Pointe-Saint-Charles
Encyclopedia
Pointe-Saint-Charles is a neighbourhood in the borough
of Le Sud-Ouest
in city of Montreal
, Quebec
, Canada
.
, the east and southeast by the Saint Lawrence River
, the southwest by the Décarie Expressway
and Atwater Avenue, and the west and northwest by the Lachine Canal
.
Adjacent neighbourhoods are Little Burgundy
across the canal to the north Montreal directions), Griffintown
to the northeast, the wharves of the Old Port
to the east, and the borough of Verdun to the west.
The residential part of the neighbourhood is bisected by the CN Rail line running through its centre on an elevated structure. A large industrial area, including the former CN rail yards, lies on landfill to the east; on the riverside, the Montreal Technoparc
is home to film studios.
The point for which the area was named, located south of the modern area around Parc Le Ber, has long since disappeared under landfill. The name was reassigned to a new point at the southeastern tip of the area, opposite the northern point of Nuns' Island
.
(Montreal) by Paul Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve in 1642, he granted an area on the pointe Saint-Charles, extending into the St. Lawrence, to St. Marguerite Bourgeoys
for agricultural use by the Congrégation de Notre-Dame. The sisters operated a sharecropping
farm (métairie) on the land. From an area of about 30 arpent
s (about 10 hectares), the farm reached an area of 200 arpent
s (about 68 hectares) by the mid-18th century. The nuns built the Maison Saint-Gabriel, the only remaining trace of their farm and one of the oldest buildings in Montreal, on their property in 1698. Their farming activity only ceased altogether in the 1950s.
Until the mid-19th century, the area was chiefly agricultural. Urbanization began with the enlargement of the Lachine Canal (completed in 1848), as the transportation access and water power attracted industry to the whole of what is now the Sud-Ouest borough. The installation of railways and the construction of the Victoria Bridge
(1854-1860) also attracted workers and spurred development. The then-owners, the Sulpician Order, divided the area into lots and auctioned them off starting in 1853, with the Grand Trunk Railway
purchasing a large area for use as a railyard.
Numerous workers moved in, including numerous Irish immigrants as well as French-Canadians, English, Scots and in the early Twentieth Century, the Poles, Ukrainians and the Lithuanians. Irish-Catholics and French-Canadians lived side-by-side in the Point, each community building its own Catholic church, also side-by-side on Centre Street: St. Gabriel's Church (completed 1895) and Église Saint-Charles (completed 1905). The Polish Community was given permission by the Archdiocese of Montreal to build a church on Centre Street between Richmond and Montmorency Streets, Église Sainte-Trinité which is still attended by the community from near and far. The Ukrainian Community also still returns to the Point to worship at Holy Ghost Parish on the corner of Grand Trunk and Shearer Streets. Today, Pointe-Saint-Charles is considered the heart of Irish Montreal, with street names like Rue Saint-Patrick, Rue d'Hibernia, Place Dublin, and Rue des Irlandais testifying to its heritage.
By the 1860s the area was a busy industrial neighbourhood, one of Canada's first industrial slums. Notably, the development on Grand Trunk Row (today Rue Sébastopol) introduced the stacked "duplex," based on British working-class housing, that would come to be so typical of neighbourhoods throughout Montreal. Building continued in the central Rushbrooke/Hibernia area until 1910.
The area straddled the Montreal city limit, and the part outside was set up as the village of Saint-Gabriel in 1874 and annexed to Montreal in 1887, becoming a city ward. In the early 20th century, Pointe-Saint-Charles was made up of two city wards: St. Gabriel, to the west, and St. Ann, to the east, which also included Griffintown
and extended as far as McGill Street in what is now Old Montreal. The two were divided by the former city limit line, passing from the basin on the Lachine Canal just west of the St. Gabriel Locks to the riverbank just south of what is now the end of Ash Avenue.
Like the rest of the area around the Lachine Canal, the neighbourhood went into a long decline in the 1960s, caused by the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway and sealed by the closure of the Lachine Canal. The destruction of Goose Village and the construction of the Bonaventure Autoroute further impacted the area. Still, the neighbourhood reacted to the difficult times by forming bands of social solidarity. For example, the Clinique communautaire de Pointe-Saint-Charles was founded in 1968 to offer health and social services to local residents; it inspired the CLSC
model used throughout the province, while remaining an independent clinic with the mandate of a CLSC. Several social housing towers were built in the 1970s. The Montreal Metro
reached Pointe-Saint-Charles in 1978 with the construction of Charlevoix
station.
However, in recent years, the neighbourhood has undergone gentrification
. The Montreal Technoparc
industrial park opened in 1988 on the site of a former landfill and dump site between the neighbourhood and the river. The rehabilitation of the Lachine Canal for recreational use spurred the reclamation of factories along the canal for lofts and condominiums. However, this has brought its own pressures as to increased rents and cost of living. The tradition of social solidarity continues, with residents banding together in 2005-2006 to successfully oppose a project to move the Montreal Casino
to the area.
metro station, with LaSalle
station near the southwestern part of the neighbourhood in Verdun.
The area is ringed by the Décarie
and Bonaventure
Expressways, as well as Quebec Route 112
(Rue Bridge) leading to the Victoria Bridge. It is also the Montreal end of the Champlain Bridge complex (Île-des-Soeurs and Clément bridges) leading to Nuns' Island and the South Shore at Brossard
. Major thoroughfares include Rue Saint-Patrick, Rue du Centre, Rue Wellington, and Rue Charlevoix.
The CN Rail
, VIA
, and Amtrak
lines to Montreal's Central Station run through Pointe-Saint-Charles. Recently, with the closure of the Turcot Yards, CN has been performing switching operations and storing trains in the area, a practice denounced by local residents due to increased noise and danger from hazardous cargo in a residential area.
Recreational facilities include the YMCA, the Centre Saint-Charles, Parc Saint-Gabriel, Parc Le Ber, Parc Marguerite-Bourgeoys, and the Lachine Canal greenspace and bike trail, as well as road bike trails crossing through the neighbourhood. Historic buildings include the Maison Saint-Gabriel and Saint-Gabriel and Saint-Charles churches. The neighbourhood is served by the Bibliothèque Saint-Charles.
Pointe-Saint-Charles served as the setting for the 2006 movie The Point
, a drama that takes place over one weekend about the stories of thirty-five teenagers and a mystery that haunts their neighbourhood.
Montreal borough
The city of Montreal is divided into 19 boroughs , each with a mayor and council.- Powers :The borough council is responsible for:*Fire prevention*Removal of household waste and residual materials*Funding of community...
of Le Sud-Ouest
Le Sud-Ouest
Le Sud-Ouest is a borough of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.-Geography:Le Sud-Ouest is an amalgam of several neighbourhoods with highly distinct histories and identities, mainly with working-class and industrial origins, grouped around the Lachine Canal...
in city of Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Geography
Located southwest of downtown Montreal, it is bounded on the north by the Bonaventure ExpresswayQuebec Autoroute 10
Autoroute 10 is an Autoroute in southern Quebec, Canada...
, the east and southeast by the Saint Lawrence River
Saint Lawrence River
The Saint Lawrence is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage conveyor of the Great Lakes Basin...
, the southwest by the Décarie Expressway
Quebec Autoroute 15
Autoroute 15 is a highway in western Quebec, Canada...
and Atwater Avenue, and the west and northwest by the Lachine Canal
Lachine Canal
The Lachine Canal is a canal passing through the southwestern part of the Island of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, running 14.5 kilometres from the Old Port of Montreal to Lake Saint-Louis, through the boroughs of Lachine, Lasalle and Sud-Ouest.The canal gets its name from the French word for China...
.
Adjacent neighbourhoods are Little Burgundy
Little Burgundy
Little Burgundy is the informal name of a neighbourhood in the Sud-Ouest borough of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.-Geography:...
across the canal to the north Montreal directions), Griffintown
Griffintown
Griffintown is the popular name given to the former southwestern downtown part of Montreal, Quebec, which existed from the 1820s until the 1960s and was mainly populated by Irish immigrants and their descendants....
to the northeast, the wharves of the Old Port
Old Port of Montreal
Stretching for over two kilometres along the St-Lawrence River in Old Montreal, the Old Port Of Montreal has been the social, economic and cultural soul of Montreal ever since early French fur traders used it as a trading post in 1611...
to the east, and the borough of Verdun to the west.
The residential part of the neighbourhood is bisected by the CN Rail line running through its centre on an elevated structure. A large industrial area, including the former CN rail yards, lies on landfill to the east; on the riverside, the Montreal Technoparc
Montreal Technoparc
The Montreal Technoparc, formerly known as Adacport, is an industrial park and former industrial dump in the Pointe-Saint-Charles neighbourhood of Montreal, between the Champlain and Victoria bridges.-History:...
is home to film studios.
The point for which the area was named, located south of the modern area around Parc Le Ber, has long since disappeared under landfill. The name was reassigned to a new point at the southeastern tip of the area, opposite the northern point of Nuns' Island
Nuns' Island
Nuns' Island is an island that forms a part of the city of Montreal, Quebec. It is part of the borough of Verdun.-Geography:The 3.74 km² island is part of the Hochelaga Archipelago in the St. Lawrence River...
.
History
Twenty years after the founding of Ville-MarieFort Ville-Marie
Fort Ville-Marie was a fortress outpost of France in North America. It is the historic nucleus around which the original settlement of Montreal grew.Given its importance, the site of the fort was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1924....
(Montreal) by Paul Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve in 1642, he granted an area on the pointe Saint-Charles, extending into the St. Lawrence, to St. Marguerite Bourgeoys
Marguerite Bourgeoys
Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys was the founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame.- Biography :...
for agricultural use by the Congrégation de Notre-Dame. The sisters operated a sharecropping
Sharecropping
Sharecropping is a system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crop produced on the land . This should not be confused with a crop fixed rent contract, in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a fixed amount of...
farm (métairie) on the land. From an area of about 30 arpent
Arpent
An arpent is a unit of length and a unit of area. It is a pre-metric French unit based on the Roman actus. It is used in Quebec as well as in some areas of the United States that were part of French Louisiana.-Unit of length:...
s (about 10 hectares), the farm reached an area of 200 arpent
Arpent
An arpent is a unit of length and a unit of area. It is a pre-metric French unit based on the Roman actus. It is used in Quebec as well as in some areas of the United States that were part of French Louisiana.-Unit of length:...
s (about 68 hectares) by the mid-18th century. The nuns built the Maison Saint-Gabriel, the only remaining trace of their farm and one of the oldest buildings in Montreal, on their property in 1698. Their farming activity only ceased altogether in the 1950s.
Until the mid-19th century, the area was chiefly agricultural. Urbanization began with the enlargement of the Lachine Canal (completed in 1848), as the transportation access and water power attracted industry to the whole of what is now the Sud-Ouest borough. The installation of railways and the construction of the Victoria Bridge
Victoria Bridge (Montreal)
Victoria Bridge , formerly originally known as Victoria Jubilee Bridge, is a bridge over the St. Lawrence River, linking Montreal, Quebec, to the south shore city of Saint-Lambert....
(1854-1860) also attracted workers and spurred development. The then-owners, the Sulpician Order, divided the area into lots and auctioned them off starting in 1853, with the Grand Trunk Railway
Grand Trunk Railway
The Grand Trunk Railway was a railway system which operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, as well as the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The railway was operated from headquarters in Montreal, Quebec; however, corporate...
purchasing a large area for use as a railyard.
Numerous workers moved in, including numerous Irish immigrants as well as French-Canadians, English, Scots and in the early Twentieth Century, the Poles, Ukrainians and the Lithuanians. Irish-Catholics and French-Canadians lived side-by-side in the Point, each community building its own Catholic church, also side-by-side on Centre Street: St. Gabriel's Church (completed 1895) and Église Saint-Charles (completed 1905). The Polish Community was given permission by the Archdiocese of Montreal to build a church on Centre Street between Richmond and Montmorency Streets, Église Sainte-Trinité which is still attended by the community from near and far. The Ukrainian Community also still returns to the Point to worship at Holy Ghost Parish on the corner of Grand Trunk and Shearer Streets. Today, Pointe-Saint-Charles is considered the heart of Irish Montreal, with street names like Rue Saint-Patrick, Rue d'Hibernia, Place Dublin, and Rue des Irlandais testifying to its heritage.
By the 1860s the area was a busy industrial neighbourhood, one of Canada's first industrial slums. Notably, the development on Grand Trunk Row (today Rue Sébastopol) introduced the stacked "duplex," based on British working-class housing, that would come to be so typical of neighbourhoods throughout Montreal. Building continued in the central Rushbrooke/Hibernia area until 1910.
Griffintown
Griffintown is the popular name given to the former southwestern downtown part of Montreal, Quebec, which existed from the 1820s until the 1960s and was mainly populated by Irish immigrants and their descendants....
and extended as far as McGill Street in what is now Old Montreal. The two were divided by the former city limit line, passing from the basin on the Lachine Canal just west of the St. Gabriel Locks to the riverbank just south of what is now the end of Ash Avenue.
Like the rest of the area around the Lachine Canal, the neighbourhood went into a long decline in the 1960s, caused by the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway and sealed by the closure of the Lachine Canal. The destruction of Goose Village and the construction of the Bonaventure Autoroute further impacted the area. Still, the neighbourhood reacted to the difficult times by forming bands of social solidarity. For example, the Clinique communautaire de Pointe-Saint-Charles was founded in 1968 to offer health and social services to local residents; it inspired the CLSC
CLSC
CLSCs in Quebec are free clinics which are run and maintained by the provincial government...
model used throughout the province, while remaining an independent clinic with the mandate of a CLSC. Several social housing towers were built in the 1970s. The Montreal Metro
Montreal Metro
The Montreal Metro is a rubber-tired metro system, and the main form of public transportation underground in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada....
reached Pointe-Saint-Charles in 1978 with the construction of Charlevoix
Charlevoix (Montreal Metro)
Charlevoix is a station on the Green Line of the Montreal Metro rapid transit system operated by the Société de transport de Montréal . It is located in the district of Pointe-Saint-Charles in the borough of Le Sud-Ouest in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.The station opened on September 3, 1978, as part...
station.
However, in recent years, the neighbourhood has undergone gentrification
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
. The Montreal Technoparc
Montreal Technoparc
The Montreal Technoparc, formerly known as Adacport, is an industrial park and former industrial dump in the Pointe-Saint-Charles neighbourhood of Montreal, between the Champlain and Victoria bridges.-History:...
industrial park opened in 1988 on the site of a former landfill and dump site between the neighbourhood and the river. The rehabilitation of the Lachine Canal for recreational use spurred the reclamation of factories along the canal for lofts and condominiums. However, this has brought its own pressures as to increased rents and cost of living. The tradition of social solidarity continues, with residents banding together in 2005-2006 to successfully oppose a project to move the Montreal Casino
Montreal Casino
The Casino de Montréal is a casino located on the Île Notre-Dame in Montreal, Quebec. It is the largest casino in Canada, and one of the largest casinos in the world. The casino is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to patrons aged 18 and older. It opened October 9, 1993.-Features:The...
to the area.
Transport
The neighbourhood is served by the CharlevoixCharlevoix (Montreal Metro)
Charlevoix is a station on the Green Line of the Montreal Metro rapid transit system operated by the Société de transport de Montréal . It is located in the district of Pointe-Saint-Charles in the borough of Le Sud-Ouest in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.The station opened on September 3, 1978, as part...
metro station, with LaSalle
LaSalle (Montreal Metro)
LaSalle is a station on the Green Line of the Montreal Metro rapid transit system operated by the Société de transport de Montréal . It is located in the borough of Verdun, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada...
station near the southwestern part of the neighbourhood in Verdun.
The area is ringed by the Décarie
Quebec Autoroute 15
Autoroute 15 is a highway in western Quebec, Canada...
and Bonaventure
Quebec Autoroute 10
Autoroute 10 is an Autoroute in southern Quebec, Canada...
Expressways, as well as Quebec Route 112
Quebec route 112
Route 112 is a busy east/west highway on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada. Its eastern terminus is in Frampton at the junction of Route 275, and the western terminus is in Downtown Montreal , after crossing the Victoria Bridge...
(Rue Bridge) leading to the Victoria Bridge. It is also the Montreal end of the Champlain Bridge complex (Île-des-Soeurs and Clément bridges) leading to Nuns' Island and the South Shore at Brossard
Brossard, Quebec
Brossard is a suburban area, located on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River, opposite the island and city of Montreal.Brossard is subdivided into many smaller sections. These sections are characterized by having street names that all begin with the same letter of the alphabet...
. Major thoroughfares include Rue Saint-Patrick, Rue du Centre, Rue Wellington, and Rue Charlevoix.
The CN Rail
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....
, VIA
VIA Rail
Via Rail Canada is an independent crown corporation offering intercity passenger rail services in Canada. It is headquartered near Montreal Central Station at 3 Place Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec....
, and Amtrak
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...
lines to Montreal's Central Station run through Pointe-Saint-Charles. Recently, with the closure of the Turcot Yards, CN has been performing switching operations and storing trains in the area, a practice denounced by local residents due to increased noise and danger from hazardous cargo in a residential area.
Institutions
The Clinique communautaire de Pointe-Saint-Charles is the primary health and social services institution in the area. La Maison Saint-Charles provides space for community groups.Culture and recreation
Pointe-Saint-Charles served as the setting for the 2006 movie The Point
The Point (film)
The Point is a 2006 film co-produced by Silo Productions and the National Film Board of Canada, filmed on location in Montreal. The movie, whose name is taken from the common name for one of the city's poorest neighbourhoods, Pointe-Saint-Charles, tells the story of a group of teenagers and how...
, a drama that takes place over one weekend about the stories of thirty-five teenagers and a mystery that haunts their neighbourhood.
Demographics
Home language (2006)| Language | Population | Pct (%) |
|---|---|---|
| French French language French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts... |
9,070 | 61.91% |
| English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria... |
4,095 | 27.95% |
| Both English and French | 275 | 1.88% |
| Other languages | 1,210 | 8.26% |
See also
- MontrealMontrealMontreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
- Charlevoix (Montreal Metro)Charlevoix (Montreal Metro)Charlevoix is a station on the Green Line of the Montreal Metro rapid transit system operated by the Société de transport de Montréal . It is located in the district of Pointe-Saint-Charles in the borough of Le Sud-Ouest in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.The station opened on September 3, 1978, as part...
- Jeanne-Le BerJeanne-Le BerJeanne-Le Ber is a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 2004. Its population in 2006 was 112,863.-Geography:...
- Le Sud-OuestLe Sud-OuestLe Sud-Ouest is a borough of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.-Geography:Le Sud-Ouest is an amalgam of several neighbourhoods with highly distinct histories and identities, mainly with working-class and industrial origins, grouped around the Lachine Canal...