Automobile Exchange – Mile End Memories

J.-A. Michaud, importer of French automobiles and manager of the Automobile Exchange, 1913 [The North End – AVM P28-Z-D1]

At the beginning of the 20th century, the property now occupied by 4556-4560B Saint-Laurent housed various construction-related businesses, including Louis Bolduc, carriage manufacturer; Ryall Screw & Specialty Company and Hill Electric Switch Company. Following its acquisition by coachbuilder Théodore Trudeau in 1910, it became an automobile centre. At the time, it stood apart from its more modest neighbours because of its width and its garage doors. Its ground floor was divided into three sections: to the south, an automobile exchange sold used cars and trucks; in the centre, a showroom sold new Vinot vehicles from France, including taxis and trucks; and to the north, a driving school offered courses to future drivers. The second floor housed Asch Ltd., Outdoor Advertisers.†

After the automobile school and exchange closed in 1917, Asch Ltd. occupied the entire building until 1922*, when E. Bériault & Compagnie, a car painting contractor, opened shop. Between 1927 and 1932, the former garage housed an automobile showroom known as Benoit Motor Sales Ltd. In 1939, the building was enlarged to the rear. Over the next few decades, it was the home of a succession of manufacturing and commercial enterprises, including the United Store Equipment Company, Inc. Between 1966 and 1978, merchant Oscar Soiferman ran his wholesale carpet and rug business, Victoria Importers Ltd., there.

Since 1980, 4556-4560B Saint-Laurent has housed offices and workshops upstairs and commercial spaces on the ground floor. One of the occupants of the latter until 2014 was Classical Art Glass, which restores and creates stained glass works and offers classes and materials for this artform.

† Asch would become the Montreal office of Claude Neon in 1932. Claude Neon became part of the Pattison group in 1979.

* Asch moved to a former mansion, Fairmount, on Sherbrooke Street at the corner of Saint-Urbain, which had been a Bagg family residence from its construction in the 1840s until 1914. The house was demolished in 1948.

Research: Susan D. Bronson and Gariné Dédéyan (as part of course work supervised by Susan D. Bronson at the Faculté de l’aménagement, Université de Montréal, 2004-2006)
Text: Susan D. Bronson / Revised Justin Bur 2022

Taken from a poster produced in 2011 by Friends of Saint-Laurent Boulevard in collaboration with Mile End Memories as part of the project The Main, Forever in Tune