The Jacques-Cartier Window in Basilique Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica, Montreal.
I am writing a play Milk and Water about Montreal in 1927, based on events in my grandfather's life. He was Director of Municipal Departments.
Well, my mother didn't bring me up to be religious, being a lapsed Catholic herself, but she did tell me something: that a window at Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica 'belonged to her father' Jules.
Now, this church is a huge tourist attraction and I've been there many times over the years, usually with friends or relations who are visiting.
I noticed the last time I went there that the three Jacques Cartier themed windows were surrounded by a glass enclosure, a special little room reserved for more private prayer.
It's too bad, not many of the many many thousands of tourists who come to Notre Dame Basilica will ever see this window close up. Or my grandfather' s name, on the bottom.
I doubt this is what was intended back in 1929 when my grandfather, Jules Crepeau, Director of the City from 1921 to 1930, co-sponsored this window, which would have been the first window as you entered.
There it is.... Jvles Crepeav...
This tryptic shows Jacques Cartier reading the gospel to natives.
I took these pictures despite the fact a sign indicated that cameras were not allowed in this little chapel. Too bad for them.. But I was discreet.
I know my grandfather was Church Warden of La Paroisse Notre Dame, because I have his obit from 1938. Jules Crepeau: "hardworking Civic Servant who worked his way up from message boy in the Health Department to become the first Director of Services for the City."
The obits say he was a dedicated, even brilliant, civil servant, who took some hard knocks in his career, but survived them. A little known man who had a huge impact on City Politics. Hmm.
I am writing a play, Milk and Water, which features Jules as one of the two main characters. Thomas Wells, my husband's grandfather is the other main character. The play takes place in 1927 (during US Prohibition) outside an after-hours night club.
My grandfather and my husband's grandfather are awaiting the possible arrival of David, the Prince of Wales, and some friends.
They are delivering fresh water. It is the year of yet another typhoid epidemic.
Still, Montreal in the 20's was a city at the height of its prestige and influence.
The summer of 1927 was a very busy one for my grandfather. He was porte-parole for the City Council and Executive Committee and there was an inquiry, started in April, completed end of August, into the Laurier Palace Motion Picture Theatre Fire.
Some people, most notably Hugh Graham of the Montreal Star and little known MNA Camillien Houde, were calling for another Inquiry into the recent Montreal Water and Power purchase, where some well-placed industrialists made millions in the space of a few months speculating on said purchase, and all at the expense of the taxpayer. (They feel, anyway.)
My grandfather would lose his job over the Montreal Water and Power business, despite not benefiting one iota. (From what I can figure.)
He had little, if anything, to do with the purchase. He didn't even attend the Council Meeting where the motion to buy passed, but, alas, that is politics. He would be forced to resign in 1930, although with a huge life pension, In 1937 he would be run over by a City Constable and die of complications a year later. No more pension! The 1938 obits don't mention the car-accident, which makes me somewhat suspicious.
While unemployed in the Depression Era, my grandfather, by all accounts a workaholic, frittered away his time in goofy business ventures and went bankrupt, despite his excellent pension. All goes to prove he was no savvy businessman, only a dedicated civil servant in a rather shady time and place.
He knew so much, having a 'prodigious memory' you'd think we would have become 'a consultant', but perhaps that is why they gave him a huge pension, to keep him silent.
I saw the contents of his City Hall file: I found no secret contract to keep him quiet. Maybe it's in Camillien Houde's file :)
Outside the Basilica, Boxing day. Beautiful day. A Monday, too, so there was free admittance to the place. Otherwise it's 10 dollars for adults.
Here's a picture taken in 1933 for a book on the Windows of Notre Dame Basilica, of the Jacques Cartier window, before they obscured it with an alter and hid it in a prayer room. It is Window No. 1. And my grandfather and two other church wardens sponsored it.
But I lit a candle for 2.50.
I just rushed in to to snap the pics as my husband circled in the car. We were wanting to make a 1.05 showing of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy at Atwater AMC.
Good movie, but we should have hung around Old Montreal instead. Sunny warmish day. And that movie is moody, shot in very bleak tones. No Mamma Mia, that's for sure, even if it has a Philby-esque Colin Firth character. Gary Oldman and Mark Strong are very good. Mark Strong played along side Colin Firth in Fever Pitch I recall. He played a goof. Not here.
One thing they have done, improved the parking in Old Montreal. There are signs everywhere showing where to park and how many parking spaces are available at each venue.
