375 years of Montreal Architecture
Montreal, the city and its cultural heritage
Montreal will celebrate its 375th anniversary of foundation in 2017. The city is at a crossroad of its history and of its economy. It is time for Montreal to realign its priorities and design its future. Many things will change and come about in the next decade that will have a profound effect on the environment and tourism.
The city is part of a group of ‘Old’ North American cities built around the same period of time, 1700–1860 / 1861–1979. In many ways we can speak of sister cities on the North American Eastern seaboard. Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Baltimore, and cities as far inland as Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Buffalo and Toronto are very much like Montreal in their design, infrastructures and culture, except for one very distinctive detail: The French factor and latin culture.
Does Montreal’s French heritage show in its architecture ? It does very much in every district built before 1960; North American and British cultural traits do too. From 1960 on we can start speaking of the Montreal influence on its own architecture; the legacy of the Expo67 world fair and the 1976 summer games have given birth to the modern constructions that we can see all around town. But what really attracts foreigners is the provious historical heritage. Let’s start from the beginning…
Montreal’s oldest standing structure is The Old Sulpician Seminary — 1694 (not pictured in this blog post) the impressive stone structure is typical of French settlers architecture of the time. The first French settlement of the island of Montreal (Hochelaga), dates back to 1536, when French explorer Jacques Cartier discovered the native habited island for the French crown. In the 1700's the Montreal fortifications were built to protect the then 10,000 strong city from Native and British invasions, but to no avail as the French army was defeated on the Planes of Abraham in Quebec City — 1759. What’s left of these fortifications can be seen today on the Champs de Mars in Old Montreal.
Under British rule, the City of Montreal became the Canadian metropolis for commerce and later for industry. The centre of town turned into the Canadian Financial centre with Wall Street style Skyscrapers such as the Royal Bank Tower and the Aldred Building. Earlier, in the 1850's the Lachine Canal was built to create the largest Canadian industrial basin of the time; it bypassed the Saint-Laurence River rapids giving access to the continental interior for European traders. Along the Lachine canal grew some of Montreal’s famous blue collar districts, Saint-Henri, Pointe-Saint-Charles, Little Burgundy & Griffintown. Some of the city’s most characteristic architecture came from these blue collar neighbourhoods. A lot of it can still be enjoyed today. North of the canal we can enjoy the bourgeois districts of Westmount, Milton Park, Saint-Louis (The heart of the Quartier Latin today) and Outremont later on.
These central districts are home to some of the city’s most sumptuous architectural wonders of late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Then of course we have the industrial and financial architecture, Canada’s largest manufacturing shops and tallest skyscrapers of the time, even the Commonwealth’s tallest building in 1936, the SunLife Building.
Our favourite subjects remain the typical residential street architecture of the central districts such as shown in this blog post.
We enjoy every subject however. The industrial and factory districts of the city are the countries most fascinating and easily accessible from metro and and public transportation.
In the East end, the Port district of Hochelaga is also an architectural wonderland. Hochelaga more or less stands as the city’s identity of québécois blue collar culture; the district is a ‘must’ visit for who wants to experience Montreal and understand its history and its heritage.
The cultural and architectural heritage of Montreal has for always been the city’s best asset. Although Montreal is a reasonably successful economic hub with a good diversity of industry and services, its cultural heritage is its only renewable resource.
We believe therefore that tourism is Montreal’s most important industry. The European flavor of this North American city is unique and must be preserved by all means possible.
Most Montrealers are aware of this issue and favorable for the most on heritage preservation and investments in cultural developpement; but this isn’t true for the rest of the province. Outside of Montreal, Quebecers feel the city’s demands for public investments in heritage preservation is too much. Montreal’s economy drives the whole province; a small detail they seem to overlook.
Tourisme is the city’s second largest industry. Prince-Arthur Avenue was once the pride of town. Now rundown by years of economic downfall, the city has announced a multi-million dollar investement to upgrade the dilapidated stretch.
Enough said, there is nothing like a direct in person experience and ’tis now the season’ for that.
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