The nursing school moved out a couple of years ago after mould was supposedly found in the building. According to city tax records, the building at 2055 Oxford was built in 1957 but I can find no listing for it in subsequent years either on Oxford or Upper Lachine in the Lovells directory.
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| Gilson School on Harvard 1948 |
Local legend has it (ie: one loud-mouth- Chimples) that there was some sort of disharmony between the local anglo kids and the French speaking children who were made to feel unwelcome here and that led to its demise, although that seems like a bit of a ridiculous explanation, admittedly.
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| Gilson School '48 |
So, long story short, it was a flop.
Nonetheless the local French school board is going to put a francophone elementary school on the same spot, so that should be uninteresting to watch.
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| Gilson to the left & other now-demolished skule |
A set of bland, unambitious duplexes have occupied the site since.
It was home to about 340 students, some of whom are surely still alive.
Gilson School was part of the old Coteau-St Pierre school board and was taken over by the PSBGM (Montreal's Protestant board) around 1920.
The school's name was changed from Royal Albert School to Gilson after 1921, perhaps to avoid confusion with Royal Arthur School (on Canning St), another old school in the Protestant board.
I would suggest the left 'X' is located in the garage area where the c. 1950 BTCo garage @ 5757 Upper Lachine, then Western, would be constructed.
ReplyDeleteAt the NE corner of the later Bell Garage property, the tall Microwave Tower was constructed c. 1961?? Adjacent was a small yard with telephone poles planted so Plant Men could practice their Working Aloft Skills on spur climbers erecting dummy cable, crossarms and so on.
At NW end of property, but removed a ways in from CPR were two gasoline pumps operated by an attendant, a nice guy, and there were books of gas tickets in the truck cabs behind the driver's seat, which were collected w/truck number, date etc. and taken in for fuel records.
Trucks inside the garage would be washed every night in winter, the trucks to be BACKED in against walls, nosed in face to face in centre rows.
There was a Mechanic at the SW corner inside, and hoists as in a service station, a store room to West of that.
Bins to receive incoming used telephones and so forth on pallets on West Wall in garage, the pallets going by truck to NE facilities to be sorted for scrap, a la 202s, Lead cable, and so on, or reconditioning as in 302/354/500/554 telephones and modern plant.
There was a special divided plywood crate for pay telephones.
Offices, washrooms and training rooms on West side of building.
'No job is so Important...' Mantra everywhere.
The Canadian version said 'The Bell Telephone Co. of Canada', later Bell Canada, as I recall, and these, alto' they LOOKED like bronze, were, in reality, ( at least the modern ones,) were pressed sawdust w/ a veneer.
http://www.drgibson.com/towers/motto.jpg
The verbal joke was to steal them and take them home making Mother Bell shrines w/candle in red glass jar and say prayers, as found in BSPs, every day, etc.
Blah, Blah, Blah.
The stalls USED to have truck number on green plates hung on wire above stall, as in 10C64047, so you could find the stall, the truck number, also in 1/2 inch digits on dash in cab on right, But, that was LAME, as numbers on wall plates had to be removed and changed when trucks transferred or renewed.
All stalls were then renumbered in numerical order 1 up, and that stall number then put on dash of truck occupying that stall.
A photo of the Bell Garage @ 5757 and it's classic brick smoke stack in the rear would be nice to see.
As I recall, the whole exterior was remodelled to something from Star Wars in later years, Neither Bell or Watson nor I would be/was amused.
http://archivesdemontreal.com/greffe/vues-aeriennes-archives/jpeg/VM97-3_7P10-19.jpg
I also do NOT remember the single-track Route 31 St. Henri of the Tramways which turned back East @ Belgrave, see 1947 photo below for tracks, but DO remember them building the over/under junction @ Belgrave/UL/St J c. 1957??
We used to eat luch at a small restaurant on NW corner UL/W and Melrose.
In 1947 view the Melrose Underground Urinal beneath the CPR can be seen @ North end of Melrose from UL/W, the North entrance right in the middle of later-to-be-built New Western/De M. over to West Broadway/Coffee c. 1962.
The seam in the concrete for the new portion of the Melrose Tunnel can be seen inside. I used to take the 105 on Sherbrooke late at night as service on 106 UL was dismal after dark.
Google image shows 1962 extension of Melrose Tunnel. Building w/green paint once housed Hoolihan Construction, a contractor who did snow removal in NDG in the Fifties.
ReplyDeletehttps://maps.google.com/?ll=45.468385,-73.613827&spn=0.000015,0.006899&t=m&z=17&layer=c&cbll=45.468445,-73.613692&panoid=spV_bvdC5f-tYQfSz2P92g&cbp=12,311.97,,1,13.99
It seems in the 1947 view there were other properties demolished where BTCo garage went btwn Harvard and Melrose, and looks as if there were CPR spurs into area from East towards Westmount, one crossing Harvard just South of CPR tracks?/
I do not remember the Gilson School, but, suspect it appears on the West side of Harvard South of UL/Western in the photo from 1947.
OT FWIW This 1947 view shows pedestrian underpass beneath Sherbrooke to access Trenholme Park @ King Edward.
http://archivesdemontreal.com/greffe/vues-aeriennes-archives/jpeg/VM97-3_7P11-17.jpg
Thank You.
I remember the school being built around 1955-56.
ReplyDeleteI attended St-Raymond's and finished there in 1957. I'm not sure exactly when it opened, but it would have been around '52 or '53. I started elementary in Sept. 1950 at the old St. Raymond school on the s/w corner of Girouard and then-Western. The school actually stretched to Old Orchard. Half the school was English, the other half French (me). I cannot recall what year it was when we moved into the new Ecole St-Raymond
ReplyDeleteGilson School was closed in 1966 and demolished shortly thereafter. The current duplexes on the site were built circa 1968. Gilson School was part of the old Coteau-St Pierre school board and was taken over by the PSBGM (Montreal's Protestant board) around 1920. The school's name was changed from Royal Albert School to Gilson after 1921, perhaps to avoid confusion with Royal Arthur School (on Canning St), another old school in the Protestant board.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I added your info.
ReplyDeleteI am trying to find anything from graduating class of 1950 from Gilson. Dopey Mclean, Billy Hicks, Gilbert Shaw, Kenny Stroud. They may not have been at that school but they all lived in NDG.
ReplyDeleteIn 1965 the PSBGM also closed Cote des Neiges School, then located at 3706 Coronet Road (later renamed Rue Frere Andre).
ReplyDeleteThe property was put up for sale and was subsequently replaced by an odd-looking five-floor apartment building.
Apparently, the builders had planned for the structure be many storeys higher but the city prevented this from occurring based on the realization that such a taller building would obscure the view of the adjacent St. Joseph's Oratory, itself currently under renovation beginning in 2018 and with a view to completion around 2026 following construction delays due to Covid-19.
In 1965 the PSBGM also closed Cote des Neiges School, then located at 3706 Coronet Road (later renamed Rue Frere Andre).
ReplyDeleteThe property was put up for sale and was subsequently replaced by an odd-looking five-floor apartment building.
Apparently, the builders had planned for the structure be many storeys higher but the city prevented this from occurring based on the realization that such a taller building would obscure the view of the adjacent St. Joseph's Oratory, itself currently under renovation beginning in 2018 and with a view to completion around 2026 following construction delays due to Covid-19.
I recently re-checked the Gilson school location and am now convinced that it was further south, same street but midway between St. James and Upper Lachine. I'll amend this post when I get a chance.
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