Description of Historic Place

Fur Trade at Lachine National Historic Site of Canada is a rectangular single-storey, stone warehouse located in an attractive park-like setting on the banks of the Lachine Canal on St. Joseph Boulevard opposite the Convent of the Sisters of Sainte-Anne in Lachine on the west end of Montréal Island. The designation refers to the warehouse on its lot.

Heritage Value

The Fur Trade at Lachine was designated a national historic site of Canada in 1984 to commemorate:
- the fur trade in the Montréal area.

The heritage value of Fur Trade at Lachine National Historic Site of Canada resides in the surviving 18th-century form, and fabric of the warehouse building as they illustrate the history of the fur trade in Montréal.

Built in 1803 by Alexander Gordon of the Northwest Company, this warehouse was acquired by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1833, then by the Sisters of Sainte-Anne, who owned it from 1861-1977. When the building was modernized early in the 20th century, most of its original openings and surfaces disappeared. They were restored by Parks Canada (1978-1984) after a fire demolished all but the stone walls and half of the roof structure.

Sources: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, 1984; Commemorative Integrity Statement, 2000.

Character-Defining Elements

Key elements that contribute to the heritage character of the site include:
- its park-like siting with the south face adjacent to a second enlarged canal;
- its rectangular single storey massing under a hipped roof;
- the irregular disposition of its gables and apertures;
- its surviving original fieldstone walls and the early craftsmanship;
- the found form, materials, and craftsmanship of its pre-1860s dormers, windows and doors;
- the location on the St. Lawrence River beside the historic channel for western travel;
- its siting with the long north wall of the building on a former wharf off Lachine’s first canal now known as ‘la promenade Père Marquette’;
- viewplanes from the south-west side to Lake Saint-Louis, the St. Lawrence River.