GRAVEL, Anastase (1893-1959), active in the City of Verdun, now part of the greater Montreal region, for his entire career. Gravel was born in Verdun on 22 January 1893 and attended high school at the Plateau Commercial Academy where he graduated in 1909. In 1910, at the age of 17 years, he was introduced to the world of architecture by obtaining a job as a junior assistant in the office of Louis A. Content. The following year, he worked as a young assistant for Edward & W.S. Maxwell (in 1911), and for Kenneth G. Rea (in 1912), and for Robert E. Bostrom (in 1913). With this range of professional experience, he enrolled in the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, and obtained his Architecture Diploma in 1918.
Gravel then moved to Ottawa, joining the Dept. of Public Works in 1918, and working as a draftsman under the supervision of the Chief Architect, Richard C. Wright (in 1918-19). He then rejoined the office of Kenneth G. Rea in Montreal (in 1920), before moving to Detroit, Mich. in 1921 to work in the office of C. Howard Crane, one of the leading theatre architects in America. He moved to Quebec City in 1922 to join Tanguay & Chenevert, then returned to Montreal to assist Ross & MacDonald before opening his own office in Verdun in late 1922, in partnership with another young Montreal architect Jacques E. Laliberte. Their early works were modest residential projects, but by 1925 they began to receive major commissions from the Roman Catholic Diocese in Verdun, and they produced innovative and distinctive designs for two important churches there, St. Willibrord Church (1926-27), and Notre Dame de Lourdes Church (1928-29).
Their partnership was terminated in May 1929, just six months before the stock market crash of October 1929, but Gravel continued to work under his own name for the next twenty years, and was the recipient of many more commissions for civic, ecclesiastical and educational buildings including the moderne landmark of the Verdun Auditorium & Arena (1938-39), a multi-purpose concert hall (seating 6,500) which doubled as a skating rink (seating 4,500 patrons). Gravel died in Verdun, Montreal on 10 February 1959 (death notice La Presse [Montreal], 10 Feb. 1959, 47; biog. and port. in Biographies Canadiennes Francaises, 1930-31, 362; inf. from The Province of Quebec Assoc. of Architects, Montreal).
GRAVEL & LALIBERTE
OUTREMONT, residential triplex for Giroux & Charest, Durocher Avenue, near Lajoie Avenue, 1922 (Town of Outremont b.p. 1509, 16 May 1922)
OUTREMONT, two triplex houses for Giroux & Charest, l’Epee Avenue, 1923 (Town of Outremont b.p. 1648, 12 June 1923)
OUTREMONT, residence for Ovila Boyer, Stuart Avenue, 1923 (Town of Outremont b.p. 1684, 20 Aug. 1923; and b.p. 1771, 29 April 1924)
OUTREMONT, residential triplex for Giroux & Charest, Joyce Avenue, 1924 (Town of Outremont b.p. 1766, 23 April 1924)
VERDUN, major addition to the Academie Saint Joseph, Church Avenue, 1924-25 (City of Montreal, Les Edifices Scolaires, 1980, 242-45, illus.)
RIGAUD, QUE., major addition to the Roman Catholic Convent, for the Sisters of Ste. Anne, 1925 (C.R., xxxix, 29 July 1925, 48)
VERDUN, St. Willibrord Roman Catholic Church, 1926-27 (C.R., xl, 27 Jan. 1926, 51; Album des Eglises de la Province de Quebec, Vol., 3, 1930, 37, illus.)
VERDUN, Notre Dame de Lourdes Roman Catholic School, Fifth Avenue at Verdun Avenue, with adjacent Residence for the teaching staff, 1928 (Montreal Daily Star, 5 April 1928, 31, t.c.; C.R., xlii, 11 April 1928, 57, t.c.; Album des Eglises de la Province de Quebec, Vol., 3, 1930, 25, illus.)
VERDUN, Notre Dame de Lourdes Roman Catholic Church & Presbytery, Verdun Avenue at Fifth Avenue, 1928-29 (C.R., xlii, 6 June 1928, 57; 19 Sept. 1928, 52)
VERDUN, Federal Building, 1956 (Batiment [Montreal], xxxi, Feb. 1956, 21)
A. GRAVEL
CHICOUTIMI, QUE., large private residence for an unnamed client, located at 24 Racine Street West near Ste. Anne Street, and now The Maison d’Accueil of the City of Chicoutimi, 1929 (Continuite [Quebec City], No. 36, Summer 1987, 19)
VERDUN, Notre Dame du Cenacle Roman Catholic School, Bannatyne Avenue near Gertrude Street, 1930-31 (C.R., xliv, 23 April 1930, 63; xlv, 13 May 1931, 56, t.c.)
MONTREAL, a three storey parking garage for E. Charette, St. Joseph Street near Atwater Avenue, 1930 (C.R., xliv, 15 Jan. 1930, 53, t.c.)
VERDUN, St. Willibrord’s Academy, Reille Street, 1931 (C.R., xlv, 15 April 1931, 63, t.c.)
ST. LEONARD, NEW BRUNSWICK, Roman Catholic School, 1932 (P.Q.A.A., list of works by Gravel in Membership Application dated 14 June 1939)
MONTREAL, major addition to St. Pierre Claver Roman Catholic School, 1938 (P.Q.A.A., list of works by Gravel in Membership Application dated 14 June 1939)
VERDUN AUDITORIUM & SKATING ARENA, in Lafrance Park, near the Verdun General Hospital, 1938-39 (C.R., li, 14 Sept. 1938, 142; Building in Canada, xxi, Summer 1941, 72, illus.)
MONTREAL, Institution for Deaf Mutes, Saint Laurent Boulevard at Faillon Street, major addition to the residence for the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, 1939 (City of Montreal, Les Couvents, 1984, 212-15, illus.)
(with A. Beaugrand-Champagne) LACHINE, QUE., major addition to the Roman Catholic Convent for the Sisters of Ste. Anne, St. Joseph Boulevard at 12th Avenue, 1940 (Gazette [Montreal], 10 April 1940, 21; inf. Scott Edwards)
LACHINE, QUE., Marie Anne Roman Catholic College, at the Lachine Roman Catholic Convent, St. Joseph Boulevard, 1940-41 (City of Montreal, Les Couvents, 1984, 66-75, illus.)
JOLIETTE, QUE., Lajoie Roman Catholic School, 1939 (P.Q.A.A., list of works by Gravel in Membership Application dated 14 June 1939)
JOLIETTE, QUE., Roman Catholic School, St. Pierre Street South, 1944-45 (C.R., lvii, 22 Nov. 1944, 29)
JOLIETTE, QUE., Roman Catholic School and Residence, Notre Dame Street, 1945-46 (C.R., lviii, Oct. 1945, 132)
JOLIETTE, QUE., Marie de la Naudiere Roman Catholic School, 1950 (Architecture Batiment Construction, v, Jan. 1950, 24, illus.)
L’ASSOMPTION, QUE., Roman Catholic school and residence, 1950 (Architecture Batiment Construction, v, Jan. 1950, 30, illus.)
VERDUN, Federal Building, for the Gov't. of Canada, 1956 (Batiment [Montreal], xxxi, Feb. 1956, 21)