Heritage Montreal, along with its Founding President Phyllis Lambert, is requesting the classification of the Major House (Fulford residence) under the Cultural Heritage Act

MONTREAL, Feb. 7, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - Tucked away on Guy Street, in the heart of the Peter-McGill neighbourhood, the charitable Fulford Residence is a home for women that dates back to 1855. Since 1890, it has occupied the former house of James Edward Major, built on land belonging to Étienne Guy, a notary and surveyor. It is located across from the former Grey Nuns Motherhouse and its chapel, both classified since the 1970s to ensure their protection from real estate projects and speculation.

Constant community and volunteer involvement over more than one-and-a-half centuries has enabled this home to serve the community and women in the city. It has also ensured the conservation as well as the integrity and exceptional authenticity of the Major house, built in 1859, in terms of its exterior and interior architecture and its landscaped gardens.

The Fulford Residence is unique in Montreal's heritage — with its 19th century architecture and ongoing social and caring vocation — and its physical survival alone is remarkable. The building stands witness to a bygone era in downtown's west end where everything around it has changed dramatically. The recent announcement that the residence is to be closed and its residents relocated in the context of the pandemic, combined with intense real estate pressures in the sector, has led to uncertainty about the fate of this incredibly valuable heritage property.

Given this situation, Heritage Montreal and Phyllis Lambert, its Founding President, have made a joint request to the Minister of Culture and Communications, Nathalie Roy, to classify the Major house under the Cultural Heritage Act.

Heritage Montreal is offering its full cooperation to authorities and those responsible for the Fulford Residence to help identify possible solutions to ensure that this heritage building has a future that reflects its authenticity and enables it to pursue its social vocation. This recognition, as well as the collaboration involved in these efforts—to which we are fully committed—will contribute greatly to its future.

About Heritage Montreal

Heritage Montreal works to protect and promote the architectural, historical, natural and cultural heritage of the Greater Montreal area. Acting at the core of a vast network of partners, Heritage Montreal, a private non-profit organization, acts through education, representation and consultation to promote, enhance and enrich the identity and specificities of the Greater Montreal area, the demographic and economic heart of Quebec and home to the largest collection of heritage assets in the country.

heritagemontreal.org
100, rue Sherbrooke Est, bureau 0500 
Montréal (Québec), H2X 1C3
T 514 286-2662

SOURCE Héritage Montréal

Press Contact: Anthony Plagnes Payá, Communications and Media Strategy Coordinator, [email protected], 438-501-2878