City marks 125th anniversary
Dorval celebrates a milestone birthday with the help of a book launch and an art exhibition — each tracing the city’s history through a distinctive artistic lens.
The Dorval Historical Society (DHS) spent the last two years sifting through thousands of old and new photographs and documents to create the glossy, 164-page coffee-table book Dorval Then and Now.
The book launch is at the Peter B. Yeomans Cultural Centre on March 29.
Capturing 125 years of history is no small task, so the 20-member DHS team decided to tell the tale by focusing in on the evolution of 80 buildings, some reaching back as far as the 1880s.
Dorval Historical Society president Michel Hébert, who is also Dorval city councillor for District 2, was a fountain of knowledge when asked to give examples of the stories behind the facades of Dorval buildings included in the bilingual book.
The Bellissimo restaurant located at 484 Lakeshore Dr., for example, is the site of the city’s first school, dating back to the late 1800s. The original building was demolished and the current building constructed in 1920. It was home to four grocery stores until a restaurant moved in 20 years ago.
St. Mark’s Church at 865 Lakeshore Dr. was built on farmland and partially financed by former Dorval mayor and Molson Bank board member Harry Markland Molson who died in the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.
“The wealthy people who lived in (downtown Montreal’s) Golden Square Mile would come to Dorval for the summer,” Hébert said. “There were two golf clubs and three race tracks to keep them entertained.”
The well-heeled also frequented the Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club and the Forest & Stream Club.
“The Grand Trunk Railway built a station in Dorval so that wealthy vacationers could travel here in comfort,” Hébert said. “There were a lot of hotels on the lakeshore back then.”
Hébert’s Dorval roots run deep. He was born and raised in Dorval and his grandfather and father were the coal and wood dealers in the region from the 1930s through to the 1960s. They made their deliveries in a horse and buggy.
Hébert said a big draw in Dorval a few decades back was the shopping centre, off Dorval Ave. at the junction of Highway 20.
“It was built by Sam Steinberg in 1954,” Hébert said. “It was the first of its type in Canada.”
Steinberg founded Ivanhoe Corp. – now Ivanhoé Cambridge – in 1953.
Capturing the essence of Dorval on canvas is the goal of the art exhibition, City of Dorval Treasures, at the cultural centre until April 16.
Renderings of local landscapes are divided into two sections, turning the spotlight on the art work acquired by the city over the years in one section and focusing on recent art by Dorval artists in another.
Over the years, Dorval’s art collection has flourished, with a predominance of paintings depicting Dorval landscapes and daily life in the city.
With that in mind, the new generation of local artists were invited to enter a contest on the theme of Dorval landscapes, organized by the Dorval Artists’ Association. The winner will be announced during the official launch of the exhibition on March 23.
The winner’s work will be added to Dorval’s art collection and the image will be reproduced on bookmarks which will be available, for free, at the Dorval Library.
The Peter B. Yeomans Cultural Centre is located at 1401 Lakeshore Dr. The City of Dorval Treasures official launch is March 23 at 7 p.m. The Dorval Then and Now book launch is March 29 at 7 p.m. Books cost $35. For more information about the book launch, call 514-633-4170 or visit www.societehistoriquededorval.ca.
The Grand Trunk Railway built a station in Dorval so that wealthy vacationers could travel here in comfort.