Edward Maxwell bought in 1908 two adjacent farms on what would be today Baie-D'Urfe.
These were farm lots 324 and 325. Edward Maxwell built a large country residence as well
as barns and houses for farm workers. He bought Jersey cattle.
However Edward's wife Elizabeth did not really like to live at the farm. It was only their
youngest daugther Elizabeth who married on June 2, 1934 at the Maxwelton farm and moved there
permanently with her husband Montagu (Monty) Yates. The Yates had three children. The twin
brothers Henry Blythe and Edward Montagu (Ted) as well as daugther Mary Marth.
The following aerial pictures show the entire farm (lots 324 and 325). You can click on the images to
see them in big. Note that it may take several seconds to minutes to load the big images since I have not reduced
size or resolution. You can zoom in on the big pictures to see details.
Maxwelton Farm 1930, photo: The National Air Photo Library - Natural Resources Canada, click image for a detailed view (image size: 8MB)
Maxwelton Farm 1948, photo: Archives de la Ville de Montreal, click image for a detailed view (image size: 17MB)
Elizabeth and Montagu Yates used only farm lot 324 and farm lot 325 was rented out (?true?). In the northern part near
St-Marie road a part of the farm was sold and the corresponding farm house is circled in red in the photo from 1948.
The borders of the Maxwelton Farm lots 324 and 325 drawn into modern day aerial photos and maps would look as follows.
It's interesting to see that these farm borders, orginally drawn by the St. Sulpice in 1702, are still there and form
today roads or backyard property lines.
Maxwelton Farm borders drawn in orange into an aerial photo from Oct, 2016, photo: google earth, click image for a detailed view (image size: 15MB)
Maxwelton Farm drawn into a map from 2023, map source: openstreetmap, click image for a detailed view (image size: 4MB)
The following is a description of the different fields and buildings on farm lot 324 of the Maxwelton Farm (not the entire Maxwelton Farm area). The hand drawings
where made by Henry Yates who lived as a child on the farm (from 1939 to 1960).
Maxwelton Fram, lot 324, southern section, source: Henry Yates
Maxwelton Fram, lot 324, northern section, source: Henry Yates
Maxwelton Fram, lot 324, details of southern section ("page 3"), source: Henry Yates
The different items (numbered 1 to 18 and a1, a2) are:
1 - Two fieldstone gate posts about 7 feet tall, each supporting a black wrought iron gate.
2 - Small house gate lodge to house farm worker.
3 - Main house built of fieldstone (built 1908 to 1910).
4 - Dairy
5 - Two car garage with attached milk-cooling room, water pump with 185 foot well supplied all water. Texaco gas pump near garage.
6- Large cow barn with upper hayloft. Calfbarn (lt) and shed (rt) attached to barn. Silo for corn storage near barn. All buildings painted dark green.
7 - Truck garage built in 1948 of concrete blocks with a 4 foot pit below the floor to service truck and cars.
8 - Two semi detached houses. One built about 1910 and one built 1946. Both to house farm workers.
9 - One building with workshop with bench and forge and small barn for heifers (young cows).
10 - Horse barn with hayloft above and space for 4 workhorses.
11 - Chicken house but no chickens after 1939.
12 - Ice house to store blocks of ice 2 ft x 4 ft and depth of winter ice of about 2 ft, cut from lake St-Louis that lasted twelve months. Ice used to cool milk in tank in cooling room and for ice boxes to cool food in houses.
13 - Wooden implement shed built about 1942.
14 - Old carriage shed, built ca 1910.
15 - Swamp in woods that had water in it for about 6 weeks in spring about 75 feet long and 25 feet wide.
16 - Barnyard where cows entered barn.
17 - Expanded gravel driveway to park cars.
18 - Aluminum semi-sphere - Geodesic Dome - used to test different materials placed inside the dome, about 30 feet in diameter and about 15 feet high.
a1 - About one acroe of land, bordering the lake. Was part of the farm. This is the now public lot at the end of Apple Hill Road (it's the lot between 20100 Lakeshore and 20086 Lakeshore).
a2 - A 16FT wide lot of land with pump house, pumped water from Lake St-Lous to aluminum pipes with sprinklers to irrigate 3 fields totaling 21 acres
Aerial photo of Maxwelton Farm with items numbered, photo source: Archives de la Ville de Montreal
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