Early Montreal History Series: Part V of V – Does “Côtes” mean neighbourhood?

Côte (meaning Hillside): Does this actually mean “neighbourhood”?

Montreal Map, 1879

An interesting find from my neighbourhood research in the book Montréal en Évolution is the concept of “Côte” which actually does not simply mean “Hillside”. Yes, these are areas on the hillside of Mount Royal, but in the Québecois sense of the word, they were once upon a time considered to be the equivalent to the word “neighourhood” today (Note that “côte” was later replaced by “row” – rang en français). Today we recognize the word “Côte” as a hillside or also a slanted road but back in the 1700s and 1800s, it in fact represented territorial areas.  Now I wish I could have found a map prior to 1840 to show you some of these earlier ”Côtes”, I was able to find the map above from 1879 that shows how these areas continued to be neighbourhood through the 19th century (merci Maxime pour le lien des maps en ligne de la Bibliotèque nationale).

“Côtes” were more important in Montreal for the rest of New France because the Seigneurs (entrepreneurs who managed the lands as described in an earlier blog) created these areas as autonomous zones in order to  properly exploit these fertile lands and to continue to safeguard the island similarly to what the well-located forts/parishes where doing at the time. Therefore Côte-Vertu and Côte-St-Catherine were actual neighbourhoods once upon a time and not just a name of a road. Neighbourhoods that were sprung from the root of a côte include St.Laurent, Notre-Dame-de-Grace, Cote-des-Neiges (although the name appears to have been “Notre-Dame-des-Neiges” at one time), and St. Michel.  Côte St.Michel is interesting to note since it was not side by side any other Côtes nor Mount Royal, as one can see from the map above, which shows more evidence that a Côte was a territorial space on its own. All in all, we see the formation of Montreal’s first villages and a type of governance that begins to provide a sense of belonging to the Montreal population.  We can also see that the shape of the Côtes themselves (although not effectively from this particular map) are divided in rural blocs which helped shaped the city’s street structure that we have today. And with the growing population, these Côtes created further subdivision of the lands into lots and additional roads that followed the lines of these areas. These straight lines would also make life easier for pipes, rail and electrical lines.

Note: Montréal en Évolution offered a great glimpse of the roots of Montreal neighbourhoods and now it will be interesting to find the links between these earlier “Parish” and “Côte” neighbourhoods and that of the “Wards” created in the late 1800s and 1900s. I have only begun uncovering some information on this so if you have any tips on books or websites to read, please send me a note. “St-Eusèbe” (now part of Sainte-Marie) was equally a parish as well as a ward so one could guess that there was a natural change. On the other hand, the English rule also played a large part I am sure as wards took anglo-saxon names (or perhaps I was just looking at an old English map that translated everything?).

p.s. The 1879 map above also shows what I discussed in a past blog: why my own micro-neighbourhood between Iberville and the CP railways is often considered Hochelaga… because it was once officially part of Hochelaga so it naturally never lost its original roots.

Early Montreal History Series: IV Parish = Neighbourhood?

1663: a change in governance and the birth of Parish-labeled neighbourhoods.

 

In 1663, a new governance system was put into place in New France, directly under the direction of the king of France, in order to populate the territories, cultivate the land and increase the areas’s economic value.  New France thus became a new province of France.  Portions of the land were provided to entrepreneurs (called “Seigneurs” which has a religious tone) in order to see through this new mandate.  The first major problem encountered during this era was that there were wars amongst native tribes (Iroquois, Huron, Algonquin) and of course each of these nations were in a fur trade alliance with the countries that was looking to colonize the North-East Americas (France, Britain, Holland).  Quite simply put, it was important for the Seigneurs to protect their economic mandate by guarding the river routes that they were ultimately dependent on for their success.

 

In order to guard the river routes, the king issued soldiers to New France and began to build forts along water routes while providing land and Seigneurs titles to these militia men to ensure it would be well protected.  The first three forts were built on the south shore: Fort Richelieu, Fort Saint-Louis (in Chambly) and Fort Sainte-Thérèse.  Since the French had allied itself with the Huron nation, the king’s goal with these forts was to protect the province from the Iroquois.  Subsequently, this helped the development of Montreal’s north and south shore town developments (which would later become some of the city’s suburbs).

 

Back on the Montreal island, it was clear that the same type of protection was needed as it was the central point to this economic activity and thus the most at risk for an attack.  The only fort to date on the island was Ville Marie itself (Old Montreal today) so in order to protect the island, it was decided upon in 1671 to split up the land into mini-Seigneurs-ships (if I may call it that), with the same governance mandates divided by the regions of Montreal in order to defend each corner of the island.  This is where my early historical research finally becomes interesting (to me at least) as it shows the first developmental signs and the very roots of neighbourhood life in Montreal.

 

The first portion of land to be subdivided was the Eastern most point where it was deemed most vulnerable since it was where both the Rivières des Prairies and the Saint-Laurent river met.  Thus the first fort was erected in 1675 at “Pointe-aux-Trembles” as it still known today.  A windmill was erected thereafter in 1677 and very importantly they built a church in 1678 to bind this community together.  This church was the first one built on the island outside of the Ville-Marie fort walls.

 

Following the Pointe-aux-Trembles Fort, numerous other forts with churches were created across the island to protect the most sensitive and vulnerable areas, including where now stands Rivières-des-Prairies, Verdun, Lachine and Senneville in the West Island.  These zones were then followed by additional forts and churches for some time to come.  Those that came a little later include Saint-Joachim de Pointe-Claire in 1713 and finally Sainte-Genevieve in 1741.  What this shows from a neighbourhood point of view is that the church played a pivotal role in the formation of Montreal island villages as it was the glue that bonded each area.  When you look at former maps of Montreal in the early 1800s, you will find the areas being labeled as “Paroisse St-Laurent” (St-Laurent Parish) and so forth.  When reading this information, I was happy to uncover this information as it was the first evidence of what I had heard through word of mouth: that early Montreal neighbourhoods were based on the parish you belonged to.  Skipping ahead a bit here,  I will recall that one of Sainte-Marie’s neighbourhood names according to the map is “St-Eusèbe” which is based on the church that was erected in the late 1800s on Fullum St.  How this early history connects to the late 1800s is still to be researched but this information was a real eye-opener for me as it showed the evolution of how Quebecois culture perceived the parish as representing a community/neighbourhood

Source: Montréal en Évolution

Early Montreal History Series: III – The Birth of Montreal

1642 and the birth of Ville-Marie on the Island of Montreal

 

Unknown artist rendition of Montreal in 1642

Montreal was officially born in 1642 and was christened as Ville Marie when 40 colonizers would come to permanently live on the lands of Place Royalle.  They would be governed by Chomedey de Maisonneuve, the official founder of the city.  I was surprised to find out that these initial colonizers did not come for the potential of the “promise land”, as many did who came to North America, and actually that they were apparently quite wealthy and connected to the French throne.  Their mandate was to create a people mixed of French and Natives that would be converted and trained the ways of European technology while uniting them under one single Christian discipline.  Kind of like a melting pot of missionaries, I suppose.  Why was Montreal island chosen for this spot?  Once again, it was the central location due to the fact that it lead to multiple rivers.  It would be, in their mind, a place to attract and unite 40 different Native nations.  In the end however, it became much more of a central trade post rather than its originally intended religious mandate. 

 

A new governance would quickly come into play to change how things are managed in Montreal and New France.  Thus far, looking deeper into our early history, we have learned about the origins of the site and the name of Montreal itself but as we go further ahead in time (and in this series), we will soon see how Montreal’s first neighbourhood communities naturally developed.  À bientôt.

 

Source: Montréal en Évolution

Early Montreal History Series: II – Samuel de Champlain

Samuel de Champlain & Place Royalle

 

Although Samuel de Champlain is not credited to have founded the city of Montreal like he did Quebec City, he is the one that is known for having chosen the site for what would eventually become the city of Montreal.  It was in 1611 that he inspected a Montreal island site that he would deem a perfect location for habitation.  The land he chose was the western point in Montreal before the start of the Lachine rapids.  This location is in Old Montreal where Pointe-a-Callière, an excellent Montreal history museum, is located.  As a quick aside, at this museum you will literally see the developments of Old Montreal over the years.  With what I am learning now, I really have to go back for another visit at some point this year.  It was about 3 years ago that I went to the museum but without the sense of adventure and exploration that I am now experiencing with this blog and research.  Anyhow, for the purpose of this blog, the importance of this fact lies in:

 

1) the name Champlain chose for the location; and

 

2) The further geographical significance of the Lachine rapids and how it helped shape the location choice of Montreal. 

 

As for the name, he chose “Place Royalle” (the second “L” is not a typo) which in my mind must be an ode to Jacque Cartier’s naming of Mont Royal.  As for the geographical significance of the Lachine rapids, nature had a big impact, as earlier discussed, on the decision of where to begin this city.  Both Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain could not safely go further and yet nature also made them realize how central this location was in the New World (multiple rivers and streams to explore from here and history would show how this would be of importance for Canada from both a fur trading perspective and also linking Europe with New France and later to the rest of Canada for further shipping and trading).  I honestly wish I could explore this subject more in this blog but I feel I am digressing too much.  If you wish to know more about this subject, please do have a look at the book “Montréal en Évolution” and here you will learn the details that helped impact the decision to build Montreal in its chosen location, including favorable climate conditions compared to the North and South shores of the island.

 

Finally, Champlain’s projects for Place Royalle did not work out and the site was abandoned but his exploration work was not wasted nor forgotten as the area’s importance and central location would soon be revisited.

Early Montreal History Series: I – Jacques Cartier & Montreal’s name

When I first went to my local library, I was surprised to find so little information on this neighbourhood.  Out of all my library computer searches, and no matter how I worded it (Centre-Sud, Sainte-Marie, St-Eusèbe, etc.), only one non-fiction historical neighbourhood book came up and that was a pamphlet of a dozen pages or so that discussed the area and how it was impacted by the building of the Jacques-Cartier bridge.  I did find, however, one book on the urban and architectural development of Montreal (Montréal en Évolution) which did have one or two mentions of Sainte-Marie.  I am sure there are many books on the history of Montreal but this one stuck out of the crowd as there are some learnings on how Montreal was formed, including its neighbourhoods.

 

As I mentioned in a past blog, I have heard through word of mouth that Montreal was once called Ville-Marie (the current name of my borough) and that Native Canadians called the village on this island Hochelaga (the current name of the area adjacent to where I live).  However, what had a strong impact on the creation of Montreal neighbourhoods were the parishes themselves .  Communities were built around them as they are today but in earlier times, the Catholic church had a much stronger influence on the neighbourhood itself (this subject will be discussed in a later blog as part of this Early Montreal History series).  It was time for me to dig a little deeper and this book offered a wealth of information and a glimpse at the roots that made Montreal what it is today.  Anyhow, I realized it was time to study the bigger picture and the history of Montreal itself to see how our villages were developed.

 

“Modern towns which have arisen little by little can only be understood by the study of their history…”  Steen Eiler Rasmussen (as printed in Montréal en Évolution)

 

Jacques Cartier and the roots of Montreal’s name

Nearly 400 years before they would build a bridge that would be named after him, Jacques Cartier was the first French explorer to come to North America in search for the passage to the East.  His voyages took him to Hochelaga on the current island of Montreal.  It was Jacques Cartier himself that was the first to name the mountain (or “hill” if you are from the Rockies) on this island “Mont Royal” (Mount Royal) and it is from there that it is highly guessed that the name Montroyal/Montréal came from.  Quebecers are known to speak quickly so one could assume this would be a natural progression.  Heck, I say Quebecers but even in English we pronounce it Mun-tree-all and not Mont-re-al and go down the river, and down Lake Ontario, you will find English Canadians who proclaim they live in the city of Torrono.  At least when it comes to a name which is one of the focus of this blog, we learn here the origin of the names Hochelaga and Montreal

So why was Montreal chosen by Jacques Cartier as his stop?  Nature, in this case, would decide the faith of this island as the Lachine rapids made it impossible, at that point, to go explore any further.  We learn in time that this has a direct impact on the location of Ville-Marie where Old Montreal is now located (and unbeknownst to Cartier and other early explorers who were searching for Asia), explorers quickly see how the island is a central point to numerous river routes and great lakes.

 

Jean-Claude Marsan writes in Montréal en Évolution:

 « Ils est intéressant de constater que ce saut (les actuels rapides de Lachine), qui lui (Jacques Cartier) enlevait tout espoir d’atteindre (son rêve de) l’Asie, devait par la suite contribuer a la prospérité de Montréal) »