From Mile End to Laurier – II (excerpts)

By Jean de Laplante, Le Canada, Tuesday, June 28, 1951, p. 14
Read our introduction to this series of documents on the origins of Mile End.

Mile End was born from the destruction of a beautiful forest to supply Montrealers with the stone they needed for the facades of their most sumptuous buildings. Why was it called Mile End?… More than 75 years ago, venerable Montrealers would say things like “se promener dans la Molenne”. People have long wondered about the origin of this word “molenne”, which appears to be a corruption of the English expression “Mile End”, part of the original name of Ville Saint-Louis. In fact, people have been wondering about the origin of this term for more than 40 years. (…)

Town hall, Saint-Louis, ca. 1930
Archives de la ville de Montréal, VM094-Y-1-17-D0092

Now Conrad Archambault, archivist for the City of Montréal, believes he solved the problem a couple of years ago, while doing research based on the study of military maps of 1870. It appears that in the 1850s, in the area known by the name of Côte Saint-Louis, there was a racetrack frequented by English enthusiasts of the turf. From there appears to come the name Mile End, borrowed from the horsey set. Authentic French-speaking Montrealers turned it into “molenne”. Mr. Archambault noted that only one road from the west connected to the Côte St-Louis horse race track; it arrived at a point on the track which marked the end of the mile. That is the origin. The track in question was located on a site between St-Hubert, St-André streets, and Mont-Royal and Gilford.

While Ville Saint-Louis is of particular interest to us, inheriting at it did the famous Mile End name [as Saint-Louis-du-Mile End], the track was not actually within its boundaries. Many such curiosities pass unnoticed.