The journey back in time starts with brass plates on the wooden doors saying ‘push’ unilingually in English, a ‘no-no’ in contemporary Québec. To the right is another moment from a bygone era: a cenotaph for staff lost in the Second World War. Opposite is a hallway painted a lush forest green. Save for hypermodern control displays, the rest of the elevator bank seems no different than it was a century ago, with clock-face styled floor indicators, and William Morris inspired floral decorations crowning the elevator doorways.
Stepping off the elevator you’re pulled in the direction of the antique by way of chevroned flooring, wood paneled display cases, and built-in telephone booths. What was once the restaurant’s foyer has been transformed into its own restaurant. You wouldn’t know the circular bar sitting in the middle of the room is new because it seems to fit in well with its surroundings, including the semi-circular alcoves, and rounded tables and chairs. Through the doors into the main hall completes the trip back in time: an art deco masterpiece. This is Le 9e, the ninth floor of Montréal’s old Eaton’s department store, and it’s remarkable it would ever see the light of day again.
Reviving the ninth floor has been talked about for a quarter century. For comparison’s sake, Montréalers have been discussing the return of professional baseball for less time. And while Eaton’s may not mean more than “defunct department store” in the rest of Canada, in Québec, Eaton’s was a symbol of Anglo-Canadian dominance. The “grosses madames de chez Eaton” (translated as the big fat Eaton’s ladies) were always more mythological than real but represented Eaton’s alleged propensity to hire unilingual Anglophone store clerks in Canada’s Francophone metropolis. When former Parti Québécois cabinet minister Claude Charron chose to commit political suicide in the wake of the first referendum, he symbolically stole a tweed jacket from Eaton’s.
When Eaton’s went bankrupt in 1999, the Québec government’s cultural ministry was quick to respond to requests from Montréal heritage activists to preserve the ninth floor. It was an unusual preservation effort: the building’s façade was left largely untouched, most of the interior was gutted, the iconic Eaton’s signs were altered for the new anchor tenant (and has since been changed back), and the ninth floor restaurant was preserved in its entirety, including the furniture, fixtures, and furnishings.
“I believe it was the first, and still the only interior that’s classified without the building being classified. So that’s quite a unique [heritage] status,” said Georges Drolet, partner with EVOQ Architects and project lead on the restoration, in an interview. The firm has a major presence across Canada, and is well-known for restoration and rehabilitation efforts, including the expansive West Block of Parliament project in Ottawa.
Shortly after Eaton’s bankruptcy, their flagship Montréal store was bought by Ivanhoé-Cambridge, the real estate development arm of Québec’s institutional investor. They were ready to transform the building for new purposes even though they weren’t sure what to do with the ninth floor. “In the meantime, they wanted to have some guidance in terms of what to do, to at least protect the heritage space while they were looking for a new use,” said Drolet. “We prepared the first conservation strategy for the space in 2001.”
The ninth-floor dining room was originally opened in 1931, the last addition to a multi-year expansion project undertaken by the Eaton’s company when they first established themselves in Montréal. “When it opened, it was something completely new and unusual,” said Drolet. “It was exotic, because it was done by French architect Jacques Carlu. Art Deco at the time was fairly recent.”
The restaurant’s design was inspired by the dining hall of the passenger liner L’Île-de-France. “Lady Eaton was a traveler on that ship, so she probably used that idea as something to put on the table for the architect to work with,” said Drolet. “At the time, it was something really exotic, unusual, luxurious and modern.”
Lady Flora Eaton had been tasked with giving the Eaton’s department stores their own unique styles, and she collaborated with Carlu in the design of the restaurant while Carlu’s wife Natasha painted the exotic murals at either end of the immense dining hall.
Even though the space was left untouched since Eaton’s closed in 1999, the restoration work was not completely straightforward. Colour photos of the space when it closed were deceptive. “Art Deco became quite fashionable during the postmodern period of 1980s architecture,” said Drolet, noting that the restaurant had last been touched up with a 1980s interpretation of Art Deco colour schemes. “We had to do an analysis to see the paint layers to understand what it looked like, as we only had black and white photos of the original.” Drolet says the ninth floor’s current colour palette is as close as possible to the original.
Drolet says some of the most challenging aspects of the project will likely go unnoticed by visitors. Building codes have changed in the last quarter-century, and older building systems had to be replaced. “The biggest challenge is what’s not visible in the end,” said Drolet. “It’s everything that’s around the space that allows it to be used today.”
Drolet also noted the necessity of finding the right tradespeople, such as those familiar working with Monel, a nickel-copper alloy widely used in Art Deco buildings and interiors, but which isn’t used in the building trades today. Similarly, the marble used throughout the building is no longer quarried. “Those are the conservation challenges,” said Drolet, “That’s the other side of this project.”
However challenging the restoration of this interior may have been, it certainly doesn’t look it. The space shines more like a room that’s been recently cleaned than fully restored. The great hall will, at least for the time being, be used for conferences, events, and performance. Whether it will once again regularly serve diners remains to be seen, though there’s certainly a lot of interest and considerable cultural cachet.
Technical sheet
Architecture: EVOQ Architecture
Structure: NCK
Mechanical and electrical: BPA
Industrial Health and Safety: Xenobios
Lighting: Gabriel Mackinnon Lighting Design
Acoustics: M J M Conseillers en Acoustique Inc.
Conservator, furniture: Fabienne Torro
Conservator, marble: Trevor Gillingwater
Conservator, metals: Edmund Bowkett
General contractor: Avicor
Ornamental plasters: Groupe Surmesure
Restoration, marble: Carrelage Casco Inc.
Restoration, frescoes, basins, metals, doors: DL Heritage Inc.
Decorative finishes: Marie-France Kech
Photographer: Maxime Brouillet
As featured in the July-August 2024 issue of Canadian Interiors magazine.
