Old Montreal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Old Montreal (or Vieux-Montréal in French) is the oldest area in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, dating back to New France.
Located in the borough of Ville-Marie, the area is usually thought of as being bounded to the west by McGill St., to the north by Ruelle des Fortifications, to the east by Berri St., and to the south by the Saint Lawrence River. Following recent amendments, the district has been slightly expanded to include rue des Soeurs Grises to the west, Saint Antoine St. to the north and the St-Hubert Street in the east. It also includes the Old Port of Montreal. Most of Old Montreal was declared historic district in 1964 by the Ministère des Affaires culturelles du Québec.
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[edit] Beginning
In 1605, Samuel de Champlain set up a fur trading post at Place Royale , at the confluence of the Saint Laurence River and the long-vanished Petite Rivière, adjacent to present-day Place d'Youville and the Pointe-à-Callière Museum. However, the local Iroquois successfully defended their land and the post was abandoned.
The original site of Montreal in 1642, then known as Ville-Marie, is not precisely known. This is the Pointe-à-Callière, a piece of land at the confluence of the St. Lawrence River and Little River (incorrectly called Saint-Pierre). The founder, Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, built there a fort (1643) in the name of the Société Notre-Dame de Montreal for the conversion of the Indians in New France, a company created by the Sulpicians Jean-Jacques Olier and Jérôme Le Royer, Sieur de La Dauversière in 1642. The Société acquired the lordship of the island of Montreal and brought the first settlers to house, feed, educate and care for the Amerindians. Because of flooding, they had to cross to the other side of Little River on the north shore where the Soeurs hospitalières (Hospital Sisters) of Montreal, under the direction of Jeanne Mance, will build and operate the first hospital, the Hotel-Dieu de Montreal.
[edit] The French Colony
After the bankruptcy of the Société Notre-Dame, the Sulpicians, who arrived in 1657, becoming in 1663 the Seigneurs of Montreal. The king of France takes power over the colony. It gives them the island of Montreal with the obligation to build and live there and ensure development by cultivating the land. In 1665, the king sends 1,200 men, the Régiment de Carignan-Salières. The Sulpicians organize seigneuries at the center of the island. François Dollier Casson established of the first grid of streets of the colony from existing trails. The first streets were laid out, including the Rue Notre-Dame, the Rue Saint-Paul and Rue Saint-Jacques. The original grid is still visible today. Finally, the buildings of the era are the Hotel-Dieu de Montréal, the Saint-Sulpice Old Seminary and Notre Dame Church, replaced later by the Notre-Dame Basilica.
In the early eighteenth century, the name of Montreal (which originally meant the island) is gradually replacing that of Ville-Marie. It is a real French colony where the initial dream to combine the settlers and Native Americans has vanished. The arrival in 1657 of Marguerite Bourgeoys who founded the Congregation Notre-Dame, then the arrival of the Jesuits and Recollets in 1692 helps to give the colony its Catholic look. The old fortifications of Montreal, erected in 1717 by Gaspard Chaussegros de Léry and demolished in the early nineteenth century, are the boundaries of Montreal at the time. There are fears of being invaded by the British. The fortifications were also constructed to provide for future expansion inside the walls. Although the walls protect possible attacks (in fact, they never served), but it faces another major problem of the time. A large concentration of wooden houses with fireplaces was the cause of many devastating fires. In 1721, Montreal gets a royal order from France to ban wood construction. The buildings were to be constructed using stone and masonry but the ban was never fully respected.
[edit] The British Colony
New France became a British colony in 1763. Even if the consequences of the Conquest were not felt immediately, it would indelibly change the face of Old Montreal. Until the late. eighteenth century, the impact was not visible as construction methods inherited from the French regime continued. However, distrust of the British authorities towards the Catholics clergy will cause the departure of several of them out of Old Montreal. Another major factor, however, soon changed the appearance of Old Montreal: the fires.
Construction of wood and the density increased with the construction of fortifications have made the most dramatic fires and many conflagrations have contributed to reconfigure the Old Montreal. The fires of 1765 and 1768 destroyed nearly half the buildings in Old Montreal. In May 1765, fire destroyed about 110 houses before burning the old Hôtel de Callière and the former General Hospital. In April 1768, 88 houses between rue Saint-Jean-Baptiste and Hotel Vaudreuil are burned in the convent of the Congregation Notre-Dame. In subsequent years, the city will be rebuilt even more densely .
On 6 June 1803, a massive fire destroyed the prison, the church and the dependencies of Jesuits, a dozen houses and the former residence of the Marquis de Vaudreuil. Two speculators bought the field of Vaudreuil, offered one third to the City and the rest divided into seven lots that they claimed. The space granted to the City became the new market square, called Marché Neuf (New Market) before taking in 1845 the current name of Place Jacques-Cartier. The space occupied by the church of the Jesuits became the Place Vauquelin, and in the ancient gardens of Jesuits that we build in 1873 the Montreal City Hall.
In 1821, a fire destroyed the Mansion House, a luxurious hotel dating from 1815 which housed the first public library in Montreal with over 7000 volumes. It is replaced by the British-American Hotel with the first permanent theatre, Royal Theatre where came Charles Dickens. The hotel burned in 1833 and in 1845 will be built in the Bonsecours Market.
In 1849, a riot caused a fire with political consequences when, protesting against a law, a Tories mob burnt down the Parliament building who was in the old Marché Saint-Anne on Place d'Youville. Following these incidents, the parliament will move to the new capital, Ottawa. The irony is that precisely where the parliament burned is built the first fire station in Montreal (1903): the building still exists and has become the Centre d’histoire de Montréal.
The Authorities of the colony decided the first radical transformation of the nineteenth century, in 1804, with the destruction of the fortifications surrounding the heart of Montreal. Concluded in 1815, this decision enlarges the perimeter of Old Montreal and makes easier the circulation with the surrounding suburbs. Confinement in a fortified and very dense area caused the departure of the richer merchants out of the perimeter where it was possible to build luxury residences on large lots.
The nineteenth century will see the emergence of a bourgeois class of merchants very different from the aristocracy of the old French Regime seeking privileges. With the presence of the port, a major commercial activity will change the urban landscape with the building of the shop houses, with ground floor for trade, and the floors upstairs are residential. However, this type of building will be gradually replaced by warehouse stores, with floors for counters, showrooms, repair workshops and rooms for shipping and receiving. This type of construction means that Old Montreal is less and less residential: the rich merchants have sumptuous residences closer to the mountain. But the Anglo-Saxon influence is particularly acute in the banking and finance. Any business requires a financial infrastructure that is found mainly rue Saint-Jacques called the Wall Street of Montreal. These are the large banks such as Bank of Montreal or the Royal Bank , insurance companies or stock exchanges. All these buildings are in stone, in a neo-classical style and designed by Anglo-Saxon architects.
The same is true for institutional buildings such as the Old Court House, the Customs, the Bonsecours Market and even the Notre-Dame Basilica whose façade is the work of an Irish Protestant from New York, James O'Donnell. The only notable exception is the Montreal City Hall, inspired by the Hotel de Ville de Rennes. Compared with fields stone masonry used in the French regime, the Victorian style of the second half of the nineteenth century changes deeply the appearance of Old Montreal.
[edit] Decline, Preservation and Renewal
In the early twentieth century, the momentum of the district continues to grow as evidenced by the construction of prestigious buildings such as the Aldred Building (1929-1931), La Sauvegarde Building (1913) or the first Stock Exchange (1903-1904). Port activities, the financial sector, justice and the municipal government help maintain a constant activity until the Great Depression of 1929. But the elements of an imminent decline are not lacking.
The relocation of port facilities much further east will deprive the Old Montreal of many companies related to maritime trade, leaving many abandoned warehouses or commercial buildings. Moreover, the progressive relocation of the center of the town few streets north and the almost complete departure of residents (there are no more than a few hundred in 1950) has the effect of completely emptying the district at the close of business. At that time, the lack of nightlife gave the district a reputation of being dangerous at night. Today, however, thousands of Montrealers have chosen this district for living, working and entertaining themselves. Hotels, restaurants, boutiques and art galleries in the neighbourhood makes the Old Montréal a lively district where one will encounter Montrealers and tourists all year round.
In addition, Old Montreal will pay tribute to the cult of the car : when a building is destroyed, the space thus released becomes a parking lot. The most prestigious places , such as the Place d'Armes, the Place d'Youville and Place Jacques-Cartier will be in the mid-twentieth century covered with cars.
For municipal authorities, Old Montreal is a kind of an anomaly, not aware of its heritage value. Project planning were considering wider streets, which means that many older buildings were to be razed. But what triggers the mobilization to save the Old Montreal, is an absurd project of elevated highway along the river over the rue de la Commune. Dutch-born architect and urban planner Daniel van Ginkel played a major role in saving the district from destruction in the early 1960s. As assistant director of the city of Montreal's newly formed planning department, he persuaded authorities to abandon plans for an expressway that would have cut through the old city.[1] With those protests began to increase a conscience of the historic value that will result, in 1964, the classification of most of the Old Montreal as a historic district, even if at the same time, the Quebec government will commit a final "massacre" razing several buildings of the nineteenth century to build a new Court House: it will be the last major injury of the borough.
Revitalization begins with the inventory, upgrading and recycling of abandoned buildings. They are converted into offices or residential condominiums. The process is often expensive, but restoration gives buildings a mark found nowhere else. In addition to the constant return of residents, the area becomes attractive to the hotel industry. In the nineteenth century, all major hotels were in Old Montreal. In 1980, there were none. In 2009, there are again some twenty, mostly in older buildings recycled which gives them a unique character. A continuous flow of tourists and the presence of new residents make possible sustained nightlife and entertainment.
In addition, municipal authorities have invested large sums to renew the infrastructures. The Place Jacques-Cartier and part of the Place d'Youville were redesigned and a restoration of the Place d'Armes is in progress. A illumination plane was also developed to highlight the different façade styles.
Everyone agrees today that the historical legacy and cultural heritage of Old Montreal is its major asset. By highlighting the old buildings and filling the vacant spaces with new buildings, the district acquires a increasing dynamism : it is the first tourist destination in Montreal.
[edit] Sources
Lauzon, Gilles; Forget, Madeleine (2004). OLD MONTREAL History through Heritage. Montréal: Les Publications du Qhébec. p. 293. ISBN 2-551-19654-X.
McLean, Eric (2004). The Living Past of Montreal. Montréal: McGill University Press. p. 64.
Pinard, Guy (1987-1995). Montréal, son histoire, son architecture. (6 vol) Montréal: Éditions La Presse, Méridien. p. 1800 pages. ISBN 2-89415-039-3.
[edit] References
- ^ Martin, Sandra (Jul. 23, 2009). "Sandy van Ginkel rescued Old Montreal from freeway developers". Globe and Mail. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/sandy-van-ginkel-rescued-old-montreal-from-freeway-developers/article1229337/. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
[edit] Gallery
 Old Montreal seen from the Old Port |
 Place Vauquelin with Nelson Column |
 Canadian Express Building (1908), now Hôtel St-Paul |
 Former General Hospital |
 Pointe-à-Callière Museum |
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 New York Life Building, the oldest skyscraper in Canada, Place d'Armes |
 Commissaries Building (1878) |
 View to Place d'Armes |
 Rue de la Commune |
 Dome of the Bonsecours Market |
 City Hall and Old Court House |
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 Rue de la Commune looking East |
 First Fire Station (1903), Place d'Youville |
 Former Commisaries Building (1878) |
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 Rue Notre-Dame looking to the Place d'Armes |
 Former Merchant Bank (1873) now Hôtel St-James |
[edit] Features
Old Montreal itself is a major tourist draw; with the oldest of its buildings dating to the 1600s, it is one of the oldest urban areas in North America.
In the eastern part of the old city, near Place Jacques-Cartier, are found such important buildings as Montreal City Hall, Bonsecours Market, and Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel, as well as preserved colonial mansions such as the Château Ramezay and the Sir George-Étienne Cartier National Historic Site of Canada.
Further west, Place d'Armes is dominated by Notre-Dame Basilica on its southern side, accompanied by the Saint-Sulpice Seminary, the oldest extant building in Montreal. The other sides of the square, however, are devoted to commerce; to the north is the former Bank of Montreal Head Office and to the west, the Aldred Building and the 1888 New York Life Building, the oldest skyscraper in Canada. The rest of Saint Jacques Street is lined with lofty old bank buildings - like the Old Royal Bank Building - from its heyday as Canada's financial centre. The southwest of the old city contains important archeological remains of Montreal's first townsite, around Place d'Youville and Place Royale, and in the Pointe-à-Callière museum.
Architecture and cobbled streets in Old Montreal have been maintained or restored to keep the look of the city in its earliest days as a settlement, and horse-drawn calèches help maintain that image. Finally, the old town's riverbank is completely taken up by the Old Port (Vieux-Port), whose maritime facilities are surrounded with a vast recreational space with a variety of museums and attractions.
[edit] Champ de Mars
Champ de Mars is a large public expanse located in between Montreal City Hall and the Ville-Marie Expressway. It offers a view of downtown Montreal and Chinatown. It is notable due to its location and the fascinating archaeological remains. The two parallel lines of stone are one of the few spots in present-day Montreal where you can still see physical evidence of the fortified settlement of colonial times.
[edit] Transportation
Old Montreal is accessible from the downtown core via the Underground City and is served by several STM bus routes and the Champ-de-Mars, Place-d'Armes, and Square-Victoria metro stations. Ferries to south shore city of Longueuil are available during the summer as are a network of bicycle paths.
[edit] External links
- Old Montreal — official site
- Architecture of Old Montréal
- Photo Gallery of Old Montréal
- Picture of Old Montréal on Images Montréal
- Condo Buildings in Old Montreal - an illustrated list
- Marguerite Bourgeoys Museum in Old Montreal
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Old Montreal |
Coordinates: 45°30′04″N 73°33′22″W / 45.501095°N 73.556026°W
