The Eaton's Ninth Floor Restaurant (known as "The Ninth Floor" or "") is an
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...
landmark in
Montreal, Quebec
Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
, Canada. It was operated by the Eaton's department store for 68 years, up until its bankruptcy and closure in 1999. After being closed to the public for a quarter of a century, it was renovated and reopened as a special events venue with the Ile de France Restaurant in 2024. The space is a registered historical site.
History
Lady Eaton, the wife of the multi-millionaire owner of the
Eaton's
The T. Eaton Company Limited, later known as Eaton's, was a Canadian department store chain that was once the largest in the country. It was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an immigrant from what is now Northern Ireland. Eaton's g ...
department stores, gave her interpretation of "class and style" to the major Eaton's stores. In 1925 Eaton's purchased the three-storey
Goodwin building at 677 Saint Catherine Street West and commissioned architects Ross & MacDonald to build it up to six storeys in 1927. The top three floors were added in 1930–1931. On January 26, 1931, Lady Eaton opened a large Art Deco restaurant on the 9th floor of the building. The restaurant was designed by architect
Jacques Carlu
Jacques Carlu (7 April 1890 Bonnières-sur-Seine – 3 December 1976 Paris) was a French architect and designer, working mostly in Art Deco style, active in France, Canada, and in the United States.
Biography
Through the 1910s Carlu studied on ...
, and
the floor-to-ceiling mural at the back of the restaurant was created by his wife
Natacha Carlu. It was patterned on dining hall of the transatlantic liner . The 9th floor corridor between the elevators and restaurant is also in the Art Deco style.
The waitresses and loyal customers of the restaurant were the subject of a 1998
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...
documentary, (''The Ladies of the 9th'').
Closure
Shortly following Eaton's bankruptcy, the restaurant closed on October 14, 1999. A bagpiper played "
Amazing Grace
"Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn written in 1772 and published in 1779 by English Anglican clergyman and poet John Newton (1725–1807). It is possibly the most sung and most recorded hymn in the world, and especially popular in the Unit ...
" to mark its end. After remaining vacant, the 9th floor restaurant was given heritage status by the Quebec government. Plans for bringing the restaurant up to modern safety standards were drawn up by Fournier, Gersovitz, Moss et associés but never implemented.
Abandonment period
For nearly a quarter of a century, the former restaurant sat behind locked doors and was slowly deteriorating. The dining room, lobby and bathroom area remained, but the kitchen had been demolished for office space. The current owners,
Ivanhoé Cambridge
Ivanhoé Cambridge Inc. is a Canadian real estate company based in Montreal, Quebec. With assets around the globe, its areas of activity are investment, development, asset management, operations and leasing. The company's real estate portfolio co ...
, the real estate subsidiary of the
Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec
The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (, CDPQ; ) is an institutional investor that manages several public and parapublic pension plans and insurance programs in the Canadian province of Quebec. It was established in 1965 by an act of the ...
, had refused in the past to allow media or preservation groups to inspect the site. Urban explorers who trespassed the site in 2004, took photographs documenting its poor condition. On February 12, 2014,
Heritage Montreal
Heritage Montreal is a Canadian non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the architectural, historic, natural, and cultural heritage of Greater Montreal. Architect Phyllis Lambert founded Heritage Montreal in 1975. It was preceded by Save ...
announced the restaurant was "under observation" due to the building's uncertain future. Adding to the uncertainty at the time, the former occupants of the site,
Les Ailes de la Mode
Les Ailes de la Mode Inc. was a Quebec department store chain. Its flagship store was in downtown Montreal and was the anchor tenant of the Montreal Eaton Centre. Les Ailes de la Mode also subleased a section of their department stores to Bowrin ...
, went bankrupt and closed in 2014 (while later transformed into an extension of the
Montreal Eaton Centre
The Montreal Eaton Centre (), colloquially known as the Eaton Centre, is a shopping mall and office complex in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is named after the now-defunct Eaton's department store, and with the Toronto Eaton Centre, is o ...
, there had been no plans for the ninth floor). Ivanhoé Cambridge last opened the floor to CTV News in 2015, though the future of the floor space remained uncertain. Throughout this time, the space was considered an endangered Art Deco landmark. In September 2019 preservation advocate Gérald McNichols Tétreault launched a petition to measure public interest in reviving the space. The building's owner reported that an estimated CA$15 million would be required to bring the space up to standards suitable for public use.
2024 reopening
In March 2023, Ivanhoe Cambridge, the owner of the Eaton Centre, announced the reopening of the iconic ninth floor by the end of the year. The heritage conservation firm, EVOQ Architecture, carried out the work to ensure the preservation of its heritage, while bringing it up to current standards. It was announced the re-imagined space would offer a restaurant, as well as a venue for shows and private events that can accommodate up to 500 people.
In August 2023, it was announced the multi-purpose space (containing six different areas, including a small restaurant) would be officially known as ; however, the reopening was delayed until spring 2024.
On April 11, 2024, a soft reopening was held in the space by invitation only, with an expected opening date for the public by mid-May.
On May 17, 2024, the space officially opened to the public, featuring the upscale . The original Eaton's restaurant space was repurposed as a general purpose venue hall, with tables and chairs for the new smaller restaurant situated in the outside windowed corridors.
See also
*
Complexe Les Ailes
*
The Carlu (Toronto)
The Carlu is an historic event space in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Opened in 1930 and known as the eponymous "Eaton's Seventh Floor", the venue was restored and reopened in 2003, renamed for its Jacques Carlu, original architect. The Carlu is one ...
References
Other sources
*Anderson, Carol and Mallinson, Katharine. ''Lunch with Lady Eaton: Inside the Dining Rooms of a Nation'', Toronto: ECW Press, 2004.
*Cohen-Rose, Sandra. ''Northern Deco: Art Deco Architecture in Montreal''. Montreal: Corona Publishers, 1996 Sandra Cohen-Rose.
*Martin, Catherine. ''The Ladies of the 9th Floor''. 60 minute film. Winner of the 1998 Telefilm Canada prize for short and medium length films.
External links
Art Deco Montreal - Photo of the Ninth Floor RestaurantNFB Web page for ''Les Dames du 9e'' (in French)Close up of floor to ceiling muralFinding aid for Ross & Macdonald Architects Canadian Centre for Architecture
The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA; ) is a Architecture museum, museum of architecture and research centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located at 1920, rue Baile (1920, Baile Street), between rue Fort (Fort Street) and rue Saint-Ma ...
Urban Exploration Montreal - A 2004 photo and video documentation of the abandoned 9th floorMay 1931 issue of the Journal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (Volume 8, Number 5) with photos and a brief architectural review of the restaurant shortly after it opened (Click View/Open and see pages 181-186 in the downloaded PDF file)
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Art Deco architecture in Canada
Downtown Montreal
Eaton's
Landmarks in Montreal
Restaurants in Montreal
Companies that have filed for bankruptcy in Canada