The Centre
History: Centre & Premises
History of the building that houses the Women’s Centre of Montreal
Since its construction in 1857, many members of the Montreal bourgeoisie have lived in this house, among them, the Honourable Trefflé Berthiaume one of the early owners of the “La Presse” newspaper and Mr. Joseph Odilon Dupuis, owner of the «Dupuis et frères» store. As well, Victor Morin, the famous author of «Procédure des assemblées délibérantes», better known as the “Code Morin”, acquired it in 1911 and lived there for 40 years with his large family.
In 1950, Ste-Jeanne d’Arc Hospital, facing the house, bought it back and transformed it, along with the neighbouring building, into a school and residence for future nurses of the Hospital. With the school closure in 1970 and the creation of CEGEPs, the buildings at 3585 and 3595 St-Urbain were emptied and abandoned.
Four years later, the Women’s Information and Referral Centre of Montreal (WIRC), which later became the Women’s Centre of Montreal, took up residence in the premises at 3595. A while later, the Hospital decided to demolish both buildings to build parking spaces. To demolish the house of Victor Morin, who was a precursor of the groups devoted to the defence of Montreal’s urban patrimony was simply scandalous, according to the founders of the Centre, Mona Forrest and Jacquie Manthorne.
The Centre mobilized and raised public opinion. Not long after, the house at 3595 was devastated by arson. The Centre then decided to « move » into the building located at 3585 St-Urbain and a long legal battle ensued.
While the Centre was fighting to save the St-Urbain Street buildings, the whole neighbourhood was at the centre of one of the greatest urban battles that Montreal has known, that of the Milton-Parc community.
Finally, in 1976, the Superior Court of Quebec issued its judgment, which quashed the notice of expulsion that the Hospital had sent to the Centre.
The house was in a sorry state: flooding, electrical problems, burglary, vandalism and arson had thoroughly disfigured it.
In 1978, the « Société d’Habitation du Québec » bought the building from the Hospital and resold it to the Centre on August 8, 1983 for $52,000.
In 1984, as a result of a fundraising campaign under the honorary presidency of Jacqueline Vézina, the Centre raised $500,000 as part of Phase I of its campaign, which served as a basic fund for the construction of a new 9,000 square feet wing at the back of the building.
Ten years later, despite this expansion, the original house dating from 1857 was showing obvious signs of aging and had become too small to meet the current and future needs of the Women’s Centre of Montreal.
In order to ensure its own survival, the Centre had to renovate the old portion of the building dating back 140 years and construct a second addition to 3585 Saint-Urbain Street.
Thanks to the perseverance of its executive director, Johanne Bélisle, who had been cherishing this big dream since her appointment in 1994, in 2002, the Women’s Centre of Montreal Foundation undertook a targeted fundraising campaign under the co-presidency of Christiane Bergevin, president, SNC-Lavalin Capital Inc. and Diane Veilleux, of the Affinity Market Group at TD Meloche Monnex. As a result of the combined efforts of the co-presidents, the members of the campaign cabinet, the Quebec Government, the corporate sector, various family foundations and certain individuals, this campaign raised the $3,500,000 necessary to carry out the expansion and renovation work at 3585 St-Urbain Street.
This work also earned the Women’s Centre of Montreal and the Nomade firm a mention as part of the Prix Orange, awarded by Save Montreal, for the particular attention given to architectural considerations.
In June 2005, the Women’s Centre of Montreal team reclaimed “ITS” Centre, now more spacious and entirely renovated, which will allow it to implement its one stop multiservices program to provide women and families with the services they need, in a global approach perspective and all at a single location.
