Historic Landmarks

The first Catholic school for girls to be established in the Eastern Townships was Mont Notre-Dame in Sherbrooke.

Unlike their English Protestant counterparts, in the late nineteenth century, French Catholic schools in the Eastern Townships became increasingly dominated by religious orders.

By the early 1900s, schools run by Catholic nuns and brothers were established in most towns of any significant size all across the Townships.

Bishop's University in Lennoxville was founded in 1845 under the sponsorship of the Anglican Bishop of Quebec, George Jehoshaphat Mountain. Chartered to grant degrees in 1853, the school in its early years it was primarily a centre for classical education and the training of the Anglican clergy.

Il fut un temps où les Cantons-de-l'Est étaient parsemés d'écoles rurales. Sur les anciennes cartes de la région, on pouvait facilement remarquer que chaque hameau possédait son école.

Classé site historique par le gouvernement du Canada, des États-Unis et du Québec, la Bibliothèque et Salle d'opéra Haskell fut conçue par les architectes James T. Ball et Gilbert H. Smith et construite par l'entrepreneur Nathan Beach entre 1901 et 1904.

Opened in 1929 at the dawn of the talking movie, the Granada Theatre in downtown Sherbrooke is one of Canada’s most beautiful atmospheric theatres. With its sumptuous interior decorated with tromp l’oeil Mediterranean scenes, it was a popular venue for both movies and live entertainment.

EUROPEAN TRADITION
Europeans have always been fond of public clocks. One has only to visit the downtown of almost any major city, town, or village, to see the timepieces, often beautiful and elaborate, that grace all manner of public buildings. Some of these clocks date back to the Middle Ages and are now famous tourist attractions.

Remnants of our past are everywhere. The same is true of our early one-room schoolhouses. Many of these unpretentious little buildings are still visible at crossroads throughout the Townships, testifying to an era when the neighbourhood schoolhouse was the place to send one's children.

EVERY SECOND CROSSROAD
The Eastern Townships were once dotted with rural schoolhouses. One has only to look at early maps of the area to see that virtually every neighbourhood had one. The typical one-room schoolhouse could be found every mile or two, or at nearly every second crossroad.

The Victorians were famous for their eclectic architecture. Fashion changed dramatically throughout the period (1837-1901), which saw the adoption, one after another, of a succession of architectural styles from earlier periods in European history.