The lost architectural treasure of Queen Street

Seventy years ago this month an immense stone warehouse on Queen Street was in the news. The building, in what I guess would be called eastern Griffintown had been there at least for 200 years, which is to say all the way back to 1739, possibly longer. The stone building measured 145 by 50 feet, had 45 foot solid oak beams and walls three feet thick.

W.H. Broadwell, manager of the St. Lawrence Wagon Company in the same building, but on King, gave a journalist a tour of the building and was particularly effusive about the attic, which was a rustic masterpiece. The property was used as a warehouse for the Hudson's Bay Company and was also a workshop where the Accomodation - the first steamboat to sail down the St. Lawrence - was built in 1809.

The building even had the same old ancient locks, complete with huge metal keys. They still were in use when the building was demolished in 1939. The building was so solid that it required dynamite to remove. Had it not been demolished, it would have survived a millennium. The magnificent structure was demolished for a parking lot.