R. B. Angus House (Pine Bluff)([1901-4])
[216-217-218-219] Sennneville Road, Senneville, QC, Canada
Residential, Country house [basement, attic, 2 floors, 9 bedrooms, 8 servants' rooms]; stone; composite

Client: Richard Bladworth Angus
Architect: E. & W.S. Maxwell

Description: This imposing summer residence was known as Pine Bluff. Richard Bladworth Angus, a prominent director of Canadian Pacific Railways (the Maxwells handled a total of 20 private commissions for CPR executives) joined the Bank of Montreal upon his arrival in Canada in 1857. Born in Bathgate, Scotland in May 1831, he worked in banking in Manchester, England. He was General Manager (1869-1879) and President (1910-1914) of the Bank of Montreal and entered the syndicate with Lord Mount Stephen and Lord Strathcona (617) to establish the Canadian Pacific Railway (construction completed 1885). He was also a Governor of the Alexandra Contagious Diseases Hospital (250). The CPR Angus Shops, in Montreal East End, were named in his honour. Like many affluent Montreal businessmen, Angus owned a mansion in the Golden Square mile at 240 Drummond Street and a summer residence in the country. Senneville at that time was a perfect nearby resort for well-to-do Montrealers. R.B. Angus’ large family included three sons and five daughters, among them Edith Margaret (wife of F.L. Wanklyn, 644); Bertha (married to Robert McDougall Patterson , 236); Elspeth Hudson (wife to Charles Meredith, 518); Margaret Forrest (Dr. Charles F. Martin, 267); Maud (Dr. Walter Chipman, 266); William Forrest Angus (146) and Donald Forbes Angus (258) were clients of the Maxwell firm or occupants of houses designed by them. Pine Bluff, begun in 1901, replaced an older house built in 1886 by architects J.W. and E.C. Hopkins (CAC no. 18.0), remodeled by Edward Maxwell in 1898-1899 into a large Tudor composition. The noted Boston landscape architecture firm Olmsted Brothers contributed a rustic arbor. That house went up in flames shortly thereafter, leaving only the entrance gates designed by Maxwell and Shattuck. From November 1901, Edward and William Maxwell designed the new Pine Bluff, the grandest and most spectacular of their summer estates along with auxiliary buildings (among them an ice house and a peach house). The villa was a different story altogether from its predecessor: a solid stone edifice with turrets, conical roofs in the Château style so revered by men connected to CPR. Pine Bluff displays formality and cohesion lacking in Edward Maxwell’s earlier works such a Louis-J. Forget’s Bois-de-la-Roche (230). Its forbidding appearance, the rugged stone walls, the severe façades, albeit softened by some Art Nouveau elements, nevertheless contrasts with the curvilinear forms displayed in the unsigned perspective rendering. Some of the estate outbuildings that fortunately remain today display more playfulness, notably the peach house, a charming shed with boulder wall and shingle roofing. The Maxwells paid attention to decoration of the house. They chose furniture, rugs and curtains for the client, the same way they did for C.R. Hosmer (106). R.B. Angus donated a portion of his Senneville estate to his daughter Edith Margaret, wife of F.L. Wanklyn. They had a house built there in 1898 but sold it to Bertha Angus the next year (Robert MacDougall Patterson, 548). This house and Pine Bluff dependencies still exist, but the jewel in the crown – Pine Bluff -- was demolished in the 1950’s.

Holdings: Country house (basement, attic, 2 floors, 9 bedrooms, 8 servants' rooms); stone; composite
244 Drawings: 121 ink on linen; 33 ink on paper; 11 pencil on paper; 8 watercolour on linen; 1 watercolour on paper; 70 blueprints
1 Presentation drawing: perspective
9 Working drawings: floor plans, attic floor plan, elevations, section, billiard-room, kitchen
206 Detail drawings: floor plans, ceiling plans, sections, elevations, bedrooms, dining room, library, billiard-room, music room, servants' rooms, vestibule, hall, washrooms, entries, structure, drainage, stairs, mantelpieces, chimneys, windows, dormers, bays, doors, furniture, screens, railings, fittings, fixtures, finishes, frieze, terrazzo, ironwork, stonework, terraces, buttresses, portico, arcade, loggia, balustrade, fencing
20 Shop drawings: mechanical, fittings, fixtures
8 Consultant drawings: floor plans, battery room, mechanical, fittings
5 Photographs: 3 finished exteriors; 2 finished interiors
Comment: Studies for the house ordered 19/11/1901. 3 drawings by E.S.B. Company, Philadelphia, dated 26/3/1902; 1 by G.R. Locker Company, dated 21/5/1902; 1 by W.J. McGuire and Company, Consultants, dated 29/5/1902; and 1 drawing signed by Professor Owens, dated 8/10/1902, are included. Professor Owens may be R.B. Owens, Professor of Electrical Egineering, McGill University, 1899-1909.
Comments: Studies for the house ordered 19/11/1901. 3 drawings by E.S.B. Company, Philadelphia, dated 26/3/1902; 1 by G.R. Locker Company, dated 21/5/1902; 1 by W.J. McGuire and Company, Consultants, dated 29/5/1902; and 1 drawing signed by Professor Owens, dated 8/10/1902, are included. Professor Owens may be R.B. Owens, Professor of Electrical Egineering, McGill University, 1899-1909.