Bois-de-la-Roche Chapel

This document was written by Guido Socher and is based on an email from Denise Palisaitis. Denise is a resident of Senneville. Guido Socher is a resident of Baie-D'Urfé. Both are members of the Society.

Many wealthy Montreal families owned large country estates in addition to beautiful homes in Montreal. Businessman Louis-Joseph Forget (1853-1911) and his wife, Maria Hermine Raymond (1859-1925) decided to build their contry estate in Senneville. Louis-Joseph Forget was the son of a farmer from Terrebonne and made his fortune as a stock broker in Montreal. He was named to the Senate in 1896. The Forgets had four daughters.

The Forgets bought a vast 191-hectare parcel of land in the small agricultural community of Senneville and in 1899 built a chateau which they named Bois-de-la-Roche.

The Bois-de-la-Roche was designed to be self contained and independent. Besides the main house, there was a chapel, stables, a barn-cowshed, a workshop, a root cellar, houses for employees, and even a school for their own and the estate children. Forget hired architect Edward Maxwell to design this estate. Maxwell took inspiration from the castles of the Loire when he designed the main house overlooking the Lake-of-Two-Mountains. Edward Maxwell's younger brother, William Sutherland Maxwell, joined the team, and he designed the chapel. The plans for the Bois-de-la-Roche project were drawn up in 1896, and the project was implemented from 1899 to 1903.

One of the lions at the Bois-de-la-Roche gates, Feb. 2023, source: Guido Socher

Louis-Joseph Forget combined farms 1,2,3,6 and 40 (lots framed in green), source: Atlas of Montreal from 1917, banq.qc.ca

Bois-de-la-Roche, 1901, source: the McCord Museum collection ii138782

Bois-de-la-Roche, March 5, 2023, source: Guido Socher

The_Gazette_Sat__May_14__1983_sen-forgets-mansion_sq.jpg

Senator Forget's downtown mansion on Sherbrooke Street, article by Edgar Andrew Collard, the Gazette, May 14, 1983, click to zoom-in and read

The_Montreal_Daily_Star_Wed__Oct_21__1925_mrs-forget_sq.jpg

Obituary for Madame Forget, the Montreal Star, Oct 21, 1925, click to zoom-in and read

Bois-de-la-Roche, aerial photo from 1958, area where chapel stood is marked in orange, a path for members of the public added in green, source: National Air Photo Library

The private chapel of Bois-de-la-Roche was located to the east of the chareau. A curved road led from the chateau to the chapel. People from Philips Avenue and the other houses along Senneville Road used a footpath that ran from Senneville Road between the barns towards the chapel.

Architectural drawing, 1902, Bois-de-la-Roche Chapel, source: https://cac.mcgill.ca/maxwells/

The chapel is described in the McGill archive as: "A charming one-story, 43ft by 23ft Shingle style, shingle-roofed stone and wood edifice, it is animated by the gracious eyebrow curvatures of the roof, the spire and an irregular apse, in contrast with the robust and severe aspect of the main residence. The chapel underwent some renovation in the mid-1980s by then owner Louis Johnson."

In 1940, the parents of Nick Farrell, who lives in Senneville, were married in the Maxwell-designed chapel. His parents were Raymonde Chevalier and Desmond Farrell. Desmond died in the war in 1944. Raymonde Chevalier was born on July 18, 1919, at Bois-de-la-Roche. Her grandfather was Senator Louis-Joseph Forget.

Marriage of Raymonde Chevalier and Desmond Farrell at the Bois-de-la-Roche Chapel in 1940, source: Denise Palisaitis

Chapel, source: Marianne Roy via Patrimoine Montreal, Marianne is a great-granddaughter of Senator Forget and Maria Raymond

In her interview in the early 1970s for her book, "Je me Souviens", Bridget (Biddy) Fialkowski asks Alice (Loulou) Skinner, Senator Forget's daughter, the following questions:

Do you remember when your father built the chapel?
- I couldn't tell you the real date. But I know that it has been built for quite a while. And it has been a godsend.

Did you have mass there every Sunday?
- Every Sunday we had mass and all the people belonging to us came to church. The coachman used to drive to Montreal to get the priest and bring him out here. Give him breakfast and a little talk and smoke his cigar after breakfast. And then, when it was time for them to go, the coachman took them back again

Interview with Mrs Loulou Skinner, née Forget: Senneville, Je me Souvien, Pg 26. Copies available at Senneville Town Hall.

Nick Farrell's cousin , Jonny Chevalier shares her memories:

"...The chapel was sold with the manor. .. I guess they tore down the garage as well since they appear to have built one in the laundry room. Torn down the ice house and meat lockers. Not to mention the large expanse where the laundry was hung to air and dry. It's paved over. The only thing kept in the kitchen was the wood stove. The garage was an attractive building. Room for 2 maybe 3 cars with an apartment above... For a chauffeur, if needed. I knew it only when used for storage. As we were not encouraged to play there or snoop.

The Bois-de-la-Roche was pretty self-contained. We had a schoolhouse. An ice house. A cold room to hang the meat, on the other side of the ice house.. 6 homes for the people that worked the farm. And a massive root cellar. Near the school. Plus the Chapel. I loved the area where the laundry was hung to dry. I believe L.J. Forget was the son of a farmer. So he knew what was needed to be self-sufficient. We had cows, pigs, horses, sheep (later). Chickens which we tried to teach to fly once. (my generation) that must have really messed up the laying the next day. And again later, Black Angus, after we gave up the milking cows.

No better place to grow up. "

Atmo Zakes, a local artist, captured the impending demise of the chapel in two of her paintings:

Bois-de-la-Roche Chapel, view from the outside, windows already missing, painting by Atmo Zakes

The Bois-de-la-Roche Chapel, view from the inside, painting by Atmo Zakes

The paintings are signed with the year 1997 and are based on photographs that Atmo took in 1992 (before the chapel was demolished).

One of the farm hands was given three of the windows from the chapel. Senneville resident Jim Katz purchased one of them at a garage sale when he overheard the seller proclaim its providence. The window has now been installed in the Bois-de-la-Roche farm manager's house:

One of the original windows of the chapel now installed in the farm manager's house

The chapel has been in steady decline since the 1980s. It had no windows and was nearly collapsing in 1992. The chapel was demolished in 1993.

References

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