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Centre d'interprétation
de l'ardoise
From 1860 to the early 1900s, the St. Francis Valley was the main
centre in Canada for the production of slate. At that time, there
were no less than ten slate quarries in the area around Richmond,
Melbourne, Kingsey, and Danville. Entire villages grew up around
the quarries which provided a living to hundreds of workers for
the most part from Great Britain.
 Though
occasionally red or green, slate is usually gray in colour. Exploited
for its natural properties, it is easily split into thin and regular
pieces. Relatively soft, it can be sliced, sawed, and drilled. Traditionally,
slate was used to make roofs. Its impermeability and resistance
to the elements made it ideal.
Richmond and Melbourne, c.1900. (Photo: Farfan Collection)
During the second
half of the 19th century, St. Francis Valley slate covered virtually
thousands of buildings across Canada. A sign of prestige and good
taste, slate was once extensively used in cities like Montreal and
Toronto, on well-to-do homes, public buildings, and churches. However,
it was also widely used in the St. Francis Valley, on everything from
churches to the most humble outbuildings.
Slate fell out
of fashion in the early 1900s. It was replaced by factory-made building
materials (asphalt shingles, for example) that were cheaper in the
short term. The last slate quarries in the Eastern Townships ceased
operations in the 1920s, and were abandoned thereafter for most
of the century. Since the early 1990s, however, there has been a
renewal of interest in slate. In Quebec, since 1995, it has been
extracted once more in Saint-Marc-du-Lac-Long, in Témiscouata.
In Montreal, and even in Ontario and the Maritimes, roofs on numerous
century-old churches and buildings are being restored in traditional
slate.
To learn more about
slate, visit the Centre
d'interprétation de l'ardoise
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