizarre de la maison d’aujourd’hui ainsi que pour la façade des années vingt c’était l’élargissement du chemin Upper Lachine (rue St-Jacques). La dame m’a dit que la maison avait perdu une bonne dizaine de pieds de profondeur et son jardin du devant, (et peut-être un balcon) pour accommoder les nouvelles dimensions de la rue et de son trottoir. En plus, la dame regrettait beaucoup un formidable jardin de rosiers qui allongeait le côté est de la maison.
Il semble qu’il existait jusqu’à assez récemment une autre maison de la famille Brodie, celle-là plus vieille et faite en pierre, située plus au nord sur les terrains de la ferme originale, et démolie par la ville de Montréal.
L’annuaire Lovell de 1881 indique la résidence de Robert et Hugh Brodie située à ‘Coteau St-Pierre, Lachine Road’.»
The city evaluation records are completely unreliable for anything that was not already within the city limits of Montreal when it was built. There are hundreds of buildings in areas annexed in the first years of the 20th century that are listed with construction dates of 1900 or 1910; these dates are arbitrary and meaningless.
ReplyDelete