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Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

Photo du Jour : Twin Chimneys

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The Des Carrières incinerator was originally built on this site in 1931 because, as population density increased in the area, household burning was becoming suffocating and the stench of the landfill was no better.

In the 1970s, a new building with even taller smokestacks was erected on the same site, apparently with the intention of selling steam to manufacturers. But the city never managed to break even (let alone make it profitable) and, despite the towering smokestacks, the air pollution just would be whisked away from the densely populated neighbourhood. The incinerator was shut down in 1993.

The twin chimneys still loom over rue De Brébeuf in the Plateau. As hideous as it may be, I have a soft spot for this behemoth, which turned up in the backdrop of the film Crazy. At one time they contemplated putting the Taz Mahal skate park here, but it ended up near the TOHU instead.

Spacing Montreal contributor Thomas Bernard Kenniff took a stroll around the site back in 2007.

Photo by Spacing Montreal flickr pooler Stellar.centurion

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3 comments

  1. Montreal used to be a city of Incinerators.

    CNR Swing Bridge/Atwater/St Patrick/Lachine Canal.

    This brick building was once part of an older Incinerator, the chimney now removed.

    http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=rkc8n48w1t10&style=b&lvl=1&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&scene=28380645&encType=1

    At Dickson and CNR/Montreal Tramways. A modern Incinerator, the chimneys and their shadows are visible

    http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=45.567083~-73.533307&style=h&lvl=18&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1

    At one time Dickson had an overpass over 4 tracks once located here. This is why Dickson is no longer ‘straight thru.’

    Montreal Locomotive Works was once located on the East side of Dickson South of the tracks.

    One of the two North tracks was once electrified and carried streetcars to Tetraultville and out to Rue Bureau in Pointe Aux Trembles.

    The two South tracks once served CNR Moreau St. Station and Longue Pointe Yard. The latter once having a modern roundhouse.

    CNR took over the electrified trackage c. 1927 and removed the wire, streetcars then using city routes instead.

    The Tramways Funeral Cars would have traveled East via this route to Hawthorndale Cemetery in the far East end thru 1927. Motor hearses thereafter were used.

    Another more-modern Incinerator was located North of Cote De Liesse in the vicinity of Cavendish, which had two large chimneys visible from Cote St Luc over the CPR Hump Yard before that area was built up.

    Garbage was moved in open-topped single-axle dump trucks with a driver, two men on the street and a man on top dumping cans handed up and packing load well into 1950s.

    At stop signs and lights a questionable liquid oozed from the tailgate.

  2. I say leave the chimneys, tear down the concrete box…

  3. Let’s start a fund to buy paint, and then get somebody to paint them.

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