MICHAEL FISH AND BRIAN MERRETT ON KEY BUILDINGS AT RISK $10 Quebec VOL 9, NO. 4 F ALL 2015 HeritageNews Centaur of the World An Interview with Anglo Theatre Manager Charles Childs The Closing of a Historic Summer Camp Pripstein’s Laurentians Mishmar Autumn Leaves and Honoured Ancestors QAHN’s Heritage Photo and Heritage Essay Contests QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS Quebec CONTENTS eritageNews H Editor’s Desk 3 Losing the accent Rod MacLeod EDITOR RODERICK MACLEOD Letters 5 PRODUCTION DAN PINESE; MATTHEW FARFAN Photo finishers Jerry Stepman, Yoad Vared Free range summers Kevin Erskine-Henry PUBLISHER QAHN News 6 QUEBEC ANGLOPHONE Matthew Farfan HERITAGE NETWORK 400-257 QUEEN STREET Curator’s Handbook 9 SHERBROOKE, QUEBEC Be prepared! Emergency planning in your museum Heather Darch J1M 1K7 PHONE Opinion 10 1-877-964-0409 The LaFontaine house: the best we can do? Michael Fish (819) 564-9595 FAX Demolition by neglect? North Hatley’s Old Grist Mill Brian Merrett (819) 564-6872 CORRESPONDENCE The Place to Be 14 [email protected] St. Hubert Airport in the summer of 1930 Kevin Erskine-Henry WEBSITES QAHN.ORG 2015 QAHN Heritage Photo Contest Winners 16 QUEBECHERITAGEWEB.COM 100OBJECTS.QAHN.ORG 2015 QAHN Heritage Essay Contest Winners 18 PRESIDENT Walking Black Montreal 21 SIMON JACOBS Nelson Mandela Park Ashlie Bienvenu EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & Classic Montreal: Revisiting Anglo Institutions 22 WEBMAGAZINES EDITOR MATTHEW FARFAN Centaur Theatre Flora Juma OFFICE MANAGER Pripstein’s 26 KATHY TEASDALE The evolution of a Laurentian summer camp, 1939-2014 Joseph Graham Quebec Heritage News is published quarterly by QAHN with the support Review: Atlantic Salmon, a Cycle of Life 30 of the Department of Canadian Heritage Sea Winter Salmon by Mari Hill Harpur Sandra Stock and Quebec’s Ministère de la Culture et des Communications. QAHN is a non-profit and non-partisan organization whose mis- sion is to help advance knowledge of the history and culture of the English- speaking communities of Quebec. Annual Subscription Rates: Individual: $30.00; Institutional: $40.00; Family: $40.00; Student: $20.00. Canada Post Publication Mail Agreement Number 405610004. Cover photo: Overdale Avenue, Montreal, showing the side of the LaFontaine house. Photo: Rod MacLeod. ISSN 17707-2670 PRINTED IN CANADA 2 FALL 2015 EDITOR’S DESK Losing the accent by Rod MacLeod any immigrants strive to arbitrary decisions, applied consistently; tention between Canada’s two official lose their accents as a way you could certainly make arguments for languages is that saints have periods in of fitting more seamlessly alternatives. Where I am adamant, how- English and hyphens in French. I won’t into their host society. ever, is in removing the apostrophe speculate on the theological implications MQuebec Anglophones, by contrast, are from, say, “the 1970’s” when referring of this difference, but keeping it consis- starting to achieve this end by adopting to the decade. One should only insert the tent has its cultural advantages. accents. And not only accents, but hy- apostrophe when speaking about an as- Saint-Paul and St. Paul each had the phens as well. pect of that particular year: “1970’s same interesting experience on the road Quelle horreur! (As we say in Eng- greatest hits” for instance. And under my to Damascus (being the same person, of lish.) watch, you will never see the nineteenth course) but we recognize one or the oth- I spent a chunk of the summer edit- century referred to as “the 1800s” in the er depending on our own linguistic ing the English translation of a very long pages of the QHN. The 1800s are the background. The same is true for Jules French book about Quebec history, and I years between 1800 and 1809, just like César / Julius Caesar, Michel-Ange / went through a lot of pencils. Sure, most the 1960s are the years between 1960 Michelangelo, and countless other fa- of what I marked up had to do with Eng- and 1969. So there. mous figures whose names can be unin- lish grammar and sentence structure (or telligible if you hear them uttered in an- the lack of it), but what really blunted other language. As a species, we like to my lead was the repeated use of official put things on our own terms. French instead of what one ought to find But given that we’re in a bilingual in an English text – namely, English. country, what do we do about place And this from translators (there were names? A lot of towns in Quebec are several) for whom English was their na- named after saints – Saint-Eustache, tive language. Saint-Denis, Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! I’m sorry, it’s not “Rue Peel.” It’s (I’d definitely pray to that guy, were I so not “Mont-Royal.” And no, Montreal disposed) – but those hyphens seem aw- doesn’t have an accent. Not in English. fully fiddly in English. More to the I’ve been meaning for some time to point, a French spelling suggests a write about some of the policy decisions French pronunciation – which can be that affect the editing of the Quebec unproblematic (e.g. Saint-Eustache), Heritage News, largely because many of somewhat questionable (Saint-Denis, es- them hinge on the interesting cultural pecially for older Anglos who still say quirks involved in being part of a lin- “Saint Denny”), or clearly odd (Saint- guistic minority. Now, in the midst of OK, sometimes I go a little far. It Paul, Saint-Charles, or Saint-Vincent, all late-summer heat and the longest elec- has long been a dream of mine to elimi- of which involve readily recognizable tion in living memory, it seems as good nate the period after most common con- English names). Younger Anglophones a time as any to get into the subject. tractions in English (“Dr.” or “Mrs.”) on are perhaps more inclined to use the Attentive readers may well have no- the grounds that we don’t need it. Is “Mr French pronunciation than older types ticed a certain consistency in the use of MacLeod” at all confusing? (I mean the who remember when Rue Saint-Jacques terms in this magazine. To a large ex- usage, of course, not the individual, who was St. James Street and when Boule- tent, this comes out of my own experi- admittedly is often confusing.) Here, I vard Saint-Laurent was St. Lawrence ence with other publishers’ rules. I’ve take my cue from George Bernard Shaw, Main. “Saint-Laurent” and “Saint- gotten used to putting the period inside who stopped using apostrophes and in- Jacques” are nearly universal pronuncia- the quotation mark (They called me stead wrote “dont” and “wont” – unless tions nowadays, as are “Saint-Louis” “crazy.”) rather than outside (They there was obvious confusion (“he’ll” (you never hear “Saint Lewis” in Que- called me “crazy”.) and so I change the would have a different meaning without bec, though some people do opt for latter to the former when I encounter it the apostrophe). When I started as QHN “Saint Looie”) and “Saint-Hubert (even in articles. Similarly, I replace “20th editor, I set out to remove periods from the BBQ restaurant is no longer “hy- century” with “twentieth century.” (This titles (“Dr Smith has a PhD”) but was ooburt”). One does hear Saint-Henri ren- I do often, given how regularly the overruled by the board. And rightly so; dered as “Henry,” but the spelling never phrase occurs in historical writing, as we needed periods for the saints. changes. And Anglos can pronounce you can imagine.) These are essentially One of the sharper points of con- Saint-Hyacinthe “Santyasant” but it’s 3 Photo: www.montreal-ouest.ca. QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS hard to keep a straight face when they guilt, one could call it. To fit in with the gathering of Quebec Anglophones, I do. host society, the argument goes, we even heard one participant pronounce So when we spell places “St. Paul” should adopt official spellings and pro- the city of Sherbrooke “share-bwuque” – and “St. Charles” we are acknowledging nunciations even when we’re speaking although since that person was British, I that they have an English pronunciation English. I don’t buy this. My impression decided to give them a break. that comes naturally to English speakers. is that people who are concerned about I will also point out that there are But does that mean we want to see sen- the amount of English spoken in Quebec French place names that aren’t pro- tences with both English and French us- aren’t greatly relieved to hear Anglos nounced the Francophone way in Eng- ages, as in “Let’s meet on the corner of say “Henri” instead of “Henry” or to lish: above all, Paris. Doesn’t Montreal Saint-Laurent and St. Paul”? That is the know that we’re spelling Montreal with fit into this category of place name, way I’d say it, but it looks daft. QHN an accent. Mind you, these little bits of namely one with an established English policy is to write all saints with “St.” – sentence furniture can become major variation? To write Montreal with an ac- for consistency, even though it means items of dispute: many locals feel cent implies that one wishes it be pro- giving that abbreviation to more French- strongly that it is Point Claire and not nounced “mon-ray-ahl” even in English sounding place names (“St. Jacques” or Pointe-Claire, Point St. Charles (or just – which is akin to pronouncing Paris “St. Henri”). As often as not, of course, “The Point”) and not Pointe-Saint- “Paree.” To do either of these things we don’t even say “saint” in English but Charles, and the Town of Mount Royal sounds affected, recalling the way fancy rather a more linguistically ambiguous (or “The Town” or, more recently, people say “homage” (with the emphasis “sun” or even “say” (try it with “Saint- “TMR”) and not Ville-Mont-Royal – let on the last syllable and a slurred “g”) or Laurent”).