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The Sisters purchased a larger house on 1923 Dorchester Street West to concentrate on women, providing instruction in language and domestic skills. Opened in January 1935, the semi-detached residence had been built in 1894 and owned by railway magnate Lord Thomas Shaughnessy, the third president of the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1940, the Sisters bought the house on the west side, which had been owned by Lord Strathcona, who co-founded the CPR and drove the last spike to open the railway. With the two houses, the residence provided rooms for 80 residents. Besides the residence, the Sisters continued immigration work, especially assisting the Sudeten refugees in 1939-1940 and immigrants after the Second World War. For girls, aged 6 to 17 years, the Sisters started a club in 1940 to provide recreation at Goose Village, part of the Montréal Redemptorist parish of St. Ann’s.
The closing of the residence resulted from the ending of funding by the Federation of Catholic Community Services of Montréal in 1971 and the expropriation of land around the house for an exit for the Trans Canada Highway in 1971. The Sisters decided to close the residence by August 1973. Two months later, the Québec Government designated it as a heritage property. Architect Phyllis Lambert, daughter of industrialist Sam Bronfman, purchased the property for the Canadian Architectural Conservatory.
Subseries consists of correspondence, financial reports, immigration and Displaced Persons reports, ration cards, newsclippings, community annals, registers, scrapbooks, and account books from the SOS mission on Dorchester Street in Montreal.
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The SOS had several missions in Montreal. Upon transfer to USMC, the records from each of these were arranged as discrete subseries, this distinction has been maintained.
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Additional materials pertaining to the Dorchester Street property and heritage designation available in F30-2-14.
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Created by F Rousselle Feb. 2, 2026.
Revised by F Rousselle April 1, 2026.
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Mission history written by SOS archivist, MC Havey, inherited upon transfer to USMC.