The story of Bellevue Community Center

29 Aug 2024

The historic Bellevue Hotel at 27 rue Bellevue
was totally renovated by the municipality in 2017 to serve as a community center, and was officially opened on September 16, 2017. The building was acquired by the Municipality in the summer of 2015. Apart from providing services for outdoor activities, the chalet has an additional two floors to host conferences, theatre, concerts, meetings and exercise classes. Chalet Bellevue complements the outdoor services offered at Basler Park and the Aerobic Corridor, both strategically located close to the building.

Continue Reading →

The Pinetree Line:  CFS Lac St. Denis

23 Jun 2024

One of the most obvious landmarks in the Morin Heights and St. Adolphe d’Howard area of the Laurentians was the large dome on top of Lac St. Denis mountain. This enormous puffball mushroom lingered on long after the Canadian Forces Base Lac St. Denis closed in 1986. There are also the remains of a village on the shore of Lac St. Denis that originally housed the base personnel.

Continue Reading →

The indigenous people of the Laurentians

12 Mar 2024

According to Serge Laurin, the author of Histoire des Laurentides, the Algonquin Amerindians who lived in this region were the Weskarinis, cousins of the Kichespirinis. Both were branches of the Lower Algonquin, being a part of the same language group, but having different dialects. The Upper Algonquin lived in the Abitibi region.

Continue Reading →

Michael Rubbo: village painter and filmmaker

30 Aug 2023

Morin-Heights abounds with artists whose work was marked by their life experiences in the community. One of the best was Michael Rubbo, who could often be seen with his easel set up in the centre of the village in the early and mid 1990s, painting a local scene. Five of his works were featured in full colour on the back page of Porcupine 9 in 2010. He loved painting local scenes and donated to the community dozens of paintings depicting daily life in the village; some of the collection hangs on office walls at town hall.

Continue Reading →

Morin ? Morin Flats ? Morin Heights ?

18 Nov 2022

Our community was officially the ‘Municipality of the South Part of the township of Morin’ from its incorporation in 1855 until 1950, when it became Morin Heights. The official Quebec Gazette noted the change on April 1, 1950. The original township, Morin, included parts of Ste-Adèle, Val-David and Val-Morin. In 1855 the township was divided, and the part that’s now Morin-Heights became the “Municipality of the South part of the township of Morin.”

Continue Reading →

Rose’s forever: experiencing the ‘70s in ‘The Heights’

15 Nov 2021

by Penny Rose

There are still many friends and landmarks around Morin Heights that trigger memories of my early days in this village. Many of us still lovingly refer to them as the ‘hippy’ days.  To this day I know I was a ‘hippy’ although I worked like a dog!

Let me give you a brief account of my perspective of the early ‘70’s experience, on rue du Village, then known as ‘Main Street’ in downtown Morin Heights, and life at Rose’s Cantina, now reincarnated as a children’s day care centre – the irony of it all!

Continue Reading →

Blue Hills of Morin-Heights: A hidden jewel in the heart of nature

25 Feb 2021

by François Leroux

After a hot, dry summer autumn is approaching. It’s September, and the forest canopy is coming alive in tones of red, orange, yellow and gold. As we enjoy our usual Sunday brunch on the terrace we spot two flocks of Canada Geese overhead, southward bound on their annual migration. The sound of their honking fades as they pass, leaving behind a silence so profound that we resume our interrupted conversation in whispers. Around us it seems that no creature dares break this precious quiet.

Continue Reading →

The years that were: Life on the farm in the 1940s

13 Sep 2020

I am a grandmother and great grandmother now, but my memories of my girlhood remain very special to me. I was brought up on a farm during the mid 1930s and 40s in the Laurentians, Quebec, and life on the farm in Christieville seems as real to me today as it was then. There are times I wish I could take my grandchildren on a journey with me through those years.

As children, we had great freedom to romp the fields and meadows, chasing butterflies, grasshoppers, and bringing bouquets of wild flowers home to our Mother. She spent precious hours over a hot wood stove, making bread or a special meal for Sunday dinner of either fresh chicken or pork raised on the farm, fresh vegetables from our garden and fresh fruit and gorgeous apple pies right out of the oven for dessert. Yummy!

Continue Reading →

Lac Bouchette and the North East Part of Morin Heights

1 Apr 2020

Lac Bouchette and the North East Part of Morin Heights

Lac Bouchette covers the greatest watery surface area in the Municipality of Morin Heights. It’s about a mile and a quarter in length but less than a quarter of a mile wide at its greatest width. It’s not very deep, compared to many other Laurentian lakes, but takes in a significant watershed and feeds an enormous wetland. Its outflow into the Simon River probably doubles the volume of water carried by that stream onward to join the North River at Piedmont. It is the only lake in the residential part of Morin Heights that has an island: Île aux Bleuets – Blueberry Island. The best available public view to look down the length of Lac Bouchette is from the bridge on Route 329: the road to St. Adophe d’Howard.

Continue Reading →

Farewell to the oldest store in Morin Heights: the Mickey’s story

9 Jan 2020

The afternoon of December 24, 2013 marked the closing of a chapter in Morin Heights history. Owen LeGallee and his eldest daughter Heidi locked the door to “Mickey’s” for the last time after 53 years of continuous operation. The store, named for Owen’s wife, Mildred “Mickey” Pollock who died in 2001, was a clothing and shoe store, coffee shop, laundromat and community meeting place. The building, a fixture of our local business scene and a witness to 115 years of daily life, was one of the oldest in the village. It was constructed in 1898 by Mr. Cuffling to serve as a general store, but it was remodeled and expanded several times, and many different people owned and operated it as a store prior to its purchase by the LeGallees in 1960.

Continue Reading →