{"id":1815,"date":"2013-10-02T09:29:19","date_gmt":"2013-10-02T13:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/?p=1815&lang=fr"},"modified":"2022-02-19T21:41:36","modified_gmt":"2022-02-20T02:41:36","slug":"les-origines-du-mile-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/les-origines-du-mile-end\/","title":{"rendered":"The origins of Mile End"},"content":{"rendered":"

How did this area get the name Mile End? A simple question, not so simple to answer! The question has been asked for decades, not only by local residents but also by various authors. Here are three articles that gradually converge towards an explanation.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014 The first was written in June 1951 by Jean de Laplante, journalist for <\/em>Le Canada, a daily newspaper of the time. The newspaper had been the official publication of the Liberal Party from the turn of the century, but by then was experiencing financial problems. To reduce its costs, the daily had recently sold its property on prestigious Saint-James Street and rented space in a much more modest building in Mile End, at 5221 de Gasp\u00e9.<\/em><\/p>\n

The City of Montr\u00e9al had decided to spend $125,000 to renovate the former city hall of Saint-Louis, annexed by Montr\u00e9al in 1910. The journalist described the building as \u201chalf-Renaissance, half-parvenu bourgeois.\u201d This decision by municipal officials provided the newspaper with the pretext for a series of four articles titled \u201cDe la Molenne \u00e0 Laurier\u201d (From Mile End to Laurier). Laplante had the avowed purpose of saving from the forgotten past the \u201cunremarkable Laurier ward, which now encompasses the demarcation line between the French city of Montr\u00e9al and the Jewish quarter.\u201d<\/em>6<\/a><\/p>\n

Since, as he noted, use of the term \u201cMolenne\u201d [Mile End] had almost completely disappeared except among the oldest francophone residents, he tried to retrace the origin of the expression in his second article. An excerpt is reproduced here.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014 The second was written in 1994 by Christopher Schoofs of the \u201cSoci\u00e9t\u00e9 Mile End pour l\u2019histoire et la culture\u201d. As will be seen, although the expression Mile End had returned to common usage, its boundaries and especially its identity remained blurry. The area was again in transition. At the time Laplante wrote his articles in the early 1950s, the Jewish community, which had made Mile End the heart of its social, cultural and economic life since the 1920s, had migrated massively to Snowdon and suburbs such as C\u00f4te-Saint-Luc. During the following decades, up till the mid-1980s, the neighbourhood was considered one of the poorest in Montreal, while continuing to welcome new generations of immigrants \u2013 Greek, Portuguese and Italian.<\/em><\/p>\n

The \u201cSoci\u00e9t\u00e9 Mile End pour l\u2019histoire et la culture\u201d, a predecessor of Mile End Memories, had been created by a few members of the Mile End Citizens\u2019 Committee. The neighbourhood was seeing its first wave of gentrification \u2013 transformation of a vacant building on Saint-Laurent Boulevard into LUX, a trendy 1980s bar and boutique, was probably the best known example. Several other buildings were in the sights of various developer\u2013speculators. Residents mobilized to defend the unique character of the area, its cultural diversity and to preserve historic buildings, such as the Rialto theatre and the Church of the Ascension, which became the Mile End Library. Members of the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Mile End began research to re-establish this heritage in its historic context.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014 The third article is by Justin Bur, member of the board of directors of Mile End Memories and president of Les Amis du boulevard Saint-Laurent. Justin corrects certain commonly repeated errors, which stem from a description published circa 1949 by Conrad Archambault, then head archivist for the City of Montr\u00e9al. (Click here to read that text (in French): Archambault Mile End<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

This dossier marks the inauguration of our new web site: during the next months, Mile End Memories will post a series of articles and vignettes on the history of the neighbourhood, based on research by our members. Please return here regularly to consult these articles. To be advised of new material, follow us by joining our Facebook group<\/a> or via Twitter (@MemoireMileEnd<\/a>).<\/em>
\n<\/p>\n

From Mile End to Laurier \u2013 II (excerpts)<\/h1>\n

By Jean de Laplante, <\/em>Le Canada, Tuesday, June 28, 1951, p. 14
\nRead our introduction<\/a> to this series of documents on the origins of Mile End.<\/em><\/p>\n

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?\u2026\u00a0More than 75 years ago, venerable Montrealers would say things like \u201cse promener dans la Molenne\u201d. People have long wondered about the origin of this word \u201cmolenne\u201d, which appears to be a corruption of the English expression \u201cMile End\u201d, 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. (\u2026)<\/p>\n

\"Town<\/a>

Town hall, Saint-Louis, ca. 1930<\/strong>
Archives de la ville de Montr\u00e9al, VM094-Y-1-17-D0092<\/p><\/div>\n

Now Conrad Archambault, archivist for the City of Montr\u00e9al, 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 C\u00f4te 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 \u201cmolenne\u201d. Mr. Archambault noted that only one road from the west connected to the C\u00f4te 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-Andr\u00e9 streets, and Mont-Royal and Gilford.<\/p>\n

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.
\n<\/p>\n

History of the Mile End District of Montreal (excerpts)<\/h1>\n

By Christopher Schoofs, May 19937<\/a>
\nRead our introduction<\/a> to this series of documents on the origins of Mile End.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Mile End district of Montreal has always been a borderland, a land next to, a land in between, a land of passage to other places, historically in many ways a forgotten land. Today it has no single focal point. Its residents cannot define its boundaries or even in fact agree what it is called. St. Lawrence Boulevard might define its eastern boundary or cut through its middle. To many older Italian-Canadians who might call it the “Milen”, it is the area north of the CPR tracks to Jean Talon. To the French Catholics of the neighborhood who might have called it “La Molenne”, it is the area surrounding the church Saint-Enfant-Jesus-du-Mile End facing Lahaye park on St Lawrence Boulevard. If Jewish-Canadians know the name, they will associate it with Mordecai Richler, Duddy Kravitz, and St. Urbain Street. Greek-Canadians may, again if they know the name, associate it with Park Avenue. In fact, today it is an extremely heterogenous neighborhood filled with French and English Canadians, immigrants from around the world, prosperous professionals and the unemployed, students, artists, and workers of all kinds.<\/p>\n

[\u2026]\u00a0By the late 1970s the name “Mile End” was almost forgotten, as many Montrealers believed the area belonged to the working class “Plateau” district to the east, in a curious way reaffirming its origins as a part of Cote-Saint-Louis. However, in the 1980s the term Mile End reasserted itself as more and more residents of the district began to use it to contrast the area to the Plateau to the east and wealthy Outremont to the west.<\/p>\n

[\u2026\u00a0Mount Royal A]venue is located slightly more than one mile north of the last building that the 1824 map shows as part of the city. At some point between 1805-1831, the area around Mount Royal Avenue became known as the Mile End. For three reasons, it should come as no surprise that the British merchants and soldiers of Montreal would begin to call the district the Mile End. First, it lay one mile from the city limit to the end of the clearing. Second, “Mile End” is a traditional British term used since the Middle Ages to designate an area located one mile from something. Third, a section of London is known as the Mile End.<\/p>\n

[Lovell’s Historical Report of 1891] also reports that the cleared land from the base of the mountain to St. Lawrence Road was used as pasture land and contained the first horse racing track in Canada. A watercolor done in 1821 by John Woolford, a British officer stationed in Montreal, shows “Montreal from the mountain, on the race course.”<\/p>\n

\"\"

John Elliot Woolford, Montreal from the mountain, on the race course, ca. 1819-1821<\/strong>
National Gallery of Canada (23416)<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The origin of the name Mile End<\/h1>\n

By Justin Bur<\/em>8<\/a><\/p>\n

The question that comes up most often \u2013 I would even say that it is posed during every history tour I lead \u2013 is the following: \u201cWhere did the name Mile End come from?\u201d Why does the neighbourhood have this name? While the question is simple and obvious, the answer is neither! But it is a fascinating story.<\/p>\n

Of course Mile End is an English term, referring to a place that lies a mile beyond a more central location. Since the Middle Ages, the term has referred to a village near London. With the expansion of the city, this village became a neighbourhood, served by a London Underground station since 1902. The medieval village, first mentioned in 1288, was located one mile east of Aldgate, one of the gates providing access through the fortification wall of the City of London.<\/p>\n

We can state with some assurance that the name of our Mile End was based on London’s. But why? And if it is the end of a mile, where are the mile’s endpoints?<\/p>\n

The city’s official\u00a0R\u00e9pertoire historique des toponymes<\/a>\u00a0(historical directory of place names), which can be consulted on the Internet, states that \u201cthe name comes from a racetrack\u2026\u00a0The distance between this track and the Montreal city limits of the time was exactly one mile.\u201d This statement is based on research done in the 1940s by Conrad Archambault, then head archivist for the City of Montreal. It echoes a long tradition linking Mile End to 19th-century race tracks.9<\/a><\/p>\n

But there is a problem. The racetrack identified by Mr. Archambault, located east of Berri Street between Mont-Royal and Gilford, existed in the 1850s and 1860s, but the name was already in use in 1810! For example, the Mile End Tavern stood at the northwest corner of Saint-Laurent Street and Mont-Royal Avenue (then known as Sainte-Catherine Road) until the turn of the 20th century. It was then replaced by a department store. That building survives to this day and now houses the CLSC. Over the years, the existence of the inn was forgotten by historians\u2026<\/p>\n

The innkeepers between 1810 and 1818 were a father and son from Massachusetts. Phineas Bagg, a debt-ridden widower, emigrated to Lower Canada around 1795 with his children to build a new life here. Phineas and his son Stanley, then aged 22, signed a lease with one John Clark, a prosperous butcher of British origin. An advertisement published in the Gazette<\/em> on August 7, 1815 offered a reward for the return of a horse belonging to Stanley Bagg, which had disappeared from where it was grazing near the Mile End Tavern.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Strayed or Stolen from the Pasture of Stanley Bagg, Mile-End Tavern<\/strong>
Montreal Gazette<\/em>, Monday, August 7, 1815<\/p><\/div>\n

The inn was located at a crossroads, the intersection of today\u2019s Saint-Laurent Boulevard and Mont-Royal Avenue. Part of a rural landscape, it became a popular destination for country excursions by city-dwellers. To attract customers, Stanley Bagg became a promoter of various recreational activities. In the spring of 1811, he joined with the Montreal Jockey Club to build one of the first horse race tracks in Lower Canada on the adjacent Mile End Farm. This was the track that Woolford was to paint a decade later. The site was located between what is now Park Avenue and Saint-Laurent Boulevard, on the south side of Mont-Royal Avenue. Of the many race tracks in Mile End history, one was indeed present at its founding \u2013 just not the one Conrad Archambault had identified!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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