Former LaSalle Power Dam Now a Bird Sanctuary Area

The former LaSalle Power Dam area is now a bird sanctuary. There is now a second dike downstream at the foot of 7th ave. giving access to the earth jetty along the rapids. I was there yesterday and I took these photos and the Google Earth aerial  photo gives you a birds eye view of the whole area. There were many bird watchers with their sophisticated cameras as well as some fishermen. It is a place to visit for those who are familiar with the area and are on a visit to Montreal.

Guy

Mayor Wilson's house on Woodland

Here's a picture of Mayor Wilson's house on Woodland Ave. It later became the Bonnie Brae rest home and then I bought it. I lived there until I transferred to Ontario,

Robin

 

 

150 th Anniversary of Black Rock

.....If your Irish, you know about Black Rock at Victoria Bridge today it celebrates it's 150th anniversary...................   George McCrae from the Point site ( a good site Btw:) will no doubt have some photos to share ,I would imagine, here's some info from today's Gazette,..............

The Irish came by the tens of thousands in 1847, packed like cordwood below deck in fetid ship holds meant for timber. They were fleeing famine and seeking salvation in the New World. Instead they found death, dying by the thousands at sea, in quarantine near Quebec City and finally in Montreal, victims of disease and neglect.

There were so many corpses, trenches were dug to dispose of the dead in what is now Point St. Charles. Twelve years later, labourers building the Victoria Bridge would uncover the bones of their brethren and insist the remains be protected. To make sure of it, they planted a massive 30-tonne, 10-foot high boulder dredged from the St. Lawrence River over the burial site, and inscribed it, in part: "To preserve from desecration the remains of 6,000 immigrants who died of ship fever."

Sunday marks the 150th anniversary of the planting of the stone, and as they've done every year for more than a century, Montreal's Irish community will march in the hundreds to the Irish Stone on Bridge St., just before the entry to Victoria Bridge, to honour the dead, those who tried to save them, and the descendants who survived and prospered.

"They came for a new life and found a grave," said Don Pidgeon, historian for the United Irish Societies of Montreal for the last 19 years. "We do it for them, and to remember all the Montrealers who risked their lives to help."

- - -

The population of Ireland surged from about 5 million in 1800 to 8 million in 1841. At the same time, the Industrial Revolution robbed many of their livelihoods of sewing, spinning cotton and wool and metal work, forcing them to rely on agriculture in overcrowded territories. Potatoes were the main sustenance for much of the population, one-third of whom lived in one-room shacks with no beds or chimneys.

In 1845, potatoes were struck by a fungal infection that caused half the crop to rot in the earth. In 1846, the blight returned, wiping out almost the entire crop, followed by one of the harshest winters in living memory, and the people starved. With the British government unable (some say unwilling) to provide adequate social assistance, emigration became the only option. Many were forced from their homes by landlords worried about non-paying tenants.

Most would have preferred the well-established promised lands of New York and Boston, but America had set strict standards and fares for passage to the U.S. were too high for the impoverished. But British traders who shipped lumber from Quebec City and St. John's were happy to have emigrants paying a low fare to serve as ballast for their return trips to Canada. Many passage brokers told passengers food would be provided for the 45-day journey, which was untrue.

Meanwhile, a typhus epidemic was raging through Ireland. The disease, marked by severe headaches, high fever, rashes, delirium and death, is passed to humans through lice. Crammed as many as 400 thick in the holds, the Irish were easy prey on vessels that came to be known as coffin ships. An estimated 5,000 died on the trip over in 1847, their corpses flung overboard.

Canadian immigration officials, who had no say in emigration policies determined by the British colonial authorities, were sorely unprepared and underfunded for the deluge of emaciated Irish. At the immigration depot on Grosse Île, an island in the middle of the St. Lawrence 50 kilometres east of Quebec City, the medical officer in charge of the quarantine station prepared beds for 200 invalids, thinking 10,000 emigrants had departed from Britain. That summer, more than 100,000 would flee to Quebec.

By the end of May, there were already 40 ships lined up for three kilometres, awaiting to discharge passengers. The ships kept coming till the river iced over in October.

"I never contemplated the possibility of every vessel arriving with fever as they do now," wrote Dr. George M. Douglas. Of the 427 passengers and crew on one ship, the Agnes, only 150 survived.

The ill overflowed the quarantine stations, lying outside on the grass and sand beaches. Healthy passengers were stuck waiting on the ships for 20 days, a death sentence for many. Bodies were pulled from the holds with hooks and stacked on shore. Between 3,000 and 5,000 died on Grosse Île.

By way of comparison, one chronicler noted that German immigrants arrived on their boats well-fed, healthy and happy.

Overwhelmed health officials started waving many ships with "healthy" passengers on to Montreal.

They disembarked, malnourished and diseased, dying in the streets and on the wharves, begging for water on the steps of churches. Worried about an epidemic, authorities constructed three wooden "fever sheds" 150 feet long and 50 feet wide at Windmill Point, near where Victoria Bridge now stands in Point St. Charles. The sick and dying lay two or three to a bed, side by side with the dead, leaving hundreds of orphans behind. The number of sheds grew to 22. Military cordoned off the area so the sick couldn't escape.

Seeing the ill dying alone, the Grey Nuns went to help, attending to the sick and carrying women and children in their arms from the ships to the ambulances. Thirty of 40 nuns who went to help fell ill, and seven died, writes historian Edgar Andrew Collard. Other nuns took over, but once the surviving Grey Nuns had convalesced, they returned. Priests also came forth, many falling ill after leaning in close to hear the last confessions of the dying.

When a mob of frightened Montrealers threatened to toss the fever sheds into the river, Montreal mayor John Easton Mills quelled the riot, and later went himself to help in the evenings, giving them water and changing their straw bedding. The father of a large family, he died in November.

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Montreal urged French Quebecers, linked to the Irish by their Catholic faith, to help the orphans. Many came from the country to adopt one or two children, accepting them in to their families, in some cases passing their land on to them.

- - -

More than one million died in Ireland of starvation and disease during the great famine; another million and a half emigrated. The country's population has never been as high since.

Grosse Île, site of the largest Irish famine graveyard outside of Ireland, is now known as the Grosse Île and the Irish Memorial National Historic Site of Canada.

And in Montreal, on a busy street in an industrial neighbourhood near a Costco superstore sits a rough, uneven 30-tonne stone, blackened with age, fittingly sombre, erected by labourers to ensure the suffering of their countrymen who came in search of a better land not be forgotten.

One hundred and fifty years later, their countrymen will march to the stone once again.

The "Walk to the Stone" organized by the Ancient Order of Hibernians begins with a mass at 10:30 a.m. at St. Gabriel's Parish, 2157 Centre St. in Point St. Charles, followed by the walk and a complimentary buffet at the church hall.

Museum Day in Montreal

It looks like this is becomming an annual thing,where Montreal opens it's Museums to the public for Free,.....  I know we mentioned this a few years ago,and so it seems it happenning again.....So if you live in MOntreal & want something to do,today,.head out & checkout some of the museums.......

 Sunday is Montreal Museum Day. Access to 30 in Montreal and island suburbs will be free from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. There will also be free public transit to many of the museums, with a transit hub set up at the Centre Pierre-Charbonneau, at 3000 Viau St. Full information about Sunday’s event is listed at www.museesmontreal.org

              the above is from todays Gazette,.........Sunday May 31st

Bannantyne Avenue 1929 - 1954

Here are 2 photos taken at different periods, 1929 and 1954 on Bannantyne Avenue wich appeared in the Guardian 14th of October 1954. Here is the text:

 

Bannantyne Avenue has changed its appearance slightly in the past 25 years, as can be seen by the two photos above. The top view is from a photograph taken by Rowland Hill, of 1050 Willibrord Ave., in 1929, looking towards LaSalle Boulevard from a point near Woodland Avenue, in front of where Olivet Baptist Church now stands. Below the modern street is seen the intersection in the same direction from the intersection of Moffat Ave., with St Thomas More Church as a prominent landmark.

Quite a change in a 25 year period.

Guy

Maison Saint-Dizier 1943 - 2009

I finally got around to taking a photo of the Maison Saint-Dizier so as to compare with the 1943 photo. Of course the photos were not taken during the same season and there is plenty of foliage that has grown since then and new houses were built on the right. Earth from the metro construction was added to the water's edge with landscaping added. The Maison Saint-Dizier was completely overhauled as the borough has alloted a budget of over a million dollars to renovate, as closely as the original construction as possible. Also, archealogical research was done and is continuing up to next year wich will be the 300th year anniversary (Built in 1710) and hopefully this building will become a museum where all the archealogical discoveries will be displayed. As a partner (SHGV) with the city in this project, we are anxious to see the end results and of course we will be an ardent promoter.

Guy

 

 

Gladys Priestley - 1953 VHS Yearbook

We were trying to identify the prize winning swimmer shown in the photo taken at the Natatorium and a member suggested taht it might be Gladys Priestly who remembered her as a possible candidate. I was at the SHGV today aand looked in the 1953 VHS Yearbook and this is what I found. It is difficult to say that it is the same person as the gal in the swimsuit is at least 15 if not sixteen years old compared to the yearbook wich gives her age as been 14 and we know how much teens change at that age. What do you think. I have other photos to submit on the subject wich will follow.

Guy

 

Who Cares about Montreal ?

I thought that headline would get some attention,....lol.  but it seems for years now (since 2001) Montreal has what they term as a Montreal Citizens Summit.......where people get to voice their cares,wants & percieved needs,as to what they want their city to be like.......................  Seems like a good idea really,where the people,get a chance to voice their ideas.......    the following appears in today's Gazette as well:

What kind of city do Montrealers want to live in? Next week, residents will get a chance to weigh in on the future of the metropolis at the fifth Montreal Citizens' Summit.

The summit, a public conference with more than 80 different workshops, panels and talks, is expected to attract nearly 1,000 participants to the Université du Québec à Montréal next weekend.

Participants will be asked to think about "The City We Want" and to choose among the more than 80 workshops, lectures and round tables to be held June 5 to 7. Topics are diverse, and include plans for the Turcot Interchange, racial profiling, gentrification, migrant workers' rights, climate change, car-free streets, public transit, the protection of urban forests, and the black anglophone community in Montreal,

"One of the goals of these summits is to increase public interest in municipal issues," in the run-up to this fall's municipal election, said Luc Rabouin, executive director of the Urban Ecology Centre, the group that co-ordinates the event.

Organizers issued invitations to non-governmental and non-partisan organizations and groups to conduct workshops, round tables or talks on six themes as they relate to Montreal: urban planning, culture, democracy, the economy, environment and social justice/inclusion/citizenship.

The first Montreal Citizens' Summit took place in June 2001, inspired by the World Social Forum held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in January of that year. The idea was to encourage an open exchange among diverse, non-governmental and non-partisan groups to stimulate ideas for a more democratic and fair world.

Subsequent summits have often been held during municipal election years, and Rabouin said they have had an impact on political actions.

For example, a resolution from the first Citizens' Summit demanded Montreal city council come out in favour of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. The council did and this eventually led to the adoption of the city's first sustainable development plan, Rabouin said.

Another summit led to the first "participatory budget" process in Montreal (in the Plateau Mont Royal borough).

An environmental film festival in connection with the summit is taking place this weekend at Cinéma du Parc. For information, go to www.cinemaduparc.com

The summit begins Friday, with an evening of cultural events at the Société d'arts technologiques, 1195 St. Laurent Blvd. and continues Saturday and Sunday at UQÀM's J.A. de Sève Pavilion. at 320 Ste. Catherine St. E.

For more info and to register for the conference, go to www.5sc.ecologieurbaine.net

 

........Well there you go, for some of Our Montreal area members ,maybe they will attend & then relay their findings to us all:                                      HF&RV

Place Ville Marie (47 storey's of stories) as it's put in today's Gazette

In this morning Gazette is a storey about the PVM ,and many letters from Montrealer's who had a story about the well recognized building: One of te stories about halfway down the list, is fom a Verdun gal whose figure skating club from Verdun,were invited to perform at some ceremony,on the rink in the plaza of the PVM ( I can't say I really remember a rink there,but I guess there was.........)

         here's the Gazette story:

Until Oct. 30, Montrealers can take in an exhibit at Place Ville Marie that showcases the local landmark's history, with more than 100 photos and scale models on display. The building was inaugurated on Sept. 13, 1962. The exhibit is the first of a series of events leading to its 50th anniversary in 2012.

Last week, Metropolitan News, The Gazette's blog about Montreal, dipped into The Gazette (and Montreal Star) photo vault and posted some photos of PVM from the 1960s and 1970s. That prompted readers to submit reminiscences. To see the photos and share memories, visit montrealgazette.com/metnews. Here are some of the comments we've received:

John Gallop: The day PVM opened, an IBM colleague and I were casual visitors to the site when I spotted an old college friend.

Andrew (Andy) Little was a CBC Television journalist, there to cover the event with a cameraman. He said, "Tag along," and we did. There was no security at all. We entered 1 PVM, rode the elevator to the 47th floor, then climbed two flights of stairs to the roof. The roof was quite flat except for a metal railing around the rim for the window-cleaning equipment. Andy stood perilously close to the edge to have his script recorded. Simultaneously, another CBC crew on the roof of C-I-L House at 630 Dorchester recorded the event. They had a great shot of Andy and the opening festivities on the plaza. I crept to the edge of the roof, looking straight down some 600 feet to the street below. In all, it was an indelible memory of the opening of PVM.

Steven Goodhue: PVM is one of the buildings that says "This is Montreal."

Alison Beck: During the '60s there used to be a lottery, I think it was called the Mayor's Lottery (Jean Drapeau), and my aunt, Jessie Stark, was one of the lucky winners.

We had visitors over from Scotland and to celebrate Aunt Jessie took ALL of her family to the Altitude restaurant, paid for by her winnings. For me it was my first taste of lobster. To this day, each and every time I am able to enjoy lobster, my mind wanders back to that wonderful childhood experience of happy times spent with loved ones that are no longer with us. I now live in Toronto (ugh) but miss my home very much. You can take the girl out of Montreal but you can NEVER take Montreal out of the girl! Go HABS go!

Toni: I worked on the 33rd floor of PVM from 1980 to 1982.

Had a great view of the western part of the city. On paydays, we used to go up to the fancy restaurant on the top floor (I don't remember the name). We ordered whatever was cheapest but we loved sitting there and feeling so worldly. What great memories! I used to spend most of my measly paycheque at the shopping mezzanine downstairs; the clothing stores and the restaurants were fantastic. I haven't been there in many years - are they still there?

Charles Ploem:

I started to work at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in September 1962

as a waiter in the Beaver Club and retired on June 23, 2000, as maitre d'. The hotel also managed the restaurants and bars (21 altogether) in PVM. There are many stories to be told but I will just relate a few:

No. 1: The fabulous buffet at Altitude 737, for less than $10, included fresh New Brunswick lobster. You could eat as many as you wanted, but this lobster fest got a little out of hand - people would put them in their bags and purses to take them home ("doggie bags" were officially not allowed). To solve the problem we put the lobsters out of reach so the guest had to ask a chef to provide him or her with one (maybe two).

No. 2: To a lot of Carrefour guests, PVM did not only mean Place Ville Marie. When they ordered one of the birdbath martinis they would ask for an extra dry PVM, up or on the rocks with a twist or an olive. In this case PVM meant Polish Vodka Martini. The PVM became the most popular drink at the Carrefour and was drunk by many famous guests.

No. 3: Mr. Donald Mumford (his picture was on front page of Tuesday's Gazette), our general manager, gave the order that all drinks were on the house in the Carrefour bar after Team Canada beat Russia in that famous first Canada-Russia series. The game finished at 5 p.m. and we had put a TV in the bar. It was the busiest cocktail hour the Carrefour ever had. I remember it well.

This are a few of my memories; there are many more.

Vardit: I worked around the vicinity of PVM when I graduated from high school.

I remember never being able to save a paycheque because the stores were beckoning. "Enter and spend," they seemed to command, and so I did. PVM was a place where you could get lost in the hustle and bustle and lose track of time. It was, for me at that time, a wonderland. One didn't have to get high. You had that feeling naturally just going from store to store every Thursday and Friday after work and seeing the crowds, meeting friends, buying clothes, then meeting for supper. One felt so grown up, especially if this was done right after finishing high school.

Marilyn Grimes:

I remember being part of the opening ceremonies for the rink on the plaza.

The Verdun Figure Skating Club had been invited to skate a number or two on this rink to officially open it. Our precision team at the time was know as The Verdunettes. I remember it being very cold and very windy that night. The ice wasn't the best, either, but we did our best anyway. It was great being part of history.

Christina: I used to work in the Sun Life building across the street but walked through PVM on my way to work from the train station.

I remember seeing Steve Martin making a documentary of Mont-

real's underground city, starting his "take" in front of Classic (?) Book Store. I later worked in PVM on the 34th floor. While the managers were in offices in the middle parts of the floor, we "lowly secretaries" had our desks in an open area on the northwest corner, with great views of Mount Royal and the west. I've lived in Australia now for many years, but was thrilled to see a shot of PVM when I went to a screening of Jesus of Montreal back in the late '80s.

Michael Elkin: I worked for PVM's developer from 1971 through 1977 in two different PVM buildings.

What an environment. Truly a city within a city, with links to travel, food, entertainment, and more. Yes, Christina, it was Classics Books. My grandson now has the lamp I bought for my new daughter at the long-gone baby store.

Beverley: I went to my first concert on the promenade of PVM.

The groups performing were The Grateful Dead followed by Jefferson Airplane. This unforgettable event took place on a weekend afternoon, the summer of 1966 or 1967. It was free, and a fantastic time was had by all. Peace, Love and Flower Power.

The Strategist: Was there recently - after nearly 20 years -

and while it is still very majestic from the outside, the inside looks like a 48-year-old wearing bell bottoms and a gold chain. The time has come for a major remodernization of the interior. As for the plaza: yes, definitely a skating rink à la Rockefeller Plaza.

Julia: I have worked in PVM for many years and would never wish to work anywhere else in Montreal.

PVM is unique and one of the most beautiful office towers in North America. It's a one-of-a-kind phenomenon where you can work, shop, enjoy a variety of culinary delights. It connects you to the métro and the fascinating underground city of Mont-real. PVM is the ultimate Montreal downtown experience.

Jack Trapp: In the mid-'60s I discovered people could go unchallenged up to the Alcan cafeteria somewhere around the 25th floor.

A cheap Coke and a breathtaking 360-degree view of the city. I had to regularly change seats to take in the view from all points. Anyone with a window office in PVM should pay their firm for the pleasure.

Verdun Glider Club 1935

I have previously posted this subject on the old VC site in 2007 but new information turned up wich I am passing it on to you. While going through the old Guardians, I found this article in the September 5th 1946 edition wich describes how the plane built by Arthur Quicke was stolen in 1930 and turned up 16 years later. I typed the article in my computer so that it can be readable. The stelen plane cound'nt be the one on the photo since it is dated 1935, nevertheless, it is a saga worth reading about an enterprising group of young Verdunites. Imagine a car towed glider flying over the VHS in 1935, I wish I could have seen such the spectacle.

I have discoverd problems enlarging the text so I will make a short transcription:

The 1946 article says that the plane Albert Quicke built in 1930 was stolen and turned up in 1946, 16 years later. He dicided to buy it back and kept it in his store with the intgention of completing it later, He built a new one and won several prizes at the Cleveland Air Show.

I will try to reproduce the complete text and post it.

Guy