1915 – Bibliotheque Saint-Sulpice, Montreal, Quebec

In 1911 it was decided to hold an architectural competition, restricted to Canadian architects to design a replacement library which was won by Eugene Payette. The request was for a design providing for two distinct services each independent of the other, one devoted to a lecture hall and the other to the library. When opened, the entrance to the library is direct from the street and entirely separate from the lecture hall, in order to insure the readers the necessary quietness. When it opened in 1915, it was the largest French-language library in Montreal, located in the heart of the Latin Quarter.

“The main reading room which is reached by monumental staircase, has the same horizontal dimensions as the lecture hall below and measures 30 feet in height. At each end of the room there are two tiers of studies. Six studies are in alcoves on the main floor and six are formed by the division of the book cases irr the gallery, H^aking twelve studies in all. These are all exposed to view and are therefore of easy supervision.”
Construction, November 1917

From 1925 onwards, the Sulpicians, who administered the institution, suffered enormous financial losses on the stock market. By 1926, the library had ceased lending books and by August 1931 the library closed. The library was acquired in 1941 by the Quebec government and it reopened on January 16, 1944.

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