John Ostell Bicycle Tour

 

Tibbs gathering his thoughts for the tour ahead while the group takes a break along the Lachine Canal

The Old Customs House

In the d'Youville stables' courtyard

     The Montreal Bicycle Club convened Sunday morning the 15th of August for a new-to-the-club undertaking.  H.S. Tibbs had done some research on a forgotten figure of the 19th century whose visible presence in Montreal is still at the beginning of the 21st century very evident.  He decided to lead a bicycle tour of the architecture of John Ostell who was active in a Montreal that was changing its vocation from the fur trade to an industrial base. In sequence the tour included the Old Customs House on Place Royal, the towers of Notre Dame on Place d'Armes, the Old Court House on Notre Dame street, St Jacques steeple on St Denis, McGill Arts Building, and Le Grand Seminaire.

Along St Paul

One of the oldest clocks in North America, 1701, Sulpician Seminary

The Old Notre Dame and the New Notre Dame before Ostell's completion of the towers

Notre Dame in our day

     With John Ostell's architecture as the backbone other side trips were made to view the Lachine Canal, the location of the first Parliament, the courtyard of d'Youville stables, the obelisk commemorating the founders of Ville Marie, and a hidden reflecting pool.  The weather was a reprieve to the heat wave of the week.  At noon the group was surrounded by sound.  First the bells of the Sulpician Seminary announced mid day, followed by the carillon bells and toller housed in the two towers of Notre Dame.  Lunch was enjoyed in the park between the three courthouses: the Old Court House, the Municipal Court Building of Ernest Cormier, and le Palais de Justice.

The Old Courthouse designed by Ostell

A welcomed lunch break

The outing taken by a very young photographer

St Jacques steeple surrounded by UQAM buildings

McGill Arts Building about 1875

Claimed site of earliest hockey game on McGill field below Arts' Building

     The turn-out for the tour was excellent.  Daisy Bell,  Kirkpatrick Macmillan, Louis Louis, A.T., and Tibbs were there from the MBC, along with Susan B. Anthony and Patrick, and their niece Jennifer with her family of Chet, Andrew, and Chris from Edmonton.  Tibbs hopes that it all made good architectural and historical sense.

Louis Louis in front of the Grand Seminaire

One of the two towers from the former Fort des Messieurs

At the end of the tour the MBC cycles away from the hidden reflecting pool

Tibbs' cheat sheets