The Redpath Mansion Mystery Annmarie Adams, Valerie Minnett, Mary Anne Poutanen and David Theodore
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Document generated on 09/30/2021 12:39 a.m. Material Culture Review "She must not stir out of a darkened room": The Redpath Mansion Mystery Annmarie Adams, Valerie Minnett, Mary Anne Poutanen and David Theodore Volume 72, 2010 Article abstract This paper accounts for private life in a prominent Gilded-Age Montreal URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/mcr72art01 bourgeois household as revealed in the sudden glare of publicity generated by a violent double shooting. We show how the tragic deaths of a mother and her son See table of contents re-enforced fragile class connections between propriety and wealth, family relations and family image. Drawing on diaries, photographs and newspaper accounts, as well as published novels and poetry, we argue that the family Publisher(s) deployed architecture, both the spaces of its own home and public monumental architecture in the city, to follow the dictates of a paradoxical imperative: National Museums of Canada intimacy had to be openly displayed, family private matters enacted in public rituals. The surviving family quickly began a series of manoeuvers designed to ISSN make secret the public event, and re-inscribe the deaths within class norms of decorum and conduct. The house itself, we claim, as a material object, figures in 1718-1259 (print) the complex interplay of inter-connected social relationships, behaviours and 1927-9264 (digital) narratives that produce bourgeois respectability. Explore this journal Cite this article Adams, A., Minnett, V., Poutanen, M. A. & Theodore, D. (2010). "She must not stir out of a darkened room":: The Redpath Mansion Mystery. Material Culture Review, 72, 12–24. All rights reserved © National Museums of Canada, 2010 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ Articles ANNMARIE ADAMS, VALERIE MINNETT, MARY ANNE POUTANEN, DAVID THEODORE “She must not stir out of a darkened room”1: The Redpath Mansion Mystery Résumé Abstract Cet article relate la vie privée dans une éminente This paper accounts for private life in a prominent maison bourgeoise de l’âge d’or de Montréal, telle Gilded-Age Montreal bourgeois household as qu’elle s’est révélée sous l’éclairage brutal de la revealed in the sudden glare of publicity generated publicité occasionnée par une violente fusillade. by a violent double shooting. We show how the Nous y montrons comment les morts tragiques tragic deaths of a mother and her son re-enforced d’une mère et de son fils ont renforcé de fragiles fragile class connections between propriety and connexions de classe entre la propriété et la wealth, family relations and family image. Drawing richesse, les relations familiales et l’image de la on diaries, photographs and newspaper accounts, famille. En se basant sur des journaux intimes, des as well as published novels and poetry, we argue photographies et des articles de journaux, ainsi que that the family deployed architecture, both the sur des romans et des poésies publiés, nous avançons spaces of its own home and public monumental l’idée que la famille exposait l’architecture, autant architecture in the city, to follow the dictates of a les espaces de son propre foyer que l’architecture paradoxical imperative: intimacy had to be openly monumentale publique de la ville, pour se plier aux displayed, family private matters enacted in public diktats d’un impératif paradoxal : l’intimité devait rituals. The surviving family quickly began a series être ouvertement montrée, les problèmes familiaux of manoeuvers designed to make secret the public privés joués dans des rituels publics. Les survivants event, and re-inscribe the deaths within class norms de la famille ont rapidement entamé une série de of decorum and conduct. The house itself, we manœuvres pour réduire au secret l’évènement claim, as a material object, figures in the complex public et pour réinscrire les personnes décédées interplay of inter-connected social relationships, au sein de normes de classe, de décorum et de behaviours and narratives that produce bourgeois conduite. Nous avançons que la maison elle-même, respectability. en tant qu’objet matériel, est présente dans le jeu complexe des relations sociales interconnectées, des comportements et des récits qui produisent la respectabilité bourgeoise. 12 Material Culture Review 72 (Fall 2010) / Revue de la culture matérielle 72 (automne 2010) The bourgeois urban home has had a pivotal a website we developed showcasing the Redpath role in the history of the modern household in tragedy for Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian North America, from the mid-18th century until History, like other mysteries featured in the award- the explosion of automobile-dependent suburbia winning project, is intended to teach students how after the Second World War. At once cynosures to interpret historical evidence using a real-life and enclaves, the mansions of the rich followed mystery.4 As researchers, our job was thus to collect the dictates of a paradoxical imperative: intimacy and present the primary-source texts and images had to be openly displayed, private family matters associated with the mystery, not to solve it. In this enacted in public rituals. The issue is not merely that paper we turn to analysis. Our challenge is still domestic concerns could be publicized—although not to solve the mystery—that is likely impossible as we shall see, that could happen in scandalous given the lack of reliable evidence—but rather to fashion—but rather that for the upper class, public- ponder how social class reinforces certain expected ity itself needed to be simultaneously courted and behaviours associated with bourgeois respectability. disavowed. Literary theorists Karen Chase and In particular, we are interested in the deportment Michael Levenson have suggested that anxiety of Amy Redpath, daughter of Ada and sister to about intimacy becoming spectacle increased dur- Clifford, whose post-murder behaviour controlled ing the latter 19th century when the rise of sensation access to the event and the information, invoking novels and journalism exposed private matters silence and publicly treating the deaths (funeral to the “furious public churning” (2000: 7) of the and burial) as if they were not a consequence of masses. Conversely, Pamela Gilbert argues that as violence. The Redpath mansion, we contend, was a mark of respectability, Victorian domestic privacy a powerful tool of Amy Redpath’s control. had to be displayed, open to inspection, “the visible This paper studies a family managing image representation of having nothing to hide” (2007: by manipulating material culture, including both 67), which suggests that private domesticity was private domestic architecture and public monu- compelled toward acts of exposure and display. mental architecture. As sites of bourgeois culture, At the turn of the 20th century, Canada’s personal diaries and private correspondence also wealthiest families lived in a neighbourhood begged editing; and, were either conserved or known as the Square Mile. A short carriage ride expunged to safeguard the family’s public face. up the mountain from central Montreal, this was The crux of the Redpath mystery lies in the ten- an intimate and closed community of its own sion between multiple compulsions, a veritable making.2 Life in the Square Mile was captured in profusion of competing discourses that explodes William Notman’s photographs, Stephen Leacock’s the simple notion of private anguish made public. satirical sketches, and the pages of local newspapers The episode shines a light on family loyalty and that celebrated Montreal’s “merchant princes” and tensions, public appearances and private suffering, “captains of industry.” But the families’ grandeur domestic space and public monuments. Architecture was also on display in their sumptuous homes, here has a privileged place that reveals the private mansions that helped present a carefully scripted, lives of the super wealthy and their servants in opulent and sanitized public portrait of their world.3 turn-of-the-century Montreal. The outward signs How, then, did class norms and architecture shape of rich households, architecture, decoration, their behaviour? What was the effect of unscripted, neighbourhood, for example, announced prosperity un-condoned action on the stability of bourgeois and also served as sites for the social affirmation domesticity and decorum? In particular, how did of privacy. The mansion of the industrialist, rather violence pressure the fragile connections between than a private domestic realm, is in this instance propriety and wealth, family relations and fam- simultaneously the site of public life—especially ily image? What role did domestic architecture for women and for the ill who do not participate in itself—the house as a material object—figure in civic or business affairs—of public performances, the interplay of inter-connected social relationships of familial and class identity. and behaviours? In this paper, we explore one particular The Mystery moment of violence: the sudden and unexplained June 13th, 1901, deaths by gunshot of Ada and Scant facts surround the Redpath mystery. Ada Clifford Redpath, two members of one of Canada’s Maria Mills Redpath, the fifty-nine-year-old wealthiest families. The Redpath Mansion Mystery, widow of industrialist John James Redpath, and her Material Culture Review 72 (Fall 2010) / Revue de la culture matérielle 72 (automne 2010) 13 twenty-four-year-old son Jocelyn Clifford Redpath Therefore, it is unlikely that we will ever know with were shot in Ada’s bedroom in the family’s mansion certainty “whodunit,” the trail of clues having long in Montreal’s affluent Square Mile district.