English
The history of the Lachine Curling Club began when Canada was celebrating its first quarter century. Socially and economically those first twenty-five years of Confederation were filled with uncertainty and turmoil: IrishAmerican radicals were attacking rural Canadian villages; racial and religious intolerance worsened with the execution of Louis Riel; and Canadians suffered from the 19th century's worst economic depression. By the 1890s our young nation was starting to show signs of economic improvement. Industrial development along the Lachine Canal brought a degree of prosperity to the Montreal Region. A new railway bridge at Lachine was a key part of the new transcontinental railway from the Atlantic to the Pacific. New settlers significantly increased the population of the six provinces of Canada and these new Canadians provided the work force that permitted agriculture, mining and lumbering to become exciting focal points in the economic development of Canada.
The enterprising men who were establishing the industries and companies that would bring Canada into the 20th century needed ways to relax and many of them enjoyed skating with their families during the long Canadian winters. At Lachine, a popular spot for this winter recreation was the ice on a creek that flowed through the present site of the Lachine General Hospital. When community leaders recommended that a skating rink be constructed, Albert Dawes, owner of Dawes Brewery, offered them a piece of land east of 32nd Avenue so that the Lachine Skating Club could be founded in 1887. By 1891, a club house was built where skaters could warm their toes and a year later, evening skating became more popular when coal oil lamps were replaced with ten incandescent electric lights. The Club's afternoon teas became so popular that they were advertised at the Grand Trunk Railway station at the Lachine Wharf.
In 1892, some of the Club members, led by a Mr. Philips, recommended the addition of the Scottish sport of curling to the winter program and a resolution was passed "that a portion of the ice be added to the resources of the rink and kept in order for curling". Mr. Philips must have been an ardent curler because at the meeting of November 8th, 1893 he moved that the Lachine Skating Club buy eight pairs of curling stones. Eight days later he moved that "electric light fixtures be erected at once including posts for the lights over the curling space".
As the Lachine Skating Club was becoming a nucleus of curling on the West Island, the L.S.C. applied and was accepted into the Canadian Branch of the Royal Caledonia Curling Club. With this acceptance, the club changed its name to the Lachine Skating & Curling Club.
In August 1894, the executive of the Lachine Skating & Curling Club learned that the land where our club house now stands was for sale. Funds to buy the property were raised by the sale of $10 shares to residents and on December 29th, 1894, Dame Mary E. Bagg, wife of Samuel Shackell, sold our present site to the LS & CC. To guarantee access, a passage 20 feet wide from Union Avenue (presentday 42nd Ave.) was written into the deed for sale. In those days the entrance to the club house was adjacent to the backyards of houses facing present-day Broadway. At the Annual Meeting, at Harvey's Hotel on November 7th, 1894, it was moved and passed "that the assets of the Lachine Skating Club be transferred to the Lachine Skating & Curling Club, provided they assume the amount to be collected by Mr. A. Dawes on account of his taxes being raised" - a small price to pay for the birth of curling on the West Island.
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