LCG 1948 Quebec City, Postcards, Maps & The Gnawing Golden Dog

In 1948 LC Gagnon was using his CPR employee pass to take a few vacation days in Quebec City, staying at the Chateau Frontenac. 

He mailed a folder of postcards back home to his sister.  

I think the top postcard shows a CP steamship heading upriver.

After the first simple wooden palisades, the first phase of Quebec's stone wall defences was built between 1745 and 1759 by the French. They were handy, but not decisive after the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. 

Between 1820 and 1832, the British were encouraged by the War of 1812 to further reinforce the city's wall system. This was also the period during which the Citadel was completed.

Between 1871 and 1881, with the British army gone, local residents began to tear the walls down - presumably for their stone. Lord Durham, then the Governor General (with an official second residence within the Citadel), stepped in to save the almost 5 kilometres of walls. This gate was one of those rebuilt in an ornamental style during that preservation process. 

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Looking downriver, we see a couple of ferries, simmering at their docks.

from: Tourist Map of Quebec; undated, circa 1948; Quebec Municipal Tourist Bureau.

This map from the 1948 trip shows the whole wall system nicely. The wall articulates with the Citadel at the left. 

The St Louis Gate can be seen at the wall's '11 o'clock' position. The switch for the double-track section of streetcar track in the postcard matches the track arrangement shown on the map.

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Looking downriver from the Citadel, the buildings left and centre can be seen today on Google Maps.

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Le Chien d'Or

Last artifact from LC Gagnon's 1948 trip shown in this post.

As World War 2 had been keeping everyone busy, there was little time in the age of coal-burning to clean the stonework of the Quebec City main post office building. Doing his best with his box camera, LC Gagnon photographed the building to document the little figure of a dog over the main entrance. 

A house built in 1688 was demolished to make way for this new building. The actual stone from that house, bearing the image and inscription behind various urban legends, was preserved and included in the new structure.

On our current Google Maps view of the former main post office building, we can see they've restored the dog's goldness.

from: BANQ, postcard image.

from: Le Chien d'Or - A Legend of Old Quebec; William Kirby; 1877; Lovell. archive.org

I'm not going to link to the book as there are more Chien d'Or at archive.org than you can throw a Frisbee to.

William Kirby (1817-1906) was born in Yorkshire and ended up at Niagara-on-the Lake. He was variously a tanner, a school teacher and a newspaper editor. He saw the house mentioned above (built in 1688) 4 years before it was demolished to make way for the main post office building in 1869. He was fascinated by aspects of Quebec City during his visit there. He reportedly first read about the Chien d'Or semi-urban-legend in James MacPherson Lemoine's (1825-1912) Maple Leaves book of Canadian lore (first published: 1865).

Kirby's completed novel was shopped around unsuccessfully until it was finally published by Lovell in 1877. As the publisher failed to register the work, it immediately became public domain. 

The Villain of New France

Decades ago, in my English-language school in Montreal, in Grade 5 ... we learned that Francois Bigot (1703-1778) ... the Intendent of New France, beginning in 1748 ... was a corrupt colonial administrator who used his office to make large amounts of money at the expense of the colonists he was supposed to be serving. His preference would have been a comfortable administrative post in a French port but they sent him to Canada instead.

Bigot's negligence facilitated the loss of France's colonies in Canada. We all do well to remember that France's forsaking of these colonies in favour of keeping warmer ones was also a major factor in their change of ownership.

One of the Two Legends ( ... life is too short for both ... )

The virtuous merchant Nicolas Philibert, owner of the house, must have clashed with the corrupt Bigot - perhaps inspiring the installation of the Chien d'Or stone in 1736. In 1748, he was killed during a quarrel with a soldier over a billeting arrangement. Was it a quarrel or a conspiracy? What really happened to his killer? Did the latter finally meet his fate in India? Who saw to the killer's fate?

It would be great to know the true historical facts. However, this is a legend - a tale which people told, altered, and re-told ... before modern, labour-saving inventions like social media.

Writing a Novel

So our friend Kirby took two tragic urban legends of New France and wove them into the contemporary theme of Bigot's real-life corruption. Bigot ... and the words Kirby has him speak ... is actually the book's main character. 

CanLit or History?

The historical motivation for the real 1736 Chien d'Or inscription on the house built in 1688 has never been spelled out by anyone. 

Some have suggested there is evidence the origin of that image and that inscription is not necessarily that particular merchant's house in Quebec City - it may have been copied from another place.

The legends live on.

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This unused, undated postcard looks downriver, showing a wide variety of ship technologies in Quebec's harbour.

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from: BANQ, published 1905.

This postcard image from BANQ shows the docks of Quebec directly under the Durham and Dufferin terraces. Some will recognize the company name for its various river boat/shipping endeavours. 

You can also see 'the most photographed hotel in the world' before it earned that distinction.

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Unused postcard, published 1911.

I haven't checked, but my postcard (circa 1911) above may show an observation streetcar like Montreal's 'Golden Chariots' which has a shorter wheelbase to better navigate the tight turns and hills of Quebec City.

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I'm certain I found this excellent map at BANQ but I failed to bookmark it so I only have the original file name as a reference in case someone wants to find it. 

I did spend and hour or two trying to locate so I could provide a decent link - to no avail.

With two corners numbered, the map must have come from a large-format atlas. Based on the railways labelled, the map may be from circa 1880-1885. However, changing the printing plates for the sake of updating the ever-changing railway names may not have been a priority. 

The Quebec and Gosford was an economical 'wooden railway' with the rails made of maple. Its 26-mile route operated for 4 or 5 frustrating years, with heat, cold and moisture creating the understandable problems with its unique track structure. There is no evidence that the usual iron bands were nailed to the wooden rails to create the famous 'snake rails' which would spring up through car floors. 

The reason for this wooden railway's creation was ... wood. Apparently it was built to provide Quebec City with both lumber and cordwood for fuel - hauled in from the hinterland.

from: BANQ 174243_06.jpg (unable to find the URL again)

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LCG 1948 Quebec City, Coal-fired Ferry to Lévis, Older Maps

LC Gagnon worked for McDonald, Currie & Co beginning in August 1944. They were a chartered accountant firm, with offices in the Aldred Building on the east side of Place d'Armes in Montreal. In 1947 he changed jobs, moving to the CPR headquarters to work for the Auditor, Freight Receipts in Windsor Station. 

By October 1948, he had some vacation days accumulated and a CPR pass. Elsewhere on this blog, you can see his CPR trips around Nova Scotia in 1949 (including some CNR mileage), and out to Vancouver in 1950. 

Here are some photos from his first trip - to Quebec City. You can guess where he stayed ...

Back in those days, 'the value of the corporation's underlying real estate asset had not been surfaced by securitization via a Real Estate Investment Trust' and the hotel was run by ... 'employees' ... not pyramids of management contracts. 

There may also have been a discount for CPR employees. 

He arrived on Saturday and departed on Tuesday morning.

Considering all of these factors, his nightly rate in 2026 dollars is $88.11 .

A passerby has volunteered to take LC Gagnon's picture standing on the Dufferin Terrace using his trusty box camera. 

Like Montreal, Quebec City has a Place d'Armes. Maybe it was a franchise. You can see it above.

People always like to see the old cars and buses. The steeple at the left belongs to the Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. LC Gagnon might have attended on Sunday, as his grandfather was an Anglican minister. The Price Building is the tallest feature. 

The bus at the right by the Hotel Chateau Normandie is parked outside a 'good restaurant' - so perhaps check it out if you're in the neighbourhood this weekend. On the roof, over the word 'Hotel' is a frame that looks like a primitive radar. I fiddled with the photo a little and I can tell you that whatever this neon sign advertises ... it is 'World Famous' - the only words I could decipher for certain.

The box camera has a convex lens, so vertical structures at the photos' edges tend to bend toward each other. 

We're aboard the ferry and taking a trip to Lévis. They're putting a good fire in by the looks of the stack. Throughout this series of photos, a number of coal smokestacks can be seen. 

Maps of the Quebec and Lévis waterfronts are presented at the end of this post.

With a good head of steam, the Bienville is approaching the Quebec dock.

Many postcards of the Quebec Citadel were taken from this vantage point.

Notice the starboard sidelight and the voice tube beyond it on the wing bridge.

'The most photographed hotel in the world.'

... So far we've seen three photos of the Chateau Frontenac.

Today the docks are frequented by ever-larger cruise ships.

This image is not labelled, however, the shoreline buildings suggest that this might be Lévis.

I think there is an ferry officer supervising docking out on the wing bridge.

On the return trip, looking down-river, Quebec's industrial waterfront is seen.

Seen from the Citadel wall, a steamer travels down-river while one of the ferries begins another trip.

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Old Maps

I wanted to find some maps which showed the industrial heritage of the waterfronts of Quebec and Lévis. This first map from BANQ is a fire insurance map which keys to more detailed maps. 

There was nothing to see on the map above the key so it is excluded. Simply read the first map from left to right, then drop down to the next map and read from left to right. This takes you up-river on the Lévis side.

from: Levis,1894; Charles Goad fire insurance maps. BANQ
BANQ. https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/2244202?docsearchtext=Levis

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On the Quebec side ...

This is part of a streetcar map from circa 1900. I think the CPR roundhouse is pictured in the upper left corner. There is no numbered key to decode the various identities of the buildings. 

The Ross Rifle factory in the lower left corner is included for history buffs.

Moving east from the Citadel, we are are reminded that the city was shelled by the Americans in 1775 from the west and from Lévis. Major General Richard Montgomery (1738-1775) of the Continental Army (he was ex-British Army) was killed here during that invasion.

The Dufferin Terrace becomes the Durham Terrace at the east end. The Chateau Frontenac should appear on this map near the latter. 

This map does not do justice to the extensive railway network in this area at the time - particularly in the industrial harbour area. 

Quebec City, Electric Railway Map, circa 1900; BANQ.
BANQ  https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/4293393?docsearchtext=plan+Ville+de+Quebec

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