Café Dillon

1. Overview

The Café Dillon occupies a distinctive place in Montreal’s cultural history. Long before it bore that name, the building located at the corner of Place d’Armes and Saint-Jacques Street was the residence of notary Antoine Foucher. Its large salon was used during the eighteenth century as a space for theatrical performances.

In 1774, British military officers presented Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and Le Médecin malgré lui by Molière. These performances rank among the earliest documented examples of French-language theatre in Montreal following the British Conquest.

The premises did not become known as the Café Dillon until later. From 1789, the establishment became associated with Richard Dillon and developed into a public coffee house as well as an important meeting place for Montreal’s political, commercial and intellectual circles.

2. Antoine Foucher and the “House of Theatre”

Antoine Foucher, a Montreal notary, owned a house located in one of the most important areas of the city, immediately adjacent to Place d’Armes. Its large salon provided enough space to accommodate performances and public gatherings.

A manuscript document preserved at the Château Ramezay provides particularly valuable evidence of the house’s theatrical use. In a receipt signed by Foucher, he requested payment for the “rent of the house of theatre”, an expression corresponding to the English term play house.

The document confirms that this was more than simply a private residence in which an occasional performance had taken place: the building was sufficiently associated with theatrical activity to be referred to as a “house of theatre.”

The space nevertheless differed considerably from the purpose-built theatres that would appear in Montreal during the nineteenth century. It was not a building constructed specifically for the performing arts, but rather a room within a private residence adapted for performances.

3. The Molière Performances of 1774

In February 1774, Captain Edward Williams of the Royal Artillery organized performances at the Foucher House of two works by Molière: Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and Le Médecin malgré lui.

These performances occupy an important place in Montreal cultural history, as they represent some of the earliest documented examples of French-language theatre in Montreal following the British Conquest.

The choice of Molière is also revealing of the distinctive character of Montreal society at the time. Only a few years after New France had come under British rule, members of the British military were participating in performances of major works from the French dramatic repertoire.

4. Richard Dillon and the Coffee House

The name by which the building would eventually become best known is associated with Richard Dillon, a former servant of Governor Guy Carleton. In 1789, Dillon also acquired the Vauxhall Gardens, which had been established by John Franks.

The Foucher House was transformed into a public establishment known as Dillon’s Coffee House or Café Dillon. The building thus retained its role as a place of gathering while gradually shifting from the world of theatre to that of coffee houses and public sociability.

At a time when Montreal still had relatively few public establishments devoted to social gatherings, coffee houses played an important role. People exchanged news, discussed business, organized meetings and maintained the political and commercial networks of the city.

5. A Centre of Montreal Social Life

By the late eighteenth century, Café Dillon had become a gathering place for members of Montreal’s political and commercial elite. Its location in the heart of the old city, near Place d’Armes, naturally favoured this role.

The coffee house is notably documented as a meeting place of the Beaver Club, an association composed largely of merchants connected with the fur trade and the economic networks that played a major role in Montreal’s development.

Café Dillon therefore served as an important point of contact between different sectors of Montreal society in a city where French- and English-speaking communities were increasingly sharing institutions, commerce and public life.

6. The Montreal Library of 1796

On March 7, 1796, Dillon’s Coffee House hosted a meeting of particular importance in Montreal’s intellectual history. Subscribers gathered there to establish the rules governing a new library.

The assembly adopted the rules for the conduct & direction of what became the Montreal Library / Bibliothèque de Montréal, a bilingual subscription library intended to provide books to its members.

This meeting is generally regarded as the founding act of Montreal’s first public library. Café Dillon, already associated with the beginnings of Montreal theatre, thus also became connected with the city’s earliest cultural and intellectual institutions.

7. From Dillon to Compain

The name Café Dillon did not remain permanently attached to the building. During the nineteenth century, the establishment continued to evolve under successive operators.

Beginning in the 1840s, and especially following the arrival of French restaurateur Sébastien Compain in 1848, the name Café Dillon gradually disappeared from use.

The establishment subsequently became known as Compain’s Restaurant and Compain’s Hotel. By the early 1850s, the Dillon name appears to have fallen out of common usage.

The old building associated with Foucher, the theatre room and Café Dillon was finally demolished in 1858, removing one of the oldest physical witnesses to Montreal’s theatrical history.

8. Historical Significance

Café Dillon’s importance in Montreal performance history lies less in the duration of its theatrical activity than in its exceptional antiquity. The Foucher House represents a period when Montreal still had no permanent theatre building designed specifically for performances.

As in many eighteenth-century North American cities, performances in Montreal were held in private homes, inns, assembly rooms and other spaces temporarily adapted for theatrical use. The Foucher House belongs to this first generation of performance venues.

It predates by approximately thirty years the theatre room established by James Ormsby in 1804 on Saint-Sulpice Street, regarded as Montreal’s first known permanent theatrical space, and by more than half a century the Théâtre Royal of 1825, the city’s first true building designed specifically as a theatre.

9. Timeline

• Before 1774 — The house near Place d’Armes belongs to notary Antoine Foucher.
• February 1774 — Captain Edward Williams of the Royal Artillery organizes performances of Molière’s Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and Le Médecin malgré lui.
• 1789 — Richard Dillon becomes associated with the establishment, which becomes known as Café Dillon or Dillon’s Coffee House.
• March 7, 1796 — Founding meeting of the Montreal Library at Dillon’s Coffee House.
• 1848 — Arrival of French restaurateur Sébastien Compain.
• Early 1850s — The name Café Dillon gradually disappears in favour of Compain’s Restaurant and Compain’s Hotel.
• 1858 — The building is demolished.