 2009 |
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 18 November 2009 Montreal's Missing Heritage Found in Calgary  Lord Mount Stephen's statue stands at Canadian Pacific's CPR Pavilion in Calgary yesterday. 
Calgary Alberta - He's deemed one of Canada's greatest financial
geniuses of all time, a builder of the mighty railroad and the first Canadian to earn a peerage.
Yet even nation builders can't resist a corporate transfer. A bronze statue of Lord Mount Stephen, first president of Canadian Pacific Railway, had gazed down on Montrealers and other travellers from his perch at the city's Windsor Station for nearly a century. But Canadian Pacific quietly relocated him to corporate offices in Calgary this summer, prompting criticism from both Lord Stephen's descendants and Montreal heritage activists. It hasn't quite reached the level of the Elgin Marbles, the marble statues Britain swiped from the Parthenon, though heritage groups are suggesting that a piece of Montreal's history has been unceremoniously taken. "This is not a potted plant in a corner office. It's a very symbolic part of Windsor Station and our city," said Dinu Bumbaru of Heritage Montreal, who was invested as a member of the Order of Canada this month. "Lord Mount Stephen didn't create CP in Calgary, he didn't greet passengers in Calgary in an office. He did it in our city." He not only became founding president of the railroad, but left legacies like the Royal Victoria Hospital and his sumptuous mansion on downtown Drummond Street, now the Mount Stephen Club. His likeness was a fixture at the landmark Windsor Station for decades, overseeing the ebb and flow of passengers and inspiring the memories of writers like Mavis Gallant, who recalled she'd once been told to wait at the foot of the statue if she was ever lost. The statue was shifted around inside the building, and when Windsor Station was put up for sale in 2007, Lord Stephen was unceremoniously taken down and crated up. Ever since, reporters questioned his whereabouts and Heritage Montreal pressed CP for word that he, or at least a second copy of the statue, would remain in Montreal. This week, a Montreal Gazette blog revealed that CP had quietly transferred Lord Stephen to Calgary, where the company had relocated its headquarters in 1996. Some cynically quipped that even statuary was leaving the province. The statue's new location in Calgary, known as the CPR Pavilion, is used for corporate events and has no passing traffic, an official said yesterday. The area is closed to the public most of the time and visitors must ring a doorbell to enter during working hours, the official said. Part of the year, the area is open for those heading to the departure point for luxury Royal Canadian Pacific rail service. The fate of the statue saddened descendants of Lord Stephen, many of whom still live in Quebec, they include the Molson family. Stephen Reford, a descendant who was named after Lord Stephen, said the statue belongs in Quebec, where the family has deep roots. "Corporate headquarters move for all kinds of reasons but history doesn't necessarily move along with it," said Mr. Reford, who was born in Quebec but lives in Toronto. "Frankly, most people in Calgary wouldn't know who he is, or be interested, while some people in Montreal are." The issue boils down to who owns heritage: Corporations or the citizenry? CP says it owns the statue and can do as it pleases. "In CP's opinion, he is part of the corporate history so he's ours to move around or do what we want with," Michel Spenard, a company spokesman in Montreal, said of the Lord Stephen statue. The Quebec Culture Ministry classified Windsor Station as a historic monument this year. Several artifacts inside the building are protected, but the Lord Stephen statue, which a company official said had been moved out of the building in 2007, is not one of them. Ingrid Peritz.  |
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