DUFRESNE, Marius (1883-1945) was born at Pointe-du-Lac, Que. on 9 September 1883 and enrolled as an engineering student at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal in 1901. He graduated in 1905 and took a position at the Longe Pointe Locomotive Works before entering the office of Lacroix & Piche in Montreal. In 1908 he applied for the post of Engineer & Architect for the Town of Maisonneuve in east Montreal, and his appointment provided him with a unique opportunity to design three landmarks for the municipality, including the classically inspired Public Market (1913-14), the Public Baths & Gymnasium (1915), executed in a refined Beaux-Arts style, and the remarkable Prairie style Fire Station and Recorder's Court (1915-16), which borrowed heavily from Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple in Oak Park in Illinois, completed nearly ten years earlier. In 1918 Dufrense, in collaboration with the Paris architect Jules Renard, began work on a monumental residence in Montreal designed to accommodate two separate dwelling units for himself and his brother Oscar Dufresne. Modeled on Petit Trianon at Versailles, the complex has now been converted to a museum called the Chateau Dufresne and houses a outstanding collection of 20th C. furniture and design objects.
Dufresne's career as an architectural designer showed promise, but it is curious that he would choose to abandon the profession when, in 1921, in partnership with his brother, he organized the Dufresne Construction Co., later called the Dufresne Engineering Co. They undertook many major contracts for tunnels, bridges, river dams and power plants in the province of Quebec. Challenging and often dangerous, this work was ultimately the cause of death of Dufresne when he was struck and killed by a support pole being pulled from the river bed while he was supervising the construction of the Duplessis Belair Bridge at Ste. Rose, Que. He died on 26 July 1945 (obituary in La Presse [Montreal], 27 July 1945, 3; Gazette [Montreal], 27 July 1945, 11; obit. Montreal Daily Star, 27 July 1945, 14; obit. Le Devoir [Montreal], 27 July 1945, 3; biog. and port. in Montreal Old & New, 1914, 393; biog. and list of works Dizionario dell'Architettura del XX Secolo, 2000, ii, 250).
Marius DUFRESNE (works in Montreal)
MAISONNEUVE PUBLIC MARKET, Ontario Street, 1913-14; still standing in 2022 (La Presse [Montreal], 18 Jan. 1913, 14, illus. & descrip.; C.R., xxvii, 12 Feb. 1913, 49, illus. & descrip.; and xxix, 6 Jan. 1915, 10-12, illus. & descrip.; Montreal Daily Star, 29 March 1913, 2; Montreal, Les Edifices Publics, 1981, 152-55, illus.)
MAISONNEUVE PUBLIC BATHS, Morgan Boulevard, designed 1913; built 1914-15; still standing in 2022 (Montreal Daily Star, 29 March 1913, 2; C.R., xxix, 2 June 1915, 587, illus. & descrip.; Montreal, Les Edifices Publics, 1981, 18-21, illus.; Charles C. Hill, edit., Artists, Architects & Artisans - Canadian Art 1890-1918, 2013, 250-52, illus. & descrip.)
STANFORD'S LTD., Mansfield Street, store and apartments, 1915 (C.R., xxix, 15 Sept. 1915, 965, illus. & descrip.)
MAISONNEUVE FIRE STATION AND RECORDER'S COURT, Notre Dame Street East at Letourneux Avenue, 1914-15; still standing in 2022 (Montreal Old & New, 1914, 385, illus.; C.R., xxix, 6 Oct. 1915, 1034-35, illus. & descrip.; H. Kalman, A History of Canadian Architecture, 1994, 752-3, illus. & descrip.)
(with Jules Renard) CHATEAU DUFRESNE, a mansion for Oscar and Marius Dufresne, Sherbrooke Street East at Pie IX Boulevard, 1916-18; still standing in 2022 (Vie des Arts [Montreal], xxii, No. 87, 1977, 12-15, 87-8, illus.; Canadian Collector, xii, May-June 1977, 35-9, illus. & descrip.; Montreal, Les Residences, 1987, 214-19, illus.)
TETRAULT SHOE MFR. CO., DeMontigny Street East, factory, 1917 (C.R., xxxi, 5 Sept. 1917, 42, t.c.)
MORIN BUILDING, Bleury Street, 1922; still standing in 2023 (Montreal, Les Hotels Les Immeubles de Bureaux, 1983, 202-03, illus.)