MAP BY WARDS OF MONTREALMAP BY WARDS OF MONTREAL
MAP BY WARDS OF MONTREAL
CHAMP DE MARS
In 1911, the Board of Commissioners had plans and specifications prepared and the necessary funds were voted by Council for improvements to the Champ de Mars.
The tenders received for this work exceeded the estimates prepared by the Public Works Department to such an extent that the Commissioners decided that it would not be in the City’s interest to award the contract.
The Chief Engineer was thereupon instructed to have new plans and specifications prepared; these being prepared by Mr. F.J. Todd, Architect. Tenders were called for and on the 10th of June, 1912, Council awarded the contract.
The Champ de Mars improvements, including the change of grade and paving of St. Gabriel Street, were completed during the course of the year 1913.
CITY HALL ANNEX
In 1910, the attention of the Commissioners was called to the congestion existing in the offices of the Police Department, Municipal Assistance Department, etc., and finally, in 1911, they decided that the efficient administration of those departments required that they should occupy more spacious quarters.
Consequently, they reported to Council for funds to purchase a property on Gosford Street, between Champ de Mars and St. Louis streets, for the site of a new building for this purpose. The report was adopted by the Council and the sum of $10,000 was voted for the preparation of the necessary plans and specifications for the erection of this building, as well as for repairs to the City Hall. Messrs. Marchand & Haskell, architects, were engaged for this work. Tenders were called for the construction of this building and on the 4th of June, 1912, on report of the Commissioners, Council awarded the contract to Messrs. Peter Lyall & Sons. The building was ready for occupation early in 1914.
EXPROPRIATIONS
During the last three years, 1910-13, many streets have been opened, widened or continued. A new system of expropriation has been adopted since 1910 by the City. When a street is to be widened or a new street opened up, the City is empowered to purchase the whole of a property to be expropriated, if it thinks fit, and then resell the residue. In most cases the City is reimbursed the whole of the expropriation, and in others a fair profit is made, as for instance, in the case of opening up St. Lawrence Boulevard to the River front.
For the opening of St. Lawrence Boulevard, the City purchased, from the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre-Dame,1the whole of their property for the sum of $617,350.00, at the rate of $7.34 per foot; from the McArthur Estate, thewhole of their property for the sum of $51,050.00, at the rate of $5.03 per foot; from the Masson Estate, a part of their property for the sum of $22,170.00 at the rate of $6.00 per foot; the sale expenses, etc., amounted to the sum of $7,933.08, making a total expenditure of $698,503.08.
The City then resold a part of the Sisters’ property for $694,184.74; a part of the McArthur Estate property for $27,005.40; the sale of the building materials brought $1,936.00; the whole proceeds of the resale amounted to $723,126.07; the City thus realizing a net profit of $24,622.00 on the whole transaction.
Taking the prices paid by the City, as a basis, to arrive at the whole cost of this transaction, we have part of the Sister’s property (36,740.2 square feet) used for the Boulevard at $7.34 per foot, making a total amount of $269,677.06; part of the property of the Masson Estate (3,695 square feet) at $6.00 per foot, making a total amount of $22,170.00; part of the property of the McArthur Estate (8,475 square feet) at $5.03 per foot, amounting to $42,659.53; the cost of the St. Lawrence Boulevard thus amounting to the sum of $334,502.59. By adding to this sum the above mentioned amount of $24,622.99, we see that the opening of St. Lawrence Boulevard, which was a matter of public convenience, not only cost the City nothing, but by this transaction, reaped a benefit of the value of $359,125.58.
These facts go to prove that while in some cases the City is obliged to purchase, in a limited time, a certain designated property and to pay a seemingly high price, yet in other cases with the new system of expropriations, the City is enabled not only to have improvements made that cost nothing, but also to make a good profit on its investment. This method was considered by the Cities of the United States a progressive movement.
TUNNELS
In 1913 the St. Lawrence Street tunnel, which was begun by Ville St. Louis, was completed and open to traffic.
The Commissioners have also under consideration the building of tunnels on St. Hubert and on Wellington Streets, and the widening of the Ontario Street tunnel, and to the widening of the St. Denis Street tunnel.
The expropriation of the land necessary for the construction of Park Avenue tunnel is now going on and as soon as the proceedings are finished, means will be taken so that this tunnel be constructed without delay.
FILTRATION WORKS
At present in accordance with the endorsation of a scheme presented for the improved state of the city’s future water supply there is being constructed a large filtration plant which promises Montreal the finest water supply on the continent.
The site of filtration plant will be mostly in the town of Verdun adjoining the low level pumping station, and will occupy an area of about eighty-five acres. After being conveyed to the filtration pumping station the water will be lifted to the prefilters, then flow by gravity to the final filters to the filtered water reservoir, and will finally reach a new hydro-electric pumping station, and from there it will be pumped up to the reservoirs on Mount Royal and distributed through the city.
KEY MAP. SHOWING LOCATION OF FILTRATION WORKSKEY MAP. SHOWING LOCATION OF FILTRATION WORKSAt present in accordance with the indorsement of a scheme presented for the improved state of the city’s future water supply there is being constructed a large filtration plan which promises Montreal the finest water supply on the continent.
KEY MAP. SHOWING LOCATION OF FILTRATION WORKS
At present in accordance with the indorsement of a scheme presented for the improved state of the city’s future water supply there is being constructed a large filtration plan which promises Montreal the finest water supply on the continent.
THE BOULEVARDS ALONG THE AQUEDUCT
Incidentally the aqueduct is being broadened and a series of boulevards are being constructed on its banks. As this enterprise was an outcome of the city planning movement, which has favorably marked the last few years of civic improvement, it may be recorded.
On the 26th May, 1913, the City Council adopted the following report of the Board of Commissioners:—
1. That the principle of establishing boulevards along the canal of the Aqueduct, according to the plans prepared by the City Engineers, be adopted by Council, a duplicate of these plans to be deposited with the City Clerk.2. That the offers of ceding the land gratuitously for these boulevards be accepted on the following conditions:—(a) The work of planing and levelling the boulevards will be carried on as the work on the canal progresses, the City shall not be bound to open the proposed boulevards to traffic until the work on the canal is completed.(b) The City shall, if possible, compel the contractors throwing up earth along the banks of the canal, to give the streets connecting with the boulevards a grade of not more than 6% from the line dividing the boulevards from the adjoining properties. Proprietors adjoining the boulevards shall have the exclusive privilege of having the material from the excavations deposited on their land in the way they may determine, provided, however, such material is not needed by the City.That all properties which will not have been ceded on the above mentioned conditions within a delay of three months from the 1st of June, 1913, be expropriated according to the terms of the law 3 Geo. V., Chap. 54, Section 20, and that the cost of said expropriation be borne exclusively by the proprietors of land bordering the proposed boulevards, according to a roll made and prepared according to the prescriptions of Art. 450 of the Charter of the City of Montreal.That in case of there being any doubt of the power of the City to give effect to the above mentioned recommendation, the Legislation Committee and the City Attorneys be requested to obtain from the Legislature any legislation necessary for the accomplishment of this undertaking.That the City obtain from the Legislature:1. Exemption from all taxes whether municipal, school, general or special which might be imposed upon the land forming part of the boulevards or of the Aqueduct and situated in other municipalities, without prejudice, however, to the rights of the Town of Verdun, in virtue of the Statute 1 Geo. V., 2nd Session, Chap. 60, Section 2, concerning the commutation of taxes on immovables owned by the City of Montreal in the Town of Verdun.2. Authorization to apply to all proprietors of lots fronting on the proposed boulevards, the decrees of its Charter and of its By-laws relating to building, sewers, sidewalks and pavements, as well as by-laws relating to police and the maintenance of streets.The opening of these boulevards is one of the greatest improvements that Montreal has made for years, and once they are completed, our City will be in a position to compare favourably with the most beautiful cities of America, in so far as its parks and boulevards are concerned.
1. That the principle of establishing boulevards along the canal of the Aqueduct, according to the plans prepared by the City Engineers, be adopted by Council, a duplicate of these plans to be deposited with the City Clerk.
2. That the offers of ceding the land gratuitously for these boulevards be accepted on the following conditions:—
(a) The work of planing and levelling the boulevards will be carried on as the work on the canal progresses, the City shall not be bound to open the proposed boulevards to traffic until the work on the canal is completed.
(b) The City shall, if possible, compel the contractors throwing up earth along the banks of the canal, to give the streets connecting with the boulevards a grade of not more than 6% from the line dividing the boulevards from the adjoining properties. Proprietors adjoining the boulevards shall have the exclusive privilege of having the material from the excavations deposited on their land in the way they may determine, provided, however, such material is not needed by the City.
That all properties which will not have been ceded on the above mentioned conditions within a delay of three months from the 1st of June, 1913, be expropriated according to the terms of the law 3 Geo. V., Chap. 54, Section 20, and that the cost of said expropriation be borne exclusively by the proprietors of land bordering the proposed boulevards, according to a roll made and prepared according to the prescriptions of Art. 450 of the Charter of the City of Montreal.
That in case of there being any doubt of the power of the City to give effect to the above mentioned recommendation, the Legislation Committee and the City Attorneys be requested to obtain from the Legislature any legislation necessary for the accomplishment of this undertaking.
That the City obtain from the Legislature:
1. Exemption from all taxes whether municipal, school, general or special which might be imposed upon the land forming part of the boulevards or of the Aqueduct and situated in other municipalities, without prejudice, however, to the rights of the Town of Verdun, in virtue of the Statute 1 Geo. V., 2nd Session, Chap. 60, Section 2, concerning the commutation of taxes on immovables owned by the City of Montreal in the Town of Verdun.
2. Authorization to apply to all proprietors of lots fronting on the proposed boulevards, the decrees of its Charter and of its By-laws relating to building, sewers, sidewalks and pavements, as well as by-laws relating to police and the maintenance of streets.
The opening of these boulevards is one of the greatest improvements that Montreal has made for years, and once they are completed, our City will be in a position to compare favourably with the most beautiful cities of America, in so far as its parks and boulevards are concerned.
CONCLUSION
THE LAST PHASE OF CITY DEVELOPMENT
In order to preserve the continuity of the historical pictures of the physical growth of this city from 1898 to 1914, the following picture summing up the confusing changes going on during the greater part of the last two decades of commercial activity, may serve as a review.
The city is now undergoing a reconstruction and remodeling that is confusing even to its middle aged citizens, who were born in the old humdrum city. Landmarks are disappearing; the buildings in the older part of the city and even parts of the new are being replaced with wondrous celerity, baffling the mind of one not a statistician. It is the age of the house-wrecker and steam-rivetter. Montreal is being modernized—becoming a second New York—but in spite of all, manages to preserve its unique, psychological and historical characteristics. Commenting on the changes, now undergoing in 1914, a writer in one of our daily journals (the Montreal Star of April 11, 1914, from which the following is adopted) describes the present period as the era of the house-wrecker and steam-welder.
This is a substantial description of the optimistic state of the city shortly before the war of 1914.
THE BOOM BEFORE THE WAR OF 1914
The dust of the house-wrecker, followed by the chatter of the steam-rivetter marks more than the mere replacement of building by building, it marks the gradual alteration of the very face of the city—and the house-wrecker and the steam-rivetter are abroad in the land six days in the week and fifty-two weeks in the year.
The truth of the matter is that plan and excavate and build as we can, we cannot keep abreast of our requirements. What seems enormous to-day, fit to withstand the demands of the next half century, is almost to-morrow found inadequate. In New York they are tearing down buildings erected but a few years ago, of modern construction, and climbing up nineteen or twenty stories into the air, because they do not pay, replacing them with the aid of night and day shifts by buildings which shoot upwards for forty stories. In a lesser degree that is what is happening here.
Let us take a few concrete instances of what has happened within the memory of hundreds, if not of thousands, of Montrealers, using St. James Street as an illustration.
The site of the new Bank of Commerce offices on St. James Street gives a good instance of the steady advance in the principal down-town street of Montreal. Where the great stone pillars rear their bulk to-day, a church once stood, the St. James Methodist Church. A congregation, receding before the steady advance of commerce, drove the church uptown, where the Allan private residence on St. Catherine and St. Alexander streets, was purchased, and the down-town church went the way of all old buildings. On its site rose the Temple Building, considered at the time to be adequate to meet all needs for many years. This was in the late ’80s, and the Temple Building lasted only till 1909, when it, although it still served a useful purpose, made way for the huge building now on the site.Where the London, Lancashire and Globe Building now stands, there stood a huddle of small shops and cottages built in the ’70s. These gave way to the Barron Block, which was a four-story brick affair, considered at the time to be the last word in office architecture. The Barron Block went up in flames eventually, but it was doomed anyway, and for the same cause that spelled the end of the Temple Building across and down the street; the space was needed. Freeman’s restaurant, a name associated with Montreal for many years, also located at this spot, suffered demolition about the same time, but sprung up again a few doors away.
The “Star” needed a permanent and adequate office on St. James Street, and to make way for it a famous old commercial house stepped aside, J. and W. Hilton, furniture makers. A little later and almost next door an even greater transformation was going on when the Dominion Express Building sprung into the air, shouldering the historic old St. Lawrence Hall back on to Craig Street. St. Lawrence Hall had for many years allowed the C.P.R. a corner of its space on the ground floor, together with a drug store of immemorial antiquity. Now, the ten-story Dominion Express stands as a monument to what commerce and industry demand. Across the street its bigger neighbour, the Transportation Building marks the spot where a three-story building once sheltered Picken, the broker; the R. & O. and several other tenants. The new Bank of British North America, one of the finest bank buildings in Montreal, is another illustration of what is continually happening, the steady inroad of the big building upon the small. Next to the present Transportation Building to the west stood at one time the Montreal Post Office, before the present one was erected; it too has undergone many interior changes and exterior enlargements.
The Royal Trust Building has replaced the Imperial Insurance Building. The Credit Foncier Building stands where a ramshackle collection of little buildings once stood on Little St. James Street and St. Lambert’s Hill. The courthouse annex has succeeded St. Gabriel Presbyterian church. During the last twenty years Craig Street has suffered less changes, the Montreal Light, Heat and Power Building, one of the biggest in its class in Canada, and the new Herald Building, being the only two outstanding structures which have gone up.
In Victoria Square, the changes have been numerous, the Eastern Townships Bank Building replacing the original Morgan store, as perhaps the most notable. McGill Street has changed since those disturbed days of flood when skiffs could be rowed across Youville Square. The McGill Building, the Shaughnessy Building, the Dominion Express Building, and the huge head offices of the Grand Trunk have all grown up within the memory of young men, and the completion of the new Customs House below Youville Square bids fair to transform the lower end of McGill Street completely.
It is, of course, impossible even to enumerate the buildings which have gone up north of Craig Street within the last two decades. St. Alexander Street is a good illustration of what is happening from day to day. No less than three huge office buildings have gone up on this short street in as many years, and apparently the end is not yet.
Rip Van Winkle is reported to have found many changes after his twenty year siesta. The Montrealer who has come to the years of discretion can share in Rip’s sensations of astonishment if he only stops to think what is going on, methaphorically speaking, under his nose. All he has to do is to imitate Rip, wake up,and realize that his city has changed during every one of the years when he has been too busy to note. And, incidentally, he will realize that these changes will become more instead of less frequent, in the years to come.
Another account summarizing the changes occurring in 1913-1914 is as follows:
On St. James Street and Notre Dame there have cropped up in the business section of La Sauvegarde, opposite the Court House, the Lewis Building on St. Francis Xavier; the Versailles, on St. James Street, near Place d’Armes; the Bank of British North America Building; and the Reford Building on Hospital Street, the latter a small four-story structure of unusually fine finish. Other big downtown buildings are the Shaughnessy, on McGill Street, and the McGill, at the corner of Notre Dame and McGill streets—all but the one in the ten storey class, and all completed within the last year.
The present shows the great advance in growth of uptown structures.
That big buildings soon will be common uptown has been shown by the coming into being of three that have been erected almost simultaneously,—the Drummond, at the corner of Peel and St. Catherine streets; the Guarantee Building on the Beaver Hall Hill; and the Dandurand, the first ten storey building east of the Main Street and North of Craig, at the corner of St. Catherine Street and St. Denis Boulevard. Accommodation has been booked heavily in all three, and already there are projects for more to be erected in the course of the next year. The Scroggie Building, erected by the Peter Lyall Company, who have built most of the “big stuff” in Montreal, including the Transportation and Express on St. James Street, constitutes something of a record—ground was broken in December, 1912, and the place was occupied by November 1, 1913. The area covered by the structure is 127 feet by 345.
Another large structure, that has gone up quietly with little interference with traffic and public convenience, is the ten-storey addition to the Power Building on Craig Street—work was begun in June and already the lower storeys are occupied by some of the office staff. One of the more remarkable of the newer buildings is the Southam Press Building, the novel front of which attracts the eye of many a traveller in Bleury Street. Four stately female figures support the front, which is frescoed with small colored lizards and snakes.
The ground floor has an area of 4,525 square feet.
The new Montreal High School in University Street, which covers about five acres of ground, and which has been in construction for more than a year, will be vacated by the builders in about two months. The new Sun Life Building on Dominion Square, which, the Company claims will have cost when finished upward of one and a quarter million dollars, has already been fitted with its skeleton of steelwork, and will be nearly completed by the end of the summer. Another large building on which a great deal of work remains to be done is the new custom house building on McGill Street, which will not be finished for two years, the object being to allow of the proper “seasoning” of the main structure, and the settling of the foundations. Considering the extent of building operation in the city, there are comparatively few accidents, the death list being proportionately smaller than that of New York, where every skyscraper exacts its toll of several deaths before completion.
The growth of the city of recent years has been so rapid and great that it can be best gauged about 1913 by the testimony of a Montrealer, Mr. Donald McMaster, who had been absent for a few years:
“As I came up the river last night on the boat, I was astounded by what I saw in the way of industrial development in the East End of the city.
“Belching chimneys, great mills and factories, the glow of furnaces, the signs of an eager and aggressive industrialism. And then today when I went westward and saw what was being done there in the way of expansion in the building up of the environs of the city, in the multiplicity of machine and car shops, along the Lachine canal, I said to myself that such growth surpassed that of London or Paris proportionately to population.
“Why, you will have a million, not in a decade, but in a lustrum. You don’t see all this growth as a stranger sees it. I am not a stranger, of course; but I have been absent. I tell you I am amazed at what I see, and proud of old Montreal.”
TYPES OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE IN MONTREAL
Canadian Life Assurance BuildingCanadian Life Assurance Building
Canadian Life Assurance Building
Canadian Express BuildingCanadian Express Building
Canadian Express Building
Linton ApartmentsLinton Apartments
Linton Apartments
Ritz-Carlton HotelRitz-Carlton Hotel
Ritz-Carlton Hotel
DURING THE GREAT REAL ESTATE BOOM
Montreal has been so steadily growing into metropolitan proportions that we must now let students use their imagination by a glance at the following figures and studies.
They are put on record here as reflecting the grounds on which optimistic calculators were looking to the future in 1913 before the outbreak of the Great International War.
I
REAL ESTATE ASSESSMENTS
The growth may be estimated by the following increase in real estate assessment values:
To present a picture of the present activities the following list shows the buildings valued over $70,000 which are under construction in Montreal at the present time, or have been finished since April, 1912.
II
STATEMENT OF BUILDINGS OCCUPIED BY PROPRIETORS OR TENANTS, ALSO VACANT, AND IN ERECTION (1912)
III
RECENT BUILDINGS
The buildings here listed represent a total value of $13,623,330 and aside from the Grain Elevator and Dominion Government warehouses are for the most part office buildings, apartment houses and factories. They give a good idea of the present prosperity of Montreal, and its growth of population and business:
IV
METROPOLITAN POPULATION
In 1891 the census returns showed for Montreal proper a population of 220,181; in 1901 a population of 266,826; in 1911, 466,197. Including the unnamed municipalities the total population of Montreal we may place in 1911 at 586,756. This allows us to make a comparative study of the growth of Montreal from the beginning of British rule.
CITY POPULATION
COMPARATIVE GROWTH
In the years from 1900 to 1910 Montreal has shown a greater percentage of growth than has any of the great cities of the United States.
The growth in Montreal’s population since 1900 has represented an increase of 188,270 people, or 70.3 per cent.
New York has shown the greatest growth of any city in the United States. The percentage of increase in the same ten years was 38.7.
The following are the comparative figures:
A contemporary study of the population of Montreal for 1912 may also be put on record.
There are in regard to population, two Montreals: the people within the civic boundaries and the community of which Montreal city is the heart.
The whole is necessarily greater than the part, and in considering the size of Montreal, in the matter of population, it is the whole which should be discussed. To take the naked figures of the census would be utterly misleading, for they do not include even the whole of the area within the city’s limits. That is to say, between the taking of the census and the publication of the results, Montreal had annexed a number of large towns contiguous to it. But this is not the only respect in which the relation of Montreal to the census is unique. It contains, within the city’s limits, or bounded by the city on more than one side, but under distinct municipal government, three other cities—Westmount, Maisonneuve and Outremont It also possesses suburbs, such as Lachine, which are merely manufacturing outposts of the city proper, and others, such as Longueuil, St. Lambert and Montreal West, which are in effect the city’s dormitories.
In figures given below, therefore, are included the population of these and other suburbs which are to all intents and purposes part of Montreal. They are part of the communal life, and the only respect in which their people differ from those of Montreal is that they have distinct municipal administrations.
If we were to take the figures of the 1911 census, Montreal’s population would stand at 466,197, whereas the population of the metropolitan community, as given by the census, is 590,919. Here are the figures in substantiation of this claim:
No one who knows the relation of these towns to Montreal will deny the justice of grouping them as integral parts of this community.
It must be remembered that these figures, first published a year ago, are the result of a census taken in June, 1911. During the decennial period 1900-1910, the city proper increased in population an average of 19,000 yearly. The increase during the latter years of the period was much greater than at its beginning, and it is a matter of common knowledge that it is the suburbs which of late years have shown the fastest growth. From these facts as a basis, it can be argued with every probability of accuracy that this community has grown since the census was taken, by at least 35,000 people, making the total population at this time not less than 625,000.
Of the seventeen cities mentioned in the foregoing table Montreal stood sixteenth in 1900, Newark only being below her. Now, assuming that the population of Greater Montreal is 625,000, she jumps to sixth place, taking rank above all except New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Boston. In justice to the cities she has passed in the race, it must be acknowledged that they have doubtless also added to their population since the census was taken, but it will hardly be claimed that the leader among them, Cleveland, has jumped from 560,663, its census standing, to the 625,000 of Montreal. If it be urged that perhaps some of the cities which Montreal has passed should also be credited with the population of their suburbs, the answer is that neither Cleveland, Baltimore, Pittsburg, nor Detroit, possesses as many or as large suburbs as does Montreal. Boston is a striking exception to this rule, and if the community of which it is the nucleus was included in computation, the result would probably raise Boston to fourth place among the cities.
MONTREAL OF TO-DAY