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Charles Meredith House(1905) 1130 Pine Avenue, Montreal, QC, Canada Residential, Urban house [detached, basement, 2 floors, attic, 2 bedrooms, 6 servants' rooms]; brick and stone; wall bearing Client: Charles Meredith Description: Charles Meredith was born in London, Ontario. He married R.B. Angus’ daughter, Elspeth Hudson Angus. Charles Meredith worked some 15 years for the Merchant’s Bank of Canada and then founded his own brokerage firm, the C. Meredith and Co. The Maxwell brothers designed an urban house for Charles Meredith at 1130 Pine Avenue next to his brothers Henry Vincent Meredith House (165) at 1110 Pine Avenue. Contrary to the H. Meredith’s House designed by Edward Maxwell in 1894, the house built for Charles Meredith reflects the combined talent of Edward and William. The construction materials for both houses are similar but they differ in their styles and details. Edward mainly borrowed the Richardsonian Romanesque features to build H. Meredith’s House. The one built for Charles Meredith in the English Neo-Classical style, shows William’s influence, generally opting for simpler details.
The house is a combination of a rectangular block with a projection wing along the north side. A large hipped roof covers the main rectangular block and the smaller secondary hipped roof caps the projection wing where the main entrance for the house is located. The central doorway with a quoined surround is crowned with carved stone medallions, which are elegantly placed in an arched pediment supporting the extended sill of the first floor window, terminating with a large pediment with low-relief carving on the hipped roof. All the edges, the cornices, windowsills were quoined, brilliantly exposing the red brick façade.
The plan of the house maintains a perfect symmetry. The large polygonal hall is entered through the vestibule located along the north façade. The hall, which leads to the large sitting room at the rear is situated at the centre of the house and acts as a main distribution chamber for the other spaces. To the west, it opens onto a staircase towards a large billiard room. To the east, it leads to the dining room. Apart from the entrances from the hall, both dining and billiard rooms can be reached through the sitting room. The sitting room, the dining room and the billiard room are provided with large windows, which overlooked downtown Montreal. The sitting room, with a prominent fireplace, opens onto a landscaped garden at the rear. The first floor, which can be accessed through the grand stairs from the hall, accommodates a large drawing room overlooking Pine Avenue, a master bedroom, guest room, maids room and three dressing rooms. The attic floor was designed mainly for the servants’ accommodation, which includes four bedrooms, the servants’ hall, and a kitchen.
The interior details are limited to only simple decorations. The only ornamentation is in the form of mouldings on the ceilings of the hall, sitting, dining and billiard rooms. Mr. Meredith and his family occupied the house until 1937, at which point it became the nurses’ residence for the Royal Victoria Hospital, one block to the east. In 1975, the house was donated to McGill University and became the home of the Department of Occupational Health, Faculty of Medicine, and is now part of the Joint Departments of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health. Holdings: Urban house (detached, basement, 2 floors, attic, 2 bedrooms, 6 servants' rooms); brick and stone; wall bearing | |
| I M A G E S: Drawings | |
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