The village of Senneville, located on the northwestern part of the island of Montreal, was created in 1895 at a time when the resort industry was developing in this sector of the island. The village quickly became a favorite of the Montreal upper class. At the time, several influential businessmen and politicians built sumptuous summer residences, accompanied by outbuildings in the same style, on large estates. This was notably the case for Richard Bladworth Angus, a prominent director of the Canadian Pacific Railway and a Montreal banker and financier, who built the Pine Bluff residence, including five outbuildings (the Peach House, the gatekeeper’s house, a small country house, a greenhouse and a barn), between 1895 and 1903. Almost the entire territory of this former municipality is of exceptional heritage interest, which led to its designation as a National Historic Site by the Government of Canada in 2002.

Répertoire d’architecture traditionnelle sur le territoire de la Communauté Urbaine de Montréal : Les résidences, 1987.

Designed by a small group of architects and landscape architects over a short period of time, the estates built in Senneville between 1860 and 1926 share a marked similarity in form and style. These buildings and their landscaping reflect the emergence of the Arts and Crafts movement in Canada.

The Pine Bluff residence and its outbuildings were designed by Maxwell Architects, talented professionals with a strong reputation in the city and in Canada, and even internationally. The castle-style villa is a stone building with turrets and displays a rather severe formality and cohesion, despite some Art Nouveau elements. Some of the estate’s outbuildings, however, have a more playful character, as is the case with the Peach House. The residence was demolished in 1950, but the outbuildings are still present and considered to be buildings of exceptional heritage value.

Peach House, 2021, Source: APMAQ

The new owner undertakes renovations and restoration of the main house and outbuildings located on the property.

In 2019, Héritage Montréal asked the administration of the Village of Senneville to reject these requests for demolition permits and offered its collaboration to put in place measures to avoid the degradation and loss of such constructions that contribute to the authentic identity of this territory.