Grandma's bedroom

Cupboard in the bedroom; the woodwork (now
painted over) is quite nice, elegant

That open door in the adjoining room
is the entrance from the stairs

Looking from the bedroom to the dining room

Window in my grandmother`s bedroom

These are all photographs of my grandmother's bedroom. Above, looking at the bedroom from the dining room. The others are of the cupboard in the room and the room in general.

There was an open house that I visited and took photographs of my grandmother`s last home, photos and visit took place in spring 2009. She lived here, on Girouard Avenue, from around 1924-25 to her passing in April 1965, and then her two sisters stayed on in the flat until 1968-69. I don`t think I had ever been in her bedroom, the door was open during the day and the foot of her bed was visible at the entrance to the room. During the day she often sat just to the right of the bedroom door, in the dining room, and the radio was playing. It was kind of an open-concept room, at the top of the stairs you entered to a foyer and the foyer opened to the dining room, other rooms were off this part of the flat. The flat was built in the early 1900s. (updated 15 September 2023)

In Grandma's bedroom

Looking from the bedroom into the dining room.

View from her bedroom window.

There was her bed with the foot of the bed at the entrance to the room. A bureau. A radio on the bureau on the right hand side of the room, near the window. Moulding around the door and windows is more ornate than I remembered. The room opened into the dining area.

Auntie Mable's Room

This was my Auntie Mable's bedroom, where my parents slept when we lived here from 1952 to 1954. The room is in the front of the flat, facing onto Girouard Avenue. She seemed to have "modern" furniture, compared to the rest of the flat, but maybe it wasn't all that "modern"... I remember sitting in this room on my father's lap, spelling "c.a.t." and "d.o.g." and looking at cartoons cut from the Saturday Evening Post.

Dining Room, facing entrance

In the dining room, facing the foyer: stairs to the street on left, Mable's room directly ahead, and living room opposite the stairs to street.

(Above) In the dining room facing the foyer and skylight above.

(Above) In the foyer, looking at the stairs to the street.

Between Chaston and Green

Spring visit.

Living room & dining room

Now we're in the dining room looking out the window at the space between the buildings (above).

Below we're still in the living room.

And, in the bottom photograph, we're standing in the dining room looking towards the entrance to the flat on the left, my Aunt Mable's bedroom directly ahead, and the living room is on the right.

In dining room & view

There used to be a tea wagon in front of this window and to the left of it a small table for a black rotary telephone. I remember playing there and, as well, that the phone was a party line, shared with several neighbours. This window was at the far end of the dining room, so after you entered the flat you'd be in a foyer and then, directly ahead, was the dining room in which there was a large dining room table in the center of the room with a white lace tablecloth on it. Then, against the wall to the right of the window was a china cabinet. As you stood at the entrance, in the foyer, and faced this window, there was a sideboard against the wall on the right in which were dishes and the top drawer on the far right was where my grandmother kept her eyeglasses in a beaded blue case.

Here's the view from the window in the first photograph. It's a courtyard between the two buildings where there used to be a tree, and then just a bit farther away from the building you have the lane between Girouard and the street to the west. Many of the properties on Girouard have been renovated... alas, 2226 Girouard is not one of them; it's present state gives some idea of what it was like back in the fifties, without furniture.

Views from windows, living room

Now we're standing in the living room looking out the front windows towards Sherbrooke Street West, just at the top of the street.

Living Room, front windows

In the living room, the front windows.

Girouard Avenue: The Living Room

To the right of these two doors is the living room at Girouard Avenue. There was a maroon couch, springs to the floor, and covered with white sheets on the left as you entered the room. To the right was an old upright piano. The room to the left was my Auntie Mable's bedroom.

You realize that this used to be a really nice flat. The word "flat" is British, so it is ironic in largely French-speaking Quebec that we use this word. I don't believe that these units are referred to as "flats" elsewhere in North America. A flat is a self-contained unit with its own front door to the street, unlike an apartment that has a front door leading to a hallway of other people's front doors, and a lobby and door to the street. My grandmother's flat was surprisingly large, around 1000 square feet, and has a very nicely laid out floor plan. Living room in the front, large eat-in kitchen in the rear, large dining room in the middle, and a foyer and door to where stairs lead to her second floor flat. It is a very liveable living space.

Here we are in the living room, the windows facing Girouard Avenue. On the left, against the wall, was the maroon couch and just to the right of he couch was an old cabinet containing sheet music from the 1920s and 30s.

If you face the living room windows, and then turn to the right, there is this "pretend" fireplace." To the right was a television set, black and white, for hockey on Saturday night. The fireplace was across from the maroon couch.

Another view of the living room entrance from the foyer. You know, I remember my grandmother's cleaning lady, Bella, on her hands and knees, nylons rolled down to her ankles, maybe chewing Dentine gum and the smell of floor wax in a can, that you applied with a rag, waxing these floors. The work that was put into this place! Or, my aunt or grandmother running a carpet swiper across the carpets, or picking up bits of lint or paper from the carpets. There wasn't a lot of furniture in the flat, but I remember it always being clean and nicely furnished, although (appropriately) old fashioned. In this photograph the floors seem to still have some shine to them.

Living Room, windows

Here we are inside the flat, in fact we're in the living room at the front of the building, looking out at Girouard Avenue.

2226 Girouard Avenue, Montreal

The flat from outsider.

Outside 2226 Girouard Avenue

How Girouard Avenue Got Its Name

Stephen Morrissey outside of 2226 Girouard Avenue, his
grandmother`s home from around 1925 to 1966; photo from 1994.

The following information was written by Jeanne Randle, of the Fraser-Hickson Library, in 1984:

Désiré Girouard, after whom Girouard Avenue was named, was known to his friends as Jérémie. He combined an outstanding career in law and politics with important contributions to historical studies of the island of Montreal. His family had been in Canada for over a hundred years by the time he was born in St Timothée in 1836. The family was descended from Antoine Girouard, a native of Mont Lucon, Bourbonnais, France, who became secretary to Governor De Ramezay in 1720 in Montreal. Girouard studied law at McGill University where he won the first prize for three consecutive years. He joined the law firm of his former principal and was soon associated with the most important lawyers of his time. Always a scholar and researcher, he published several treatises on commercial law and was considered an expert in his field. But he was a history buff as well and contributed to several journals of his time, one of which, La Revue Critique, he conducted. He also lectured at l'Institut Canadien Français.

Girouard's political start is rather interesting. He ran for Parliament in 1872 in Jacques Cartier riding, but was defeated by an obscure Liberal, R.Laflamme. He was again defeated in Beauharnois in 1874, but finally won Jacques Cartier by 2 votes in 1876 on appeal to the courts. Afterwards his real majority was found to be 200. Girouard is best known politically for the spirited stance which he took against his own party's decision to execute Louis Riel. He with 16 other French Conservative members, formed a group of rebel parlementariens rebels known as the "Bolters" and his letter defending Riel's plea of insanity was widely circulated.

As a result of long and patient research in the archives of the young country, Girouard began a series of essays dealing with early history of the Lake St Louis area and the Indian wars. In 1883, at the World's Fair in Chicago, his compilation of these essays was given to the public in a book entitled Lake St Louis, Old and New, Illustrated and Cavelier de Lasalle. For his effort he was awarded the Confederation Medal. He published several other historical works in English and French.

Girouard was appointed to the Bench as a Judge of the Supreme Court in 1895. He was married three times; all three wives were English speaking. He was the father of six sons and four daughters. One of his sons also Désiré, became a lawyer and assisted his father in his literary endeavors. Edouard Percy Cranville, another son, attended Royal Military College in Kingston and became a distinguished soldier and railway engineer. He worked for the Canadian Pacific and British railway companies before joining Kitchener in several Africa campaigns. Edouard Girouard built many railways in South Africa and was awarded a D.S.O. while working in Egypt in 1896. He also was an author, but his topic was railway history. For two years, Maj. General Girouard was Governor of northern Nigeria, but finished his career during World War I as Director General of munitions in Britain. Désiré Girouard Sr. died in 1912, and Girouard Avenue was named for him in that year. The avenue was formerly called Plateau, Toronto and Chapleau.

The tour of 2226 Girouard Avenue begins...

Standing on the landing at the front door at 2226 Girouard, here's a view of the street and then looking south to present-day Blvd de Maisonneuve (formerly Western Avenue) that runs perpendicular to Girouard. The western end of de Maisonneuve is at the Loyola Campus of Concordia University (after it passes a recreational field, there's a bend in the street and it becomes West Broadway); it continues east all the way to the the east end of the city. Running parallel to de Maisonneuve are railroad tracks. In fact, this used to be quite a country area, with Western still a dirt road and long walks back in the '30s and '40s along the tracks. My maternal grandparents lived at 2217 Hampton, the same block (below Sherbrooke Street West) as 2226 Girouard, but several streets west of here. Girouard Avenue was widened in the 1930s or 40s and front lawns were eliminated, and street cars used to run along the street. How times have changed . . .

The Chalet Bar-B-Q near NDG Park

Here is the Chalet Bar-B-Q, a block from Girouard Avenue. As I'm driving home from work, getting off the Decarie Expressway, I drive up the exit ramp to Sherbrooke Street West, the smell of chickens cooking permeating the air, and I always think one of two things: it's either I wouldn't want to live near the Chalet Bar-B-Q because of the smell of cooking or I think I'd like to eat supper there and I should go more often . . . The Chalet Bar-B-Q was opened around 1940 and I doubt they've changed the decor since then.  The place has a rustic appearance with wood paneled walls, friendly waitresses some of whom have been there since the the 1970s, and we always make the usual order: creamy coleslaw, a quarter chicken and french fries, served with their own BBQ sauce and a toasted white bun. I am not sure they have these establishments in other places but there is a Quebec-based chain of trendy St. Hubert BBQ restaurants that can now be found in Ontario. In addition to this, there is the Cote St-Luc BBQ on Cote St. Luc Road near Girouard; and the New System BBQ cars seem to deliver to remote locations from their restaurant on rue Notre Dame. Back in the 1940s the Chalet Bar-B-Q didn't provide cutlery, they did have finger bowls and you were expected to pick up the chicken and enjoy it that way, but that's long changed. Imagine that. Before the ubiquitous McDonald's.

BTW, NDG Park is known to many of us as Girouard Park, that's what we always called it.

 

That's Girouard Avenue at the far left, as we drive south, cross
Sherbrooke Street West, and arrive at
my grandmother's flat at 2226 Girouard Avenue

Morrisseys at 2226 Girouard Avenue (3)

Above: the cover from my new book. 

The title poem is on Girouard Avenue. 

The following is taken from Chapter Four of the Morrissey Family History (online); it describes our family’s long residency at 2226 Girouard, and something of the years leading up to living at that address. John Martin Morrissey and Edith Sweeney were my paternal grandparents. 

 ----------------------- 

John Martin Morrissey and Edith Sweeney Thomas and Mary's son John Martin Morrissey married Edith Sweeney on 15 May 1895 at Saint Anthony's Church, "in the presence of William E. Flanagan, uncle of the bride" and "Thomas Morrissey, father of the groom". Martin Morrissey was named after his uncle, Father Martin Callaghan. He was known familiarly as Martin, as indicated on the 1891 Census; the custom of the family in some cases was to use the middle name as the everyday name of the child. Martin was also known as 'Banty', which obviously suggests a small physical stature. While I never met my paternal grandfather, I have many happy memories of my grandmother and of my uncles, especially my Uncle Alex and Aunt Ivie. My parents, my brother and I, lived with my grandmother from around 1952 to 1954 when my father was ill. My grandmother loved her children and placed her children and her family first in her life. Her door seems to have always been open to relatives who needed a place to live. She encouraged her children to continue with their education and paid the tuition for my father to attend St. Leo's Academy. My father, like his mother who played piano, and several of his other siblings, played a musical instrument. He belonged to a band that his brother Herb organized and they performed at many venues in Montreal. It was a home of family gatherings, music, laughter, playing cards, and an interest in sports. Martin played lacrosse and their son Frank Morrissey was involved with organizing amateur sports in Quebec. Where They Lived After Martin and Edith married they lived at 572 (now 3072) St. Antoine Street in what was then St. Henri. This is a street level flat exiting directly onto the sidewalk on the south side of the street, a few hundred feet west of Atwater Avenue. In 1907 they moved around the corner to another street level flat, at 94 (now 1094) Marin Avenue. These are attached buildings of two or three floors, all grey stone or red brick exteriors with outdoor stairways for the upper flats. Edith's parents lived at 536 Greene Avenue, which is just around the corner from both of the residences where Edith and Martin resided between 1895 and 1926. Martin and Edith moved from Marin Street to a six and a half room upper flat at 238 Girouard Avenue in 1926 or 1927; this address was renumbered to 2226 Girouard Avenue in 1930. Located in the west end neighbourhood of Notre Dame de Grace, this is where I used to visit my grandmother in the 1950s and 1960s. At some time in the 1930s the street was widened, eliminating front lawns and making Girouard a busy through-street along which streetcars ran to lower N.D.G. until around 1959. Other relatives lived across the street from 2226 Girouard, possibly the MacDonalds. The Family Martin and Edith had three daughters, Mabel, Stella, and Elsie. Elsie and Stella both died young, and Mabel remembered with sadness the absence of her sisters, especially Elsie who was only one year her junior. Mabel Morrissey worked at the Bank of Montreal where she was popular with her colleagues. Otherwise, she lived a quiet life at home with her mother and family. Martin and Edith's first son was Frank Morrissey made a name for himself organizing amateur hockey in Quebec as well as for working with the Montreal Maroons. For a while he and his wife Eva Dubois lived at the Corona Hotel. They had one daughter, Patsy, who spent much time living at Girouard. A newspaper columnist wrote the following, when Frank died prematurely at age forty: I have yet to meet a person who knew him and didn't like him. He had that exuberant spirit which could not be broken, even by adversity. And a 'squarer shooter' with his friends never breathed. Throughout his career as a sport executive he worked like the proverbial Trojan. Much of the foundation of the present amateur hockey structure in Quebec was built by the tireless effort of this diminutive live-wire'. Let us pause just a moment to think of this gallant little man who, to my knowledge anyway, never had a real enemy. William Morrissey worked most of his life for Dawson Company. He and his wife Lil Bateman lived for many years at 397 St. Aubin Street, in Ville St. Laurent. They had one son, Bill Morrissey who served in the Canadian army in World War Two; he fought against the Germans in Holland. Lil Morrissey told my mother about her son's terrible war experience, which she read about in his letters from Holland. Bill junior and his wife divorced and their daughter Joanne was raised by her grandparents, William and Lil. Alex Morrissey and his wife Ivy had one son, Herb, who became a well-known magician and who owns a company in Toronto that sells magic products. Alex worked as a salesman and he and Ivy spent their summers at a cottage they shared with his mother Edith and sister Mabel. For several years my mother rented a cottage across the street from theirs and while my mother was at work, my grandmother and Aunt Ivy kept an eye on my brother and I. Herb Morrissey married my aunt Dorothy Magrane in 1939. For a few years they lived a few doors away from us on Oxford Avenue. They had two children, Linda and Bob. Martin and Edith Martin Morrissey died after suffering a stroke at Windsor Station, probably on Wednesday, 10 February 1932. He was buried at Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery on Saturday, 13 February 1932. Martin and Edith were married for thirty-seven years. Eileen Oakes writes that Martin Morrissey "always worked for the C.P.R. telegraph, in fact took a stroke in his office and died the same day." My father also worked at Windsor Station and could have been present when his father died, or soon after. My grandmother, Edith Sweeney, continued living at 2226 Girouard Avenue until her death in April 1965; she had a cold the previous February, and this developed into pneumonia from which she died at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital only a few blocks from her home. Her two sisters, Essie and Edna, continued living at the flat until it was no longer possible because of their advanced age. Essie died in July 1968; Edna entered an old folks' home near Ottawa until her death in January 1970. While Edith is buried in the Morrissey family plot, with Martin, at Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery, Essie and Edna are both buried at Mount Royal Cemetery. Essie is buried with the other Sweeneys, in the plot purchased by her father, while Edna is buried about fifty feet from where my father is buried. Edith Sweeney's Ancestry Edith Sweeney's mother, Margaret Flanagan, was the daughter of Mary Barron and Murtagh Flanagan. An Irish friend informs me that the name Murtagh is "common in Roscommon", an inland county in the northwest of the Irish Republic, and is the name of one of the three kings of Tara. Murtagh, in Irish, means "skilled at sea craft" and today the name might be "Mortimer" for English speakers. Mary Barron was buried at Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery on 26 June 1906 and was predeceased by her husband, Murtagh Flanagan; however, I don't know where Murtagh is buried. Murtagh Flanagan and Mary Barron, Edith's maternal grandparents, had at least four children. There was Margaret Flanagan, Edith's mother. Another child was William E. Flanagan, Edith's uncle, who was a witness at Edith's wedding; he died on 10 December 1927. A third child was Edith's aunt, Elizabeth Flanagan ('Aunt Lib') who had a career as a journalist; she married a Ryan, which may have been a second marriage. Aunt Lib lived at Girouard for a few years until her death on 3 January 1944; her son moved to St. Louis, Missouri and she planned to move there but upon visiting found the climate too humid and returned to Montreal. She is buried with her mother next to the Morrissey family plot at Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery. Finally, there is Ann Mary Barron Flanagan, who was buried on 20 October 1950. She married Joseph William Dowling on 29 October 1890. The Sweeneys and the Barrons were very close, so much so that Edith considered the name Barron as one of my father's middle names. There are also several other family members who have "Barron" as one of their Christian names. While the Barrons were Catholics, the Flanagans and the Sweeneys were Protestants. My grandmother's parents, James Sweeney and Margaret Flanagan were married on 7 July 1875 at Erskine Presbyterian Church in Montreal. Edith Sweeney's father, James Sweeney, was the son of Mary Gallagher and Daniel Sweeney. At James and Margaret's marriage, Daniel Sweeney, the "father of the groom", signed the marriage certificate as a witness. Margaret Flanagan was of the "age of majority" which at that time was twenty-five years of age. Daniel was born in Ireland in 1816; he died of "cerebral apoplexy" and was buried at Mount Royal Cemetery on 8 February 1888, age 72 years. At that time he resided at 153 1/2 St. Charles Borromee Street in Montreal. Daniel worked as a tailor in 1845 when, according to Lovell's Directory, the family lived at "Ste Catherine and Bleury". In Lovell's 1861-1862 edition he was still working as a tailor but had moved to 22 Hermine Street, Montreal; in 1868 the family lived at 107 St. George Street. Daniel's wife, Mary Gallagher, was born in Ireland in 1814 and died of "consumption" (tuberculosis) on 14 December 1860 at age 46. James Sweeney, my grandmother Edith Sweeney's father, lived his final years with Edith at 2226 Girouard Avenue. James was born in 1852 in Montreal; he died when he was 85 years old of "uremia coma and chronic nephritis" on 11 January 1937. In 1864-1865 he and his family lived on Tannery West and worked as a labourer; in his final years he worked in a tobacco store. He is listed as the owner of the Sweeney family plot at Mount Royal Cemetery. James Sweeney's wife, Margaret Flanagan, was born around 1851-1854 in St. Johns (present day St. Jean-sur-Richelieu), Quebec about twenty miles south-east of Montreal. Margaret was baptized at the Anglican church in St. John's, Quebec and was later, like her husband, a Reformed Presbyterian. Margaret Flanagan's mother, Mary Barron, was Roman Catholic and this would account for why several of James Sweeney and Margaret Flanagan's children were baptized at the Roman Catholic La Cathedrale in Montreal (formerly St. James Cathedral, and as of the early 1950s Mary Queen of the World Cathedral). Margaret died of "pernicious anemia" at age 72 years on 4 January 1926 and was buried on 6 January 1926 at Mount Royal Cemetery. According to the 1881 census, Margaret Flanagan and James Sweeney lived in the St. Louis Ward, Montreal where James was employed as a book keeper. By then they had three children: Edith Mary (my grandmother) who was born in 1876; Clara, born in 1877; and their first son, Frederick who was born in 1880. The former are all listed as being Reformed Presbyterians. Also living with them was Margaret's mother Mary (Barron) Flanagan (born 1829) and two of Margaret's siblings, William Flanagan (born 1874) and Marianne (Ann Mary) Flanagan (born 1859), who were Roman Catholics. This also suggests that Murtagh Flanagan, Mary's husband, was deceased by 1881. If James was the sole breadwinner, he was supporting two families.