In 1874, John Henry Menzies bought farm #31 from Paul Urgéle Gabriel Valois. Mr Menzies named his
farm Beaconsfield. It was commonly known as Beaconsfield Vineyards because Mr. Menzies grew grapevines at the farm (with limited success). The farm is important to the history of the Town of Beaconsfield because it gave the town its name when it was incorporated in 1910. George Fritz bought farm #31 around 1942 but without the Grove. The Grove is today 26 Lakeshore Road or the Beaconsfield Yacht Club. The area near the yacht club, south of Beaconsfield Boulevard and near Beaconsfield Boulevard had been subdivided early on and it is not entirely clear which parts where owned by George Fritz but Mr. Fritz owned some of the land around Beaconsfield Boulevard and the entire farm to the north.
J H Menzies farm in Beaconsfield, map from 1879, source: https://collections.banq.qc.ca/ark:/52327/2244120, the name of Mr. Menzies is a spelling error in the map
Beaconsfield Vineyards, the Gazette May 13, 1879
Beaconsfield Vineyards, The Canadian illustrated news Vol. 20, no. 6 (Aug. 9 1879), source: https://www.canadiana.ca /view/oocihm.8_06230,click to read, opens pdf file
Fritz Farm Beaconsfield, photo: 1948, source: Montreal Archives; the southern boundary might not have been as straight as indicated by the orange line drawn here but Mr. Fritz owned also land south of Beaconsfield Blvd.
George E. Fritz kept horses at his farm in Beaconsfield and participated in shows and races. Never the less he asked for the approval of subdivisions as the minutes of the Beaconsfield council meetings show. July 1950: "Acceptance in principle of the G.E. Fritz subdivisions" and May 1952: "Further Subdivision of Part of Lot No. 31 - George E. Fritz".
Minutes of council meeting page 919, July 1950: Acceptance in principle of the G.E. Fritz and T. Daoust subdivisions, click to read the entire document
Minutes of council meeting page 1073, May 1952: Further Subdivision of Part of Lot No. 31 - George E. Fritz, click to read the entire document
Almost everything was destroyed when the developers moved in. Despite being a part of the one farm that gave the town of Beaconsfield its name, the Fritz Farm in Beaconsfield did not survive.
There is however an interesting link that remains. The name of a horse, George Fritz's best horse.
Minutes of council meeting page 1149, March 1953: Mr. Fritz gets to name the North-South road on the former farm #31, "Sweet Briar Drive", click to read the entire document
Liesse Hunt Horse Show on Cote de Liesse Road, George Fritz's horse Sweet Briar wins in the Saddle Horse category, the Gazette, Sep. 20, 1948
Sweet Briar owned by G. E. Fritz wins in the season's first horse show, the Gazette, June 3, 1946
Sweetbriar Drive in Beaconsfield, the only link to the Fritz Farm in Beaconsfield that remains today. Named after Sweet Briar, G. E. Fritz's winning horse. Beautiful horses were grazing not so long ago on these fields.
Old Church Avenue used to extend past Beaconsfield Boulevard. It was the access road to the farm and there was a house on the side of that road. Today this house is known as 30 Sweetbriar Drive. The house was built in 1940. The house is in good condition but the owner applied unfortunately for a demolition permit at the end of 2021. The main farm buildings would have stood near the crossing of todays Magaret-Anne Ave. and Claude Street.
The house at 30 Sweetbriar Drive, photo: 1948, source: Montreal Archives.
The house at 30 Sweetbriar Drive, photo: Sep. 2017, source: google
30 Sweetbriar Drive, a Fritz farm building, view from the north, photo: 2010, source: Gisèle Hall collection, Beaurepaire-Beaconsfield Historical Society
30 Sweetbriar Drive, a Fritz farm building, view from the north-east, photo: Jan 2022
30 Sweetbriar Drive, view from the south-west, photo: Jan 2022
30 Sweetbriar Drive, view from the east, photo: Jan 2022
Following the subdivision and sale of his farm in Beaconsfield, he bought in late 1955 the farm land that is today known as "Fritz Farm" in Baie-D'Urfe. The farm in Baie-D'Urfe was smaller than the one in Beaconsfield but he kept never the less horses, ponies, sheep and black Angus at the farm. His health was however deteriorating and he was by 1960 in a wheelchair. He was now solely dependent on others to take care of the animals and the farm. After 1960 only horses and ponies were kept at the farm. George Fritz was probably suffering from multiple sclerosis.
I would like to thank Beaconsfield residents Pauline Faguy-Girard and Walter Hrycyna for their help in finding this information about the Fritz farm in Beaconsfield. Pauline did a detailed analysis and study of the all the Beaconsfield council meetings from the 1950s.
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