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Hugh A. Allan House(2/1895) 3435 Stanley Street [289 Stanley Street], Montreal, QC, Canada Residential, Urban house (semi-detached; basement, 2 floors, attic; 2 bedrooms); brick; composite Client: Hugh Andrew Allan Description: Hugh Andrew Allan, president of the Allan Steamship Line Co., was born in 1857. He trained under his father Andrew A. Allan (1822-1901) and his uncle Sir Hugh Allan (1810-1882), founder of the famed Allan Company and owner of Ravenscrag, the largest residence in Montreal (now the Allan Memorial Institute, Royal Victoria Hospital). He got additional training under his younger brother Andrew Alexander Allan (254), born in 1860. A.A. Allan lived at 287 Stanley Street since 1891 in a townhouse north of Sherbrooke Street built by architects Rotch and Tilden of Boston. In 1894, the Allan brothers became neighbours when Hugh, who had a large residence clad in red pressed brick designed and built by E. Maxwell at 289 Stanley Street, shared a parting wall with Andrew’s house. Around the same time, work was underway for a house designed by E. Maxwell on Pine Avenue at the corner of Peel Street for Hugh A. Allan’s sister Isobel Brenda, wife of Henry V. Meredith (165).
Much larger than his brother’s, Hugh Allan’s residence is an interpretation of the bowfront house very popular in Boston at the time. Both Maxwell and Allan had lived in Boston. The picturesque character is owed to the mixture of Gothic and Byzantine details. The front elevation has vigorous projections and setbacks, the contrast brought about by the complex brickwork and ornamentation of the upper story over the smoother ground and first floors, and the careful juxtaposition of the large bay window, the smaller oriel and the tiny corner window.
The plan and room layout is another Boston influence. The spacious drawing room, otherwise rectangular, ends in a large semicircular niche where the bow occurs. The dining room has an elliptical plan (with the door panels slightly curved), one of many occurrences of oval shapes used by Maxwell in his residences. A delicate classical rendering of the interior counterbalances the bold eclectic treatment of the exterior. Serene, well-proportioned elements (cornices, mouldings, and columns) were ordered by catalogue from Elliott and Sons, of Toronto. The dramatic staircase is adorned by newel posts and balustrades in groups of four, each with a different rope-like twist. Attention to detail is manifested throughout and points to later achievements in residential architecture for the firm. The house was eventually purchased by H.W. Beauclerk (296). He had servants’ rooms added in 1917 by E. & W.S. Maxwell. In 1948, both Andrew and Hugh Allan house were acquired by the Sisters of the Congrégation Notre-Dame and converted to the École des Arts et Métiers. The houses were sold again in 1994, this time to the Union des Artistes du Québec (UAQ), a Quebec trade union for stage artists and technicians. Successive users have, on the whole, respected the original design of the house: much of the interior decoration remains to this day. Holdings: Urban house (semi-detached, 2 bedrooms); wall bearing | |
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