Charles Philippe Beaubien House(1909)
436 Côte-Sainte-Catherine Road, Outremont, QC, Canada
Residential, Urban house [detached, basement, 2 floors, attic, 5 bedrooms, 3 servants' rooms]; brick; composite

Client: C.P. Beaubien
Architect: E. & W.S. Maxwell

Description: This house for C.P. Beaubien, alongside those of Louis de Gaspé Beaubien (294) and Jean de Gaspé Beaubien (295) on Côte-Ste-Catherine Road was important for many reasons. The Maxwells’ work in that affluent Montreal suburb on the north east slopes of Mount Royal that became home to the French Canadian bourgeoisie at the turn of the century amounts to only about seven major commissions. It includes the house for Mrs. Cahan (309) and a triplex for Mr. Snowdon (610); the Saint-Giles Presbyterian Church (615) and work on properties for Alfred Joyce (468). It is a modest output compared to the dozens of commercial and residential clients in the Golden Square Mile and Westmount, mostly for English community wealthy businessmen. The fact that they built a group of three houses in the best area of Outremont for its most illustrious family is in itself remarkable. The Beaubien family has a long history of prominence in Outremont, as landowners, businessmen, professionals and politicians. The Honourable Louis Beaubien, born in Montreal in 1837 and a member of Quebec’s Legislative Assembly from 1867 and then House of Commons from 1872, married Miss Susanna Lauretta Stuart, daughter of Chief Justice Sir Andrew Stuart in 1864. They had four sons, among them: Charles Philippe B. (born 1870); Louis de Gaspé B. (b. 1867) and Joseph B. (b. 1865), Mayor of Outremont, 1910-1916. The family owned impressive tracts of land near and alongside Côte-Sainte-Catherine Road, a major thoroughfare and an unofficial border to ''Upper Outremont.'' Houses on the south side of that street were especially popular as it was considered the most exclusive and desirable part of the municipality, on high terrain overlooking Montreal’s East end, the same way mansions in Westmount above the Boulevard dominated the westward views of Montreal. In a matter of two years (1910-1911), the Maxwell firm landed three Beaubien commissions on Côte-Sainte-Catherine Road, nearby Louis B.’s house at 457 and Joseph B.’s residence at 461 Côte-Ste-Catherine Road. The street numbers indicate a property on the ''better'' side of the road, with lots rising sharply above the flatter portion of the town, an area typically populated with semi-detached or row housing. C.P. Beaubien’s wife, Margaret Power was also, like her mother-in-law, an anglophone. It may account for them hiring the Maxwells rather than a French-speaking architect. Charles Philippe Beaubien, a lawyer and industrialist (director of North Railway Co.; Frontenac Breweries and Atlantic Sugar Refineries) was summoned to the Senate in 1915. His house at 436 Côte-Sainte-Catherine was the most compact of the three built. His brother Louis de Gaspé B. house stood immediately to the north. Both houses were serviced by a common formal flight of stairs from the sidewalk, splitting in a terrace at mid-point. The mansion reminds one of French hôtels particuliers: strict symmetry, sophisticated brickwork and stone panels, Palladian windows, a classical entrance porch with octagonal columns supporting a semicircular pediment and hip roof capped by a balustrade. In plan, the residence was almost a square, with a large gallery straddling the east and south sides. The main entrance was centrally placed under the grand staircase signalled in elevation by a splendid tall window. It opened to the formal reception rooms, from left to right: the drawing room facing the street while the library, dining and palm rooms faced Mount Royal, all of them opening to a windowless central hall. The kitchen was also on the ground floor in a corner position, not in the basement as many other mansions designed by the firm. Five chambers on the first floor, a playroom and servant’s room in the attic and a billiard room in the basement made up the room array of this fine bourgeois house whose interior details (fireplaces, cabinetwork) were very good throughout, in keeping with the architect’s superior design. Alas, the house, along with its two neighbours, was destroyed in 1973.

Holdings: Urban house (detached, basement, 2 floors, attic, 5 bedrooms, 3 ser-vants' rooms); brick; composite
51 Drawings: 32 ink on linen; 14 pencil on paper; 5 blueprints
4 Sketch drawings: garden stairs, wall and gate
9 Development drawings: property plan, site plan, floor plans, garden stairs and wall
9 Working drawings: floor plans, attic plan, elevations, section
26 Detail drawings: elevations, entry, structure, staircases, fireplace, chimney, dormers, bay, doors, library seat, gallery, fittings, trellis
3 Consultant drawings: property plans, section
Comment: 2 drawings by de Gaspé Beaubien, Engineer, dated 4/9/1908, and
1 by Joseph Rielle, Q.L.S., are included.

Comments: 2 drawings by de Gaspé Beaubien, Engineer, dated 4/9/1908, and 1 by Joseph Rielle, Q.L.S., are included.