The University Club building, a venerable downtown structure sitting just a stone's throw from McGill's Roddick Gates since Dec. 17, 1913, is for sale.Club board members passed a pair of resolutions last night at a meeting to decide the fate of the building at 2047 Mansfield.
The club will leave the building on Dec. 31 and relocate for 2018 at the St. James Club at 1145 Union, just north of Dorchester.
The University Club might then merge with the St. James Club, or the Mount Royal Club or find another premises for its operations. Those decisions have yet to be taken.
The University Club building is known for its leather armchairs, brass-topped tables, fireplaces, stained glass windows, creaky old wooden elevator and a grand staircase.
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The provincial government agreed with the club's demand to classify it as a historic monument in 1986, so there's little chance it will be demolished or greatly renovated.
According to a 2014 article by Robert Wilkins, the club paid $45,100 for the property in 1911 and had a building demolished to create space for the new structure, which was designed by Scottish architect Percy Nobbs, who ran the McGill school of architecture.The building was done up in the Georgian style with a limestone facade and redbrick upstairs. It's similar to his work at what's now the McCord Museum. The club mused about moving to another location in 1930 but opted to stick around.
The club now has about 700 membres.
Another old building I admire is the former Grand Trunk Railway HQ Building, now used as the Immigration Quebec office and which sometimes features historical display boards in the lobby. See various views of it in Google Images.
ReplyDeleteCheck out the interior stairways. The mean-faced guard at the desk may not let you climb up to see the upper floors, however, unless you talk him into it. I remember getting up there years ago.
Sad to see all these old clubs folding up. Back in 70s-80s when I worked in the money market for a stockbroker, we had a VP finance that would take me and a fellow trader to lunch at a lot of these establishments. Meetings with the "hoi pollai" at these spots was a way to drum up business. Looks like the younger generations don't get into it that way anymore.
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