Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Queen's Park Velodrome circa 1899

Another map (Carey) has turned up showing the area where the Queen's Park velodrome was situated as indicated by the oval: Verdun ave., Willibrord, Church and facing Gertrude. I find it fascinating that such a large stadiun wich contained up to 12,000 people exhisted in Verdun in the late 1900s when you consider that there where less than 2000 residents at that time. Of course, it required residents from the surrounding Montreal area to be viable. This structure was the creation of the dynamic personality  of Ulric-Ucal Dndurand who was a Verdun resident and who was the first to have an automobile in Montreal/Verdun. Ccheck out my photo Album no. 31 for more photos on this subject.

Guy

3 comments:

john allison said...

Guy. Thanks. That is just amazing. What a history Verdun has. Without people like you and Les and others sharing that history with us, we would not know just how much has been going on in the past. Thanks again to all who bring us this important part of a wonderful place to grow up in!!!!

Diane Roberts said...

Guy, how long was the velodrome in Verdun and was there a velodrome anywhere in Montreal while when we were kids? Interesting to think the sport goes all the way back to the 1800's....Diane

Guy Billard said...

Dian,
Based on my research so far, I estimate that the Queen's Park velodrome exhisted from 1898 to 1906. Prior to this period, there exhisted a race track from 1834 to 1855. There are still some loose ends that I am looking for in my research wich is a non-ending project as I keep adding parts of the puzzle to what I consider an important part of Verdun history.
Guy