Percy Cowans House(4/1909-10/1910)
3456 du Musée Avenue [Ontario Avenue], Montreal, QC, Canada
Residential, Urban house [detached, basement, 2 floors, attic, 12 bedrooms, servants' hall]; brick; composite

Client: Percy Cowans
Architect: E. & W.S. Maxwell

Description: This sprawling, imposing mansion is more akin to the free-flowing country house of the West Island or the later residences in Westmount than its Golden Square Mile compact, narrow neighbours. Percy Cowans, born in Montreal in 1878, was a stock broker with McDougall and Cowans at 520 St-François-Xavier Street in Old Montreal. His brother and partner, Russell, was married to Andrew A. Allan’s daughter, Doris. The Neo-Georgian mansion’s main elevation features a central, three-storey block flanked by two-storey wings, clad in brick with stone corner pilasters. Rusticated brick pilasters adorn the central part, capped by a broken pediment. The ground floor plan follows a strict axial symmetry. From the entrance hall, surrounded by the pantry and the coat room, one proceeds to a vast dining room to the left with corresponding drawing room to the right. A colossal living room with a central semicircular bay occupies the rear. The semicircular grand staircase leads to the main chambers on the first floor (six bedrooms, three bathrooms). The attic floor includes three more bedrooms, a playroom, store and cedar closet. The basement comprises the large kitchen, larder, storage, servant’s bedrooms, wine cellar, laundry and other services. In 1915 an addition to the north west provided for two additional servants’ rooms, a billiard room on the ground floor and a large bedroom with balcony upstairs. This spectacular house, comparable to those of Noah Timmins in Westmount (630) and Sir Thomas Tait in New Brunswick (621) still exists but has been subdivided into small residential units.

Holdings: Urban house (detached, basement, 2 floors, attic, 12 bedrooms, servants' hall); brick; composite
51 Drawings: 30 ink on linen; 2 ink on paper; 7 pencil on paper; 3 watercolour on paper; 2 blueprints; 7 photocopies
5 Development drawings: floor plans, attic floor plan, outhouse
15 Working drawings: floor plans, attic floor plan, elevations, sections
30 Detail drawings: foundations, shed, drawing room, entries, vestibule, living room wall, structure, stairs, fireplaces, mantelpieces, flues, windows, furniture, radiator screens, fittings, cut stone corner, pilasters, cornice
1 Consultant drawing: ground grading plan
Comment: 1 drawing by Rickson A. Outhet, Landscape Architect, dated 3/1910, is included.

Comments: 1 drawing by Rickson A. Outhet, Landscape Architect, dated 3/1910, is included.