Nathalie and Denbigh
My hunt for apartment building names has only just begun, but these two photos show exactly why I’m interested in them in the first place. Appartement Nathalie is located on St. Denis near Rachel, right in the middle of the Plateau Mont-Royal. The Denbigh, meanwhile, can be found about five kilometres to the west, at the corner of de Maisonneuve and Elm in Westmount.
Both were built around the same time in the late nineteenth century. Without being too obvious, their names speak a lot to Montreal’s cultural and linguistic divide, between francophones and anglophones, French-Canadians and Anglo-Scots. But they also hint at trends that bridged that divide, like the increasing popularity of apartment buildings among Montreal’s upper middle-class, French and English alike, in the late 1800s.
Montreal Apartments
slutsky says:
I’m telling you Outremont is a gold mine for these. A gold mine!
January 9th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Pamplemousse says:
Chris,
Do you think we can come up with a name for the building we live in?
I’ve always wanted to live in a named apartment building.
-your neighbour
January 9th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Christopher DeWolf says:
The Shtetl? Regius Domus? Balconvilla?
January 9th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Pamplemousse says:
I am most fond of the Shtetl. I like Yiddish…. however I think this will require a meeting over coffee… possibly beer….
January 10th, 2008 at 9:09 am
french panic says:
oooh! A building-naming meeting with beverages! May I attend? I’ll stop at Cheskie’s and purchase some kosher baked goods, like my personal favourite, “Dairy”. Or the black and white cookies.
I don’t know where to find kosher beer though.
January 10th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Kai says:
Def. Outremont for lots of great names, also some in Côte-des-Neiges, where I live. I will try to remember to snap some phonepix of ones around here.
For your building-naming kaffeeklatsch, don’t forget the latkes! (as opposed to the lattés…) :-)
January 12th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
alex says:
mcgill ghetto has some truly ridiculous and lovably named buildings. the generic - “the san remo apartments,” the egregious like “le lorne” and the un-ironic like “The Ivory Tower” on prince arthur. whew.
May 11th, 2008 at 10:10 pm