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This lovely building that has sat on the west side of Drummond north of Dorch since around 1870 is slated for demolition by the owners, the Cohen brothers' Modico Canada, who wish to build a three storey hotel with nine to 10 storeys in back.I lived straight across the street for about five years and admired its Penny Lane-like qualities as it was affixed to a picturesque fire station but it has been abandoned and left to ruin for quite some time.
The most unusual thing that ever happened at the place took place in 1983 when it was the Vines Tourist Rooms, a vocation it had for at least three decades.
In March 1983 an engineer named Feliks Tobiasz, 48, (he'd now be in his late 70s if still alive) was busted by police, who ended up breaking two of his ribs. He was charged with being found in a bawdy house and resisting arrest. Two prostitutes later said that he was mouthy, wild and unruly, so it's possible that they were the ones who contacted police.
Tobiasz, who reported himself to be a big fan of Communism, filed a complaint at the Police Ethics Commission, alleging that the officers (David Ashton, Serge Morin and Henry Williams) had mocked his penis, as they had apprehended him in the nude. A judge dismissed the complaint.
When constructed the building would have stood across from the old Victoria Rink, which we've discussed on many occasions on this site. Impossible to tell who lived there in the early days, as the address changed around 1930, so we're forced to guesstimate the original address in the old Lovells, but Wayne Griswold, who became a media attorney for the Standard appears to have lived there when he arrived in town from Griswoldville Conn. as a young man.Getting back to Tobiasz: another person with the same family name was embroiled in another over-the-top drama in 1961 as Francisz Tobiasz, a 27-year-old Polish sailor, jumped ship in Montreal but was refused refugee status, leading his passionate young lover Sophia Horan to offer to return to Poland in his stead. The sailor was allowed to stay a little while longer and we're guessing permanently too.
Actually it’s never impossible to tell who lived at an old Montreal address as long as you’re willing to do the poking around. The 1913 Goad Atlas doesn’t show the fire station there yet, but it appears in Lovell’s in 1920 as No. 58. The even-numbered building next to it, and the house in question, was No. 54, apparently belonging to Mr. Geo. Haysey. Using No 54 as the anchor you can float back to the Lovell’s 1877-8 directory and find the house belonged then to Mrs Mary Aitken, widow of John J. Aitken of J. Aitken & Son.
ReplyDeleteThe architecture of this house always made me think it dated from the 1860s, especially with the lower ceiling on the third floor. And 1864-5 Lovell’s shows the Widow Aitkens lived at No. 24 Drummond. She didn’t move; there were more than one revamping of civic numbers in Montreal besides the big one that transformed the European system to the present US model based on the origin of St. Lawrence “boulevard” and the river. That overhaul seems to have taken place from 1925 to 1930.
In looking up the address of a friend’s grandfather for the 1890s I discovered small Bourget street in Point St. Charles had three re-numberings. Can be confusing and lead to some wrong conclusions, especially in this case where the house had more than one street address in the old days.
Back in the 1860s Drummond didn’t go south of Dorchester and of course the CPR didn’t even exist yet. No. 1 Drummond at the corner of Dorchester in 1864 was the house of the mayor of Montreal, M. Jean L. Beaudry. Next to him on the north side was the Victoria Skating Rink at No.7.
I didn’t look further but it appears this house is the last survivor of the row of six similar houses, originally named Inkerman Terrace. Mrs Aitken would have been the first occupant of the house next to the fire station.
Construction of fire station 25 (1212 Drummond) began in 1913. It opened on June 17, 1914.
ReplyDeleteThe station was renovated in 1947 and again between 1995-96.
I have fond memories of the fire engines coming and going from it when I was a pre-schooler visiting family friends who lived directly across the street in one of the two apartment buildings (named Alsace and Lorraine) which were both demolished in the 1980s to make way for the parking lot and the inevitable condos.