The Plateau-Mont-Royal Historical Society has more than 10 years of existence and - we blush to admit - we have not yet found the definitive answer to one of the most basic questions about our neighborhood . What is the origin of the name "Plateau-Mont-Royal"?
When did this name first appear and for what reason?
We know that the Guide Mont-Royal newspaper, founded in 1938, already named Plateau-Mont-Royal in its first year of existence, which, according to him, had a population of 200,000 at the time.
One of the first childhood memories of Jean-Luc Allard, son of Louis-Joseph Allard, the founder of the newspaper, is a walk on the mountain with his father where he showed him the extent of the avenue du Mount Royal, saying, "Look at Plateau Mont-Royal." For little Jean-Luc it was the first time he heard that name.
But it is likely that this notion of the "Plateau" goes back further. It evokes of course the topography of the sector. The following passage appears in "The Diocese of Montreal" at the end of the 19th century, published in 1900:
"The Saint-Basile boarding school is located in the Saint-Denis district, on Mont-Royal Avenue, between Berri and Rivard Streets. The elevated position it occupies on the rich plateau of the Mile-End, the abundance of clean air provided by it and the mountain and the river, the magnificent panorama that unfolds at its feet, give this boarding house an allure particular ".
The author and journalist Hélène-Andrée Bizier reminds us that at the beginning of the 20th century, the neighborhood around La Fontaine Park was called Duvernay and in the early 1940s, she says, we do not talk about the Plateau yet. .
The writer and man of theater Jean-Claude Germain agrees in the same direction. In a 2006 interview, not long before the publication of his "Rue Fabre center of the universe", he said, speaking of his childhood in the 1940s, "The plateau did not exist. Montreal was divided into small, disparate parishes linked only by tram 52 ... ".
Hélène-Andrée Bizier offers the following explanation of the origin of the name, making the link with the school "Le Plateau", located in the park La Fontaine and whose auditorium welcomed in 1935 the conductor Wilfrid Pelletier and the formation of the Montreal Symphony Concerts (which will become the Montreal Symphony Orchestra in 1954).
"Approaching Sherbrooke / Calixa-Lavallée, bus drivers announce:" Plateau! ". This is how it is said that the word ended up designating the entire neighborhood located on the heights of Sherbrooke Street. "
-courtesy Historical Society of Plateau-Mont-Royal
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