Morgan's Department Store

Here we are back in the 1940s. A full service department store like this is a thing of the past; the other day I saw an Amazon truck make two deliveries within five minutes on the same street, everyday I see Amazon trucks cruising our streets making deliveries, and how many deliveries does The Bay (formerly Morgan's) make on the same streets? None. Even The Bay trucks, or Eaton's trucks, are a thing of the past. 

Now we get in the Time Machine of photography and find ourselves in a different world, downtown Montreal, decade of the 1940s, pre- or post-World War Two. 

Photo taken between 1930 and 1940; this is Morgan's Department Store
before they added an extension to the rear of the store; this original 
building was called Colonial House

A winter day in the 1940s, Morgan's seen from
the entrance area of Birk's jewelry store

Furniture department display

Cosmetic department

A fashion show

Looks like the basement; now the basement leads to the Metro

Fashion department

Santa's visit

Morgan's, 1940s

A fabulous Christmas display on the store's exterior,
seen from Philips Square

The Beaver Hall Artists

More photographs taken at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts' 1920s Modernism in Montreal exhibition, 2015.

1920s Modernism in Montreal exhibit, MMFA

I'll go back and identify the artists of these paintings, all were exhibited at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts' 1920s Modernism in Montreal exhibit in 2015. For instance, the first painting below is of St. Patrick's Church from the rear of the studio of the Beaver Hall artists.

This is St. James Cathedral, renamed Marie, Reine de la Monde around 1950
which was the year of Mary; it's just a few blocks west of Beaver Hall Hill

St. James Cathedral, Marie, Reine de la Monde

This Seventh Day Adventist Church is located in Upper Westmount

One of the two towers at the College de Montreal;
on the north side of  Sherbrooke Street West across from Fort Avenue 

Of course, this is where we began, looking down on the entrance
of Morgan's Department Store on the corner of Union and Ste. Catherine Street West

As Canadians we endure

The young Morse's name is Endeavour, like the drama on television. Another possible name, for Canadians, would be Endurance, that is what we do best considering our long winters. Endurance is also the name of Shackleton's ship that sank in the Antarctica in 1915, and the ship itself has endured, frozen in time by the frigid water in which it sank. We Canadians endure while others surrender, including Americans who never tire of telling the world how great they are and that you can be anything, literally anything, if you put your mind to it. We know this isn't true, but it's good old fashioned American get up and go and will power over all obstacles. Good for them! If you have enough money and resources you can possibly achieve what poorer people can`t achieve, but it is also pride, hubris, and self-satisfaction. I think the moral fibre and vision of life comes from the very earth and geography on which we walk, and anyone coming to Canada soon drops their old ways and learns how to endure. I remember a book in the SGWU stacks, on Robert Lowell, titled Everything to be Endured, but that is also life. Call me Endurance, like other Canadians, I have survived. 

Meanwhile, a snow storm is blowing up from Texas or a cold spell is blowing south from the Arctic; these photographs of an earlier snowstorm were taken in February 2022.

A white garden/ a garden under snow

There isn't really a lot to commend winter, I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder but winter drags on too long and, like a house guest after two weeks, can overstay its welcome. The first snowfall in November or December is serene, quiet, lovely to see the snow lined branches of trees, and even a big snowfall (let's say 20 cm) isn't all that bad, not if you're at home, don't have to go out, and can enjoy quiet time during the falling snow. What is not fun, pleasant, happy, serene, meditative is how our winters drag on into late March and sometimes even early April; four of five months of winter is just too much. A three month winter, from first snowfall to the snow melting, is about all many of us can stand. 

Here is my Canadian cottage garden in early March this year. I gave up even walking back there two months ago, previously I would go for a walk and then, arriving home, I'd check out the backyard. We miss the diversity of summer, the colours of flowers, the many plants, birds singing, insects, and then we surrender all of this to winter. "Mon pays c'est l'hiver" sang Gilles Vigneault, but it's not my country. 

More on Darrell Morrisey

It isn't much but at least Darrell Morrisey (one of the "forgotten" Beaver Hall artists) now has some recognition; people know that she existed and that she was an artist. To this end, I wrote an essay on her and she was included in the Museum's 1920s Modernism in Montreal exhibit--in fact, this was a major exhibition at the Museum--and she was included in the catalogue published for the exhibition. Not much, but better than nothing. . .

From the MMFA's 2015 exhibition of the Beaver Hall artists

Bottom left, one of two extant paintings by Darrell Morrisey

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Here we are in October 2015 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts on Sherbrooke Street West in Montreal, we're visiting an exhibition of the Beaver Hall artists; this building is where the Art Association of Montreal relocated in 1913. Banners for the 1920s Modernism in Montreal exhibit hang on the outside of the original building on the north side of the street; a newer building (the Jean-Paul Desmarais Pavilion, that opened in 1991) is located directly across the street; next door to the original museum building is the Marc Bougie Pavilion, that opened in 2010; the Marc Bougie Pavilion used to be the Erskine and American (Presbyterian) United Church until it was repurposed as an exhibition space for Canadian Art and a concert hall. 

For many years I have felt that the Museum is one of the great attractions to visiting Montreal and to enjoying living here. 

Opened in December 1913, this building replaced the AAA's Phillips Square location;
it is now one of several pavilions that comprise the MMFA; the original 1913 building is now the 
Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace

  

The Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace

The Marc Bougie Pavilion, note the addition of exhibition space at the rear of the building;
this was originally the Erskine and American (Presbyterian) United Church

Interior of the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace

Interior of the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace

The Beaver Hall Artists

I began this journey, writing about Phillips Square, because the Art Association of Montreal was located on the north-east corner of the Square; I always thought that members of the Beaver Hall group of artists could easily have walked up Beaver Hall Hill to the AAA where some of them attended art classes or looked at art. The Beaver Hall group of artists are considered to be the Montreal-based equivalent of the Group of Seven artists; in fact, A.Y. Jackson was a member of both groups. That is why I began collecting photographs of Phillips Square and the original building that housed the AAM, and I began looking for historical photographs of the Beaver Hall artists' studio on Beaver Hall Hill. I was curious about the Beaver Hall artists and how they are an important part of the history of Montreal; perhaps more importantly, I like their art very much. 

Someone I wrote about, Darrell Morrisey (no relation), has a kind of curious importance; Darrell is one of several Beaver Hall artists who have been forgotten by history. In Darrell's case, we really don't know what happened to her art, whether she gave up being an artist, or someone discarded her paintings after her early death in 1930, or whether she was not prolific and her remaining paintings have disappeared over time. In 2012 I wrote an essay about Darrell Morrisey and since then she was included in the Beaver Hall artist exhibition held at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 2015, she was included in their exhibition catalogue, and two of her paintings (on two sides of the same panel) and several drawings were discovered after I published my essay. She is not among the best of the Beaver Hall artists but she is an interesting story of endurance, family history, and one woman's effort to be independent. 

This old map of Montreal shows Beaver Hall Hill, St. Patrick`s Church
on an adjacent street to Beaver Hall Hill, and other locations

The arrow indicates the Beaver Hall artists`studio

The arrow indicates a building where the 
Beaver Hall artists' studio was located

This is a Google Street View of the previous image, as of October 2021, 
the relentless construction of condos and office buildings has destroyed
whatever was left of the original Beaver Hall Hill; the Beaver Hall artists' studios
were in a building to the right of the remaining building above

From Lowell's Montreal City Directory, the address of the Beaver Hall 
Group of Artists, 305 Beaver Hall Hill

Looking south on Beaver Hall Hill towards Victoria Square, 1950s