Le Plateau Mont-Royal

The portrait

The Main, a garment street

Boulevard Saint-Laurent follows the old road to the parish of Saint-Laurent. As early as 1792 it split the city into east and west, and since 1905 the east-west street numbers have been counted from it. In the 20th century the Main became the street of the needle trade: for nearly 60 years, historian Pierre Anctil writes, it was the heart of Canada's garment industry. At the corner of Prince-Arthur, the women of the Biltmore Shirt Co. worked inside the Balfour Building. At the corner of Duluth, according to the Amis du boulevard Saint-Laurent, the Vineberg Building has stood since 1912, eight storeys of reinforced concrete built for garment making.

Wave after wave of newcomers settled along the boulevard. Schwartz's has been smoking its meat here since 1928. In the 1960s and 1970s, Portuguese families, many from the Azores, made their homes around the Main; in 1975 the city named the Parc du Portugal, and the Ordre des architectes du Québec honoured the community for restoring the neighbourhood's houses. When the garment trade faded in the 1980s, the big buildings emptied. The Vineberg was bought by 22 people from the arts and became a condominium in 1987, the same source notes. In 1997, the boulevard was designated a national historic site.

A square, a village and outdoor stairs

In 1848, the city bought land on the slope to build a reservoir. The deed already set the width of the surrounding streets and banned industrial buildings. The reservoir was obsolete by 1879 and gave way to Square Saint-Louis, laid out the next year with its fountain and paths, at the centre of a fine residential enclave. The poet Émile Nelligan has his monument there. Farther north, avenue Duluth was where Montreal ended: from 1861 to 1886, the village of Saint-Jean-Baptiste ran up to avenue du Mont-Royal, with its lime kilns and streetcar stables. Between 1880 and 1914, bylaws shaped the lots, the lanes and the front setbacks, and the triplex with outdoor staircases appeared in the early 1900s. Its façades took on the grey stone of the Coteau-Saint-Louis quarries, beneath today's Parc Laurier.

From one end to the other

To the west, at the foot of Mount Royal, the Hospitalières de Saint-Joseph opened the Hôtel-Dieu in 1861, designed by Victor Bourgeau. On rue Sainte-Famille they required two-storey stone houses, a tree in front of each, and a clear view to the dome of their chapel. A century later, the developer Concordia Estates bought nearly all of Milton-Parc to build La Cité. In 1972, 255 homes came down and 56 people were arrested during the occupation of its offices. The rest was saved: CMHC bought the buildings in 1979, some 600 homes were renovated, and a 1987 law created the Communauté Milton Parc, one of the largest housing co-operative communities in Canada.

East of rue Saint-Denis, Parc La Fontaine, a former military ground leased by the city from 1874, took its name in 1901; the Théâtre de Verdure has staged shows there since 1956. Michel Tremblay was born on rue Fabre in 1942; in 1968, his Les Belles-sœurs brought joual to an institutional stage for the first time. To the north, the old quarry village of Coteau-Saint-Louis left behind the winding line of rues Gilford and Berri. At the far end, the former village of De Lorimier reached rue D'Iberville, and there are lofts here too, on rue Rachel Est, a short walk from Parc Baldwin, laid out on an old racetrack.

Living on the Plateau

Today, avenue du Mont-Royal goes car-free each summer from boulevard Saint-Laurent to avenue De Lorimier, and so does avenue Duluth Est. Rue Prince-Arthur, Montreal's first pedestrian street, leads from the Main to the square. Groceries come from La Vieille Europe on the boulevard or Bleu & Persillé on avenue du Mont-Royal. In the evening, the choice is between Au Pied de Cochon on avenue Duluth, L'Express on rue Saint-Denis since 1980, and Le Violon on rue Marquette. Parc Jeanne-Mance opens onto the mountain, the rue Rachel bike path crosses the neighbourhood from west to east, and the Sherbrooke, Mont-Royal and Laurier stations of the orange line are a few streets away.

The Plateau suits people who want to do everything on foot or by bike, among plexes, outdoor stairs and back lanes, and those looking, on the Main, for a loft in a building that once kept the sewing machines running.

Every loft has a story. On the Plateau, it often begins in a garment factory on the Main. Our job is to help you find the one that becomes yours.