Decarie Towers, built 1955
Lately, I’ve found myself fascinated by something I had never noticed before: apartment building names. My interest was piqued in September when J.D. Gravenor posted a 1910 list of apartment buildings in Montreal on Coolopolis. Some were more fanciful than others — there’s the San Remo on Durocher, the Smithsonian on Selkirk, the Lochinvar on Crescent, the Imperial on Hope.
I came across a treasure trove of cool apartment building names last week when I walked down Decarie from Van Horne to Queen Mary. It’s not an obvious street down which to stroll, mainly because there’s a noisy expressway running down the middle of it, but there’s all sorts of interesting discoveries to be made on this once-fashionable boulevard, including many apartment buildings built at the peak of its popularity as a cruising strip in the 1940s and 50s. Here’s a sample of what I saw.
King Apartments, built 1944
York Apartments, built 1940
Michel Apartments, built 1941
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In high school days (sixties) my friend lived at the “Ravenscrag”. My favourite building name. I can’t remember where it was, though. Somewhere in Snowdon I think.
There is also a fascinating monarchist-reference pair of apartment blocks in upper Côte-des-Neiges, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret. It is along a bus line – think it is on Queen Mary (Reine-Marie) near Victoria. There are medallion portraits of the two princesses as girls on the building. It must be of about the same vintage as some of the Décarie buildings.
This is not Cast in Stone, but, the House Number Plates went from White on Blue Enamel to Black on White PAINTED c. 1950-51, and this is one way to ‘Date’ a Neighbourhood.
Old Houses on Decarie North of Sherbrooke had Three-Digit Numbers ( Before Four Numbers Instituted ) in Coloured Glass in Transom Glass above Front Door which was Illuminated by Hall Light at Night.
Note that some Addresses South of the Lachine Canal always Started with the Numeral ‘0’ to Signify they were South of the Lachine Canal.
Renumbering of Montreal’s street addresses began in the 1920s when it became apparent that the previously haphazard sequencing was confusing–especially to mailmen and other delivery services. Three-digit addresses were upgraded to four-digits. Apartment buildings that displayed individual name identifiers were common (and still are in many districts) but following the rise of separatist attitudes, many of the names–particularly English ones–were obliterated, either scraped off of entrance-way glass or chipped out of their concrete facing. Recently, the name Cedercroft (actually a misspellling of Cedarcroft) was likewise smashed away from above the entrance to 5025 Cote Ste. Catherine Road and the metal letters “West Hall” were broken off from above the doorway of 5487 Lavoie Avenue for presumably no logical reason other than for resentful, new building owners to “make a point”. In spite of such outrages, however, history cannot and will not be denied.