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Because History repeats itself...
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Wilder Building
1435-59 Bleury Street
Architectural and Landscape Value
This neoclassical commercial building was constructed in 1918 according to plans by the British-trained Charles R. Tetley, who was for many years architectural consultant to the cities of Westmount and Outremont. Its 11-storey façade follows a classical, tripartite composition, with a base, a main body and a crown that consists here of a limestone colonnade. The façade of the first three floors was altered in the late 1950s to incorporate a small adjacent building, creating the antique-green marble curtain wall of the base we see today. The other floors have retained their original architecture, as have the functionalist sidewalls. Like many other commercial and industrial buildings erected at the time in this busy downtown area, the Wilder has a structure of reinforced concrete, the material of choice for buildings designed to house heavy machinery.
Standing directly opposite the remarkable Imperial cinema—which was built in 1916, designated a historical monument by the Quebec government in 2001 and restored in 2004—the Wilder is part of the urban landscape on Bleury Street, one of the few thoroughfares directly linking Old Montreal and Mount Royal, both of which are highly emblematic of the city. Its colonnaded crown forms a notable visual landmark in a view of Bleury below Sherbrooke Street.
Historic Value
The building bears the name of its original owner, Montreal furniture manufacturer and retailer H.A. Wilder, who had a succession of businesses that played a major role in the development of the city block now referred to as the Îlot Balmoral. The Wilder is one of a number of commercial and industrial buildings put up in the 1910s and 1920s around St. Patrick’s Church (Paper Hill area), near the intersection of St. Catherine and Bleury streets, and around St. James United Church (fur district). These structures are evidence of the changing face of downtown Montreal during and after the First World War, a time of some austerity, as is clearly illustrated by the Wilder’s architecture.
The Threat
Since it was acquired a few years ago by the government agency Société immobilière du Québec, the Wilder Building has been left vacant. As a result, it has suffered some deterioration, particularly on the interior. However, it has not lost its value as part of the Bleury Street ensemble, across from the Imperial cinema, nor as an important resource suitable for housing art studios and organizations within the Quartier des spectacles project. The lack of a firm commitment on the part of the Quebec government to preserve the building and convert it to cultural use, and its recent wrapping with safety nets up of the rear wall are contributing to the uncertainty surrounding the Wilder’s fate. The fear is that the building will be demolished to make room for proposed arts facilities, even though this contradicts the provincial government’s own principles of sustainable development.
Initiatives of Héritage Montréal
Héritage Montréal, believing that the Quebec government needs to adopt a consistent approach to heritage and sustainable development, has expressed its concern about the fate of the Wilder Building directly to the provincial Ministry of Culture. This department is coordinating the government’s involvement in creating the Quartier des spectacles and relocating cultural organizations to the area around Place des Arts. At public consultations held by Ville-Marie Borough on the Special plan (PPU) for this entertainment district, we have also presented briefs demanding that the Wilder be recognized as a heritage building worthy of protection, like others in this block, including the Blumenthal Building on Ste. Catherine, which is to become the Montreal’s Maison du Jazz.
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