My Neighborhood: Near The Canal
With shorter days and chilly weather surrounding us, here’s some golden-hour shots of my neighborhood from 2005 to remind us that the sun will return again.
Corner of Notre-Dame and Des Seigneurs in the heart of the Quartier des Antiquaires. Along this strip are residential apartments, lofts and condos; these buildings on the corner house many architecture and design firms, small art galleries, and of course antique stores.
The very top of this building has a commanding view of the mountain. It began life as a bank; it suggests a classical revival building from the early 1920s, as the rear of the building is a plainer red-brick structure.
Opposite side of the corner looking towards Old Montreal. This was a former Bank of Montreal branch, ornately clad in red sandstone. Until recently the ground floor housed the Celadon store which specialized in high-end Farrow & Ball paints and wallpapers; there’s a gallery in the same building as well as an alluring rooftop loft.
The canal area is still a center of industry including this Robin Hood flour mill, the Thermetco metallurgical plant, the Baldor electric motors shop, the Nordelec office complex, and several film and photography studios.
The former Stelco steel plant site was redeveloped into a pleasantly varied series of condos, lofts and townhouses at various price points. This series of townhouses has an interestingly postmodern feel to them; the end buildings add to the mix with more apartment-styled residences.
At the corner of Charlevoix and Sainte-Cunegonde, an example of former factory buildings complemented by renovation and sensitively designed infill buildings and extensions.
Interior courtyard and balconies. I’m not sure if this is brand-new or a really good renovation.
View of the Atwater Market, recently restored after a fire had damaged the upper floors due to illegal wiring. The tower’s 1930s-era lights are back. Apparently the upper hall used to be a popular venue for wrestling matches back in the day.
View of the Atwater Market outdoor stalls, new-ish condos in the background.
Tags: Montreal
Montreal Apartments
Ken Gildner says:
You are fortunate to live in such a lovely district! Great photos!
November 6th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
Christopher DeWolf says:
It’s an interesting, emerging neighbourhood. I have to admit that I’m always sad walking down your street, though. On the south side there is a solid row of gorgeous old commercial buildings like in your first photo, reminiscent of Mount Royal Avenue or any one of Montreal’s other great streets. But the north side was totally decimated by urban renewal and is lined by fences and empty parks. It really makes the street feel incomplete.
The rest of the neighbourhood has a lot of potential. Narrow streets lined by old industrial buildings… it will be a playground for artists soon enough.
November 7th, 2006 at 2:25 pm
aj says:
It already is, if you count the artist lofts, collective spaces and galleries in Griffintown like Friendship Cove (www.myspace.com/friendshipcove).
There’s going to be more commercial infill soon, according to my sources that block that’s slated for demolition (from my last post) is going to become a grocery store with student residences for the ETS upstairs. More stores are filling in the empty spaces in the street-level arcade in the Terrasses Windsor condos.
I don’t know if the north side was so much “decimated” by urban renewal, so much as there wasn’t much there to begin with. Most of the area was a giant train switching yard until it was redeveloped into those 1970s townhouses and later 1980s condos on the blocks between St-Jacques and Notre-Dame; and they never thought to rebuild proper retail streets along the main axes. If anything, St-Jacques is a bit worse as it’s more-or-less a highway, it only regains fine scale closer to Atwater.
November 7th, 2006 at 4:17 pm
Patrick Donovan says:
Isn’t “Le Quartier des Antiquaires” the same thing as “Little Burgundy”? If not, what’s the difference?
November 7th, 2006 at 8:17 pm
Christopher DeWolf says:
“Le Quartier des Antiquaires” simply refers to the small stretch of Notre-Dame Street that has a lot of antiques shops. Little Burgundy is the larger neighbourhood; it is the traditional heart of Montreal’s anglophone black community. In the 1960s, a huge portion of its buildings were destroyed and replaced by Modernist housing projects; in the 1970s and 80s, the railyard at its centre was redeveloped as townhouses and condos.
As the result the area is kind of quiet right now. It had its heart ripped out, basically.
November 8th, 2006 at 2:51 am
aj says:
it’s sort of confusing at times because there are no official boundaries, just traditional concepts. i.e. west of Atwater is St-henri, south of the atwater market is Verdun, east of Atwater is Little Burgundy (containing the antiques district), go down from Charlevoix or Des Seigneurs across the canal and you’re in Point-St-Charles, and pretty much everything south of Notre-Dame east of Guy to University (where Old Montreal starts) is Griffintown…Chris, correct me if I’m wrong?
November 8th, 2006 at 9:46 pm
Christopher DeWolf says:
Actually, I find the borders to be very clear. Only the line between Little Burgundy and Griffintown is murky. North of the canal, St. Henri and Little Burgundy are divided by Atwater. Point St. Charles is south of the canal and east of Highway 15. Verdun is east of the 15 between the Aqueduct Canal and the river. Ville-Émard is east of the 15, between the Lachine Canal and the Aqueduct Canal.
Simple as that!
November 9th, 2006 at 12:52 am