File

This file focusses on a proposal by Clarence A. Gagnon and architect Percy Roy Wilson to recreate a traditional French-Canadian village on Mount Royal as part of the celebrations marking Montreal's 300th anniversary in 1942. The file chronicles the project's objectives and phases of development along with the disagreements that arose between the two men.

It contains various notes, including comments about the project process and the problematic co-operation between the two initiators. Gagnon's notes address a variety of topics linked directly or indirectly with the design of the project. For example, there are notes about artisanry, the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg (Virginia), and Scandinavian open-air museums, which were a major source of inspiration for Gagnon. The notes also include reflections on logistical aspects of the project such as building the scale model, site grading, the construction, heating and lighting of buildings, and the administration of the future museum. In addition, there are descriptions of the planned buildings, all of which were inspired by different periods in the province’s history, including a wigwam, a fort and palisade, a church, a convent that would replicate the old St. Rose school, a city neighbourhood similar to old Ville-Marie, an English neighbourhood, a replica of the manor house of Belle-Rivière in St. Scholastique, a forge, sugar shack, trappers' hut and lumberjack camp. The project also included the construction of an outdoor theatre. Finally, the artist's notes reveal his hope that the site would host a variety of activities, including theatrical performances, craft fairs and old-fashioned celebrations of religious ceremonies (baptisms, weddings, midnight masses) and other festive events. Some of these notes are summarized in various sketches and documents produced to accompany the presentation of drawings and the scale model. These documents set forth the project description and objectives, explaining how the signatories, Clarence A. Gagnon and Percy Roy Wilson, fear that buildings typical of the French-Canadian landscape would eventually be lost over time.

Correspondence between Clarence A. Gagnon, Percy Roy Wilson and Léon Trépanier of the organizing committee for Montreal's 300th anniversary reveals the extent of the conflict between the two project initiators and the issues that arose regarding the completion of the scale model and its copyright. Press clippings document the presentation of the scale model at the 1941 Art and Craft Fair at Université de Montréal. Finally, several letters exchanged between the artist's widow Lucile Rodier-Gagnon and various correspondents chronicle her desire to have the scale model restored so it could be displayed at the Bibliothèque de la Ville de Montréal.