Morrin Centre — Attraction in Quebec

Very interesting place with quite a history! The building in which the center is was first a prison, then a college for Protestants, then a library. Now it is a cultural site and a library! You can get a membership to borrow books for $20 per year/individual or $25 per year/family. It was so bizarre being in the location where many people suffered and 17 were given the death-sentence. The stairs they walked down for their execution are still the same. Yikes. I was in a guided tour and we got to experience solitary confinement. We were locked in a small cell in the dark in which prisoners used to be locked for months. Our tour guide was super good at sharing all the info and playing the role. I loved learning about the history of the building ant seeing its traces. In the library, there’s a statue of James Wolf that traveled to several places, including a pub where beer glassed were placed on its arm, before being returned to Quebec City. For book lovers, here is a horrifying fact: someone tried to bomb the statue, but the missed. So, they bombed the books instead and caused the loss of 500 books. The only thing I wish was different is the time given to just explore by ourselves. Were given a little bit of time to look at the details of the rooms etc, but not nearly enough time to really be in the moment and reflect on what we are seeing. PS: the Morrin Center is the only Anglophone library in Quebec City. It’s pretty cool. If I lived in the area I would have loved to be a member and hang out between all the...

My wife and I were recently married (and had our reception dinner) in the library at the Morrin Centre, and it was a thoroughly lovely experience. Their rental pricing was exceedingly reasonable. Our contact person at the Morrin Centre, Cynthia Bureau, was incredibly helpful and flexible in working with us as my now-wife and I planned our wedding across timezones and from another country. Cynthia also was very knowledgeable about the library and its history and gave the wedding guests a spooky jail tour. Additionally, if you like murder mysteries, you might be interested to know (as my mom was) that the Morrin Centre Library features prominently in Louise Penny’s Bury Your Dead. And once you see the library, you'll know why an author would want to set part of their mystery; it feels like a room from a different time and place.

All in all, I cannot recommend the Morrin Centre highly enough as a place to get married, hold some other event, or just to visit if you're in town! I will look back fondly on my time in their library for the...

I walked in today, there was a sign saying “come in and make a reservation for your visit”. So we did, they asked my name and phone number and that’s it. They didn’t say anything else, so I thought we were making reservations to limit the quantity of people because of COVID. But when we arrived for our reservation we had to actually pay for a tour. I only wanted to see the library, I asked if we could just walk around and they said no. Ok, I paid and after around 10 minutes listening to the tour guide outside, he showed us a picture of the library and said we couldn’t go there because it’s closed. I got extremely disappointed and interrupted the tour, so he offered me a refund. I only gave 2 stars because the the staff were really friendly, because I think this is a huge fault. The tour was actually being interesting, cool information, but if you are not getting the entire tour, they should tell you from the beginning, especially when you’ll miss the most...