The Ignatian Centre began as a house built in the
countryside near Montreal West about the year 1910. It was
the first house built on the unpaved West Broadway Street,
where planks were placed over puddles in wet weather.
Loyola College and High School were located nearby a few
years later.
The house originally contained two separate flats. The
upstairs flat had a basement in the back section, reached
by a jerry-built staircase hidden in the wall. Each flat
had separate furnaces and hot water tanks in their
respective basements. The house had a garden that reached
all the way to where St. Ignatius Church is today.
After the First World War the Loyola Jesuits bought the
building. It then became a rooming house for individuals
(some of them with their families) who worked at the
College over many years. In 1932 the downstairs flat was
occupied by the St. Ignatius Elementary School. From 1933
on, the house saw many families living in both flats.
In the 1970's, Bishop Leonard Crowley had urged the
English-speaking Jesuits to offer spiritual direction to
Anglophones in the Archdiocese. In 1976 Loyola College had
merged with Sir George Williams University (to become what
is now known Concordia University), and was no longer
directed by the Jesuit Order. The Jesuit Superior, Jack
Belair, s.j., decided that the building would be turned
into a centre for Ignatian spirituality. The building was
completely emptied and then renovated to the then
astronomical sum of $40,000.
Like the space directly above it upstairs, the main meeting
room had been divided by a wall which was removed. The
workmen said this removal would cause no difficulty, but
after about a year the ceiling began to sag noticeably. A
support beam was installed, but incorrectly. Two years
later, a three-inch sag had opened ominously again, and a
more thorough effort was undertaken to repair the
structure. A newly placed beam was inserted, side columns
were fixed at the walls, and basement supports were shored
up.
Around that time, two houses full of fine old furniture had
been willed to the Jesuits and the new Ignatian Centre
received the bulk of it. Much of the furniture in the
centre, such as the ornate table and the escritoire in the
large office (upstairs, front) came from this estate.
The two basements (front and back) had been joined by means
of a doorway opened through the central wall. This large
area was dirty, low-ceilinged, filled with abandoned
materials on rickety shelving, and ill-lit. The floor was
bumpy mud. The walls were unfinished stone. Pipes were much
in evidence, and in the middle was an ugly steel support.
It was a very damp and shivery place.
The front room of the basement would be eventually
transformed into an area for art activities, and many "poor
artists" would eventually use the space as a studio. In
1980, it was still a damp and chilly place, when Elise
Maxelhau installed a full-sized loom and a second, smaller
loom. She worked at textiles, drawing and painting, clay
sculpture, gradually developing one-to-one and small group
ministries, always enshrining the art work within a context
of prayer. Many individuals who were incapacitated by
illness or suffering from spiritual wounds were able to
relate to Elise, who was very intuitive and compassionate.
Thus, the Centre became blessed with the presence of
healing and nonverbal activities of art expression by
individuals and groups devoted to their faith.
Eventually the entire room was transformed. The wooden
stairs and beams were stripped and treated, new flooring,
walls, lighting and electric heating installed. In December
1990, the remaining two-thirds of the basement floor was
lowered by 4 feet. Pipes, wires and furnaces were moved,
all with a view to expanding the facilities. A new washroom
was installed, and a new concrete floor and stairs were
covered with carpeting. The walls were painted white and
eventually decorated with paintings and hangings. The
section not dug out became a storage area and still holds
the centre's hot water tank. By September 1991, acoustic
ceiling tiles and recessed lighting were installed, the new
basement was ready for use for larger group activities and
courses.
Three or four different rooms in the building were used at
different times as the chapel. Eventually it was decided to
make the front room downstairs a permanent place of prayer
and liturgy, which had been used mainly for spiritual
direction. With a $1,000 grant from the Jesuit Community, a
soft rug and the grass-style wallpaper was put in place in
order to create a "holy atmosphere" of simple beauty. A
rather unpleasant looking iron fixture in the
mock-fireplace was removed and the space boarded up and
covered with rug material. Later a crucifix was
commissioned. Many colourful pictures and pillows have been
introduced in recent years from Latin American sources. The
blue stained-glass Our lady in the window came originally
from the "hermitage" experiment in the Laurentian region
north of Montreal.
By the mid-eighties the number of staff members began to
increase, the upstairs reception office was created. The
four rooms at the back of the house (two upstairs and two
downstairs) and the two at the front upstairs, plus the
present library room (seven rooms in all) were bedrooms.
Various guests occupied these bedrooms from time to time.
John Wickham, the centre's director at the time, had moved
from the Jesuit residence and occupied the bedroom opposite
the present reception office. This was because he thought
the premises required a regular occupant - for protection,
and in case of fire. But after four years the upstairs part
of the centre became so busy that he decided to move back
into the Jesuit residence. This room was then turned into
the library. A $5,000 grant was obtained from the Spiritual
Exercises Endowment Fund in order to obtain basic
materials. Various assistants worked on it, including a
professional librarian. To this day the library is very
specialized and still works on the honour system.
Because the building had two separate flats, the room
directly above the downstairs kitchen was also a kitchen.
This was eventually converted into a meeting room for small
groups. Cursillo teams were often crowded in, and the
centre's first "spirituality and social justice" course was
held there. In 1989 the increased needs for typing and
other secretarial work (until then using the reception and
library areas), as well the introduction of a photocopy
machine and other computer equipment meant more space was
needed. Eventually the former kitchen became a staff
multipurpose workroom, where many sorts of materials are
assembled.
On the wall may be seen our large map of "the territory."
An original purpose was to locate parishes and identify the
locations of directors available for matchups with
directees. That never quite worked out, but the vision of
where we all live and work and where the Lord calls us to
serve is still alive. To this day it helps us to appreciate
the old building, made available for this ministry, which
is located at the "centre" of our place in the world.
