Château Dufresne Museum, Montreal, Canada

In 2021, since we couldn’t do much travelling due to the on-going Covid pandemic, we decided to do some exploring locally!

We started the morning by visiting Château Ramezay in Old Montreal, and then headed to the Château Dufresne Museum afterwards.

Museum Info

• Address: 2929, Av. Jeanne-d’Arc, Montreal, QC
• Hours: Wednesday - Sunday 09:30 - 17:00
• Time needed to visit: 1 - 2 hours
• Official website: chateaudufresne.com

Getting There

We drove to the museum, although getting there was a bit of a pain due to typical Montreal road construction detours! That said, hopefully when you visit it’s not so bad. Also, there’s free parking at the museum which I didn’t realize at the time 😑, but note that parking is limited.

If you come by the Montreal metro, you can take the Green line to Pie-IX station. From there it’s only about a 5 minute walk up to the museum.

Brief History

Château Dufresne was built from 1915 to 1918, and was the home of the Dufresne brothers, Oscar and Marius. The brothers were wealthy businessmen who made their fortune in the clothing industry. The mansion was originally divided into two separate households, one for each brother.

The Dufresne brothers imported the materials used to build the mansion from all over the world. The furnishings and tapestries were imported from France, the marble was imported from Italy, and the beautiful wood was imported from Japan.

Some Key Dates

• 1914: Oscar decides to have a house built. His brother Marius, and Jules Renard draw up the plans for the house
• 1915: Construction of Château Dufresne begins
• 1936: Oscar Dufresne dies of a heart attack
• 1945: Marius Dufresne dies accidentally while surveying construction work in Sainte-Rose
• 1948: the Dufresne family estate sells the property to the Pères de Saint-Croix
• 1957: The City of Montreal becomes the new owner of the estate
• 1965 to 1968: Château Dufresne houses the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art
• 1976: Château Dufresne is classified as a historic monument
• 1979 to 1997: Château Dufresne houses the Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts
• 1999: Château Dufresne becomes the Château Dufresne Museum

The Museum

When you arrive at the museum, you actually need to enter from the back of the building, at the basement level. There’s a small parking lot at the back, and you’ll find the entrance to the museum close to that.

The mansion was designed in French neoclassical style, with beaux-arts inspiration, and was modelled on the Petit Trianon in Versailles, France. It was one of the 1st residences in Montreal to use reinforced concrete, and was also one of the 1st residences in Montreal to have central heating and a central vacuum. It even has an elevator!

Oscar and his wife occupied the Edwardian-inspired eastern wing of the mansion, while Marius and his wife occupied the western wing. The two brothers shared the central part of the mansion, which included the dining room, the grand salon, and the main entrance.

Once again, due to Covid restrictions being in place, some rules were in place. One of which was limiting the amount of people in the museum at any given time, but also restricting the number of people in each room. This meant that we had to wait if a room was occupied by other visitors, and vice versa. Thankfully it wasn’t too busy when we visited, so we only had to wait a bit for a few of the rooms.

In the morning, we visited the Château Ramezay Museum, which showcases a history of Montreal. The Château Dufresne Museum, on the other hand, showcases the history of the Dufresne brothers, and the history of the mansion itself. So when you walk around the museum, you are seeing it as it was when the Dufresne brothers lived there, which is pretty cool!

One of the first areas we entered after buying our tickets, was a beautiful hallway with wood panelling, after which there was a gorgeous staircase leading up to the next floor.

So we headed upstairs, where the hallway, walls, ceilings, floors, and staircases were even more elaborate and stunning!

When you purchase your ticket(s), you’re given a digital tablet that has a layout/map of the house, with info on each section, and also a suggested route to take. I believe the following room was one of the 1st rooms on that suggested route, which we had to wait a bit to enter due to some other visitors being in the room.

The room was really elegantly decorated, with so much beautiful detail in the panelling. You can really see the French and Italian influence in this room, the murals of which were done by the artist Guido Nincheri.

The following room, which I believe was Oscar’s Drawing room, although it’s also listed online as the “Grand Salon”, has more stunning wood panelling and exposed faux-beam ceilings. The fireplace also isn’t too shabby!

We tried to stick to the route as much as possible (this was another one of the covid rules), but the people before us were really taking their time in some of the rooms, so we said screw it and decided to skip those and come back to them later instead of standing around and waiting.

So we again headed up another floor.

There wasn’t too much that was accessible on this floor, but there was small room with a bed and some furniture, and an ensuite bathroom. It was hard to get decent shots though due to the accessible area being limited to preserve the room, so I haven’t included the pics here.

So we headed back down to check out some of the other reception rooms we had skipped earlier.

The following section, containing various dishware, was one of the areas of the home that was not original. If I recall correctly, it was originally part of a walk-in pantry for food preparation, but was converted into a display area for the museum to showcase some of the Dufresne brother’s actual dishware as well as dishware that would have been used by bourgeois families at the time.

If I recall correctly, the room below was a veranda on Oscar’s side. I believe however that there was a connection between the two sides in this room, to allow going from one side to the other without having to go outside - don’t quote me on that though!! 😅

The following gorgeous room, which my pics really don’t do justice, was the dining room in Marius Dufresne’s side of the house.

And the room below might be the sitting room, but I’ve also seen it listed online as the “Grand Salon”! So two different rooms listed as the Grand Salon … I really should have taken pics of the room descriptions. 😑 Oh well!

There were so many rooms, and I’ll freely admit I lost count of them and what they were all used for, as well as “who’s side” they were all on, but they were all really quite beautiful. Must have been nice living here!

Museum Verdict

The Dufresne brothers were an important part to Montreal’s (at the time Maisonneuve’s) history, and the mansion itself is a beautiful example of French neoclassical architecture.

So if you’re interested in either Montreal’s history, or historic architecture, or both, then I think this museum should definitely be on your list.