The Pointe-à-Callière museum is reopening and will be ready to welcome visitors on March 28. It was the fatal fire in the William-Watson-Ogilvie building in Old Montreal on March 16 that forced the neighboring museum to cease operations. The rooms housing the Fort de Ville-Marie and the exhibition Here was founded Montreal, in tribute to Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve and Jeanne Mance, as well as the historic collector sewer remain closed for the time being.
The Pointe-à-Callière museum is located in the heart of the perimeter closed following the fire. “Firefighters used the roof of our building during the fire. And then to lower the baskets to do the excavations, and for the investigation. »
We had to do a huge cleaning, wash everything, because the smoke entered the spur of the first building
“They are still on our roof there, while we talk to each other,” explained to the Duty Communications Director Katia Bouchard. In fact, the basement of the burned-down William-Watson-Ogilvie building is adjacent to the Pointe-à-Callière museum, separated by an adjacent wall.
The fire did not affect the museum or its conservation rooms. Pointe-à-Callière assured, in a press release, that the remains of the Fort de Ville-Marie archaeological site, the archives, the media library, the collection of rare books, as well as the archaeological artifacts found in the Fort of Ville-Marie were protected.
“You had to see the firefighters,” says Mme Bouchard. As they struggled to put out the fire, there was a detachment at the museum setting up tarps to protect the rare book collection and artifacts. However, firefighters and police are still working near the historic collector sewer, which makes opening this wing to the public impossible for the moment.
And “we had to do a huge cleaning, wash everything, continues Mme Bouchard, because the smoke entered the spur of the first building”. The museum underlines in the process its luck to have had a brand new building around the remains. “What we have just seen, through this misfortune, is proof that having adequate museums helps to protect heritage. »
The burnt down, heritage building had been built in 1890, Place d’Youville, to house the offices of the Ogilvie flour mill. It was designed by architects Hutchison and Steele.