If buildings could speak… - A historical and architectural tour of Vaudreuil-Dorion

 

LES CHENAUX

Arts and Crafts style house built between 1911 and 1913 for Joséphine de Lotbinière Harwood (156 chemin des Chenaux). In June 1911, she purchased the land from her brother Dr. Louis de Lotbinière-Harwood. Two years later, she mortgaged the land to finish its construction. © Bernard Bourbonnais – Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, 2017.
Birthplace of Canon Lionel Groulx, built between 1860 and 1865 (150 chemin des Chenaux). © Bernard Bourbonnais – Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, 2017.
Traditional Québec style house built for Joseph Leduc between 1756 and 1792. Purchased by Charles-Auguste de Lotbinière-Harwood in 1906, this residence was expanded many times afterwards. The original structure is located to the right of the building - the stone-covered section (233 chemin des Chenaux). © Bernard Bourbonnais – Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, 2017.
Rural Lower-Canada home built between 1865 and 1890 (250 chemin des Chenaux). © Bernard Bourbonnais – Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, 2017.
Small rustic cottages built for Louis-Marie Pilon shortly after the Second World War (254 and 258 chemin des Chenaux). © Bernard Bourbonnais – Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, 2017.
Arts and Crafts style house (original building on the right). It belonged to Dr. Louis de Lotbinière-Harwood early in the 20th century (270 chemin des Chenaux). Surgeon at the Notre-Dame Hospital and Dean of the Medical Faculty of the Université de Montréal, he owned a large experimental farm in Les Chenaux, on land adjacent to his residence. © Bernard Bourbonnais – Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, 2017.
Arts and Crafts style house built for Arthur Loranger between 1910 and 1916 (274 chemin des Chenaux). © Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, CP 7779 CON.
274 chemin des Chenaux, today. © Bernard Bourbonnais – Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, 2017.
Inauguration of the Île-aux-Tourtes Bridge on July 18, 1965. Its official opening took place in the presence of Prime Minister Jean Lesage, of the Minister of Education Paul Gérin-Lajoie, and the Minister of Transportation and Communications Marie-Claire Kirkland-Casgrain. © Centre d’archives de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, Paul Gérin-Lajoie Fund.
Les Chenaux and the Vaudreuil Bay, seen from the Maison-Valois Park. © Bernard Bourbonnais – Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, 2017.

Interesting places nearby

The South-East Chenaux, as they are often referred to in notarial deeds, are located on Saint-Michel Street (Saint-Michel Village of Vaudreuil). Along the shores of Vaudreuil Bay (Ottawa River), chemin des Chenaux was originally home to a rural population whose main occupation was agriculture and livestock. At the end of the road are Pointe des Chenaux and Île aux Tourtes, which were part of the estate of the Chartier de Lotbinière and Harwood families for many years. At the beginning of the 20th century, the arrival of resorts, the subdivision of the land, and the construction of bourgeois residences and summer cottages gradually altered chemin des Chenaux’s appearance1. The construction of the Île-aux-Tourtes Bridge from 1962 to 1965 and 21st century residential developments, which now occupy most of this former farmland, accelerated the transformation of this sector of the City of Vaudreuil-Dorion.