Stewart Hall (originally ''Mull Hall'') is a

cultural centre A cultural center or cultural centre is an organization, building or complex that promotes culture and arts. Cultural centers can be neighborhood community arts organizations, private facilities, government-sponsored, or activist-run. Asia * Ce ...

and art gallery in

Pointe-Claire Pointe-Claire (, ) is a Quebec local municipality within the Urban agglomeration of Montreal on the Island of Montreal in Canada. It is entirely developed, and land use includes residential, light manufacturing, and retail. As of the 2021 c ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

. Originally built as a private mansion, today Stewart Hall houses a cultural centre, a reading and reference room, an art gallery, and a community centre.

History

Mull Hall was constructed for Charles Wesley MacLean in 1915–16 to plans by architect

Robert Findlay Robert Findlay (1859–1951) was a Scottish-born Canadian architect. He was born in Inverness, Scotland, and moved to Montreal in 1885. He won the competition to expand the first Sun Life Building and was the architect for that project, which ...

. The house was named for the Isle of Mull, which was home of the Clan MacLean in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland ...

. The

Fathers of Sainte-Croix A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...

acquired the mansion in 1940, and continued to operate the farm on the surrounding land. In 1958, the Fathers of Sainte-Croix sold the land to a real estate developer who had planned to build a high-rise apartment building on the site. The land was soon after purchased by Walter and May Stewart, who donated it to the city of Pointe-Claire in exchange for $1. The city of Pointe-Claire turned the building into a cultural centre, which was inaugurated on February 16, 1963.

Architecture

The exterior walls of the house are made from locally sourced

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms wh ...

blocks. The building's design is symmetrical, and consists of thirty five rooms. A large

veranda A veranda or verandah is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front and sides of the structure. Although the form ''vera ...

overlooks

Lake Saint Louis Lake Saint-Louis is a lake in southwestern Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. The Saint Lawrence Seaway passes through the lake. Lake St. Louis is a widening of the St. Lawrence River in the Hochelaga Arch ...

References

External links

Stewart Hall Cultural Centre
{{authority control Buildings and structures in Pointe-Claire Art museums and galleries in Quebec 1963 establishments in Canada Art museums and galleries established in 1963 Buildings and structures completed in 1916 Houses in Montreal Robert Findlay buildings Limestone buildings