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

 

OLD VAUDREUIL AND FORMER SAINT-MICHEL DE VAUDREUIL VILLAGE

Saint-Michel Church and former Convent of the Sisters of Saint Anne (left). © Bernard Bourbonnais – Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, 2017.
Neo-gothic cottage built in 1872 for Alain (Allen) de Lotbinière Harwood (428 Saint-Charles Avenue). © Bernard Bourbonnais – Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, 2017.
Former store of Jean-Baptiste Bourque dating before 1828, modified in 1850 and renovated before 1894 (on the right - 423 Saint-Charles Avenue), it is a typical Lower-Canada house (on the left - 425 Saint-Charles Avenue). © Bernard Bourbonnais – Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, 2017.
Urban flat-roofed house built between 1894 and 1913 for Cléophée Lalonde, widow of Hormidas Valois (429 Saint-Charles Avenue). © Bernard Bourbonnais – Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, 2017.
Urban flat-roofed house built between 1906 and 1913 for Évariste Sauvé, bailiff and registrar (24 Saint-Michel Street). © Bernard Bourbonnais – Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, 2017.
Plan of the Saint-Michel of Vaudreuil Village (1832) taken from Joseph Fortune’s plan drawn up in 1811-1817. The original outline of the Saint-Michel Village was drawn up by surveyor Pierre-Rémy Gagnier in 1783. © Centre d’archives de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, Henry de Lotbinière-Harwood Fund.
Chemin du Bois-Vert (Saint-Charles Avenue) around 1915. On the left, 429 and 425 Saint-Charles Avenue. © Centre d’archives de Vaudreuil-Soulanges.
Chemin du Bois-Vert around 1925 (facing the church and public square). © Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, 2027205.
Vaudreuil Quay around 1930 (Sainte-Marguerite Street). © Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, 2027205.
View of Old-Vaudreuil from Vaudreuil Bay around 1975. © Centre d’archives de Vaudreuil-Soulanges, Musée régional de Vaudreuil-Soulanges Fund, P-416.

Interesting places nearby

Although the seigneury of Vaudreuil was created in 1716, a small village center developed only 70 years later1. Its main developer was Michel Chartier de Lotbinière (1723-1798), owner of the seigneury since 1763. It is in his honour that the village and religious parish are called Saint-Michel. The sector is located at the junction of the seigneury's major roads: the "grand chemin de Vaudreuil" (Saint-Charles Avenue), the "chemin de la Petite Rivière Quinchien" (Jeannotte Street and Cité-des-Jeunes Boulevard) and the "chemin des Chenaux" (Saint-Michel Street and Chemin des Chenaux). After discussions between the seigneur, his tenants, and Bishop Jean-Olivier Briand (1715-1794) of Québec City, a six-acre plot of land was donated and a presbytery-chapel was built in 1772 (same site as the current presbytery). Newly appointed seigneur in September of 1771, Michel-Eustache-Gaspard-Alain Chartier de Lotbinière (1748-1822), requested surveyor Pierre-Rémy Gagnier (1760-1817) to draw the official plan of what would become the "Vaudreuil Bourg" in 1783.