Businesses and public establishments

After Dorval was separated from Lachine and incorporated as a separate village in 1892, the villagers obtained permission to establish a new parish in 1895 and build a small wooden chapel near the site of the current presbytery. The parish, entrusted to the Pères Montfortain, was named La-Présentation-de-la-Sainte-Vierge, the name given to the chapel of the Gentilly mission founded by the Sulpicians in 1667. The current neo-Romanesque stone church was built in 1900 and officially consecrated in 1901. The pioneers of Dorval and their families are buried in the adjacent cemetery.

This small fieldstone chapel, located behind and to the right of the modern church, was built in 1898 for Anglican summer residents. Harry Markland Molson, a member of the Molson family who lived nearby and one of the chapel’s eight founders, donated the bell that still rings to announce church services every Sunday. The chapel has retained its old-world charm.

The central part of this building was once “Elmridge,” the summer residence of John Savage, who purchased part of the de Bellefeuille farm and built the house in 1895. His daughter, Ann, who lived here, became a renowned painter associated with the Group of Seven. After Mr. Savage’s death in 1922, the property was purchased by the Elmridge Country Club, which developed a large golf course on the site. The club moved to Île Bizard in 1959, and the City of Dorval purchased the lodge, which was enlarged and became the current Sarto-Desnoyers Community Centre after serving as a school for a time.

Founded in 1888, the Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club, which was granted royal designation by Queen Victoria in 1894, acquired the eastern portion of the current property in 1891. The Club grew significantly and purchased several properties to the west. Clubhouses were built in 1897 and 1919. They were replaced by the current building, which dates from 1961. The Royal St. Lawrence Sailing School (Junior Squadron) is one of the most renowned in Canada. The harbor has a capacity of more than 300 boats, not counting those belonging to the school.

One of only two buildings in Dorval bearing a construction date, it was built in 1888 by Joseph Décary as a grocery store with living quarters upstairs. Dorval’s first telephone was installed there in 1888, and by the following year, fifteen subscribers were connected. Joseph Décary was the manager of the telephone company. The building remained a grocery store for almost a century, and a restaurant opened there in 1986.

This wooden house dates back to before 1900, having been sold in November of that year. From 1910 onwards, it belonged to Louis Lacroix, the village coachbuilder. His daughter lived there until 1964, after which the house was converted in 1986 into a jewelry store, whose owner has preserved its late 19th-century architecture.

Georges Tardif built this building around 1887 on the corner of Martin Avenue to operate a small corner store with living quarters upstairs. In 1900, Joseph H. Descary obtained a liquor license and purchased the building to convert it into a hotel—the first in Dorval. It was not until much later that it became a brasserie.

The building that houses the current bistro is not a century old, but the location is of historical interest as it was the site of the first village school, built in the 1880s. The first municipal council meetings were held there in 1892, when the village was incorporated, and continued until 1910. The school was demolished in 1912 to make way for a grocery store around 1914, which became a restaurant in 1990.

The foundations of City Hall are nearly a hundred years old. The central section was built in 1912 as a drinking water filtration plant, which operated until 1958. The municipal administration moved in in 1924 in an initial extension, then a police and fire station was added until 1966, and finally a library until 1967, services that have since been relocated.