Vers 1960-2009
Ce quartier qui fut entièrement rasé en 1963 afin de permettre la construction de la tour de Radio-Canada a été photographié sous tout ses angles au début des années 1960. Bien que la division des archives ait égaré les notes expliquant le système de classement à numéro que l’on aperçoit sur cette photo, tout chercheur peut facilement redécouvrir ce territoire en passant quelques heures aux archives de la ville de Montréal.
Source : Archives, Ville de Montréal VM94C196-823
6 comments
Aaaahhh, les grrrrrands projets du vieux snoreau à Drapeau… Ici, la «cité des ondes», encore un de ces vieux projets débiles typiques des années 60 pour faire la lutte à la pauvreté: si on élimine les maisons des pauvres, peut-être qu’ils vont disparaître et ainsi cesser de chatouiller la mauvaise conscience des riches (et, accessoirement, ne menaceront plus les riches, car les riches croient que les pauvres veulent les voler — alors que c’est l’inverse qui est vrai)…
Maintenant, 40 ans plus tard, on y érigera des maisons pour les riches…
Mais où iront donc les pauvres??? Pas en banlieue, en tout cas, car les banlieues font aussi des pieds et des mains pour ne pas avoir de pauvres non-plus (pas de transport en commun, ce qui oblige d’avoir une auto, limite minimale à la valeur des maisons, pas de HLMs).
Another amazing photo from Montreal’s past, full of all sorts of now-gone items and technology that were then considered ‘every-day.’
The older building on the corner seems in need of structural support, however, it’s neighbour cheek by jowl to the right is of a much newer era having lovely leaded windows. The cast concrete beaver on it’s brow is still found throughout, a fifties TV antenna on the roof.
The construction of the older building is marvellous.
On the pole on the corner is one of the Fifties 375 Watt Incandesant streetlight, now probably extinct, much as the Arc Light conversions they replaced.
The City of Montreal had a small fleet of single-axle ladder trucks whose duty was to go around replacing bulbs that had burnt out.
These trucks were also used to tape over English wording on street signs and the remarks from the man on the street/tax payer were not very nice.
This style of streetlight ‘all came on at once’ being controlled by Hydro Quebec. ( The streetlights in NDG were once controlled by the Hydro Quebec Centre on the North Shore of the Lachine Canal West of the-then Cote St Paul Bridge. )
This kind of streetlight took their illuminating power from the local distributing circuits thru a relay on a signal wire back to the Hydro Centres.
When the Signal wire was energized, the relays operated, and, Viola, all the streetlights came on at once! Magic to children!
When out of adjustment, the relays would buzz and hum, like a metallic Cicada as heard in the heat of summer, and dogs and people would stop at the base of the pole and listen.
Kids would promise their parents they would come in ‘When the streetlights came on’ then fudge it as much past that time as possible, in the era before TV.
The early photo has almost evey enamel sign ever made!
I miss them.
The ‘One Way’ arrows still have the word ‘Direction’ on them.
( C. 1956 most of NDG’s streets became one way. Once the streetcars came off there were more Autobusses and they could not pass opposing autos, or themselves that well on older streets, especially in winter, so One Way streets soon became the norm.
In the fifties there became more cars, and parking soon became a problem along with garbage pick up and snow plowing, and it was found One Way streets worked better with this in mind. )
Facing right on the pole is a Fire call box to summon fire trucks for those who did not have a telephone. It says ‘Feu’ on the other side. These Fire/Feu reflective decals were installed c. 1958 to make the fire boxes move visible in the headlights of vehicles.
The pole is painted around with Red bordered with two White stripes to signfy Fire Box.
( Not on this pole, but a White band about five feet in height higher up on a pole signified Streetcar Stop.)
Lachine had a Red illuminated bulb high above their Fire boxes to indicate poles they were on.
Above the street signs facing away is a lead Bell Telephone 26-pair terminal spliced into an ancient lead-sheathed cable hung from bar-stock loops rather than spun on wire strand.
Lots of Party Line service here.
The wiring on the old corner building would give an Inspector fits.
At the feet of the man holding the numbers for the camera is one of the introduced c. 1959 style of catch basins with the full-size grate. This style, and the ‘flat’ version around the corner, was just the right size to trap the tires on the then-newish 10-speed racing bikes with the downswept handlebars just coming in.
The old in-street catch basins had a SQUARE thin-holed grate within a concrete cover. They did not ‘take’ the water as well as the new version.
( I had a 3-speed bike, with Sturmey-Archer planetary in-the-hub gearing with a auto-style drum brake with brake shoes within. Scary to ride going down into Ville St Pierre on Erables beyond Montreal West. )
The boy might be holding a glass jug of vinegar with the finger hole handle on the neck.
The ‘Montreal’ hydrant rarely changes, except for the colours of their flat tops. White, Orange, Green, Black, and were visited by every dog in the community.
Whenever there’s a comment from Cdnlococo I know I’m in for a wonderful diversion.
Thank You Mr. Shawn.
The infrastructure of a city is important and should be logged to let those in later times know just what is going on, and what certain items visible in older photos might be for.
I did not make it clear about the Fire Box, as they are a story in themselves.
All the Fire Boxes were numbered and were wired in Series through out a district to the fire stations and the Montreal Fire Central Station.
On the outside was a small hinged white metal cover with a glass front covering a siver metal latch which had to be pulled down to send in an alarm.
( I think the box shown was manufactured by Northern Electric, but, Gamewell made some, too. )
Inside was a clockwork mechanism with a toothed cogwheel which opened and closed a set of contacts when the wheel rotated.
There was also a telegraph-type key inside in the circuit to send in other coded signals by hand.
The wheel had notches cut into corrsponding with the box number, say 461, which opened and closed the contacts interrupting the circuit, tapping out digits 4-6-1 in electric impulses thru the wire.
These impulses rang the bells in the fire halls and could be heard all thru the neighbourhood when the fire doors were open on hot humid evenings.
( There were other bell codes not for fire, also. )
Those firemen in district 4, let say, would then perk right up and await the next two digits to see if they were called out.
The impulses also recorded on a paper tape with the time at Fire Headquarters.
The truck drivers had a map and could find the boxes in no time.
If the fire was huge, the Fire Chief or other Officer would go to the fire box, and, with a special key, open it and send in a Second Alarm etc.
This all before radios.
A special crew went around on a regular basis and maintained each fire box.
Once the excitement was over, someone had to rewind the spring in the fire box and send in a key signal that it was once again okay.
Before telephones they used Telegraph to sent data and the word ‘Telegraph’ connoted modern such as the word ‘Internet’ does today.
Various business names once incorporated the word ‘Telegraph’ in their wording. ADT, the Alarm outfit was once American District Telegraph.
FTD the Florists was once Florists’ Telegraph Delivery, etc.
District Telegraphs as they were once called, also provided burglar alarm service for intrusion or safe protection, water flow alarms for fire sprinklers, temperature alarms for too hot or cold re fire or freezing pipes, etc.
Stock quotes used to travel over wire to stock ‘tickers’ which spewed out paper tape.
Arcane, but once so vital to a city, it’s commerce and wellbeing.
Cities would not be possible without Electricity, Potable Water and Sewers.
The colours on top of the hydrants designate which reservoir the hydrant is fed from.
J’effectue présentement une recherche similaire à partir d’une banque photo que j’ai monté en 1976: plusieurs secteurs de Montréal transformés, disparus ou, curieusement parfois, inchangés. Je prévois poster prochainement quelques documents comparatifs. À suivre.