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Caserne No. 30 – Fire Station 30 – Mile-End Neighbourhood, Montréal
As a contrast to last week’s rural post from the countryside east of Québec City, this week I thought I’d take you into the heart of one of my favourite neighbourhoods in Montréal: Mile-End.
Sitting on the northwestern corner of St-Laurent Blvd and Ave. Laurier W. in the Plateau Mont-Royal borough, Fire Station #30 has been one of the most noticeable structures in Montréal’s Mile-End neighbourhood for a little over a century.
Station 30 was designed in 1898 by architect and city engineer Joseph-Émile Vanier. Meant to be the new municipal building and City Hall for the then burgeoning town of St-Louis-du-Mile-End, construction began in 1904 and the building was completed in December of 1905.
The Chateau-style building originally consisted of a city council room, a fire station, a police station, municipal court, dormitory, stables, and an attic; talk about multi-tasking! It would serve these functions for barely five years, when the town of Saint-Louis was annexed by the city of Montréal in 1910.
Major renovations were done to the building in the early 1950’s and today this old municipal building is home to the city’s Fire Station 30.
I have to say that the little kid in me found that watching big shiny bright red fire trucks going in or coming out of those lovely arched doors was a sight to behold 😁
Since 1980, part of the building also houses Montréal’s Auxiliary Firefighter’s Museum – Musée des pompiers auxiliaires de Montréal.
The museum is only open on Sundays and unfortunately I have not had a chance to visit it yet. Based on the info on their website the museum provides an interesting peek into the history of the Montréal fire service and contains an extensive collection of old photographs and fire-fighting equipment.
If I do make it back when it’s open I will be sure to do a follow-up post, but for now let’s finish my usual once-around the building to see what we can find.
An interesting ghost door for starters.
A street-art mural in honour of one of Mile-Ends favourite sons, novelist Mordecai Richler.
Here are some of the side doors.
A turret and tower.
And of course, the main door money shots
As always, thanks so much for dropping by 🙂
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This building is wonderful all around. I love how the green roof and yellow doors flow so nicely with the color of the stonework. Thanks for sharing this beauty!!
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What a pretty home for a fireman brigade! I hope you never see the ones in Slovenia. All the doors are great and I really love the ghost door.
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This is a super deluxe Chateau inspired fire station, Norm!
This has such elegant and beautiful features and details! Thank you for sharing several sides and close ups.
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Wow, that is the prettiest fire station I’ve ever seen, great find Norm.
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My sentiments exactly Jean – thank you 🙂
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That is a stunning, magnificent building! Castle much?!? I had to show all that to my family. We are all “OOH!” I just love the old alarm and the letter box on the yellow doors 🙂 Great doors! Really outdid yourself here!
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Thank you Joey. So glad you liked it. I’ve driven past this place dozens of times over the years. I guess it was high time I stopped to take a closer look 🙂
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I guess they don’t have to go far to rescue the damsel in the tower. lol very cool fire station and nice doors.
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It was fun to explore 🙂
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Here are my minimalist doors, Norm: https://judydykstrabrown.com/2018/05/25/bar-the-doors-may-24-2018/
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oh oh.. Sorry. Got a bit mixed up. Have now added to the link spot! I lost track of what was intended here. What I meant to do above was comment on your ghost door. Intriguing. Don’t you wonder about the story behind it?
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No worries. Thanks Judy 🙂
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Beautiful building! I love the idea of a fire station in a chateau style building. And the yellow doors go very well with it. The pop of red here and there is also very appealing.
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Thanks Angela. It was a fun discovery 🙂
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Beautiful building. So much nicer than NZ’s utilitarian (but probably very user-friendly) fire stations. 🙂
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Thanks Sue. It’s so much nicer than the vast majority of the ones we have here too 😉
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Now, that’s a Firehouse!! 🙂 Love those yellow arched doors.
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Thanks Deborah. It was a fun place to explore 🙂
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That’s one hell of a fire station…
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Thanks John. I’m pretty sure that was my first thought when I originally discovered what this building was used for too 😀
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All the finishing touches around the doors make it fini! And love that the color of the stone make the yellow of the doors warm and inviting (which it would be harsh or cheap combined with other colors). Thanks for making the trip for this post:)
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Thank you 🙂
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Love, love, love it. What a majestic building. The red bench, fire hydrant, and firebox really pop against the stone building – fitting for a firehouse.
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Thanks. It was fun to explore it in a little more detail 🙂
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Wonderful Gothic Pompiers!
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Oui monsieur 🙂
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Fabulous building! I love that it is still being used as a firehouse. And, I love the term “ghost door.” I have a few of those in my collection… and now they have a name!
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I’ve posted a few ghost doors in the past. In fact some of my favourite shots are of ghost doors.
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Fabulous building and doors, Norm. My grandson wants to be a firefighter. He’s only 5, but I’m sure he’d love to go inside!
I have some temporary, fancy plywood doors today. They’re not my favourite, but they’re the ones they use, just for a week at the May Fair.
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I’m hoping to get back there and see the inside, especially the museum before the end of summer. I’ll take plenty of pics for your grandson 😉
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Love, love, love, love, love!!!!
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One of the parts of town well worth exploring 🙂
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*making a note in my What to See in Montreal list *
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What a fabulous building? You gotta wonder who decided a chateau style was the most appropriate architecture for a fire department. Impressive, yes, but seems more suited to pouring boiling oil onto besiegers than putting out fires. Thanks for the walk-around pictures. The details are everything.
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Thanks Marian. I think this was a time when the prevailing thought about public buildings was about making a grand statement and not so much about function or cost.
It’s certainly the fanciest firehouse I’ve ever seen.
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I wonder what happened if, on the way to a hearing at the municipal court, you lost your way and arrived at the stables instead!
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I’m sure there’d be someone to direct you to the correct place, or maybe they’d just lock you up with the horses 😉
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Great looking building, some fine doors there too.
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Thank you!
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That is certainly a very interesting building. We live in the neighbourood so we walk by it very often and I am always amazed by it. Nice pics. (Suzanne)
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Thanks Suzanne. That is a fun part of town to call home. I hope you guys take advantage of the fresh bagels. Do you have a favourite between Fairmount & St. V? Personally I can’t taste a difference – they’re both delicious. Especially if they’re still warm 😀
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It is indeed (we live in Outremont). We do buy bagels very often and I also can’t tell the difference between the two bagel places…though I think the Fairmount one is maybe a tad sweeter. They are only good when they are warm. Bagels don’t age well.
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A fairy castle. Charming.
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It is indeed. Thanks Sherry.
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Fantastic way to re-purpose a charming old building.That second set of yellow doors is absolute perfection. Love how you framed the final photo.
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Thank you Suzanne 🙂
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This must certainly be the most beautiful and sophisticated fire hall in the world! Just gorgeous.
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Thanks Leah. I’m sure there must be some old ones somewhere in Europe that would come close, but this one is unique.
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What a cool building. Those large arched doors are amazing. But the turret… oh my! That kind of architectural style is long gone.
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Thanks Ally. You’re right,especially for most public buildings, we now generally build for function rather than for style.
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When you listed all the building’s original functions, I actually scrolled back up to the photo to try to figure out how all of that could’ve fitted in one building. And stables too? I do like that ghost door. I wonder which department it used to lead to…
It’s always a “pause and watch” moment when fire trucks drive out of their stations 😉
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There seems to be 3 floors to the place, plus I’m sure the municipal offices and courthouse wouldn’t need to be that big for what was a relatively small town.
Yes fire trucks do have a way of fascinating young and old alike 🙂
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Talk about fancy!!
I’m going “fancy” this week too but in a more monetary nature.
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Another one of those cases where I drove past this place and admired dozens of times over the years but only now got around to stopping to explore.
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Oh yes1 This is a building that has it all … a turret, arched doorways, and those interesting bits and baubles decorating the arches to make them even more stunning. I spent an hour driving around the suburban wasteland north of Toronto yesterday, so I appreciate this architectural work of art even more.
As an unrelated aside … have you ever noticed you really like some words just because they feel nice to say? Pompier is one of those words for me 🙂
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Thanks Joanne. There are a few gorgeous churches I want to check into in this neighbourhood as well – true architectural treasures. If you’re looking for a hip trendy part of Montreal to explore, this would be it.
We’ll check your pronunciation on “Pompier” next time we see you 😉
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hahahaha! I better start practicing!! 😉
I can’t believe it will be in only a little more than 3 weeks! Where has the time gone?! I am so looking forward to this!
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Wow! It doesn’t get much better than that, Norm. Stone, history, big arched doors and fire trucks – I could spend the day watching the activity. It’s such a magnificent building, I’m glad it’s able to serve the city in some regard. I can’t imagine all that planning and work only to be annexed within five years. I hope you make it back to the museum at some point.
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Thanks Dan. There’s a few gorgeous old churches in that area that I want to check out for future posts. If I do it’s quite possible that I go back and visit the museum at the same time, probably before the end of summer.
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I sent the link to a firefighter friend of mine. He was certainly impressed.
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Beautiful building !
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I agree, thanks 🙂
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Finally I get to know the story behind this gorgeous building! Thanks!
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The more I stop to pay attention to some of these grand old places the more I discover. There’s a wonderful big old church diagonally across the park from this firehouse that I have to go back and check out as well.
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I think the little red ‘break glass open door’ is my favourite 🙂
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I agree. I was disappointed there was no actual glass though.
By the way it seems my comments on your blog are getting caught by the spam filter. You may need to go into the comments section of your Admin dashboard release me from spam prison
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Oh no, sorry Norm – consider yourself un-spammed! 🙂
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Norm, this is one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen. It’s breathtaking, and the fact that it still serves as a fire station is wonderful. Thank you for sharing because I can guarantee you no one will see a fire station that remotely resembles that architecture here in the states. Love the mural too. 🙂
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Thanks Judy. I’ve admired this building for decades and can’t believe it took me this long to actually stop and investigate further. I do intend to get back to their museum one of these days.
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I love buildings like this of this period. Nice mural too.
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Thanks – it’s one of the jewels in that neighbourhood.
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