A car-friendly adaptation of the classic Montreal duplex, common in many early post-war inner suburbs. These examples are on Rue Ducas in Lasalle.
Photo du jour : Suburban duplexes
By Devin Alfaro
Read more articles by Devin Alfaro
6 comments
Two-thirds of LaSalle is early 60’s duplexes like that. It’s like the city all sprang up out of nowhere in the matter of a few years.
Mr. Marc is right!
Much of LaSalle DID rise out of the mud in the Sixties. As did the West end of NDG did in the Fifties.
I was there when Shevchenko was a quagmire on the old DOminic Exchange, the steel entrance gates in their ornate concrete towers guarded the entrance to the Aqueduct on LaSalle Blvd.
The Harveys burger place had just opened at Airlie and 76th., the best burgers in town.
We’d drive down Rue de Perce, a NEW narrow street! A ‘lane’, with sidewalks, AND a name.
Back in the Fifties, Rue Newman behind LaSalle Coke ( Parc Ignace Bourget ) from Jolicoeur to Dollard was four-wheel-drive when it rained.
The LaSalle Loop Line traversed a wilderness.
The Stelco Works between the Lachine Canal and Jacques Hertel had a ‘Canadian’ locomotive to switch the freight cars, it from the Canadian Locomotive Company, Kingston, Ontario.
The Duranceaus made a fortune from concrete.
Then you could travel by rail from La Salle at the Lachine Canal by the big CPR swing bridge at Dominion Bridge along the canal bank and St. Patrick past Northern Electric at Shearer and the Island Street Yard where Dial Tone was shipped by the box car full in crates to distant subscribers, across the Swing Bridge at Wellington and Bridge, along the Harbour on the NHB to the CPR at Hochelaga and East from Moreau St. on the CNR past MLW at Dickson and past the quarries and refineries to Point Aux Trembles, and thence back West to Ville St. Pierre. Another Loop Line.
A time of post-War expansion and prosperity and aspiration.
Seeing that immature sign in the Metro kiosk is depressing.
No wonder so many left, taking income money, and so many jobs with them.
Madness still prevails.
Thank You.
One drawback of this design was vulnerability to flooding from the street. There is a row of similar houses on Northview in Montreal West, and I believe they had a recurring problems with rain and melted snow. Has this been true in other areas?
That could be a street in CSL between Westminster and Caldwell.
As a resident of CSL, I could say that there are indeed duplexes in CSL between Westminster and Caldwell, but they’re not so attached rowhouse-style like that – they’re more prosperous-looking.
That could be a street in Anjou, Brossard, Laval, St Leonard, Montreal Nord, Saint Laurent, Longueuil and many more.