The Saint Helen Island Fort (), a historic site on Saint Helen's Island in the city of

Montreal 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 ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, was constructed in the early 1820s as an arsenal in the defensive chain of forts built to protect

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from a threat of American invasion. Although not heavily fortified, it served an important purpose as the central artillery depot for all forts west, and in the Richelieu River Valley, known as the Valley of the Forts. These included Fort Henry and Fort Lennox. The red stone used to build the Fort is a

breccia Breccia ( , ; ) is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or Rock (geology), rocks cementation (geology), cemented together by a fine-grained matrix (geology), matrix. The word has its origins in the Italian language ...

quarried on the island, which is situated in the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawren ...

between the island of Montreal and the south shore. The Levis Tower, contrary to popular belief, was not part of the fortifications on the island. It was built in the 1930s to house a water tower.

History

Built in 1820-1824 by the British, the fort served as arsenal and a storage facility for weapons and equipment. It was transformed into a military prison after the rebellions of 1837. The complex was however ravaged by fire in 1848, only to be rebuilt in 1863-1864. After the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

left the fort for ruin, it became part of the City of Montreal. In the 1930s, it was restored as part of a job creation project during the

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. During the

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, it was used as an internment camp for

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who were in the UK at the time of the declaration of war. During the summer months the Fort houses two reconstituted 18th century regiments, The Olde 78th Fraser Highlanders, and Les Compagnies Franches de la Marine.

Stewart Museum (1955-2021)

The Fort was also home to the Stewart Museum (), a private non-profit institution and history museum founded in 1955 by philanthropist David M. Stewart to collect, store and display historical artifacts from Canada's colonial past, particularly that of

New France New France (, ) was the territory colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Kingdom of Great Br ...

. It had a unique collection of close to 27,000 artifacts, archival documents and rare books related to the European history of North America, from the establishment of New France up to the present day. The museum’s chief mission was to preserve and showcase these artifacts that bared witness to the voyages of exploration, scientific advances, feats of arms, beliefs and daily lives of our ancestors. The former museum, located in Parc Jean-Drapeau, had been housed in the arsenal of the fort on St. Helen’s Island, a 19th-century military building that is listed in the Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec. Both the Fort and the museum had been open year-round, before its eventual closure. On February 16, 2021, after 66 years of operation, the museum permanently closed. Unable to survive financially due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, its collection will be relocated and merged with the McCord Museum in downtown Montreal. The Fort itself is closed to the public since February 2021.

References

External links

Parc Jean-DrapeauStewart Museum Website.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fort de l'Ile Sainte-Helene Buildings and structures completed in 1824 Museums in Montreal History museums in Quebec Military and war museums in Canada l'Ile Sainte-Helene Parc Jean-Drapeau