the legendary commons hotel— morin heights’ party central ... · of all the good bars in morin...
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The legendary Commons Hotel— Morin Heights’ party central for 75 years
by Don Stewart
Literally thousands of people living around the world remember the Commons Hotel. In fact,
when out-of-towners talk about Morin Heights, the Commons is usually the first name that comes
up. “Remember the Commons? Remember the fun we had there? Remember the great rock and
roll?” Of all the good bars in Morin Heights over the years (Bellevue, Carriage House,
Rockcliffe, Chuckies, Alpino, Swiss Inn, etc.) the Commons was undoubtedly the best known
spot for music, drinking, and dancing. The third floor functioned as a boarding house for many
decades too, offering cheap rooms to sleep during the ski train days of the 1930s, and a few seedy
rooms to crash if you were too drunk to drive home 40 years later. There was a huge parking lot
out back, a second downstairs bar for many decades, and even a restaurant for awhile.
From the 1960s until
the 90s, the
Commons was the
spot to be for loud,
hard driving rock
and roll. Famous
musicians recording
at Le Studio
sometimes came to
jam with local bands
in the wee hours.
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One of the biggest physical changes was a major renovation in 1983. The owners decided to
expand the capacity of the place after a concert by Iron Butterfly with a record 550 people in
attendance. They installed a new raised stage and cut a huge opening in the ceiling to permit the
show to be seen from the top floor balconies as well; the third floor was then opened to the public
with its own bar.
In the ‘Showbar’ phase of the Commons, performers included Blue Rodeo, Levon Helm, Jeff
Healey, Honeymoon Suite, Dutch Mason, the ZZ Top tribute band Très Hombres, Long John
Baldry, Rare Earth, Edgar Winter, Blushing Brides, James Cotton, Corey Hart, Minglewood, and
the Downchild Blues Band. Local favourites were Barb and the Barband-- the fabulous Harris
Sisters.
But the Commons was a swinging venue long before rock and roll. It was built around 1925 as
Hammond’s Dance Hall—immediately south of the old CN railway station on Station Road (now
chemin du Lac Echo) a short walk from the centre of the village. It continued as The Commons
Hotel for the next 75 years with many different owners over the years. Undoubtedly it was one of
the town’s most famous (or infamous) landmarks.
Part of the roof of the old building collapsed in March 2005 when the heavy snowload proved too
much. Luckily no one was on the premises at the time. While there were a few attempts to rebuild
and save the historic building, these efforts proved too costly; besides, country showbars no
longer had much future since police had started paying more attention to drinking and driving.
The building remained empty for the last few years of its life, and was finally torn down. At least
the Commons didn’t meet its fate by fire like so many other old hotels and boarding houses in the
region. While there was no public closing ceremony at the end, tears were shed and many people
waxed nostalgic about the good times they’d enjoyed there.
Nothing remains of the historic building now--just a tall concrete retaining wall to remind us of
great days gone by.
And many wonderful memories.
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Everyone has a story
Anyone who ever hung out at The Commons has a story or two to tell. Sleeping it off in one of
the upstairs rooms. A flirtatious glance that led to a moonlit walk out back. Midnight brawls with
flying bottles and chairs when one local clan took on the boys from Mille Isles. Masquerade
balls at Halloween. Live fiddle music and square dancing in the early days. Oyster parties.
Spotting a celebrity musician in town to record at Le Studio. Joints on the veranda. Hauling a
long toboggan up Mont Bellevue behind the Commons parking lot after a night of drinking and
dancing and flying down the hill, laughing riotously and drunkenly in the darkness with four or
five other merrymakers. Great music. Lots of dancing.
The Commons enjoyed its first bout of fame in the 1930s and 40s when trains brought skiers by
the hundreds to Morin Heights as well as other towns throughout the Laurentians. These tourists
usually stayed for the weekend at a small hotel or family-run boarding house, of which there were
over a dozen in Morin Heights. In the daytime they skied, either cross-country or downhill at one
of the many small family-run hills with rope tows in the region (including several in Morin
Heights). Not everyone came to the Laurentians just for skiing, however; social types enjoyed
the camaraderie of country hotels and après-ski venues. Morin Heights was one of these party
towns, with a lively scene at many local spots.
From 1921 to 1938, Morin Heights was officially a dry town, although some oldtimers who lived
through the era never realized there was Prohibition here. Booze was always plentiful and easily
available from local bootleggers and stills. A drink could usually be had from under the counter
at a boarding house or dancehall, or from the trunk of someone’s car in the parking lot. In 1938,
after a heated debate that pitted churches and the Women’s Institute against bar owners and
business people, the town finally held a plebiscite on the issue of alcohol. On November 7, 1938,
the vote was held, and the results were astonishingly close: 105 in favour of continued
Prohibition, 3 abstentions, and 110 who believed in booze. Appropriately, Hammond’s Dance
Hall/The Commons got the first liquor license in town.
In the early days the square dances (barn dances) were usually packed every Saturday night.
Rowena Blair remembers Willie Baldwin calling “Honour your partners and corners all” while
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Henry Baldwin played fiddle and Bella Seale or Peggy Gilbey played the piano. “The place was
rocking….Put another nickel in, in the nickelodeon, Jivey jitterbugging and then romantic
waltzing to the sounds of Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey. Great times! George
Wade and the Cornhuskers wearing western outfits. Al Griffin and his Harvesters. Bobby Seale
played guitar with both groups.” 1. In the same era, Robert John Ivall (pictured) sometimes
played fiddle with his sister Naomi on piano and Melvin Dey as caller.
Some local people met their future mate at the Commons--sometimes a city person here for the
weekend. Fernand Guenette (born 1921), for example, met his wife Geraldine while he was
playing fiddle at the Commons in the early 1940s; she was a Montrealer who stayed at
Watchorn’s Farm boarding house for weekends of skiing. Others people chose to move to Morin
Heights because of the fun they had at the Commons. Faye Rankin remembers in the 1940s
when gangs of young people would head to Boyd’s Restaurant for a hamburger after the
Commons closed at 4 am. Others remember being in the bar while still underage. Prettier girls
were often allowed in at just 14 or 15.
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Downstairs has its own history
While the main upstairs bar was better known, the
basement of the Commons has a history all its own. A
downstairs pub called “Chez Van,” featuring mostly Van
Morrison music, was operated by Kim and Bob Brewster
in the 70s. A bit later, Mark Sherry’s Cabaret du Nord
offered another venue for live music and a place to hang
out on Friday and Saturday nights. It evolved into
Buddy’s, a daytime and evening drinking hole named
after Buddy Bardog, a terrier who lived upstairs with
bartender (later journalist) Neil Zack. Neil wrote the
story of Buddy Bardog in a hilarious article in Perspective
newspaper in November 1994. Towards the end of the
millennium, downstairs was completely renovated as an upscale Irish pub called William’s Pub
by Richard Waugh.
In the 60s, the upstairs Commons was briefly run as a strip club--allegedly by the Mafia. During
this time the basement was rented by a local band as a practice room. Apparently the mobsters
sometimes held pool tournaments upstairs as well, betting money on local pool hustlers. There’s
a story that Vic Cotroni once sent his bodyguard downstairs while the band was practicing. He
delivered an order for the band to come upstairs: “The boss would like to hear a song.” The band
chose “To Love Somebody” by the BeeGees, and crossed their fingers that he would like it. 2.
The only tragedy associated with the Commons occurred on a muggy summer day in the early
1980s when Willie Marshall was high up on an aluminum ladder painting the wall facing the
street a few feet away from a Hydro line; electricity arced to the ladder, badly injuring Willie.
One of the young bar owners at the time, Wayne “Charlie” Hyde, heroically grabbed the ladder
with both hands to move it. Willie was saved, but “Charlie” was electrocuted at the age of 33.
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It’s strange to think of a bar as a benevolent community institution, but the Commons played that
role over the years too. It was always one of the main venues for village Carnivals, and hosted
charity schoolboy boxing matches. In its final decades there were dozens of community
fundraising events at the Commons, including spaghetti dinners, reunions, and murder mystery
dinner theatre evenings.
What a place! Raise your
glasses to The Commons!
May the memories last
forever! --------
1. Porcupine 4, page 44, 2001 2. Porcupine 5, page 65, 2002
Commons reunion August 1, 2015
Starts at 6 pm Ski Morin Heights
Many great bands—including Barb Harris from Barb and Barband
and Liz Harris from the Ste-Agathe Flyers
Profits to MHES and LES school breakfast programs