Mile End – Saint Louis

 

The second growth spurt of Mile End coincided with the introduction of electric tramway service in 1893; the area can be considered an example of a streetcar suburb. The agricultural and industrial exhibition grounds at the southwest of the village, near Mount Royal, were subdivided in 1899 for housing. The village became a town in 1895 and changed its name to simply Saint-Louis. Apart from a tiny street located just outside the town's northwestern limit, and (for its remaining years) the railway station, the name Mile End passed out of the official toponymy for close to a century, coming back into use as a municipal electoral district only in 1982.

The town of Saint-Louis built in 1905 a magnificent town hall on the northwest corner of Saint-Laurent and what is now Laurier Avenue; the building still serves as a fire hall and firefighters' museum. The town was annexed by the expanding city of Montreal on 29 May 1909, taking effect as of 1 January 1910, and became Laurier Ward (quartier Laurier). Population growth had been explosive: in 1891, the village had 3537 residents; in 1911, after annexation, the ward's population was about 37,000.

Perhaps the most recognizable architectural symbol of Mile End is the Church of St. Michael the Archangel of 1914-5, on Saint-Viateur Street at the corner of Saint-Urbain. The church, designed by Aristide Beaugrand-Champagne, was built for an Irish Catholic community, as expressed by omnipresent shamrock motifs; yet the overall style of the building is based on Byzantine rather than Western architectural traditions. Even more striking, the church has a slender tower that resembles a minaret. The building has been shared since 1964 with the Polish Catholic mission of St. Anthony of Padua, which officially merged with the parish of St. Michael in 1969 to form the current parish of St. Michael's and St. Anthony's; masses are celebrated in Polish and in English.

 

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The Past Whispers
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Mile End – The Coming of the Railway

 

 

Mile End Station – Montreal

The transcontinental railway gave Mile End its first growth spurt and separate identity. In 1876, the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway – a project vigorously promoted by Antoine Labelle and Louis Beaubien – came slicing through the area on its way from east-end Montreal to Sainte-Thérèse, Lachute, and Ottawa. This railway was bought in 1882 by the Canadian Pacific, and it was by this route that the first trains departed for the Prairies in 1885 and for Port Moody, British Columbia in June 1886 (extending to Vancouver in 1887). The first Mile End station building was erected in 1878 on the east side of Saint-Laurent Road, near what is now the intersection of Bernard Street. (A much larger station was built in 1911; it closed in 1931, when service was moved to the new Park Avenue Station (Jean-Talon), and was demolished in 1970 to make way for the Rosemont–Van Horne viaduct.)

Also in 1878, the village of Saint-Louis-du-Mile-End was incorporated, population 1319. Its territory consisted of the western third of Côte Saint-Louis: bounded on the west by the limit of Outremont (generally along Hutchison Street), on the south by what is now Mont-Royal Avenue, and on the east by a line running mostly just east of the current Henri-Julien Avenue. The northern border was north of present-day De Castelnau Street or just south of Jarry Park.

- Wikipedia

(2017) Linda Sullivan – Simpson
The Past Whispers
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Mile End – Montreal

 

 

Nineteenth-century maps and other documents show the name Mile End as the crossroads at Saint-Laurent Road (now Boulevard) and what is now Mont-Royal Avenue. Originally, this road was Côte Sainte-Catherine Road (heading west) and Tanneries Road (heading east). It is probable that the name Mile End was inspired by the East London suburb of the same name.

Contrary to popular belief, the place is not precisely a mile away from any official marker. It is, however, a mile north along Saint-Laurent from Sherbrooke Street, which in the early 19th century marked the boundary between the urban area and open countryside. (Several decades later, the Mile End train station near Bernard Street was situated coincidentally one more mile north along Saint-Laurent from the original crossroads.)

Mile End was also the first important crossroads north of the tollgate set up in 1841 at the city limits of 1792. From the crossroads to the city limits the distance was 0.4 miles (0.64 km). The city limits were located 100 chains (1.25 miles or about 2 km) north of the fortification wall, and intersected Saint-Laurent just south of the current Duluth Avenue.

As early as 1810, there was a Mile End Hotel and tavern, operated by Stanley Bagg, an American-born entrepreneur and father of the wealthy landowner Stanley Clark Bagg. The earliest known published references to Mile End are advertisements placed by Stanley Bagg, in both English and French, in The Gazette during the summer of 1815. He announced in July: "Farm for sale at St. Catherine [i.e., Outremont], near Mile End Tavern, about two miles from town...". On 7 August, he inserted the following:

STRAYED or STOLEN from the Pasture of Stanley Bagg, Mile End Tavern, on or about the end of June last, a Bay HORSE about ten years old, white face, and some white about the feet. Any person who will give information where the Thief or Horse may be found shall receive a reward of TEN DOLLARS and all reasonable charges paid. STANLEY BAGG. Montreal, Mile End, August 4, 1815.

 

The road variously known as Chemin des Tanneries (Tannery Road), Chemin des Carrières (Quarry Road), or Chemin de la Côte-Saint-Louis led to a tannery and to limestone quarries used for the construction of much of Montreal's architecture. The village of Côte Saint-Louis (incorporated 1846) sprung up near the quarries, its houses clustered east of the Mile End district around the present-day intersection of Berri Street and Laurier Avenue. It was to serve this village that a chapel of the Infant Jesus was established in 1848 near Saint Lawrence Road, on land donated by Pierre Beaubien. In 1857-8, the chapel was replaced by the church of Saint Enfant Jésus du Mile End. The church, made even more impressive by a new façade in 1901-3, was the first important building in what would become Mile End.

-Wikipedia

 

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Saint Helen's Island

 

Saint Helen's Island (French: Île Sainte-Hélène) is an island in the Saint Lawrence River, in the territory of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is situated immediately southeast of the Island of Montreal, in the extreme southwest of Quebec. It forms part of the Hochelaga Archipelago. The Le Moyne Channel separates it from Notre Dame Island. Saint Helen's Island and Notre Dame Island together make up Parc Jean-Drapeau (formerly Parc des Îles).

Picnic - 1938

It was named in 1611 by Samuel de Champlain in honour of his wife, Hélène de Champlain, née Boullé. The island belonged to the Le Moyne family of Longueuil from 1665 until 1818, when it was purchased by the British government. A fort, powderhouse and blockhouse were built on the island as defences for the city, in consequence of the War of 1812.

The newly formed Canadian government acquired the island in 1870; it was converted into a public park in 1874. The public used it as a beach and swam in the river.

In the 1940s, during World War II, Saint Helen's Island, along with various other regions within Canada, such as the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean and Hull, Quebec, had Prisoner-of-war camps. St. Helen's prison was number forty seven and remained unnamed just like most of Canada's other war prisons. The prisoners of war (POWs) were sorted and classified into categories including their nationality and civilian or military status. In this camp, POWs were mostly of Italian and German nationality. Also, prisoners were forced into hard labour which included farming and lumbering the land. By 1944 the camp would be closed and shortly afterwards destroyed because of an internal report on the treatment of prisoners.

The archipelago of which Saint Helen's Island is a part was chosen as the site of Expo 67, a World's Fair on the theme of Man and His World, or in French, Terre des Hommes. In preparation for Expo 67, the island was greatly enlarged and consolidated with several nearby islands, using earth excavated during the construction of the Montreal metro. The nearby island, Notre Dame Island, was built from scratch.

After Expo, the site continued to be used as a fairground, now under the name Man and His World or Terre des Hommes. Most of the Expo installations were dismantled and the island was returned to parkland.

The island can be accessed by public transit, by car, by bicycle or by foot. The Concordia Bridge links St. Helen's Island to Montreal's Cité du Havre neighbourhood on the Island of Montreal as well as Notre Dame Island (which itself is connected to Saint-Lambert on the south shore by bicycle paths). The island is also accessible via the Jacques Cartier Bridge from both the Island of Montreal and Longueuil on the south shore.

 

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The Past Whispers
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Old seminary of Saint-Sulpice

 

The Society of the Priests of Saint-Sulpice built this building from 1684 to 1687 and enlarged it at the beginning of the eighteenth century. This is his second seminar in Montreal. The first, built in 1657, had a main façade towards the river and overlooked Saint-Paul Street. After the construction of the old parish church, Rue Notre-Dame, inaugurated in 1683, the Sulpicians decided to leave the market place and choose to settle on a vacant lot next to the church they serve . Attributed to the superior of the seminary of Montreal, François Dollier de Casson, the building must mainly house the priests of Saint-Sulpice. In addition to their role as educators and missionaries, the Sulpicians were responsible for the parish of Notre-Dame and, from 1663 until the 19th century, they held the seigneury of the island of Montreal. The residence of the Sulpicians is therefore both a presbytery, a seigniorial manor and a seminary where some fifteen priests receive a good part of their sacerdotal training during the French Regime.

Originally, the building consists of only a long body of building parallel to the street. It then has two stone floors, including the ground floor (rather than three as is currently the case) and it is capped with a broken roof at the Mansart - we do not know when it will be modified to the benefit of The current configuration. Two wings, perhaps projected from the beginning, were added around 1710 - between the elaboration of the plan of Jacques Levasseur of Nere in 1704 and that of Gédéon of Catalonia in 1713. Other modifications were added, Portal in 1740. The stone wall that separates the courtyard from the street may be built at the end of the 18th century - a map of the city elaborated by Louis Guy in 1795 clearly shows its presence.

The Conquest of New France had serious consequences for the Sulpicians of Montreal, whose future was threatened. The Compagnie des Prêtres de Saint-Sulpice, whose mother-house is in Paris, possesses Canadian property. She handed them over to the priests of the Montreal seminary in February 1764, but this transfer was unofficial and gave rise to thorny questions about the legal status of the seminary. Things were not clarified until 1840 when the British colonial government recognized the Ecclesiastics of the Saint-Sulpice Seminary of Montreal as a legally constituted body - it was later changed to "The Priests of Saint Sulpice of Montreal ".

In 1840, too, the Sulpicians, in agreement with the bishop, founded the Grand Seminary of Montreal for the complete formation of the priests. Their role as ecclesiastical trainers is thus consolidated while that of lords is on the verge of disappearing. Beginning in 1848, the Sulpicians embarked on a vast project to rebuild their building on Notre-Dame Street in order to reunite their residence and the new major seminary. Only the left-hand part of the project is realized, which leads to the demolition of one of the two wings of the 18th century.

The main facade changes little afterwards, except in particular a plaster imitating the cut stone, which covers the facade for a certain time and then disappears. In the back, a long two-storey brick wing (including the ground floor) was built in 1907-1908. Various renovations take place in the 20th century, both inside and outside the seminary. In 1985, the building and the entire property were classified as a monument and historic site under the Quebec Cultural Property Act. After several studies, the most important restoration campaign in the history of the building was launched in 2005 and continues in 2011. In the meantime, the building's primary function, the residence of the Sulpicians, remains the same , But the priests who live there at the beginning of the twenty-first century are mostly retired.

 

©2017 Linda Sullivan – Simpson
The Past Whispers
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Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours Chapel

 

 

The Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel (chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours, "Our Lady of Good Help") is a church in the district of Old Montreal in Montreal, Quebec. One of the oldest churches in Montreal, it was built in 1771 over the ruins of an earlier chapel.

St. Marguerite Bourgeoys, the first teacher in the colony of Ville-Marie and the founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame, rallied the colonists to build a chapel in 1655. In 1673, returning from France, Bourgeoys brought a wooden image of Our Lady of Good Help; the stone church was completed in 1678. It burned in 1754, the reliquary and statue being rescued.

After Montreal was conquered by British forces during the French and Indian War, the church was attended by Irish and Scottish troops and families, and saw fundraising to build Saint Patrick's Church, Montreal's first anglophone Catholic parish.

In the 19th century, the chapel came to be a pilgrimage site for the sailors who arrived in the Old Port of Montreal; they would make offerings to the Virgin in gratitude for her "good help" for safe sea voyages. In 1849, Mgr. Ignace Bourget, Bishop of Montreal, gave the chapel a statue of the Virgin as Star of the Sea, which was placed atop the church overlooking the harbour. Emphasizing the connection of the chapel and the port, the chapel is often called the Sailors' Church.

The chapel now also houses the Marguerite Bourgeoys Museum, dedicated to the life of St. Marguerite Bourgeoys and to the early history of Montreal and the chapel site. Below the chapel, the crypt is being excavated as an archeological site, which visitors can see. First Nations and French colonial artifacts have been discovered, along with the foundations of the first chapel and the fortifications of the colony. The church's prominent spire can also be climbed, offering views of the Old Port and Saint Lawrence River. In 2005, Marguerite Bourgeoys's mortal remains were brought back to the church, where she now lies in the sanctuary.

The church is located at 400 Saint Paul Street East at Bonsecours Street, just north of the Bonsecours Market in the borough of Ville-Marie (Champ-de-Mars metro station).

 

©2017 Linda Sullivan – Simpson
The Past Whispers
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Old Port of Montreal – Clock Tower

 

 

Montreal Clock Tower at sunrise

The Clock Tower was built between 1919 and 1922 from a design by Montréal-based engineer Paul Leclaire. Forty-five metres high, it marks the entrance to the port and is a memorial to sailors lost at sea in wartime.Its extremely precise clock mechanism was made in England by Gillett and Johnston, and is a replica of Big Ben in London. Like Big Ben, its accuracy is legendary, and sailors would set their own time pieces by it.

The Clock Tower was the port’s time keeper in an era when wrist watches were not yet common. It is even said that when the clock stopped working, many port employees would report to work late.With its powerful light, the tower also served as a lighthouse to guide incoming ships. The structure was originally designed to conceal the unsightly sheds that once lined the quays.Classified as a federal heritage building since 1996, the tower provides spectacular views of the St. Lawrence River and the city for those willing to climb its 192 steps to the top.

 

©2017 Linda Sullivan – Simpson
The Past Whispers
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