{"id":3154,"date":"2014-12-16T13:43:39","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T18:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/?p=3154&lang=fr"},"modified":"2015-12-25T22:03:06","modified_gmt":"2015-12-26T03:03:06","slug":"chapitre-6-1-saint-louis-du-mile-end-1880-1895-du-village-a-la-ville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/chapitre-6-1-saint-louis-du-mile-end-1880-1895-du-village-a-la-ville\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 6.1 \u2013 Saint-Louis-du-Mile-End, 1880-1895: from village to town"},"content":{"rendered":"

What did the area in which Leonidas Villeneuve & Co was flourishing look like in the early 1880s? Review of 1881 census data and the Lovell’s directories8<\/a>\u00a0leads to the conclusion that it was a kind of \u201curban village\u201d\u2014a hybrid space, punctuated by quarries and pastures belonging to major property owners, but already highly structured by its connections to the nearby city. At the time, Saint-Louis-du-Mile-End was more than just a service centre around the church, serving the surrounding farms and quarries. As such, it was similar to several other villages surrounding Montreal\u2014not yet a suburb of the city, as was the village of Saint-Jean-Baptiste, to the south.<\/p>\n

The structure of this village space\u2014a sort of backbone\u2014was provided by Saint-Laurent Street, which by then was more than a century old, an essential communications artery between Montreal and the surrounding countryside. This function meant that even beyond the city limits it was a highly developed commercial and residential artery. The traveller leaving Montreal in 1881 to travel to Sault-au-R\u00e9collet (today\u2019s Ahuntsic district) via Saint-Laurent Street would note that from Sherbrooke Street all the way up to Mont-Royal Avenue, Saint-Laurent Street and adjacent streets were completely urbanized. The village of Saint-Jean Baptiste was already densely inhabited eastward from Saint-Laurent to about present day Saint-Denis Street: most of the street grid had been developed, and the familiar setting of brick duplexes of the southwestern portion of Plateau Mont-Royal was already visible.9<\/a><\/p>\n

On the other hand, after crossing Mont-Royal Avenue, our traveller would arrive at Saint-Louis-du-Mile-End; although buildings lined both sides of Saint-Laurent Street, they were primarily wooden village houses (see figure 1). Moreover, the inhabited area was limited essentially to three streets, creating three long parallel bands. Between them, Saint-Laurent, Saint-Dominique and Robin (now Henri-Julien), housed more than 80% of the residents (figure 2). In addition, the inhabitants of Robin Street\u2014which became the eastern boundary of the new village created in 1878\u2014were geographically and sociologically more connected to C\u00f4te Saint-Louis.<\/p>\n

\"Figure<\/a>

Figure 1 \u2013 Alexander Henderson, Sleighs on Mile End Road in Winter, c. 1886 (McCord Museum). View of Saint-Laurent Street facing south. The photographer was positioned just south of what is now the intersection of Saint-Laurent and Saint-Joseph.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Saint-Laurent<\/span><\/td>\nRobin<\/span><\/p>\n

(Henri-Julien)<\/span><\/td>\n

Saint-Dominique<\/span><\/td>\nMont-Royal<\/span><\/p>\n

(north side)<\/span><\/td>\n

Fortin<\/span><\/p>\n

(Villeneuve east)<\/span><\/td>\n

Saint-Louis<\/span><\/p>\n

(Laurier)<\/span><\/td>\n

Saint-Joseph<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
158<\/span><\/td>\n79<\/span><\/td>\n37<\/span><\/td>\n13<\/span><\/td>\n9<\/span><\/td>\n6<\/span><\/td>\n1<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u00a0Figure 2: Saint-Louis-du-Mile-End inhabitants distributed by street. Lovell\u2019s Directory, 1878-1879 edition.<\/em><\/p>\n

The following map (figure 3)10<\/a>shows how commercial and residential functions related to Saint-Laurent Street facilitated development of this village node, not the institutional core around Lahaie Park. <\/i><\/b>The Beaubien family\u2019s subdivision plan, submitted five years previously, was still in the project phase: from the church to the train station, once what is now Fairmount Avenue was crossed, there was only a hotel\u2014the inn opened by T\u00e9lesphore Hogue in 1878 beside the train station\u2014and the residence of the Saint-Laurent Street toll gate, south of what is now Saint-Viateur Street. On the west side of Saint-Laurent, were only large quasi-uninhabited areas: the Bagg family\u2019s Mile End and Black Gate farms and those of the Nowlan estate, further west.<\/p>\n

\"Figure<\/a>

Figure 3 \u2013 Mile End population density in 1881. Each black square represents one inhabitant. The northern boundary of residences corresponds to the southeast side of what is now Fairmount Avenue. The area between Saint-Dominique, Villeneuve, H\u00f4tel-de-Ville and St. Joseph streets was still occupied by a quarry belonging to the Beaubiens.<\/p><\/div>\n

The village\u2019s inhabitants\u20141,537 according to the 1881 census\u2014were primarily of French-Canadian origin (figure 59). What was particularly interesting, according to Guy Mongrain who studied population movements to Mile End between 1881 and 1901, was that the majority of its inhabitants were born outside the parish of Montr\u00e9al; most of them came from the Laurentians:<\/p>\n

The data show that the majority of Mile-End inhabitants were migrants from outside of the parish of Montreal. While 36.7% of married people originated in the urban perimeter of the old parish of Montr\u00e9al, 63.3% were from outside of that area. (\u2026)<\/p>\n

The Saint-J\u00e9r\u00f4me region, alone, provided 34.3% of those coming from outside of the old Montr\u00e9al parish. \u2026This region was the main source of regional migrants who contributed to the growth of Mile End.11<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It appears that Cur\u00e9 Labelle\u2019s colonization railway had the opposite result from what was hoped!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
French<\/span><\/td>\n1 383<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
English<\/span><\/td>\n48<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Scottish<\/span><\/td>\n10<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Irish<\/span><\/td>\n80<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Italian<\/span><\/td>\n1<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jewish<\/span><\/td>\n0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Other<\/span><\/td>\n2<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Figure 4 \u2013 Ethnicity of Saint-Louis-du-Mile-End inhabitants according to the 1881 census12<\/a><\/em><\/b><\/p>\n

Above all, village inhabitants were artisans and workers, most of whom were day labourers, shoemakers and carters: Mongrain noted that \u201clabourers and shoemakers together represented more than 35% of heads of household.\u201d The quarries in the surrounding area continued to be the main employer: while some day labourers probably worked on farms, but this was definitely not the case for the majority. Added to this group are residents identified as quarrymen and stonemasons, as well as the carters, foremen, and the limeburners (who tended the lime kilns), all trades related to quarry operations.<\/p>\n

The second most frequently mentioned trade, shoemaker (25 people according to Lovell, i.e.,15% of heads of household in the 1881 census), provides an interesting illustration of how the village was integrating with the city, since they were too numerous to be artisans working in shops to serve the local population. The industrial revolution had profoundly transformed Montreal\u2019s footwear industry; by 1860, production was almost completely concentrated in factories. Only for the last step was down in homes: sewing shoe uppers to soles.. Living along Saint-Laurent Street certainly made deliveries easier. But this type of work was disappearing, by the 1891 census, no more than 5.3% of heads of household were shoemakers.13<\/a><\/p>\n

The transition is also illustrated by the number of people who worked n the construction industry and trades related to retail and transportation along a busy artery. The 1878-1879 Lovell\u2019s listed 21 carpenters and joiners; 8 masons; 4 cabinet makers; 3 painters and 3 plasterers. As for stores and transportation, hotels, grocery stores and horses dominated: 21 merchants and grocers; 6 butchers; 4 hoteliers; 1 bartender; 5 blacksmiths; 2 saddlers; 1 wheelwright; 1 manufacturer of cabs and 1 horse seller.Agricultural activities were still present, since five people called themselves gardeners, and four, farmers. In addition, two dairies were at the same address as farms, which suggests an integration of these activities.14<\/a><\/p>\n

In the next article, we will see how the urbanization of this village began, towards the end of the 1880’s decade.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What did the area in which Leonidas Villeneuve & Co was flourishing look like in the early 1880s? Review of 1881 census data and the Lovell’s directories\u00a0leads to the conclusion that it was a kind of \u201curban village\u201d\u2014a hybrid space, punctuated by quarries and pastures belonging to major property owners, but already highly structured by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25],"tags":[31],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3154"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3154"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3190,"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3154\/revisions\/3190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}