History / Histoire
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Turn on the red light
The video screen of a silhouetted stripper was once a landmark at the corner of Ste. Catherine and the Main. It was a symbol of sorts for Montreal’s...
By Christopher DeWolf -
Market day at Place Jacques Cartier
Once upon a time, before it became a playground for tourists, the east end of Old Montreal was a real, functioning neighbourhood. Nowhere was this more...
By Christopher DeWolf -
Old Montreal in 1964
Over the years, the National Film Board has produced a lot of great films on Canada’s cities. Unfortunately, they haven’t done much to make...
By Christopher DeWolf -
Les fleurs c’est pour la rue Demers
I’ve always been intrigued by Demers Street. It’s a tiny street in the north end of the Plateau, running parallel to Villeneuve between...
By Christopher DeWolf -
Les lignes séparatrices
De l’origine de l’histoire humaine jusqu’au début du 20e siècles, les routes ne comportaient pas de ligne séparatrices...
By Guillaume St-Jean -
Bâtiment disparu #3 : La Knox Presbytherian church
La Knox church construite en 1865 était situé au coin des rues René-Lévesque et Mansfield. Elle était l’oeuvre de l’architecte Edward Maxwell...
By Guillaume St-Jean -
Snowdon discoveries
On my snowy walk from Hampstead to Snowdon today, I stopped to check in on one of my favourite urban oddities. The only sign of its existence is a...
By Christopher DeWolf -
Photo du jour: Dorchester Boulevard
It has been 52 years since Dorchester Street (renamed after René Lévesque in 1987) was transformed into an eight-lane boulevard. In this 1960 photo, you...
By Christopher DeWolf -
Photo du jour: Craig Terminus
Until Montreal scrapped its streetcars in 1959, the Craig Terminus was one of the hubs of the city’s sprawling tramway network. Located near the...
By Christopher DeWolf -
Montreal’s vanished synagogues
Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, McGill College near Sherbrooke WHAT? Makom: Seeking Sacred Space, a photo exhibition of former synagogues in Montreal...
By Christopher DeWolf -
The McTavish Reservoir exposed
Andrew Chau has a great post on the McTavish Reservoir today at urban-ism: many people don’t realize that the large grassy field above the mcgill campus...
By Christopher DeWolf -
R.I.P. Montreal Exchange
Yesterday marked an end of an era of sorts. In what some are calling a “combination” and others just a plain “acquisition“, it was...
By Paul Erlichman