Description of Historic Place

The Hudson’s Bay Warehouse stands at the entrance of the Lachine Canal on the Père Marquette Pier. It is a one-storey masonry building with regularly placed windows and a main entrance situated beside the canal. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

The Hudson’s Bay Warehouse is a Recognized Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations, and its architectural and environmental values.

Historical value
The Hudson’s Bay Warehouse is a fully reconstructed warehouse that illustrates the fur trade, a significant theme in Canadian history. The building demonstrates the predominant role played by Lachine in the vast commercial trade network where such trade was lucrative owing to the favourable location of Lachine, being upstream of the rapids that block the St. Lawrence at Montreal. It was at Lachine that flotillas of westbound canoes were assembled, and where traded goods and furs were stored. This proved to be a very important economic factor for Lachine. Moreover, nearly every pelt that was shipped to Great Britain passed through this part of the junction in the system.

Architectural value
The architectural value of the Hudson’s Bay Warehouse lies in its fully restored form, which represents a mid 19th-century building in a traditional house form. Detailing includes dormer windows, rough masonry and a wood shingle roof. A building of utilitarian function, good craftsmanship and materials are noted in the masonry exterior.

Environmental value
The Hudson’s Bay Warehouse reinforces its mixed-use surroundings along the Lachine Canal, in the city of Lachine. Standing alone on Père Marquette Pier, the warehouse is a well-known landmark. Its presence has a considerable impact on Lachine owing to its role as a museum, which has made it a meeting place for people with local, regional and national historical interests.

Sources: Gilles Proulx, in collaboration with Paul Trépanier, L’entrepôt de la Compagnie de la Baie d’Hudson. Federal Heritage Buildings Report 92-026; The Hudson’s Bay Company Warehouse 1, Lachine, QC. Heritage Character Statement 92-026.

Character-Defining Elements

The following character-defining elements of the Hudson’s Bay Warehouse should be respected.

Its good aesthetic design and good quality materials and competent craftsmanship for example:
- its simple massing and rectangular plan;
- its low, hipped roof and dormer windows;
- its rough masonry construction of fieldstone.

The manner in which the building reinforces the utilitarian character of this industrial setting and is a local landmark, for example:
- its materials and scale, which are indicative of the mid-19th century fur trade period;
- its prime location on the Père Marquette Pier, along the Lachine Canal, which makes it well known;
- its significant visibility and use as a museum makes it well known.