tHis is the newest to our series The World’s Most Beautiful Libraries.
I won’t bury it: Quebec City’s Morrin Center may be the only library you’ll ever visit that also has a dungeon. Okay, it’s technically a cell—a vestige of the early 1800s when the building was used as the city’s first municipal prison. But the barred windows, iron floor rings and graffiti by former prisoners give the dark room a distinctly medieval feel, which most visitors find extremely uncomfortable. Upstairs, books line the dark wood walls, making it an aesthetically obvious choice for The Daily Beast. But here, the building’s former life is on full display.
Located in Old Quebec, the Morrin Center is next to the city’s ramparts. The present decorative walls were built in the 1690s, during the endless battles for the city between the French and the English. (Spoiler alert: the French won.) The location is intentional, as before the Center was given its modern-day iteration, the site was home to the Royal Redoubt, aka army barracks. As the city continued to be colonized, it also served as the city’s main prison until 1787, when the original building was finally demolished.
But hey, why not darker history? As popular ghost tours of the city like to mention, the modern neoclassical building, completed in 1813 by architect François Baillairgé, is not only a prison but also the site of many gruesome hangings. That includes William Suitor, who – only – was executed for murder in 1834 by hanging above the main entrance. However, although hanging was common, the prison was rumored to be easy to escape. According to reports, inmates would either bribe the guards or simply run away – and most were successful.
The building will move closer to its final form in 1862, when, after closing for a year for renovations, it will reopen as Morrin College, just a rickety staircase (still intact) copies!) from previous dungeons. The decision to teach in English was made thanks to Dr Joseph Morrin, a Scottish physician and generous donor.
What they created was a mixed bag of education. Some of the rooms were used by the local Masonic Temple. Presbyterian Church pastors also receive on-the-job training. And shocking first, when affiliated with McGill University in Montreal, that’s where women can get a chemistry degree. When there were not enough students, classes were held co-edited, also mildly scandalous for the time.
Finally, Quebec’s first English-language university was short-lived, closing in 1902. However, a classroom in the center remains in tribute, complete with original blackboard, photo of the first graduating class, a periodic table with two non-existent elements (screaming at Norium and Pelopium), and a small, vintage darkroom.
But it is also in this age of education that the Morrin Center begins to fully crystallize. As a tenant of the building’s north wing in 1868, the Earl of Dalhousie used the footage as the headquarters for the Quebec Historical and Literary Society. While his original archives, free to students and available for a small fee to outsiders, were later moved to Laval University, the library and the Literary and Historical Society still still.
Today, the Morrin Center is the oldest English-language sociology in Canada and the only English language library in the city. Impressive, for that according to Canadian Census Data updated in 2022, only 1.5 percent of the population considers themselves English speakers. So even now, the entire English library in the middle of the area is called La Nouvelle France is a rare gem, especially since ordering a coffee outside the tourist areas without using Google Translate is unlikely.
At first, walking through the main room containing 27,000 books was intimidating. Keeping the Palladian architectural style intact, the two-story library features white gold-plated balustrades, dark wooden bookshelves, spiral staircases, and even historic swords and busts. (Yes, that’s the good doctor, by the window, overseeing his empire.) There’s even a giant children’s section, though next to an exhibit called “The Great Ones.” Tu & Orphans”, displaying toys from the early 20th century. (Morrin is a historical institution, after all.)
Upstairs, slightly tilted to overlook the room, there is also a small statue of Major General James Wolfe, a local oddity given that he was a British Army officer. His station may explain why he didn’t last long in his original location in Quebec’s Old Port, before being stolen by sailors. On a path led only by Amelie’s traveling gnomes, Wolfe sailed to Bermuda and then to England, where he worked as a pub clerk for several years before being mysteriously sent back to the mayor of Quebec. However, his strife did not end even after being enshrined in Morrin. In 1966, Wolfe angered Alberto Oscar Pipino, a college student and self-proclaimed separatist. He was eventually sentenced to two years in prison and deported after bombing the statue with a homemade Molotov Cocktail, causing $2,650 in damage in the process. Quick-witted librarians and firefighters threw books out of windows in an attempt to protect the rare books. Even more strangely, from his statements before the trial, it remains unclear whether Pipino understood that the origins of present-day Quebec City were formed by the French, not the British.
But it is the kind of complicated history that Morrin seeks to take in with an equal spirit. Membership starts at $20 per year. (The center does not pay rent but is responsible for maintenance and upkeep costs. Tours and donations make all the difference.) That fee gives members access to non-routine books. history, events such as writers’ festivals and visits by Anglophone authors from around the world.
And in an irony of Quebec’s historic linguistic resistance, the community as a whole has responded positively. Nearly 40 percent of members consider themselves French speakers, meaning many people come to the center not out of necessity but out of curiosity. Imagine you go to an old prison to read and speak English. Former residents of Morrin will be shocked.
