If you had been walking along Verdun Avenue on July 23rd, 1938, you might have stopped, like the people in this photograph, to watch a coffin being carried out of Wilson’s funeral home and placed in a hearse.
How many of the bystanders knew, I wonder, that the body in the coffin was that of Arthur Ellis, who for over two decades was Canada’s official executioner, or “hangman”?
Born in England in 1864, Arthur Bartholomew Alexander English seems to have apprenticed under John Ellis, England’s Chief Executioner, and taken his last name as a tribute, as well as a handy alias, when he began his career in Canada.
Arthur Ellis was based in Montreal throughout most of his career, but travelled across the country in his, ahem, professional capacity. It’s unknown whether he was living in or near Verdun when he died, but if arrangements were entrusted to Wilson’s, it suggests he was. Newspaper articles from the period claim that he died in extreme poverty, having lost his position due to a “botched” execution. I think that’s as far as I’ll go into the gory details.
What if instead we look around us on that July day in Verdun in 1938? We can’t see the funeral home itself unfortunately, but certainly the facade would have been much different than it is today. The Wilson family sold to Alfred Dallaire in 1989, and Yves Légaré took it over in 2003, but a ‘salon funéraire’ has stood at 5784 Verdun avenue, corner Manning, all this time.
5784 Verdun (southeast corner where it crosses Manning ave.) in 2021.
Kitty-corner from the funeral home, at 5811, we can see Verdun’s own Steinberg’s grocery store, which had opened earlier that year. The family chain of stores was started in 1917, but this was the first Steinberg’s in Verdun, if not the last. Indeed they were so successful that by 1941, the grocery was in need of more space and moved to 5100 Verdun Ave, at the corner of 6th. Yep, that’s where pharmacy Jean Coutu is now.
The former Steinberg’s grocery building at 5811 Verdun ave. has changed a lot. And look how much wider the street is now compared to 1938!
Meanwhile, 5811 Verdun avenue has had many incarnations over the years, including its time as Smith-Main’s bakery in the 1960s. The building suffered a bad fire in 2019 but has been repaired. The ground floor is now occupied by Depanneur Guorong, also known as Mini-Marché Manning.
Post Script
Arthur Ellis was Canada’s hangman for a long time, but he was not our last. Capital punishment continued until it was abolished in 1976, and hanging was always the Canadian method of choice.
Legend has it that Ellis is buried in Mount Royal Cemetery.