Pointe-Saint-Charles (also known in English as Point Saint Charles, and locally as The Point, or "PSC") is a neighbourhood in the borough of Le Sud-Ouest in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Historically a working-class area, the creation of many new housing units, the recycling of industrial buildings into business incubators, lofts, and condos, the 2002 re-opening of the canal as a recreation and tourism area, the improvement of public spaces, and heritage enhancement have all helped transform the neighbourhood and attract new residents. Community groups continue to be pro-active in areas related to the fight against poverty and the improvement of living conditions.[2]
Twenty years after the founding of Ville-Marie (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 arpents (about 10 hectares), the farm reached an area of 200 arpents (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.[3]
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.[3]
Numerous workers moved in, including numerous Irish immigrants as well as French-Canadians, English, Scots and in the early 20th 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: Saint Gabriel's Parish (completed 1895) and Église Saint-Charles (completed 1905).[4][5] The Polish Community was given permission by the Archdiocese of Montreal to build a church on Centre Street between Richmond and Montmorency Streets, Holy Trinity Church, 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. Numerous Protestant churches were also built during the late 1800s including Grace Anglican Church (built 1871 enlarged 1892), St. Mathew Presbyterian Church (built 1891, destroyed by fire in 1977), Centenary Methodist Church (built 1891, now a Seventh-Day Adventist church), and a Baptist church at the corner of Liverpool and Wellington streets (built 1900 and now used as a Sikh temple). Today, Pointe-Saint-Charles is considered the heart of historic Irish Montreal, with street names like Rue Saint-Patrick, Rue d'Hibernia, Place Dublin, and Rue des Irlandais testifying to that heritage.
By the 1860s, the area was a busy industrial neighbourhood and one of Canada's first neighbourhoods offering housing to industrial workers. 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.[6] Building continued in the central Rushbrooke/Hibernia area until 1910.[7]
Pointe St-Charles in 1859, showing the Montreal ward of St. Ann and the area outside the city limits
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.[3] 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.[8]
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.[9] Several social housing developments were built in the 1970s; today, some 40% of the housing stock in Pointe-Saint-Charles is social housing.[10] 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.[4] 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.[11]
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,[12] 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.[13]
The neighbourhood is served by the Charlevoix 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-Sœurs 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. As of 2011, 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.[14]
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.
Recreational facilities include the YMCA, the Centre Saint-Charles, Saint-Gabriel Park, Le Ber Park, Marguerite Bourgeoys Park, 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.
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.
Verdun is a borough (arrondissement) of the city of Montreal, Quebec, located in the southwestern part of the island.
Griffintown is a historic neighbourhood of Montreal, Quebec, southwest of downtown. The area existed as a functional neighbourhood from the 1820s until the 1960s, and was mainly populated by Irish immigrants and their descendants. Mostly depopulated since then, the neighbourhood has been undergoing redevelopment since the early 2010s.
Nuns' Island is an island located in the Saint Lawrence River that forms a part of the city of Montreal, Quebec. It is part of the borough of Verdun.
Charlevoix station is a Montreal Metro station in the borough of Le Sud-Ouest in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is operated by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) and serves the Green Line. It is located in the district of Pointe-Saint-Charles. It opened on September 3, 1978, as part of the extension of the Green Line westward to Angrignon station.
Le Sud-Ouest is a borough (arrondissement) of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Saint-Henri is a neighbourhood in southwestern Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in the borough of Le Sud-Ouest.
Ville-Émard is a neighbourhood located in the Sud-Ouest borough of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
The Maison Saint-Gabriel Museum is located in Montreal, Quebec and is dedicated to preserving the history, heritage and artifacts of the settlers of New France in the mid 17th century. The museum consists of a small farm, which has been administered for more than 300 years by the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal, founded by Marguerite Bourgeoys in Montreal in 1658.
Little Burgundy is a neighbourhood in the South West borough of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Peel Street (officially in French: rue Peel) is a major north–south street located in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Street links Pine Avenue, near Mount Royal, in the north and Smith Street, in the Southwest borough, in the south. The street's southern end is at the Peel Basin of the Lachine Canal. The street runs through Montreal's shopping district. The Peel Metro station is named for the street.
The Canal de l'Aqueduc is an open-air aqueduct canal on the Island of Montreal in Quebec, Canada, serving part of the drinking water needs of the city of Montreal.
The Sainte-Marie neighbourhood is located in the eastern edge of the Centre-Sud area, in the borough of Ville-Marie. The Jacques Cartier Bridge and Maison Radio-Canada overlook the neighbourhood.
Côte-Saint-Paul is a neighbourhood located in the Southwest Borough of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Cité du Havre is a neighbourhood in the borough of Ville-Marie of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located on a narrow man-made peninsula, the Mackay Pier, which was largely built to protect the Old Port of Montreal from the currents of the Saint Lawrence River and from ice banks and floodings in the springtime.
René Lévesque Park is an urban park in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located in the borough of Lachine on a jetty between the Saint Lawrence River and the end of the Lachine Canal. Approximately 140,000 m2 (1,500,000 sq ft) in area, it is named after René Lévesque, the prime minister of Quebec from 1976 to 1985.
Saint Henri Square, known officially as Saint Henri Park ) is a town square in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is centrally located in the Saint Henri neighbourhood of the Le Sud-Ouest borough. The square is bordered by Saint Antoine Street West to the north, Agnes Street to the west, Place Guay to the south and Laporte Avenue to the east.
The Sillery Heritage Site is an area containing historic residences and institutional properties located in the Sainte-Foy–Sillery–Cap-Rouge borough of Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. It was the first of 13 declared heritage sites of the Province of Quebec, and is among the four of which are located in Quebec City. Having been called the "cradle of the French Canadian nation," the heritage site includes approximately 350 buildings along 3.5 kilometres of the Saint Lawrence River shoreline. The Sillery Heritage Site includes buildings constructed during every major period of Quebec's history, dating back to the time of New France.
Saint Patrick Street is a street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
↑ Pinsoneault, Adolphe Rodrigue. Atlas of the island and city of Montreal and Île Bizard: a compilation of the most recent cadastral plans from the book of reference. Atlas Publishing Co. Ltd: 1907. Pp. 22. Available online from Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. Accessed July 5, 2011.
↑ Perreault, Laura-Julie, and Tommy Chouinard. "Le Cirque du Soleil se retire du projet de casino à Pointe-Saint-Charles: Loto-Québec capitule." La Presse, March 11, 2006, p. A1.
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