Now here is an institution that exhisted for a long period of time in the first half of the 20th century judging from the maps I consulted. Here is a 1932 map showing the club in all its glory. Notice the large area of the buildings wich contained plenty of storage space for the boats, a restaurant and also had a separate building for the Grand Trunk Canoe Club. It is also interesting to note that the club was situated mostly in Verdun but also partly in Pte St Charles. Also you can notice that Elmhurst Dairy had a building at the lower left of lot 5371. On the upper left of the same lot was situated a skating ring and camping grounds, no doubt where the Verdun Tourist Camp was situated. The camp was well situated as the campers could go to the boat club to get their boat or rent one. I think you can enlarge the photo to discover other interesting buildings. I guess there aren't many old timers around who could give us some interesting stories about the Grand Trunk Boating club. I would like to learn more about this subject which would make an interesting article and who knows, maybe other photos may turn up. After consulting several maps from different eras, River street had several names such as Gough, Kings Park, Atwater, Upsala and is presently called Henri Duhamel.
Guy
22 comments:
Hey Les , I found vVerdun
Hey Les , I found Verdun Connections , been a while , have spent the winter following my grandson in Midget Hockey , Elites , best from Chateauguy , Ville Lasalle, VERDUN , Westmount , and out here in Western end of Province , Ile Perrot to Ontario border, that is just one team , great hockey , best 15 year olds in Province , Home games are in Jacques Lemaire arena , LaSalle , of course games in Verdun Auditorium also , real good memories , Have walked a lot on Wellington and LaSalle , not much changed , however lots of good restaurants, I feel so safe and at ease in Verdun ,after all I grew up there , will be back again Jimmy ( Jim Nairn originally from 253 3rd Ave ( above Grovers)York 7143 , imagine , that was our telephone number , hang tough pal jimmy
hey Jimmy. Good to see you. 835 3rd Avenue PO9-6419
Jimmy,
Being from the Montreal area, an ex-Verdunite, and an often visitor to Verdun, may I suggest you make a visit to our library at the Société d'Histoire et de Généalogie de Verdun (SHGV), below the Verdun Cultural Center at the corner of Bannantyne and Brown Boul. below the city library in the basement. This is where I work and where a lot my my material comes from. Let me know if you are interested and I will give you more details such as the business hours.
Guy
Great Jimmy, glad your here, have a look through all the old photo albums,& stories. Multiply is slightly different from the old site , but you will figure it out. There are a lot of features on this site,it's just different. Good to have you back Have Fun & Remember Verdun
It's funny Jimmy your grandson being in the 15 year olds,You used to tell us of going to his games when he was about 8,......hahahaha Good to see you here.
Montreal Gazette story reporting on the Fire that Gutted the GTBC in 1951, ending (at that time) it's 75 year old history. So this at least gives a known starting date for the old boat club.Here is the direct link,..
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VuwiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=IpkFAAAAIBAJ&dq=grand%20trunk%20boating%20club&pg=5517%2C2063084
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Cheers !! HF&RV
ps: of course it continued on ,as I remember the place in the 60's
Les,
Fantastic, you did it again. This Gazette article will be the basis for an article I am planning to write. I will also open a new photo album on the Grand Trunk Boating Club. To follow.
Guy
If you have a look through the gates of the Verdun Tourist Camp ( I still like the sounds of Trap better)
but look through the gates ,at about fence height level,just above it (left side of fence entrance) you can see the Tower type top of the GTBC with it's familiar mast /flag post atop the tower,then compare it to the bottom photo of the GTBC ,you can see that it is definetly the GTBC & Campground on the same property.
Cheers !! HF&RV
Ok this shot has nothing to do with the topic, but I thought Jimmy ( kungfufun) would get a kick out of it,seeing is he lived right upstairs there,over Grovers.
Cheers !! HF&RV
Those arches above the balconies are a thing of beauty and very common on many old houses in Verdun and many are still around. I am wondering from what architechture they are inspired (spanish ?).
Guy
Les,
Yes it does look like the top of the GTBC. I checked the Lovell's directory (BANQ) for 1935 and the address of the VTC is 3140 Wellington so if you check the map I already posted it would confirm your observation. We are certainly making a lot of discoveries on this subject.
Guy
Yes those arches are quite neat looking ,as well as having a lot of strength.I posted this photo album quite some time ago, referring to the arches, I have added some photos since that really were just being stored here, However there are a lot of shots showing some of the buildings around sporting these type of arches: You will have to put up with the other shots....
Cheers!! HF&RV
Sorry about the duplicates in there too.....
Have a look at this shot, it is of the CN Yards along the waterfront ,& also close to Nun's Island
I wonder if the GTBC & Verdun Tourist Camp would have been along that river's edge property, this shot is from the 20's or 30's pre-dating the boardwalk as we know it,but the dyke is apparent ???
You can click on the photo ,for a larger view ( I think) depending on how I saved it) Cheers !! HF&RV
Les,
It is difficult to make out as the photo is not ideal to detect the GTBC.
Guy
Here is my new album no. 55 on the Grand Trunk Boating Club. Hopefully new photos will turn up to ad to the album.
Guy
this group are from the Grand Trunk Boating Club & dated 1951 ( same year as the fire) However they were participating in an event at the Cartierville Boating Club at this time, perhaps one of several events that took place btwn the many clubs around the island of Montreal, Lachine ,Verdun , Grand Trunk ,Cartierville ,Longueile (south shore) etc etc the names of the kids in the photo are Ross Melville,John (Yank) Cross,Ron Steppacher,Brendan Moynahan all members of GTBC 1951
Here is one aother of the Sign at GTBC: circa 1920 Sort of a 'sign of the times'
!! sreehC VR&FH
These 2 new photos from Les of the GTBC are now part of my album no. 55.
Guy
I have decided to open a new album for the Verdun Trourist Camp and hopefully new photos will turn up.
Guy
Guy here is a photo you posted from a few years back re: Tail Race.
I wonder if you can compare this one to the photo I posted the other day of Nuns Island & the CN Yards ,.which would have been the property that the Tourist Camp & the GTBC would have been on,.maybe from these photos we can determine what park like grounds were in this area ?? Just a thought.......
Now in this photo , if you look in the background it sure looks like the grain elevators that have the old O'gilvies Flour sign on it (the Farine Red Roses one of present day)
Cheers !! HF&RV
Les,
The GTBC was on the right at the end of the Tail Race wich was a ditch for the overflow from the Aqueduct water purification plant at Atwater and Joseph streets. The large factory also at the right of the Tail Race was the DIL plant. The street from east to west at the top of the photo would be Rushbrooke and further up is Wellington wich connected with the bridge wich you can make out at the top left. If you look at the 1932 map I previously posted you will get an idea of the general outlay of the area. Unfortunately the area is too small on the photo to be able to make out the details but if you compare it with the map you will get an idea of the area.
Guy
I have a digital copy of a newspaper article my grandparents had. (They lived about 60 years on 6th avenue in Verdun and I spent a lot of time there with them.) Must have been my grandfather's family were members of the boating club. But I don't recognize any of the faces.
The article is a photo, "scene at the Grand Trunk Boating Club August 20th 1904 ... just returned from paddling championships at Ottawa."
Unfortunately My grandmother cut out only the photo, not the name of the newspaper or date.
I can send it to you.
Dianne
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