St. Henri Rail Transport

 

St Henri Train Station on the Grand Trunk Railroad

 

1836: Canada's First Railway

The Champlain & St. Lawrence Railroad, Canada's first railway trunk was built in 1836 between Montreal's South Shore and St. Jean-sur-Richelieu. This 26 km long link was a considerable shortcut since the initial waterway route (St. Jean - Sorel - Montreal) was more than 150 km long.

 

St. Henri Train Station

 

1847: Montreals's First Railway

The Montreal and Lachine Railroad was inaugurated several years's later in 1847 to provide a land link to bypass the treacherous section of the St Lawrence before the Lachine Canal was built. This railroad went through the middle of through St Henri and stopped near the corner of St Jacques and St Henri. Other stops included Bonaventure, Montreal West, and Beaconfield.

 

The Grand Trunk Railroad

In 1853, the Grand Trunk Railway was formed from an amalgamation of several smaller rail companies including the Montreal and Lachine Railroad. The first part of this line extended from Sarnia to Toronto and then Montreal. The second part ran from Montreal to Levis (on the South Shore of Quebec City) and then to the border of New Brunswick (then a separate British colony) where it met with the Intercolonial Railway.
Rapid expansion and heavy competition resulted in The Grand Trunk's bankrupcy in 1919. The Federal Government took over the railway that year, placing it under the management of the Canadian National Railways in 1923.

 

©2016 Linda Sullivan-Simpson
The Past Whispers
All Rights Reserved

Saint-Henri

 

Saint-Henri 1859

Saint-Henri is well known as a historically French-Canadian, Irish and black working class neighbourhood. Often contrasted with wealthy Westmount looking down over the Falaise Saint-Jacques, in recent years it has been strongly affected by gentrification.

The area—historically known as Les Tanneries because of the artisans' shops where leather tanning took place—was named for St. Henry via the Église Saint-Henri, which at one time formed Place Saint-Henri along with the community's fire and police station. The bustle of a nearby passenger rail station was immortalized in the song "Place St. Henri" (1964) by Oscar Peterson.

Saint-Henri is part of the municipal district of Saint-Henri–Petite-Bourgogne–Pointe-Saint-Charles. The borough hall for Le Sud-Ouest is located in a converted factory in Saint-Henri, bearing witness to the borough's industrial heritage.

Église Saint-Henri was so named to commemorate Fr. Henri-Auguste Roux (1798–1831), the superior of Saint-Sulpice Seminary. The municipality of Saint-Henri was formed in 1875, joining the village of Saint-Henri and the surrounding settlements of Turcot, Brodie, Saint-Agustin and Sainte-Marguerite into one administrative unit. The municipality was incorporated into the City of Montreal in 1905.

Well-known people from Saint-Henri include strongman Louis Cyr, who served as a police officer there; the Place des Hommes-Forts and the Parc Louis-Cyr are named for him. Celebrated jazz pianist Oscar Peterson grew up in Little Burgundy which is the neighborhood adjacent to Saint-Henri. Stand-up comedian Yvon Deschamps has described the daily struggle of Saint-Henri's citizens with humorous melancholy.

Saint-Henri and Little Burgundy are considered to have a fairly common social makeup. Historically, Saint-Henri was occupied predominantly by European blue-collar workers while Little Burgundy was occupied primarily by African-Canadians who worked on the railroads. – courtesy Wikipedia

Two of my grand aunts lived in Saint-Henri. Evelina (Bernard) Mailhot and her husband Anatole lived near the train because Anatole was an engineer. Anita (Bernard) Blanchette and her husband Joseph lived for a time in Saint-Henri as they had a shop before moving to Verdun.

 

©2016 Linda Sullivan-Simpson
The Past Whispers
All Rights Reserved