Montage du jour : La rue Rachel près de St-Denis

8 comments

1. Loved those POM delivery trucks! And they smelled like fresh bread too. hehe

2. Yes. Back when POM was still POM with the bakery is Westmount. Not just a brand of a mega-bakery.

3. I think I like the original design of the second building from the right. THose rough bricls look much better IMHO.

   The sister of my stepfather used to live not far from there.

4. Back in the Forties and Fifties POM ( Pride of Montreal ) was almost unique in that they were using pre-war Ford trucks, painted even then in their pleasing greens with red spoked wheels, to deliver their products when most other delivery, other than ice, was with horse-drawn wagons and sleighs.

   Their bakery next to CPR Westmount Station and the Glen filled the air with pleasing aromas that permiated the neighbourhood and wafted in thru the open windows of passing streetcars and passenger trains.

   Kids loved the bakers surrounding the logo.

5. How old is that tallish office building on the corner of Rachel and St-Laurent? I would have thought it to be a product of the mid-80s or is it a different building in the 1979 photo?

6. @Chris Erb : It was built in 1978.

7. Circeus: “I think I like the original design of the second building from the right. Those rough bricks look much better IMHO.”

   D’accord. I think it’s an example of what I’ve heard referred to as “fractal depth” – detail at a variety of scales, from quite far away to up close. Evolutionary psychologists might say that we are attuned to that from the long experience of nature’s forms. Smooth things out too much and they become boring. (The flaw in a lot of Modernist architecture.)

8. I’ve never understood exactly why I found old rough brick walls more appealing than the smooth surfaces, just that I did. I mean, why should it matter — that building in both photos looks damn near the same.

   I’m liking this “fractal depth” explanation. Thanks.