Grenadier Guards - "J.R. Gaunt Montreal".

['Ticker' Riley]

As well as all the excellent Montreal trade directories on the website of Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec there are many interesting maps and plans. One in particular, a Fire Insurance Plan of the City of Montreal by Charles Edward Goad, from 1918, has helped me to confidently identify the location of the two addresses that J. R. Gaunt & Son (Canada) Limited occupied on Beaver Hall Hill. Below is a low-resolution section of Sheet No. 21 of this volume of plans, showing part of Beaver Hall Hill, whilst the full size version may be accessed via the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec site here.

As noted in my previous posting, J. R. Gaunt (Canada) Ltd’s first premises on Beaver Hall Hill was Nos 63-65, which would have been the third property down on the right-hand side, and which I have marked with a ‘1’. The plan actually gives these numbers adjacent to this, but they have been crossed out and next to them are written Nos 315-321, which fits with the change in street numbering recorded between the trade directories of 1915-16 and 1916-17 and that I’ve already mentioned.

Gaunt’s second location on the Hill, after moving to 358 St Catherine West for a time, again something I talked about in my last posting, seems to have been right next door to their first one, and so was the fourth down on the right-hand side, which I have marked with a ‘2’. The new numbers given here are 307-313, with the original number that is struck through being No. 61. By the time Gaunt moved here, of course, the second re-numbering had taken place, and so their address was No. 1127.

In case anyone is wondering, I believe that the blue colour is used to denote a stone construction (or sometimes concrete) and the pinky-red is apparently brick. Both the properties in question are also marked with an “S”, and although I can’t be sure exactly what this means I did wonder if it stood for ‘shop’ or ‘store’? Anyway, the site of this whole group of buildings on the right-hand side of Beaver Hall Hill/Côte du Beaver Hall is now occupied by a large tower block, numbered 500 Boulevard René-Lévesque Ouest. This is the street that runs across the top of the Hill, and which was formerly called Dorchester West (part of this name appearing at the top of the above section).

There is still a little more I can offer derived from the trade directories, which I’ll try and get together over the next few days, though which I might not get ’round to putting up until the weekend. So until then ...

Best regards

Martin