Crystal Palace (Montreal)

Interior of the Crystal Palace in 1879

The Crystal Palace was an exhibition hall built for the Montreal Industrial Exhibition of 1860, originally located at the foot of Victoria Street (today's University Street) between St. Catherine and Cathcart Streets. It was used for temporary exhibitions, and in winter, housed an ice skating rink.

Construction

The building was designed by Montreal architect John William Hopkins. It had an iron framework, a barrel-vaulted nave and two galleries, each twenty feet wide, extending all the way around the interior. Its design was inspired by the Crystal Palace of London, England.

The Industrial Exhibition displayed agricultural and industrial products from the then British North America. The displays ranged from minerals, native woods, seeds and grains, preserved birds and fish, oils and foodstuffs to textiles and leather goods, furniture, clothing, machinery, iron work, tools and crafts. As part of the exhibition the Art Association of Montreal, the future Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, organized a display of Canadian art. The Prince of Wales visited Montreal that year and officially opened the exhibition.

Skating rink

The large open space of the exhibition hall was suitable for other uses. In later years, the hall would house a natural ice skating rink in the winter, and was one of the first indoor skating rinks in Canada. The skating rink was used by McGill University students to play ice hockey and the rink is the site of the first known photograph of ice hockey players in hockey uniforms, taken in 1881.

The rink also housed the Crystal Skating Club and Crystal Hockey Club, more commonly known as the Montreal Crystals which played men's senior-level amateur hockey in the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada.

Relocation and fire

In 1878 it was dismantled and moved to Fletcher's Field, now known as Jeanne-Mance Park. In July 1896, the Crystal Palace was destroyed by fire, like its namesake, London's original Crystal Palace.^[1][2] The original location later was home to the Palace Theatre, a movie house, and today contains an alley named Ruelle Palace.

See also

• The Crystal Palace, the original Crystal Palace in London

References

1. ^ Goldman, Norman. "Montréal's Eighth Wonder of the World". BootsnAll:The Ultimate Source for the Independent Traveller. http://www.bootsnall.com/namericatravelguides/montreal/feb02wonder.shtml. Retrieved 2008-02-19. .
2. ^ Gazette article, "Flames devoured one of the city's most glittering landmarks"

External links

See photographs at the McCord Museum website:

• exterior
• 1881 ice hockey photograph

Coordinates: 45°30′09″N 73°34′11″W / 45.5025°N 73.5698°W / 45.5025; -73.5698