Mile\u00a0End Exhibition Grounds<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0framed by Park Avenue, Mount Royal Avenue, Saint-Urbain Street, and Saint-Joseph\u00a0Boulevard. Between 1870 and 1897, the agricultural and industrial fairs hosted here\u00a0provided education and entertainment for thousands of Montrealers and visitors of all\u00a0ages. In 1885\u201386, when the island of Montreal was struck by a smallpox epidemic, the exhibition buildings, including one on this very site, served as isolation wards run by\u00a0Catholic and Anglican nuns.<\/p>\nAt the turn of the 20th century, the\u00a0town of Saint-Louis, in which this property was\u00a0located, was undergoing rapid urban development. During the decade leading up to\u00a0the annexation of this former suburb by the city of Montreal in 1910, the exhibition grounds were transformed into a residential neighbourhood. The building at 4650-4652 Jeanne-Mance Street was constructed in 1910 to house the\u00a0Mount Royal Brethren Church<\/strong> on the ground floor, a residence\u00a0for the clergyman on the second floor, and a rental apartment on the third storey. The church closed at the end of 1916, in the midst of the Great War. The upper floor was\u00a0occupied by the Victorian Order of Nurses<\/strong> from 1918 until 1920. Although in harmony with its\u00a0residential landscape, this red brick edifice distinguishes itself from the neighbouring\u00a0rowhouses with its side garden and its unique dome-topped corner entrance.<\/p>\nIn 1920, a group of Jewish businessmen purchased the property, which became the\u00a0Montefiore Hebrew Orphans’ Home of Montreal<\/strong>. Until 1936, up to 70 Jewish\u00a0children lived here at a time. The well-being of these “brothers and sisters,” most of whom had lost one or both parents, was ensured by Max Matt, the orphanage’s devoted director. They attended Bancroft School, played in Fletcher’s Field<\/strong> (now\u00a0Jeanne-Mance Park), received free memberships to the Young Men’s Hebrew\u00a0Association (YMHA)<\/strong> at the corner of Mount Royal Avenue, and participated in the life\u00a0of the neighbourhood, which at the time had a large Jewish population. The top\u00a0storey housed the girls’ dormitory and the infirmary, and the boys’ dormitory was on the\u00a0second floor. The ground floor accommodated a shul<\/em>, or small synagogue, which was also used for activities organized by local women. The kitchen and dining\u00a0room were in the basement.<\/p>\nUntil the late 1980s, the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies<\/strong>, later\u00a0known as the Allied Jewish Community Services of Montreal<\/strong>, remained the owner of the property, which housed various social services, including the Herzl Hospital and Dispensary<\/strong>, a\u00a0welcome centre for young participants of the War Orphans\/Refugee Youth Project<\/strong>, and a daycare centre run by Neighbourhood House<\/strong> for local Jewish children and the children of new Jewish immigrants from Hungary, Italy and North Africa.<\/p>\nIn the meantime, the Jewish population had moved westward and a large\u00a0number of\u00a0Portuguese and Greek families had arrived in the neighbourhood. In 1970, the Luso-Canadian Day Nursery<\/strong>, which became the\u00a0Garderie Villeneuve<\/strong> the following year, was\u00a0established for local children from all cultural communities; it rented the\u00a0building’s lower levels. From 1977 until the late 1980s, the CLSC Saint-Louis-du-Parc<\/strong> rented the\u00a0upper floors. In 1990, the daycare purchased the property. Known\u00a0since 1998 as the Centre de la petite enfance Villeneuve<\/strong>, it pursues its pedagogical mission by allowing a large number of children to benefit daily from an environment that\u00a0encourages each and every child to blossom. In 1991, the upper floors\u00a0were bought by L’Hirondelle<\/strong>, an organization founded in 1979. Committed first and foremost to\u00a0establishing harmonious relationships between recent immigrants and\u00a0those who welcome them, L’Hirondelle facilitates the adaptation and full participation of new arrivals in their new\u00a0community. To this day, these two institutions share this former place of\u00a0worship, orphanage and hospital, and offer a welcoming and\u00a0forward-looking setting for both young children from the neighbourhood and recent\u00a0immigrants from throughout the world.<\/p>\nThroughout its history, this place and its many occupants have contributed to the\u00a0well-being and cultural enrichment of the community. This tradition continues today.<\/p>\n
\nText taken from the interpretation panel inaugurated on 12 September 2004 by the Montefiore Hebrew Orphans’ Home Alumni<\/em>, in collaboration with the group Mile End Memories<\/em>, the Centre de la petite enfance Villeneuve<\/em>, and L’Hirondelle, Services d’accueil et d’int\u00e9gration des immigrants<\/em>. The text was written by\u00a0Susan D. Bronson, in collaboration with Sandra Bohbot, Montserrat Escola, Judy Gordon, Myer Gordon, Sandra Handfield, Janice Rosen, Nora Solervicens, Marie Trudeau and Emanuel Weiner.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the 19th century, this place was part of the Mile\u00a0End Exhibition Grounds,\u00a0framed by Park Avenue, Mount Royal Avenue, Saint-Urbain Street, and Saint-Joseph\u00a0Boulevard. Between 1870 and 1897, the agricultural and industrial fairs hosted here\u00a0provided education and entertainment for thousands of Montrealers and visitors of all\u00a0ages. In 1885\u201386, when the island of Montreal was struck by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26,41],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5887"}],"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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5887"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6729,"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5887\/revisions\/6729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Garderie](\"http:\/\/memoire.mile-end.qc.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/garderie-villeneuve-600x450.jpg\")