It was the second building constructed on the old McGill College grounds (the current Arts building was there first). Groundsman John Herbert brought up eleven children there, between 1855 and 1902. It was a solid house, just west of where the Roddick Gates stand on Sherbrooke Street today. It had locally-quarried limestone walls more than two feet thick. But around 1915, something happened that undermined its structural soundness. By 1920, it had to be torn down. Why?Righty-ho! The Canadian Northern Railway tunnel that links downtown to TMR passed right under the house, which then became unstable.
Here's a 1953 picture of the tunnel from the downtown side. Central Station was later built atop this pit. That's the Dorchester Street Bridge, from which one mayor's brother (surname Winfret) is suspected of hurling himself to the tracks. (Then again, maybe it was just the mushrooms.)
Oh, those unthankful undergrads. Every year McGill has to shell out thousands in building repairs.
ReplyDeleteThe blasting for the C.N.R. tunnel which runs
ReplyDeletedirectly underneath the house caused the floors to sink to such an extent that it was no longer habitable.
was it a burst water main coming from the rutherford reservoir?
ReplyDeleteIn 1915 the blasting for
ReplyDeletethe C.N.R. tunnel which runs
directly underneath the house
caused the floors to sink to such
an extent that it was no longer
habitable, and it has been vacant
since that time.
What do I win?
I would guess it was the construction and operation of the Two-Mountains rail line, which I suspect runs very near where this house was.
ReplyDeletePhil
You are all wrong. The house didn't collapse, but was transported into another dimension after the Grand Lodge of the Scottish Rite of Montreal discovered it had been built on the site where Cartier was given psylocibin mushrooms from the Iroquois. So dismayed were the Masons to learn that Cartier had spent so many hours running naked through the woods screaming 'my hands have led me to Eden, St. Malo sucks, oh my god you guys are my best friends! etc etc that they realized the only thing to do was o send it to another place, one accessible only through the inner workings of the mind. Thus, on June 23rd 1913, the Ancient Order of Teutonic Eqyptian Fez Scarab Scottish Mason Triangle-Eyes (of Greater Montreal -or- the A.O.T.E.F.S.S.M.T.E.G.M) did the celebratory 'redman's dance' around the house, chanting the same words Cartier had so many years before, as two prostitutes from the lower Main were sacrificed to appease the masonic god. And at the stroke of midnight, the house imploded into itself, Aurora Borealis screeching across the sky as the pine of the mountain reached overhead, spewing green and orange and lavender. And then house evaporated, and the masons went home, weeping and slapping each other on the bum, as their traditions dictate.
ReplyDeleteAh, the Roddick Gates.
ReplyDeleteUntil I was 24 years old, I thought it was called "The Erotic Gates."
What happened at 24 to change your mind?
ReplyDeleteWeaver
My mother corrected me.
ReplyDeleteErotic gates. Kinda had a nice ring to it. If we renamed 'em that, Makavejev would probably come back to make another movie.
ReplyDeleteMakavejev coming back to Montreal?
ReplyDeleteNo thanks.
I'm still trying to recover from seeing "Sweet Movie" from 35 years ago.
Carole Laure -- is she that hard to recover from?
ReplyDeleteYOUTUBE Link
Ah, but if only the movie just featured Carole Laure all would be fine in the universe...
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, there was the imbibing of numerous bodily fluids that got to me.
Out of curiosity, where'd you find this information?
ReplyDeletei'm researching an ancestor of mine, Robert Hamilton, who worked as the groundsman of McGill at roughly that time, and according to the mcgill archives lived at "the lodge"
I would really like to get in touch with the autor of that thread, we are researching the gatehouse and your sources would be really helpful
ReplyDelete