Dufresne Home in Montreal

This is a mansion facing the Olympic Stadium and one can be quite unaware it ever exists when you see the Olympic park and the Botanical Gardens nearby. Two brothers divided the house and this is what sticks with you. Each brother had his own sense of furnishings and they contrasted one another one being more frugal than the next. The importance is that at least there is heritage in the city to be seen; if one takes the time there is always a stately home that has been converted for view.

The business the family ran was shoe related and at that time there was a factory location in the old part of Montreal that saw some changes until it was taken down or gutted. The home of the business owners remained and they used to receive important people at their door to which they would show off their line of foot wear of the day. That was at the turn of the last century.

The home became a school before it was opened as a museum and one can see how one of the classrooms looked in the thirties complete with inkwells, and wood-framed blackboards. Anything but the Catholic means of education was considered taboo for the church in the province reminding me of how the priests and nuns not only operated schools in Italy. There is a time chart posted at the entrance to the museum attesting to this bizarre fact. Today one looks back and sees the limitations the church imposed and today it is part of a museum.

There was some sense of modernization in the house, an early manual exercise machine lay on the floor of one of the brother’s home. It was important to show off what appreciation they had for the fields of study and this was a theme that was painting on the walls of one of their rooms with the field taking the form of nymph. The work would be painstaking by to-days standards but it does show off the individuality of the person. The kitchen had its motifs which may have been common for rich homes at the time. Cornucopias of fruits and vegetables laced the moulding of the encased ceiling. That was there there was a secret room from where kitchen service would bring in meals, all covered with a rich wood paneling.