What was life life for young girls at the beginning of the twentieth century?  

Suzanne Hurtubise, sometimes referred to as Suzette in our archives, was the daughter of Flavien Hurtubise and Alice Rodier. Flavien being the only Hurtubise brother of his generation to have children, his daughters, Suzanne and Claire, were Dr. Leopold’s only nieces.

Suzanne appears in several photos taken by Dr. Leopold, now displayed in the Hurtubise House for guided tours. She may have lived in the Hurtubise house with her parents and sister for a time, or she could have often visited the house during summer holidays. For a long time, we only knew that the little girl in the photos was named Suzanne. The hypothesis was that she was Leopold’s niece, but we were unable to confirm the fact. However, a visitor informed us that in one of these photos, Suzanne is in a room which still exists in Villa Maria high school, which allowed us to dive deeper in our research.

The fact that Suzanne attended Villa Maria gave us a hint into her education. We found receipts dating from 1906 to 1913. This allows us to understand what kind of education she received. There were boarders and day-to-day students at the primary level, but all high school students were boarders. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Villa Maria had between 170 to 200 students. Amongst this number, many of them came from the United States and stayed at the school except for Christmas and summer holidays. 

We might guess that a private Catholic school for girls would concentrate solely on religious teachings and “feminine” learning such as sewing and art. Religion indeed played a big role in the school—the students took part in religious feasts, for example—but there was also a myriad of other classes : the girls studied subjects such as astronomy, history, and literature. Professors from Loyola University and Université de Laval were invited to enrich courses for the students. They also sometimes participated in outings —once, the students were invited to Loyola to assist in experiments on X-Rays. There was also time for extracurricular theatre activities. For example, the students performed Shakespeare plays at the schools. After leaving Villa Maria, the young girls probably had one of the most well-rounded educations available in Montreal at the time.¹

Even after our discovery about Suzanne’s schooling, we had no traces of her after her studies other than letters which are addressed to her in our archives. We did not even know whether the letters we found were for our Suzanne or a different one. However, thanks to deeper research in newspaper archives, we were able to find Suzanne’s wedding notice. In 1920, she marries an Englishman from London, C. Vivian Pullen. Her marriage allows us to understand that the Hurtubise, although French in origin, found themselves in the same social circles as Anglophones in Montreal.  

Suzanne was also very well-travelled. She would have visited Europe with her husband and later her sister for long periods of time. We also know that she would have visited or lived in New York thanks to letters addressed to a “Mrs. Pullen” at an address in the city.  

It seems that Suzanne and her husband C. Vivian Pullen never had children. We have not found his first name nor traces of his life in Montreal, but we have found Suzanne’s obituary. She passed away in Montreal in 1984. She was 88 years old, placing her birthdate in 1896. She would have seen the quick urbanization of Westmount with her own eyes, won the federal right to vote with all the women in Canada in 1919 during the first world war, and won the provincial right to vote in Québec in 1940 during the second world war. She lived through Expo 67 and would have seen the 1976 Montreal Olympics. In 1984, she leaves behind two nieces, daughters of Claire, and two cousins from her mother’s side of the family.

 Suzanne was buried in the Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery after a long and rich life. It is through the photos of Dr. Leopold displayed in the Hurtubise House that we can now remember her childhood and imagine her life.  

1. Helen Lanthier, “Monklands Then, Villa Maria Now.” Congrégation of Notre Dame, p. 38–40 
   “Annales de Villa Maria,” Archives de la Congrégation de Notre Dame. 
     ↩︎

By Julie Jacques

A twentieth century Beaux-Arts style porch on a house dating from 1739 can seem odd at first glance. At the Hurtubise House, this porch is not an anachronism but rather a hint. Its history can help us better understand the family who lived in this historic house for six generations.  

The porch, in any iteration, is not from the original construction of the Hurtubise House. When the structure was built, there were only stairs. The absence of a porch offered easy access to the basement which was probably used for storing harvests during the winter. The door which opens into the basement still exists today under the porch.  

It is clear that no historical house is without renovations. Each generation of Hurtubise left their own trace on the house and yard which belonged to them. During restorations carried out by the Canadian Heritage of Quebec (CHQ), five distinct layers of flooring were found. As mentioned, the house did not always have a porch, and we do not know exactly when one was added. It would have been added between the first and fourth generation, between 1739 and 1878, in addition to the work to extend the roof, which now covers and protects the porch from the sun and snow.  

However, the old style of the porch can help us reach a more exact estimate. This style, seen in photos from the beginning of the twentieth century, seemed to have a Victorian influence. The porch, and particularly its posts, bears resemblances with other houses around North American of Victorian and gothic rebirth styles.¹ Of course, the porch is very simple compared to others of real Victorian style; the Hurtubise House remains a French-Canadian farmhouse. 

Nevertheless, this helps us guess that the porch, or at least this quasi-Victorian iteration of it, was maybe built during the Victorian era between 1838 and 1870. (The Victorian era lasted until 1901, but the brick annex of the house was built in the 1870s. We believe that the porch likely predated the annex.) 

Although we cannot know exactly why the porch was added after the initial construction of the home, it is easy to picture the Hurtubise family enjoying precious summer days, long awaited after a long and harsh winter. They would be protected from the sun by the roof extension while they entertained guests or finished household chores—I think of my grandmother who recalls that her grandmother often sewed while sitting outside during the summer.  

Dr. Leopold Hurtubise, the last Hurtubise to have lived in this home, was responsible for the Beaux-Arts style porch, dating from 1911. From this, as well as from the photos he took with his bicycle camera over the course of his studies, we can guess that he was a man who appreciated the arts. As a doctor and amateur photographer, we see in his personality a marriage of arts and sciences. His photos show his appreciation for this porch and the exterior and nature which surrounded the Hurtubise House.  

Don’t hesitate to come and see the evolution of the porch as part of our temporary exhibition on the photos of Dr. Hurtubise, included in the visit to the Hurtubise House https://hcq-chq.org/the-hurtubise-house!

1. Thomas Durant Visser. “Victorian Porch Styles,” Porches of North America. University Press of New England, 2012.  ↩︎
2. Thomas Durant Visser. “Victorian Porch Styles,” Porches of North America. University Press of New England, 2012.  ↩︎

Written by Julie Jacques

How much would you pay for a melon?  

Despite the rising cost of our weekly groceries, it is difficult to imagine that in 1905, a type of melon grown in Montreal would sell for the equivalent of $35 per slice in Chicago, New York, and Boston hotels. Indeed, there was such a melon.¹ Sometimes nicknamed the Montreal muskmelon or the Montreal nutmeg, it was sold at the price of gold!  

When I hear this, I can think of only one thing: tasting that melon. Unfortunately for us, the fruit seems to have been lost to time. It would have been harvested in Montreal from the latter end of the 1800s and would have disappeared around the 1950s.² The fruit’s finnicky nature, the urbanization of Montreal’s Westmount neighbourhood, and the pull of easier-to-grow melons on farmers all seem to have led to the disappearance of the supposedly superior melon.  

According to farmer Ken Taylor, the Montreal melon required a delicate hand to prevent it from rotting or cracking. It needed attentive watering, ventilation, turning, and even gentle lifting from the ground with a flat rock or shingle.³ It also needed ample fertilization, which, according to Taylor, was easy to come by for the farms on the west of Mount Royal because they were surrounded by horse racing venues.⁴

The Décarie and Gorman family farms were known to be the primary source of the melon in the market. However, we think it may be possible that the last Hurtubise generation to have farmed the Hurtubise land could also have grown this fruit. In fact, Décarie and Hurtubise were neighbours! Isaïe Hurtubise farmed his land until the 1890s. During his time, the farm moved from growing cereal crops to focusing on vegetable and fruit crops for sale at markets. This could have included the famous melon, which is thought to have started its Montreal legacy around the 1870s, for some years before Isaïe’s death in 1893. ⁵

The fate suffered by the melon was not unique. Forty years earlier, the sixth generation of Hurtubise, Isaïe’s heirs, also faced the rise of the middle class and professional jobs, as well as the residential development of Westmount.  They were unable to continue the tradition of farming the Hurtubise land. Times had changed: what was left of the farmland was divided into 100 lots, sold to become the residential lots that we now know around Victoria Street, from Chemin de la Côte-St-Antoine to Mount Summit.⁶

The Décarie farm suffered the same fate when it began to be sold off in the 1920s.⁷ We can imagine that what land was left unsold needed to focus on crops which were less demanding than the Montreal melon, which would have contributed to its decline.  

Today, several farmers and academics work to find and germinate seeds from the Montreal melon because they believe crops are an important way to better understand a place’s cultural heritage.⁸ Likewise, we believe that to understand the history of the Hurtubise, it is important to situate oneself in the agricultural context of the time. Thus, at the Hurtubise House, we nurture raised vegetable gardens to call back to this tradition.⁹ We might even venture to say that our small urban garden is itself part of the cultural heritage of Montreal, Westmount, and the Hurtubise family.  

1. Daphné Cameron, “Le mystère du melon de Montréal enfin résolu?” La Presse, 8 June 2024.
   Tori Marlan, “This Melon Used to Sell for $24 a Slice. Should it Make a Comeback?” Buzzfeed News, 3 January 2016. ↩︎
2. Daphné Cameron, “Le mystère du melon de Montréal enfin résolu?” La Presse, 8 June 2024.
   Fabien Deglise, “Le melon de montréal ne fait plus le poids,” Le Devoir, 11 October 2006.
   Sophie Lachapelle, “Un melon mythique!” L’actualité.com, 22 April 2013.
   Clémence Ménard, “Vers un possible retour du melon de Montréal?” Ville en vert, 1 September 2021. ↩︎
3. Tori Marlan, “This Melon Used to Sell for $24 a Slice. Should it Make a Comeback?” Buzzfeed News, 3 January 2016. ↩︎
4. Tori Marlan, “This Melon Used to Sell for $24 a Slice. Should it Make a Comeback?” Buzzfeed News, 3 January 2016.
   “L’histoire du melon de montréal,“ Quelle histoire!, accédé le 17 juin 2024. ↩︎
5. Alan M. Stewart et Léon Robichaud. “Étude patrimoniale de la maison des Hurtubise : Rapport présenté au Ministère de la Culture et des Communications et à l’Institut d’histoire de l’Amérique française,” mai 2001.  ↩︎
6. Daphné Cameron, “Le mystère du melon de Montréal enfin résolu?” La Presse, 8 juin 2024. 
   Clémence Ménard, “Vers un possible retour du melon de Montréal?”  Ville en vert, 1 septembre 2021. ↩︎ ↩︎
7. Daphné Cameron, “Le mystère du melon de Montréal enfin résolu?”  La Presse, 8 juin 2024.  ↩︎
8. Daphné Cameron, “Le mystère du melon de Montréal enfin résolu?” La Presse, 8 juin 2024. 
   Clémence Ménard, “Vers un possible retour du melon de Montréal?”  Ville en vert, 1 septembre 2021.  ↩︎
9. « Le projet ‘agriculturel’ de la maison Hurtubise. »  hcq-chq.org
   https://hcq-chq.org/le-projet-agriculturel-de-la-maison-hurtubise/ ↩︎ ↩︎