50 years since the demolition of the Van Horne Mansion: measuring progress and challenges for the city's heritage

On September 7, 1973, Ville de Montréal issued a demolition permit for the former residence of Canadian Pacific Railway executive William Cornelius Van Horne, a vast grey stone mansion on the corner of Sherbrooke and Stanley streets, built in 1870 and enlarged in 1890. The same day, the dismantling of the interiors began, and the following day, the house fell at the end of a long public and judicial debate. But the story doesn't end there - quite the contrary! 

At the time, demolition was commonplace in Montreal, as it was in Quebec and Canada. With the exception of Old Montreal and a handful of government-protected pre-industrial buildings, thousands of buildings - even entire living environments and neighborhoods that would be considered heritage today - disappeared. Like the demolition of Pennsylvania Station in New York or Les Halles in Paris, the Van Horne demolition sparked a citizen mobilization and an institutional awakening to change the vision, rules and tools of urban development. 

One month after the demolition of the Van Horne Mansion, 23 citizens' groups joined forces to found Sauvons Montréal, a movement for "the preservation of the housing and community heritage of the Montreal region, to promote the well-being and social and cultural life" of the entire population. This and other mobilizations are at the root of the modern Montreal movement for urban development that takes into account the built and natural heritage as well as the needs and aspirations of the population. In 1975, Héritage Montréal was founded to "encourage and promote the protection of the historical, architectural, natural and cultural heritage of the communities of the Province of Quebec".  

This and other mobilizations are at the root of Montreal's modern movement for urban development that takes into account the built and natural heritage as well as the needs and aspirations of the population.

The Quebec government, which had remained unmoved by requests for the Van Horne Mansion to be classified, modified its laws and protected several heritage buildings exposed to downtown real estate pressures. For example: in November 1973, the Shaughnessy house (where Van Horne had lived); in 1974, the Louis-Joseph Forget, Lord Atholstan, James Reid Wilson and Ernest Cormier houses, the Grey Nuns chapel and the towers of the Fort des Messieurs de Saint-Sulpice; in 1975, the Mount Royal and Mount Stephen clubs and, in 1976, the Grey Nuns motherhouse.

At Ville de Montréal, a number of regulatory loopholes were closed, and an arbitration commission on the protection of residential heritage was created. In 1979, the City and gouvernement du Québec signed a first collaboration agreement on heritage, since renewed under the broader theme of cultural development. This agreement gave rise to the Société immobilière du patrimoine architectural (SIMPA), whose innovative formula has enabled the realization of several complex projects to safeguard heritage buildings, including the pioneering redevelopment of the former Bon-Pasteur monastery.  

Even the business community got involved. The visionary Maison Alcan project was inaugurated in 1983, opposite the Van Horne site. 

Fifty years later, thanks to the sustained efforts of citizens and groups such as Héritage Montréal, our heritage is better recognized and protected. Despite disparities and crises, public authorities now have regulatory, planning, and consultation tools that were sorely lacking in 1973. Educational and professional training programs, as well as numerous consultations, have raised awareness and expertise. Estimated at nearly 90,000 buildings in Montreal, to which must be added the many others built after 1940, this heritage is now a remarkable asset for Montreal, both downtown and in the neighborhoods and other communities of the metropolitan area, in terms of identity and attractiveness and in response to social and climate emergencies. 

ARCHIVES Plongez dans les archives d'Héritage Montréal, à travers une selection d'articles publiés dans leur intégralité.

Published in 1983: A growing movement, preservation in Montreal

While major protection and enhancement projects have been carried out - Old Montreal, the Lachine Canal area and Mount Royal, for example - major challenges lie ahead, as the Auditor Generals of Quebec and Montreal will be reminding us in 2020 and 2023. The same applies to the proliferation of facade development in response to the pressure to densify exerted by developers and administrations in the face of harmful taxation and certain interpretations of environmental issues. In this context, the control of demolition sometimes remains an issue, but the current challenge is much more that of requalifying heritage ensembles to give them back, in the words of the 1972 World Heritage Convention, "a function in the life of the community". 

In 2023, protecting heritage goes far beyond preventing demolition. We need to understand and prevent a variety of risks, from neglect to the impacts of climate change. Through quality interventions - relevant, well-informed, well-designed and well-executed, allowing for proper use and maintenance - we need to give these buildings and complexes the capacity to participate in the city and neighborhoods of tomorrow, in their identity as well as in the well-being of their populations. The growing complexity of redevelopment projects - think of the former Hôtel-Dieu and Royal Victoria hospitals, disused churches, the former Molson or the Lachine East sector - calls for shared experience and innovative strategies involving consultation, transitional occupation, trusts or tax incentives to adapt this heritage to contemporary requirements without denaturing it. 

This ^50th anniversary coincides with the adoption of a national architecture and planning policy for Quebec, and with upcoming updates to the Montreal Master Plan and the Metropolitan Land Use and Development Plan. These are excellent opportunities to forge a new relationship between Montreal society, its built, urban, landscape and natural heritage, and the development of its territory, by giving ourselves the duty and the means to truly take care of it for the collective benefit of today and tomorrow.  

Cover photo credit: Demolition of the Van Horne Mansion, September 8, 1973. Jean Goupil, La Presse, BAnQ P833S4D1250_0001_1