On the 4th of May, another meeting of the committee was held and it was decided that Mr. Widd should look out for a suitable house and grounds to open school for September. A house and ample grounds were found in Côte St. Antoine at an annual rental of $400 with an option to purchase in five years for $8,000. The house contained accommodation for about twenty pupils but very scant provision for teachers.
The doors were opened on the 15th of September, 1870, and 11 pupils admitted, 9 boys and 2 girls. Six paid full fees of $90 for the scholastic year and 5 were free. The number in attendance was later increased to 16; 13 boys and 3 girls, one of the latter being deaf, dumb and blind.
The institution had a hard struggle for existence for many years, especially about 1876, which was a year of great financial depression; but with the help of kind friends it was kept open and attracted the attention of the late Mr. Joseph Mackay, who finally bought a piece of ground in Notre Dame de Grâce and erected thereon a handsome building capable of accommodating about eighty pupils and their teachers, and the name was then changed to the “Mackay Institution for Protestant Deaf Mutes and the Blind.”
Mr. Widd retired from the principalship about 1882 and was succeeded by Miss Harriet E. McGann as superintendent, who later married a most talented teacher, Mr. John I. Ashcroft, and after his death carried the superintendentship alone to the present date.
There are now about seventy pupils of whom eleven are in the blind class. The subjects taught the blind are the ordinary English branches, music, typewriting, raffia work, knitting, plain sewing, chair caning and piano tuning. For the deaf the Masterson method is used in the kindergarten classes, dressmaking and domestic economy, besides the ordinary public school course. In the industrial department the boys acquire a good knowledge of carpentry, wood carving, cabinet making, shoemaking and chair caning.
THE INSTITUT DES AVEUGLES
The “Institut des Aveugles,” or the Institute for the Blind, at “Nazareth,” St. Catherine Street, the first established in Canada, was founded in Montreal in 1860 by the Rev. V.B. Rousselot, a Sulpician, who sacrificed his private fortune for the work of his predeliction. The course given aims at providing a classical and religious education and follows the practical methods adopted in Paris at the Institution National for the young blind. Music is especially cultivated. In 1892 the Grey Sisters, who have charge of the institution, added an Institut Opthalmique. Eye diseases are also treated at the Hôtel Dieu and Notre Dame Hospital.
THE MONTREAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE BLIND
The latest development is now being enterprised by the non-Catholics under the foregoing name.
In response to a circular letter sent out by a blind citizen, Mr. P.E. Layton, inviting personal friends and others to meet at his residence on Tuesday evening, April 21, 1908, about fifteen blind men and their friends responded. The meeting having been arranged by Mr. Layton, it was unanimously agreed that he should take the chair. In a few well-considered words the chairman set forth what he considered to be a pressing need in our community, the establishment of an association to promote the interests of the English-speaking blind in the Province of Quebec. He was of the opinion that an up-to-date school for the blind was an urgent necessity and that in connection with this, workshops for blind adults should be established so that the non-seeing might by instruction and training become self-supporting. In the discussion which followed it was unanimously decided that such an association should be formed, having the aforesaid objects as its ultimate aim. The officers of the society were then elected as follows: Dr. A. Fisher, honorary president; Mr. C.W. Lindsay, president; Mr. W. Stewart, vice president; Mr. P.E. Layton, treasurer; and Mr. S. Fraser, secretary. The above officers, with the addition of Messrs. H. Baker and T. Stewart, formed an executive committee of management. At a subsequent meeting Messrs. A. Ross and I. Mullhollin were added to this committee. By the end of the first year $12,608.48 had been realized from subscriptions.