Château Dufresne

Château Dufresne Review

The adjoining homes of a pair of shoe manufacturers, Oscar and Marius Dufresne, provide a glimpse into the lives of Montréal's Francophone bourgeoisie in the early 20th century. The brothers built their beaux-arts palace in 1916 along the lines of the Petit-Trianon in Paris, and lived in it with their families—Oscar in the eastern half and Marius in the western half.

Worth searching out are the domestic scenes on the walls of the Petit Salon, where Oscar's wife entertained friends. Her brother-in-law relaxed with his friends in a smoking room decked out like a Turkish lounge. During the house's incarnation as a boys' school in the 1950s, the Eudist priests, who ran the place, covered the room's frieze of nymphs and satyrs with a modest curtain that their charges lifted at every opportunity.