Domaine Cataraqui

The timber merchant James Bell Forsyth sold his cottage at Cataraqui after his wife died in 1850. Having run into financial problems, he put it in the name of his brother-in-law and business partner, Alexander Davidson Bell, who then sold it to the lumber baron Henry Burstall whose brother, Edward, built "Kirk Ella" opposite in 1854.

The Burstall family had become well-known in Hull (England) from the mid 18th Century as merchant shipowners and in 1832 Henry came to Quebec to extend the family's influence into exporting timber and shipbuilding. He was joined shortly afterwards by Edward and the yards of H & E Burstall were conveniently located at the foot of the cliffs on which the brothers built their homes. Although the boom days had ebbed considerably by 1895, the Burstall name remained prominent in the Canadian timber trade up until World War I.

A Vice-Regal Interim

On February 28th, 1860, the Governor-General's residence, Spencer's Wood, burned down and a new interim home for Sir Edmund Walker Head became an immediate priority. By March, Burstall had arranged the lease of Cataraqui for $1,200 per annum and he then promptly retired to England, taking up residence at Wolfreton House in the village of Kirk Ella that his father had originally purchased back in 1814. Cataraqui was not as large as Spencer Wood, but its gardens and situation were described as, "eminently picturesque".

Cataraqui then consisted of the main house and three outbuildings, but with the imminent arrival of the Prince of Wales just months away a few additions were rapidly made: a separate guard house and kitchen were put up; the stabling was enlarged; and, the hot air furnaces were reconstructed at a total cost of $8,781. Burstall, ever the businessman, had agreed in the terms of the lease that once Spencer Wood had been rebuilt Cataraqui was then to be sold at public auction, but if it sold for less than $20,000 the government was to repay him the balance. The sale was completed in February, 1863, for $12,100 and the government duly repaid Mr Burstall the balance of $7,900.

"A Perfect Grove of Verdure & Blossoms"

The new owner from 1863 was another Englishman, Charles Eleazar Levey, who divided his time between here and his townhouse at the corner of Rue d'Auteuil and Saint-Anne. Prior to 1829, he was the owner of a large sugar plantation in Demerara but when his brother, Lionel, died he left him his considerable lumber business at Quebec. Selling his plantation, he settled in Quebec where he also founded and served as the first President of the Union Bank of Lower Canada. In 1847, he married Jemima, daughter of Rear-Admiral Edward Boxer, R.N., who was described as, "a legend in his own lifetime," an anachronism who was, "gruff, 'unparliamentary' in his language, terrifying to juniors, but with a heart of gold". The Admiral and his wife resided with the Leveys at Quebec until 1853 and on moving into Cataraqui the Leveys added two new wings either side of the main house.

A visitor wrote in 1863, "We had the pleasure on one occasion to view, on a piercing winter day, from the Drawing Room of Cataraqui, through the glass door which opens on the conservatory, the rare collections of exotics it contains - a perfect grove of verdure and blossoms - the whole lit up by the mellow light of the setting sun, whose rays scintillated in every fantastic form amongst this gorgeous tropical vegetation, whilst the snow-wreathed evergreens surrounding the conservatory waived their palms to the orb of day in our clear, bracing Canadian atmosphere - summer and winter combined in the one landscape". Levey filled Cataraqui's conservatories with exotic specimens from South America and beyond, counting among the hundreds of varieties 70 Camellia Japonicas, and Levey cleverly retained the services of the eminent Scottish gardener Peter Lowe who had previously been employed to look after the conservatories at Spencer's Wood.

Lumber to Leisure

The Leveys were survived by a son and daughter, both of whom were married in London to members of the Anglo-Irish gentry. Their daughter, Florence, lived at Kilcroney House, a Gothic-Revival pile in County Wicklow while their son, Charles, moved from "Kirk Ella" (previously mentioned in relation to Edward Burstall) to Cataraqui after Mrs Levey died in 1893. Charles Jr. was devoted to breeding thoroughbred horses and cattle and aside from a pack of hounds and a model farm kept, "an expensive stud... he has some splendid animals with pedigrees from winners of the blue ribbon on English turf".

Rail Rhodes

The younger Charles E. Levey is assumed to have overspent by 1905 when Cataraqui was sold at auction for $7,500 to his friend, Godfrey William Rhodes. But, according to family lore, Godfrey hadn't wanted to buy the place at all, he had merely placed a bid in order to get things going. Godfrey had grown up at "Benmore," another of the estates off the Chemin de Saint-Louis and through his mother he was a great-grandson of Thomas Dunn, Lieutenant-Governor of Lower Canada. Nonetheless, he pursued his career in the United States where for 25-years he was the highly respected Superintendent of Motive Power and Machinery for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad under Charles Elliott Perkins. On retiring in 1905, he returned to Quebec and - accidentally - bought Cataraqui.

In 1909, the Rhodes were presented with an opportunity too good to miss: James T. Davis was a contractor from Montreal and his firm had been commissioned to build the pillars for the new Quebec Bridge. By leasing their home to Davis for the duration of his contract, the Rhodes' were able to base themselves in England for the next six years, during which time they travelled extensively throughout Europe. In the meantime, while Davis was busy working on the project, the Maxwell brothers were busy building the J.T. Davis House back in Montreal. Davis returned there in 1915 as the Rhodes re-established themselves at Cataraqui where they would remain happily for the rest of their lives.

Old Fashioned Love: Tudor-Harts

Mrs Rhodes survived her husband, Godfrey, by seven years and died here in 1939. She left Cataraqui to their only daughter, Catherine, who they adopted when she was three. Catherine's genetic father, Napoleon Augustus Jennings - a personal friend of Teddy Roosevelt - had abandoned her mother (Kathryn) in New York leaving her with no money and three young children to bring up. In the meantime, the Rhodes were grieving the loss of their only natural child, Gertrude, who died aged three in 1888. To relieve Kathryn of financial hardship and to offer her daughter a brighter future, her brother-in-law, Frank Jamison, arranged for Catherine to be adopted by his sister, Mrs Rhodes, and so at the age of three Catherine was sent to live with the Rhodes who were then in Cincinnati.

Catherine accompanied her parents to England in 1909 but was eager to study painting. Her parents took her to Paris where they met with Percyval Tudor-Hart, an art teacher from Montreal who'd remained in Paris after graduating from the École des Beaux-Arts. Fifteen years Catherine's senior and married with two children, the Rhodes felt safe leaving their daughter in his care and returned to England. Catherine studied under Tudor-Hart for the next three years, but later returned to England and then Cataraqui.

Catherine was still unmarried at the age of 44 and looked destined for a life without love. But, all that changed in 1933 when she received a surprise visit from her old - and now twice widowed - teacher, Percyval Tudor Hart (PTH), who was in Quebec on business. Romance blossomed and when PTH had to return to London he wrote: "Catherine, your words have moved my heart and I pray to all the gods that you will have the courage and the awareness of your own worth, to give yourself, without bondage, to him whom you love in all the splendor of your freedom". He wrote her up to six love letters a week, but unable to abandon her elderly mother, it became clear that Percyval would have to abandon Europe for Catherine. They were married at Quebec in 1935 and took up residence at Cataraqui which became their own when Mrs Rhodes died in 1939.

Cataraqui Today

Percyval and Catherine continued Cataraqui's tradition of tending to its gardens and landscaping with the help of Mary Stewart who had joined Catherine's staff in 1929. Catherine survived Percyval by nearly two decades and died here in 1972. That year, her heirs attempted to sell Cataraqui to the government but they were unable to meet the price tag. But three years later (1975) they managed to raise the money to avoid the property being developed. Since then, the gardens have been open to the public; the ground floor of the house comprises a small museum but is more popularly used as an events space; and, the second floor is reserved as a guesthouse for important visitors.