Saint-Henri

The portrait

History of Saint-Henri

Walk up rue Notre-Dame Ouest and erase the terraces and shop windows. Long before the smokestacks, the air here smelled of leather. Along a small river now buried underground, tanners soaked their hides in vats, and the village took their name: Saint-Henri-des-Tanneries.

Then a whistle broke the quiet. In 1847, the island's first train crossed the village, and factories lined up along the Lachine Canal. The cotton mill became the second largest in the country. The terracotta silos of Canada Malting rose above the water. On rue Saint-Antoine, Imperial Tobacco rolled its cigarettes.

From sewing machines to a satellite

At the corner of Saint-Jacques and Bourget, workers built sewing machines. On rue Lenoir, they pressed records, and later, under the RCA Victor name, the same walls saw the birth of Alouette 1, Canada's first satellite; Lea Roback organized its union.

This Saint-Henri of smoking factories, grain elevators and back lanes is the one Gabrielle Roy walked to write *Bonheur d'occasion*. Its title still greets riders at Place-Saint-Henri metro, reproduced by artist Julien Hébert, according to the Centre des mémoires montréalaises.

What the factories left behind

The canal fell silent in 1970. The factories stayed. Push open the door of La Machinerie, the old sewing-machine plant: brick and stone left bare, ceilings of about 10 feet, and in some units the original wood beams. At the Clos Saint-Ambroise, people live in a former tannery by the water. In the former Imperial Tobacco plant, the Lofts Impérial carved out compact lofts.

The cotton mill became the Château Saint-Ambroise, a national historic site, and the silos still watch over the bank. These are the walls people buy in Saint-Henri: brick that has heard the machines, windows designed for working light.

Living in Saint-Henri

Saturday, nine o'clock. Through the Atwater Market under its clock tower, then up rue Notre-Dame Ouest: coffee and a brioche at Bernice, a book at Saint-Henri Books, a table booked at Gia or Elena for the evening. On the way back, a terrace at the foot of the silos, as the light goes down on the water.

Place-Saint-Henri station is steps away, and Lionel-Groulx connects the green and orange lines on Atwater Avenue. Saint-Henri is for people who want to live inside a page of history without giving up a neighbourhood where everything is within walking distance.

Every loft has a story. In Saint-Henri, it often begins in a tannery, a cotton mill or a cigarette factory. Our job is to help you find the one that becomes yours. Olivier Mailloux, real estate broker, and Amélie Flanagan, real estate broker, follow the lofts of Saint-Henri closely and work with buyers and sellers across Montreal.