Showing posts with label heritage buildings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heritage buildings. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Just Listed! Point St. Charles 4-Bedroom Cottage

Just listed in Point St. Charles, a lovely four-bedroom Victorian. 582 Bourgeoys St., a bit south of Wellington, was built in 1885 and has been lovingly cared for by an attentive owner. It's big enough for a growing family though the easy flow of the main floor would make it a wonderful home for that sociable couple who like to entertain. The asking price is $524,000.

The floors, door and window trim, as well as a grand staircase that wends to the second storey, are all stripped original pine. The hot water radiators (super comfortable heat)  are hidden beneath ornate 19th-century brass and marble mantles. The ceilings are high, the windows and doorways are large. In short, like broad-at-the-beam Queen Victoria herself, this house was built for comfort.

The main floor features a spacious living room that easily accommodates a huge sectional sofa, ideal of family movie nights or gatherings of friends.

The dining room, with a view onto the back garden, can easily seat 12, without crowding.
The kitchen retains its original tall wooden cabinets. There's room for a breakfast table and a nook for a desk, computer station or spot where the kids can do homework while a grown up gets started on dinner.

The main floor also has a powder room. A door at the back of the kitchen communicates with the main floor laundry and to a large treated wood deck and flagstone patio in the sunny, fenced back yard. There's a lane behind the house and the flagstone patio can double as parking in a pinch. Street parking is easy.
 Upstairs, you'll find four real bedrooms, including a massive master bedroom that measures nearly 13 feet by 13 feet. The second and third bedrooms are equally spacious.The smallest room is irregular in shape. It would make a perfect baby's room or den/office. All of the rooms have high ceilings and large windows. This is a quiet residential street with two and three-storey buildings. The light pours in all day long.

The main bathroom is divided into two rooms, a bath with shower in one room with a skylight and the WC in another little room of its own. The fixtures have been updated.

Point St. Charles has become one of the most sought-after neighborhoods in central Montreal in the last 20 years, in part because it is an easy 10 minute drive, 20 minute bike ride or 20 minute bus trip to the corner of Peel and Ste. Catherine. The housing stock is older, with lots of Victorian charm and more modest homes that have been gussied up with sleek contemporary style.

582 Bourgeoys (the anglo old-timers pronounce it Burgess)  offers the luxury of space, a rare fenced AND sunny garden, carefully preserved cachet and four real bedrooms.

The basement is unfinished, but is easily 7 feet high, with interesting potential, if the square footage above ground isn't enough room for you.

As with all houses, it has a few quirks. There's a new chimney liner but the brick chimney itself will need attention in the next few years. The windows are older and still work fine, but aren't as energy efficient as newer models. We all have our little imperfections, don't we?

Check out the complete listing at marylamey.com. Give me a call if you'd like to schedule a visit.






Friday, September 30, 2011

Montreal Heritage Home Tour - We're In!

Tomorrow kicks off Montreal's annual Architectural Heritage campaign celebrating  the best of the city's architecture.
The line of activities includes lectures, museum exhibits, as well as walking and bus tours exploring the city's many way cool neighborhoods. If I could, I'd do the walking tour of the Point tomorrow. Alas, it conflicts with my sprog's soccer practice and soccer practice wins.
The good news is that my listing at 276 May St., Verdun has been selected by the jury for this year's heritage tour. 276 May is one of the oldest homes in Verdun. We have deeds going back to 1891, when the land was sold to a Mr. May. He built his house in 1895.
Too bad that in the late 1950s some urban planning fool decided it would be a good idea to build the elevated approach to the Champlain Bridge about 100 feet from the building's front stoop. Here's the way I look at it, 276 May was  there 70 years before they built the bridge and it will be there 100 years after the bridge is scrapped. It was built to last.
It has also been lovingly restored and updated by my client. I don't feel the least bit self-conscious in proclaiming it one the prettiest houses in Verdun. Hell, it is one of the prettiest houses in Montreal.
We've printed enlarged images of some of the original deeds to show during the open house visit from 1-4 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 2 and again on Oct. 9. We're expecting a big turnout. Bring your cheque book in case you want to make an offer. At $339,000 it is verrrry nicely priced.
You can check out the other activities on between October 1 and Oct. 13 here,

Monday, August 8, 2011

A Page from Montreal History


Original handwritten deed dating  from 1891 for the sale of what is now 276 May St., Verdun.




Sometimes I get to brush up against history as I go about my business as a real estate agent.  The vendor of the property at 276 May St., Verdun has a stack of deeds going all the way back to when the land was originally subdivided into building lots back in 1891.

The spidery cursive has faded somewhat over the last 110 years, but it is still legible.  If you read all the deeds you get a sense of the evolution of a neighborhood, because each deed has the name and occupation of both the seller and the buyer.  This property passed through the hands of a career military man  to a mechanical superintendant and later from shopkeeper to a mechanic and from him to a labourer and then to a nurse's aide and so on and so on.

What I like about this particular deed is that many of the names, probably obscure in their time, now have deep roots and resonance in Verdun and neighboring Point St. Charles. I quote:


On This Sixth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and ninety one.  Before the undersigned Public Notary for the Province of Quebec, in the Dominion of Canada, residing in the City of Montreal Came and Appeared John Samuel Knox of Rozel, Ryde, Isle of Wight, England a Lieutenant-Colonel in Her Majesty's service, in his capacity as sole Executor of and universal legatee under the Last Will and Testament of the late Robert Knox of Rushbrooke, near Coleraine, in Ireland.
 Knox, Rozel, Ryde and Coleraine are all names of nearby streets in the Point.   Mr. Knox sold the land to an Edward May of New Brunswick.  In turn Mr. May gave his name to the street on which he built a string of stout and respectable stone and brick houses.  The house I'm selling is near the corner of May and Rushbrooke.

The things you can learn if you just stop to read the fine print.

By the way,  the original deed of sale specifies that the buyer cannot build a slaughterhouse, tannery or soapworks on the premises. I guess NIMBYism - Not In My Back Yard - is not a 20th cerntury invention.















Saturday, March 12, 2011

A Tale of Two Houses or What a Difference a Little Elbow Grease Can Mean

Just listed a spacious four-bedroom Victorian house on May St in Verdun this week. If that sounds oddly familiar, it is because my last post said essentially the same thing.

I now have two big ol' Victorians side-by-side on May, the last street in Verdun before you cross under the overpass into Point St. Charles.

The house at 276 May, listed at $299,000, is quite similar to its neighbor at 282. Built about the same time, on land that once belonged to a Mr. May. The big difference is that 276 is currently rented to a pack of university students who appear not to be earning advanced degrees in Pick Up Your Dirty Laundry or Take the Empties Back to the Dep.

OK, the place is a pig sty, but if you can see past the dirty clothes and unmade beds, this is a genteel house, as straight-backed and solid as your maiden aunt. It just needs a little love, Charlie Brown.

Below you will find a photo of the fireplace in the living room, currently inhabited by a hairy undergrad whose decorating style runs to crumpled Kleenex and pants that lie where they were dropped.  You might not notice the fireplace because his huge TV is sitting in front of it. Sigh.















The point is that this four-bedroom has the potential to be every bit as regal and inviting as its gussied up sister next door. Might you be the person with the passion and vision to bring out all its best features? It is a quality house at a bargain price.

The tenants, by the way, are leaving at the end of June.  Not a moment too soon.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Spectacular Verdun Victorian

The parlor with its tile-fronted fireplace and the stairs leading to the bedrooms.
Take a look at this spectacular four-bedroom Victorian just listed by Amy Barratt and me. The asking price is $359,000.

UPDATE: The price has been reduced to $349,000.

The vendor has deeds, many of them handwritten in spidery cursive, going back to the late 1880s. This is a rock-solid house with brick walls and a stone foundation. The four real bedrooms on the second floor feature high ceilings and generous proportions.

The reception rooms on the main floor include a large formal parlor with a tile-fronted fireplace, a family room which was probably once the formal dining room, a dinette and kitchen. The main floor also has a water closet (toilet) near the front door, as well as a full laundry room and an open office area near the back door. There's plenty of natural light and it is surprisingly quiet, thanks no doubt to the thick stone walls and the triple-glazed windows.

The house has original woodwork throughout, hot-water radiators, lovely stained glass windows added by the owner, as well as thoughtfully chosen light fixtures that accent the property's vintage character.

Family room and dinette. The laundry room is beyond the stained-glass doors.
The owner is a gifted interior designer and something of a bulldog when it comes to home maintenance and repairs. Over the course of her decade-long tenancy, she has undertaken at least one major improvement a year - furnace, roof, windows and doors, painting, etc. Her most recent investment was an interior french drain and waterproofing of the basement. The basement is more than 6 feet, high and dry. It could be finished, if someone was so inclined.

The property has a small fenced yard which could be also be used for parking, though street parking is not a problem in this part of Verdun. May Ave. is the last street off of Wellington St. before you cross under the viaduct into Point St. Charles. The Maxi grocery store is one short block away. LaSalle metro is about two blocks away. It is a quick 15-20 minutes door to door to get downtown via public transit.

If you look around Verdun, $359,000 is a typical asking price for a two- or three-bedroom post-war cottage. They are cute and cozy but nowhere near as spacious or as grand as this Victorian beauty. This property is priced at a market discount because traffic approaching the Champlain Bridge pass overhead not too far from the building's front. It isn't particularly noisy, but the location isn't going to be for everyone.

Exterior from the corner of May Ave. and Rushbrooke St.
If you are in the market for a lovingly restored Victorian that has both acres of elbow room and impeccable bones, this could be the house for you. Give me a call at (514) 978-6522 to book a visit. You won't regret it.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Habitat Classified Historic Monument


Habitat, the iconic apartment complex in Montreal's Cité du Havre, has been classified as a historic monument by Quebec's Ministry of Culture.
The move comes 42 years after the tumbled building block complex was erected as an prototype housing development for Expo 67.
Architect Moshe Safdie, who designed Habitat as an unheralded 25-year-old, was on hand for the announcement.
Safdie still owns two 10th-floor apartments in Habitat. He was on hand for the announcement in Montreal yesterday. According to La Presse, he used the opportunity to announce that he plans to donate his apartments to an unspecified "public institution" to allow the general public to visit and appreciate the development.
Habitat consists of one- and two-storey apartments created out of precast concrete boxes that were staggered in three pyramids.
The 355 cubes created 148 apartments, each with a private terrace built on the roof of the unit below. The idea was to marry the tranquility and greenery of the 'surbs with the high-density housing needs of the city.
Built as a prototype "affordable" housing community, Habitat is now one the city's most chic addresses. There are 14 units currently on the market, ranging in price from $479,000 for two bedrooms to $858,000 for a three-bedroom. Two more are for rent, starting at $4,500 a month for a two-bedroom.
The historic designation, which covers the exterior of the building, as well as Safdie's apartments, means that Habitat's management can now apply for government funding for needed restorations.
If you'd like to get a peek inside, the design school of UQAM is organizing a free guided visit of Habitat next Saturday. You can register here

UPDATE I signed up for the UQAM-organized tour of Habitat. Sadly, I just received an email from someone at the university explaining that the automated registration system that was supposed to cap registrations at 40 has messed up and reserved places for many, many, too many people. Sadly, I didn't make the cut. Rats.