Originally published in AALM Newsletter Vol. 6
For about a century, people have enjoyed Ivry’s summer splendors with an early morning walk along Chemin Lacasse. A hundred years ago it was a dirt road and it probably still was dirt in the 1940s when Anna Berzan walked it from her brother’s place at the base of Baie Lacasse where she was spending the summer.
Anna was born in Latvia in 1886. Being a very social woman, she struck up a friendship with Mme Fleury, the owner of Villa Fleury, which sat on a magnificent piece of land where the bay narrowed. Mme Fleury, like Anna, was of a certain age. She was tired of running the business.
Villa Fleury had been operated by the Fleury family at least since 1925 when a classified ad in LaPresse read “LAC MANITOU:, Villa Fleury, Ivry, Que, endroit ideal pour vacances. Eau courante, électricité, tennis, danse, etc. Prix modéré.”
La Villa Fleury, ver 1925 carte postale par Ludger Charpentier, no 16 (Patrimoine-Laurentide)
By the 1940s, there were at least 20 rooms along with cottages to rent. Anna empathized with Madame Fleury and offered a solution. Before the summer was over, Anna’s sons, David and Raymond, became the proud owners of the property which they renamed Manitou Lodge.
La Villa Fleury, ver 1925 carte postale par Ludger Charpentier, no 16 (Patrimoine-Laurentide)
It was the beginning of a very special chapter of Ivry History. Beautiful Manitou Lodge became one of the premium Catskills style hotels in the Laurentians. (There were six to La Villa Fleury, ver 1925 carte postale par Ludger Charpentier, no 16 (Patrimoine-Laurentide) 3 eight others in the Ste. Agathe vicinity from 1935-1965.) Elliot Berzan, who himself has been in Ivry with his wife Gail for 45 years now, is the nephew of Raymond and David.
The Quebec Gazetter shows that Manitou Lodge Inc. letters of patent were dated November 9, 1944. Within a few years, David and Raymond had built the beautiful summer only, Manitou Lodge with 25-30 rooms and added about 12 small cabins and the Cedar Lodge for additional families.
Raymond and David wanted to offer a full summer experience to their guests and created a large waterfront with rowboats and even a 25-horsepower motorboat for those that wanted to try the new sport of waterskiing. They also built a softball field which was used for games against teams from other hotels in the area.
Manitou Lodge source: Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network
They also built basketball, tennis, and volleyball courts, as well as a horseshoe pit. The meals were on the so called “American Plan,” meaning that everyone ate their meals in the Lodge’s dining room. There were no kitchen facilities in the rooms or in the cabins, but a small tuck shop provided snacks and sundries. Pat (Miller) Rubin, who has spent all her summers at her family home on Los Meras Lane (at the end of Chemin Lacasse) since 1943, remembers buying candy bars there when she was a little girl.
Entertainment for the guests was a major attraction at the Lodge. There was a separate building called the Habitant Lodge that was erected with a stage and a bar that could accommodate between 100 and 150 people. Entertainers and comedians from Montreal, New York and the Catskills came regularly for Saturday night variety performances including small bands and singers. The comedian Jerry Leiter was a regular performer for several years. Even dance lessons were given by Paul Drake and Mel Holmes. There were movie nights at the Habitant lodge as well as rainy day indoor card games and dice games involving wooden horses.
In the 1950’s there was no synagogue in Ste. Agathe and so the lodge arranged for a Rabbi and a Cantor to come up to conduct Jewish High Holiday services when the Holidays fell in early September.
One interesting story that Elliot remembers was that there was a blind lawyer by the name of George Cohen who learnt to waterski at Manitou Lodge and may have been the first blind water-skier in Canada.
Manitou Lodge was sold in the mid-1960’s to Peter Hoffman, who redeveloped it into a successful sleepaway camp for children. In the early 1980’s the camp was torn down except for the Hoffman House and the rest of the land sold in parcels to private buyers.