Category: Permanent Residents

Hugh Charles Hillrich (1889-1952)

Hugh Charles Hillrich had his summer resident built in 1923 at 10 Saint-Louis Avenue before moving in it on a permanent basis in 1925. A Charter member of the Beaconsfield Citizens’ Association, he has been president of the Quebec Drug Salesmen’s Association. He was elected Mayor of Beaconsfield from 1936 to 1940. During the Great Depression, he gave free medicine and cod liver oil to the needy families. He was active in the conversion of a residence into the Manresa Retreat House.

Category: Permanent Residents

James Barrie (1895-1964)

A CNR employee, James Barrie built a summer residence in 1923 (293 Westcroft), but it was soon winterized. His daughters still lived in the family home in 2011.

Category: Permanent Residents

A decorator, James Roker came to Canada in 1906 and to Beaurepaire in 1920, till 1925 as a summer resident and then became a year-round one.  He and Kennedy Crone were instrumental in getting the Chaffee’s house, corner of Pine and Fieldfare, to be used as a school before the Protestant school was built in 1924 at the corner of Church and Fieldfare.  Mrs Winnifred Roker-Downs said her father convinced his wife to try staying for a winter. If she liked it, they would become permanent residents and they did, but she had conditions: such as the building of a school …

Category: Permanent Residents

John Baxter (1890-1962)

Born in Scotland, he became an architect and a general contractor. He arrived to Montreal in 1912 and to Beaconsfield in 1923. He was a soldier in the First World War. In 1924 he started his own company. He built the Beaurepaire Protestant school in 1924, the Beaconsfield Golf Club clubhouse in 1929 and the Christ Church (Anglican) in 1931. He lived on Kirkwood Avenue.

Category: Permanent Residents

Joseph G. Gregory (1914-1985)

Joseph G. Gregory married in Liverpool and came to live in Montreal on St. Alexandre Street.  He was a summer resident of Beaconsfield during the 1930-1940s and then became permanent resident.  He worked as a lithographer and also as a Montreal City Mountain policeman.

Category: Permanent Residents

Judge Lindsay Place (1911-1976)

Lindsay Place worked for Alcan Aluminum Ltd. He was a member of the Board of Protestant School Commissioners of Pointe Claire and Beaconsfield. In 1956, he was appointed Municipal Judge of Beaconsfield.

Category: Permanent Residents

A journalist with “The Standard”, “Lakeshore Review” and many other newspapers, Kenneth Crone was a warden at Christ Church from 1925 to 1927, one of the founders of the old Beaconsfield Citizens’ Association in 1923, a spokesman for St. Louis residents requesting sidewalks, road, street lights and other improvements when everything had to be put in place for permanent residents. He was also Commissioner on the Protestant School Board.

Category: Permanent Residents

Léo Dandurand (1889 Bourbonnais, Illinois - 1964 Montréal)

Léo Dandurand, a successful athlete himself, was the flamboyant co-owner of the Montréal Canadiens Hockey Club (1921-1935) and of the downtown Drury’s Restaurant and English Inn (1938-1959). He was a very active participant in Montreal sporting circles: hockey, football, baseball, boxing/wrestling and horse racing.

Léo Dandurand and his wife Emilia Laplante bought, in 1940, 6 acres of Farm 18 from the estate of Joseph Léonide Perron, first Mayor of Beaconsfield. The portion of the property included the waterfront house of the mayor which was badly damaged by fire a few weeks after the transaction. Dandurand had a near replica of J. L. Perron’s original design built on the original site. In 1953, Dandurand sold the property to the Sisters of The Good Shepherd, who established a Youth Protection School for young English Catholic girls, named Marian Hall. The property was sold to the city of Beaconsfield in 1965. The building served as City Hall until 1968 when it became Centennial Hall.

_____

Category: Permanent Residents

P. Roy Wilson (1900-2001)

Born in England in 1900, graduated in architecture at McGill University in 1924, P. Roy Wilson came to be an internationally renowned architect, author, artist, illustrator and teacher.
He became Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1928 and was elected, in 1938, Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy in Architecture and in 1964, Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. As a renowned watercolour artist, his works number more than 1300 primarily featuring buildings. Some of these works can be found in Montreal’s Chateau Dufresne, McGill University and in the private collections of many admirers. Oil was his media of choice in the paintings of ships.
His artistic talents extended to the writing of several published books including; "The Beautiful Old Houses of Quebec", “Design and Delight” (autobiography), “Dorval 1667-1975 : The Story of Dorval in Pictures and Words”, “Rhymes and Rhetoric” and several magazine articles. His self proclaimed titles included “Lecturer, Teacher, Historian, Etcher, Model-maker, Calligrapher, Modeller, Carver, Poet, Librettist, Singer, Director, Sailor, Ski-instructor, Boat-builder, Inventor, Marksman and Traveler.”
P. Roy Wilson designed his beloved house and studio at 1 Woodland Avenue in 1951 (demolished 2010) and the nearby Beaurepaire Christ Church in 1962. Through his career as an internationally renowned architect, he put his mark on about 200 buildings. His illustrations of specific old buildings were used for logos by several historical societies and are still being used by The Canadian Heritage of Quebec and by our own society, Société historique Beaurepaire-Beaconsfield Historical Society. He retired from the architecture practice in 1968 but continued with many interests. His influence was wide reaching. In 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth made a Canadian Tour. For that occasion, Roy Wilson made a hand painted drawing of a pictorial map of Historic Montreal and sent it to the Royal Train and for which he received official acknowledgment. In 1989, 50 years after this first visit, he sent another copy to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, during her second trip to Canada and within a week, received a most gracious acknowledgement and thanks. A copy of this map can be found in his book “Design and Delight” published in 1989.
He was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977. In celebration of Mr. Wilson’s 101^st birthday, the McGill School of Architecture hosted an exhibition of his watercolours.
P. Roy Wilson has made innumerable contributions to the city of Beaconsfield and to the Société historique Beaurepaire-Beaconsfield Historical Society as a past director, and we thank him.

Category: Permanent Residents

Philip Kieran (    -1959)

Born in Dublin, Philip Kieran came to Canada in 1907. He was associated with his father in the Kieran Engraving Ltd. He became known locally and internationally for his paintings.