Chateau Saint-Antoine

This was the McGillivray's country house, set back above the Côte St. Antoine (that became Dorchester Street before being renamed Boulevard René-Lévesque) on 10-acres of farmland purchased from the Bouchard family who in turn had bought it from the Sulpicians in 1761. The McGillivray family moved in on its completion in the fall of 1805, and to access his new home, McGillivray built a private road leading up the hill to his driveway that is better known today as Greene Avenue in Westmount. 

The three-story, cut-stone house had a 50-foot facade with a depth of 36-feet attached to a pair of two perpendicular wings, each of which were enlarged in 1818 to 38-by-33-feet, giving the house a front facade of 126-feet - six feet longer than the McTavish Mansion. Adjoined by a vineyard, greenhouses, and orchards that ran down to Côte St. Antoine, they harvested apples, 200-plum trees, cherries, grapes, peaches and apricots. It was built by master-mason Jean-Baptiste Boutonne and master-carpenter Pierre Lambert, and outbuildings included a stone coach-house; stables; ice-house; offices; and, additional farmland was landscaped to create the formal gardens that featured an ornamental pond.

In the true style of the fur-trading "barons" of the Beaver Club, William McGillivray had a reputation for warm hospitality and laying on lavish banquets. He kept open house here, as he did at his townhouse on St. Gabriel Street within the old city walls, and this Highland hospitality was even imparted to his old rivals, Lord Selkirk and John Jacob Astor, with the latter dining here once a year on his annual trip up to Montreal.

The chateau is popularly - perhaps wishfully - said to be that shown (see images) in the foreground of James Duncan's 1854 painting, "Montreal from the Mountain," but for my two cents, I think that house is a romantic resurrection of the McTavish Mansion. According to the history of the house told in Westmount, the chateau was further around on the right, out of sight in this picture and on the slope of the mountain.

Entertaining at the Chateau

One of the only descriptions remaining of McGillivray’s house and the entertainments held here was given by John Jeremiah Bigsby in his entertaining book, The Shoe and Canoe. In 1819, Bigsby was invited to dine at Chateau St. Antoine. He gave a lengthy description of the mansion, his host, and the evening in general; summarised here:

The McGillivray Art Collection

The ballroom at Chateau Saint Antoine was said to be “an enchanting site” and the significant art collection of McGillivray and his brother Simon McGillivray (1785-1840) decorated the walls of Saint-Antoine with “pictures painted by some of the most celebrated artists who ever lived”. His “extensive array of fine classical paintings (were) collected at a time when following the Napoleonic wars collections of Old Masters were coming onto the market”. This art collection went with McGillivray as he prepared to move to London, but only a few months after his death in 1825, the entire collection was sold by his brother to cover their debts following the collapse of the North West Company. The auction of their paintings was held over two days at Christies in London:

The finest work, which under the hammer commanded nearly 20% of the total sale value, was a magnificent Sebastiano de Piombo, depicting the Virgin with Joseph by her side observing the infant Christ asleep on a cushion. The character and drawing of the Virgin was described as being in "grand style... with peculiar gracefulness she is about to draw a transparent coverlid over the Child." This painting, one of a number of the artist’s copies of the principal work now in Prague, is today in private hands in England.

At its peak, the McGillivray fortune was thought to have been in excess of a staggering £250,000. But the collapse of their business saw their creditors paid back at just 60 pence to the pound and their art sale raised only £4,000, a mere fraction of what they'd paid.

Following McGillivray's death in 1825, contemporary sources indicate that John McKenzie was the next person to live here. Then, in April, 1829, Louis-Joseph Papineau (1786-1871) moved his family here, renting it while their home on Rue Bonsecours was undergoing repairs. He renamed it "Villa Rosa" and it was here in 1831 that he hosted, "une grande reception" for Lord Aylmer. From 1841, it was home to Joseph Donegani (owner of the original Donegana's Hotel that occupied the Bingham Mansion on Notre Dame Street) and in 1856 he sold "Villa Rosa" with its 11-acres for £7,500 to Mayor Charles Wilson who is listed in one 1857 directory as being resident at "Chateau Saint-Antoine" and in another at "Villa Rosa, 76 Dorchester West," that either way contradicts the next chapter.

John Young, "Rosemount"... and Charles Wilson

According to Westmount historians, the house and estate was acquired in 1843 by Asa Goodenough, the owner of the Exchange Coffee House that back then acted as Montreal's stock exchange. In 1847, he sold up to John Young - the Chairman of the Harbour Commission whose statue still stands in the Port of Montreal - who named it "Rose Mount". A map dated circa 1855 (see images) shows "Rose Mount" to be a very long house with two attached wings that on paper at least almost certainly suggests that the house was then still the original Chateau Saint-Antoine. In 1857, it was reported that, "John Young has commenced making extensive alterations and additions to his present house at 'Rosemount,' which when carried out, will render it one of the most commodious residences in the neighbourhood of the city. Architects: Hopkins, Lawford & Nelson."

Whether the map shows Chateau Saint-Antoine or indeed "Rosemount" before or after its alterations, most sources agree that at roughly the same time, rather than altering the house, Young demolished it, replacing it with the distinctly inferior and rather uninspiring greystone block that is seen today at No. 16 Severn Avenue. It is said he then added the more elegant - yet inexplicably incompatible and stylistically altogether different - addition that is now 18 Severn Avenue to accommodate his rapidly expanding family.

One way or the other, in 1861 Young moved to England to educate his daughters and sold off most of the land to the developer Robert James Reekie. To confound matters further in regards to Charles Wilson, in September, 1865, we find an entry in the diary of the Mayor of Quebec, Ulric J. Tessier, who had come up for the Exposition in Montreal, that reads, "I went back to his (Wilson's) magnificent residence, previously known as Chateau Saint-Antoine". As for Young,  he returned to his rather irregular house at about the same time where he died in 1878. The next owner of Rosemount was John H. Hodgson, partner in Abraham Hodgson & Sons, whose attempt to swindle the Bank of Montreal saw him arrested in 1887. After 1886, the house was divided into two homes, 16 and 18 Severn Avenue. Both still stand, as does the gate lodge (built 1870) at 70 Rosemount Crescent.

It seems clear that the house Papineau, Donegani, and Wilson lived in (described in 1844 as being at "St. Antoine, near Mountain Street") was not the same as the house described by Westmount's historians. If the real Chateau Saint-Antoine was indeed the former, then the house in James Duncan's painting may be it after all. Further research is needed, and if you can add any information to help solve the riddle, please leave a comment below.

Another Case of Forgotten History

In 1936, Archibald Chaussegros de Lery MacDonald (1862-1939), grandson of McGillivray’s brother-in-law, John MacDonald, loaned the McCord Museum some of the furniture formerly housed in the chateau’s dining room, offering us a small glimpse into how the room might have looked. It included the dining table itself; two card tables; a folding mahogany table; an antique clock; a copper semovar (being a Turkish teapot); an oil portrait of McGillivray (possibly by Sir John Martin R.A.); a family group of McGillivray, his wife, and their youngest daughter painted by Dulongpré around 1803; and, a pastel also by Dulongpré of Major Archibald Norman McLeod (1772-1837), "the Beau Brummell of Montreal". As for McGillivray's house itself, today's local street names are devoid of any clue that here he built, “the most magnificent building in the whole city”.