George M. Edwards House(1905)
329 Pine Avenue West, Montreal, QC, Canada
Residential, Urban house [semi-detached; basement, 2 floors, 4 bedrooms]; brick; wall bearing

Client: George M. Edwards
Architect: E. & W.S. Maxwell

Description: Another intriguing and clever plan for an urban row house, the G.M. Edwards is to be compared with Dr. Barnes’s house (291), Andrew and John D. Baile houses (279) and the charming Andrews house (256), all of them two-storeys, red-brick with a bay window and a false Mansard roof. The drawing room equipped with fireplace, of the Edwards house forms an oval in plan. Its street end is signalled outside by the bay window projection, as in the Andrews House. However, while the latter house cleverly situated the main entrance at the basement level, gaining a small rectangular sitting room above in the process, this time a service entrance leads directly into the basement, with a formal main entrance above encased by a vestibule. This scheme leaves rooms for only two formal reception rooms at the piano nobile, the aforementioned drawing room and the vast, octagonal dining room to the rear. A rather awkward angle to the rear wall, housing a cold room, results from the decision to have each dining room corner chamfered. The upper floor includes four bedrooms and a bathroom, all easily accessible from the sky-lit staircase. The main chamber above the drawing room has its own fireplace while the other front bedroom opens unto a small balcony above the entrance porch. A corridor to the rear leading to a gallery needlessly takes space away from the smaller bedroom overlooking the backyard. Like its neighbours (Barnes and Andrews) it stood at the north east corner of Durocher Street and had been since demolished.

Holdings: Urban house (semi-detached, basement, 2 floors, 4 bedrooms); brick; wall bearing
11 Drawings: 11 ink on linen
2 Working drawings: floor plans, elevations, section
9 Detail drawings: staircases, chimneys, mantelpiece, doors, fittings, porch