Questions?

Even though Jacques Cartier's descriptions of the Iroquois village of Hochelaga were quite detailed, the accounts he left of his 1535-36 journey have not to date allowed us to definitively identify the site of Hochelaga, which had already disappeared when Montréal was founded in 1642. Cartier's topographic descriptions are vague and furthermore, today's built environment does not allow for architectural digs on the major sites that researchers have suggested. The major sites suggested by researchers are: the McGill University campus and the Protestant sector of the Côte-des-Neiges cemetery. The latter hypothesis is hotly contested since it supposes that Jacques Cartier and his group would have landed via the Rivière des Prairies, which is highly unlikely.

Let us recall, finally, that we still do not know exactly why the Iroquois of the St. Lawrence left the island of Montréal . The principal hypotheses are: that the move was voluntary and was due to climatic cooling; or that the nation was decimated, either because of inter-tribal wars or perhaps due to the propagation of mortal illnesses brought from Europe .

Hochelaga is an Iroquois word whose exact meaning we do not yet know. Experts have advanced a number of hypotheses, including that Hochelaga is derived from the Iroquois word osheaga meaning " big rapids." The word might then have referred to the Lachine rapids and not to the village itself.

As is the case for many other Montréal sites, the St. Lawrence river owes its name to Jacques Cartier, who named it thus on his second voyage. At that time, Cartier penetrated far into the interior for the first time, via the river. So it was that on August 10, 1535 , feast day of the Deacon Lawrence, that Cartier renamed this waterway in honour of the man martyred in Rome in 258. Previous to this, the river had been known by other names, including the Hochelaga River and the Canada River.

This is undoubtedly one of the most tenacious of Montréal myths. Ah, but no! Mount Royal is not a currently dormant former volcano. It is in fact one of the eight Monteregian hills, these little mountains formed millions of years ago by a geological process distinct from the one that creates volcanoes. Mount Royal was formed by the intrusion of igneous rocks through the sedimentary layers of the St. Lawrence plain; volcanoes on the other hand are created by an opening in the earth's crust through which gasses and magma escape, forming the volcanic cone as they cool.

At 232 metres high, Mount Royal is one of the lower Monteregian hills, but it remains one of the main geographical and topographical landmarks in the region. In 1903, geologist Frank D. Adams decided to name the eight regional hills (Mont Saint-Hilaire, Saint-Grégroire, Saint-Bruno, Rougemont, Yamaska, Shefford, Brome et Royal) using the Latin name of the best-known among them: Mont Royal or mons regius. The Montegregian hills subsequently gave their name to the region as a whole: Montérégie.

In December of 1642, the St. Lawrence floodwaters threatened to inundate the colony. Maisonneuve, founder of Ville-Marie, decided to ask for God's saving grace in exchange for which he would erect a cross on Mont Royal as soon as possible, to give thanks to Providence . By miracle or by coincidence, Ville-Marie was saved from the flood and Maisonneuve led the settlers from the colony up the mountain carrying a wooden cross which they planted on the southern slopes of the mountain.

The Société Saint-Jean Baptiste had the current cross erected on the eastern slope of the mountain to commemorate this episode and to "bear witness to the Catholic faith of the French Canadians who then occupied almost all of the east end of Montréal". From the time of its official inauguration during the Fête nationale of 1924, the cross, measuring 40 metres high and ten wide, illumines the Montréal landscape with its 240 light bulbs. The cross project cost a total of $25,000 and was financed through the sale of special five-cent stamps. The original plans, however, were far more ambitious, including an immense pedestal building, but this idea had to be abandoned due to lack of funding.

Very few buildings are left in Montréal dating from the beginnings of the colony and from the French Régime. The majority were demolished over the years, for example due to fires or to make way for newer buildings. Most of the few surviving buildings from this era are religious. Among others we note the Maison Saint-Gabriel (reconstructed in 1698), the towers of the Collège de Montréal (built starting in 1694), and Montréal's oldest building, the Sulpician seminary, built in 1685. Adjacent to Notre-Dame Basilica, the Vieux Séminaire belongs to this day to the Sulpicians, formerly the seigneurs of the island.

Towards the end of the 1840s, construction was begun on a new, larger and more modern college. The project envisioned the complete demolition of the Sulpician seminary, since the same site was to be used. In 1848, the east wing of the seminary was demolished and replaced by the current presbytery, in accordance with plans drawn up by the architect John Ostell. However, the Sulpicians interrupted work on the site when they decided instead to locate the new college at the domaine du fort de la montagne, land they owned on what is today Rue Sherbrooke. Despite the break in the architectural style of the Vieux Séminaire, which left it with a Victorian-style east wing, the building remains one of the best examples of traditional French architecture extant in Montréal today.

This is a an architectural peculiarity, given the length of Montréal winters: it snows five months of the year, which means plenty of shovelling! There are nevertheless a number of reasons for the outside staircases, including lower heating costs. But it was above all to save space on the inside that Montréal duplexes and triplexes were endowed with these wonderfully varied wrought iron spiral staircases. A 19th-century law, in an attempt to secure some greenery for the city, stipulated that a green space be left in front of buildings. This left less room on the lot for the building itself. The solution of putting staircases on the outside took care of this problem by claiming as living space the area that would have been taken up by an indoor staircase.

Although pump stations existed starting in 1841, it was only with the creation of the first fire department that professional and permanent firefighters came onto the scene. Along with the creation of the first fire department in 1863 came the decision to build, in that same year, Montréal's first central fire station: Station No 1. Formerly located on Craig Street (today Rue Saint-Antoine), it has since disappeared. As for the station on Place D'Youville, it was built later, in 1903. It too served as the central fire station, but from 1904 to 1908.

Until 1796, the city of Montréal was managed by governors (French before 1760; English after the Conquest) who were charged with applying the mother country's laws. After this date, justices of the peace took over, but with the rapid population growth of the 19th century, this outdated system had to be replaced. Further, the citizens of Montréal demanded the right to vote; they wanted to choose who would run their city. Their efforts were rewarded. In 1832, Montréal obtained a charter, making it into an autonomous corporation and in 1833, the first municipal council was elected. It was this council that named the city's first mayor, Jacques Viger. This Montrealer, who held many positions throughout his life (journalist, author, military officer, civil servant, land owner, collector, etc.) remained mayor until 1836.

It was only in 1852, however, that the citizens themselves, and not the municipal council, were able to elect the city's mayor. The honour fell to Charles Wilson, a Montreal businessman.

The city's coat of arms was designed by its first mayor, Jacques Viger, soon after his election in 1833. The design features an escutcheon divided in four by a red cross, where each quadrant is decorated with a plant or animal emblem. Four emblems, like the four founding peoples: the English rose, the Irish clover, the French-Canadian beaver and the Scottish thistle. In 1938, the coat of arms was redesigned, giving birth to the one we know today. It is similar to the first, but among other changes, the beaver was replaced by the French fleur de lys.

Crowning the whole is the motto that Viger used first for his own coat of arms, Concordia Salus, salvation through concord.

From the beginnings of the colony, Ville-Marie was fortified. A fort was built around the initial hamlet as protection against Iroquois attacks. Some years after the city was founded, the fort was abandoned and the town continued its development at Coteau Saint-Louis, around which wooden fortifications were built in 1687 and 1689.

The Great Peace of 1701, signed with the different indigenous peoples, made the first wooden barricades unnecessary. Soon thereafter, however, due to the threat of British attack, the wooden walls were replaced with stone ones. Built between 1717 and 1744 according to plans by the architect Chaussegros de Léry, the stone fortifications rose six metres in height and measured 3.5 km in circumference around the city.

In 1801, as part of their drive to improve urban planning, Montréal's Commissioners made the decision to take the fortifications down. The demolition took 13 years, from 1804 to 1817. If the fortifications were still standing today, they would correspond roughly to the present-day limits of Vieux-Montréal, with Rue Berri to the east, Rue de la Commune to the south, Rue McGill to the west, and Ruelle de la Fortification to the north. Nonetheless, vestiges of the fortifications can still be seen at Champs de Mars, behind Montréal's city hall and at the Pointe-à-Callière museum.

Contrary to popular opinion, the fort on Île Sainte-Hélène was not built during the French Régime. It was in fact the British garrison that undertook its construction starting in 1821 (completed in 1823 and partially rebuilt in 1863, after a fire) as a preventive measure against an eventual American attack. The garrison left the island in 1870.

Subsequently, among other purposes, the arsenal served to contain 250 prisoners of war, considered Nazi fascists or deserters. Today transformed into a museum, the citadel houses among others the magnificent David M. Stewart collection, containing notably many period firearms.

In the afternoon of November 21, 1899 , Montréalers out strolling the city streets were surprised by a new arrival: a horseless carriage! At the wheel of this first steam-powered automobile was Ucal Henri Dandurand, a Rosemont real estate promoter. He was accompanied on this maiden tour by none other than his worship the mayor, Raymond Préfontaine. There they sat in the new machine, descending Côte du Beaver Hall without difficulty and climbing back up through the streets in the same fashion. The first car weighed between 500 and 600 pounds and reached the dizzying speed of 15 to 20 km per hour! It would take several years for this new means of transportation to become widespread.

The era of public transportation in Montréal truly began in 1892 with the inauguration of the electric tram. The trams constituted a very practical way to get from one end of the city to the other, especially for workers. They also made possible the development of new neighbourhoods, since workers could then live at some distance from their workplaces.

Anyone over 50 today no doubt remembers having taken the tram, a means of transportation that still is current in many cities around the world. Memories will remain as well of the miles of electric wire strung over the Montréal landscape like spiders' webs. For 67 years, these cars invaded the streets, carrying the citizenry to the four corners of the town. Gradually, however, they began to be replaced by busses, there was a subway about to be built, and the decision was taken to retire the trams. On August 30, 1959 , 20,000 people put on their Sunday best and came out to say goodbye to the tramway, waving as it passed on its last journey around Montréal. Having completed its chosen route along the Papineau-Rosemont line, the tram entered the station for the last time at 4:50 p.m. It was the end of an era.

Installed on the Place Jacques Cartier in 1809, Nelson's column was the second monument to be erected in Montréal. The first, a bust of George III installed on the Place d'Armes in 1770, is no longer in existence, having suffered mutilation in 1775. Nelson's column is also the first monument dedicated to the memory of this admiral in all of the British Empire .

A true hero of the English navy for having thrice defeated the formidable Napoleon, he died during the third battle of Trafalgar, in 1805. Normally, tradition would have had the naval hero looking out over the water that was so much his element. However, in Montréal as in London (where he is also commemorated by a column), the admiral stands with his back to the waves. Simple mistake or deliberate choice? In fact, it would seem that our hero suffered throughout his life from sea sickness. This is the reason, so we are told, that Nelson turns his back on the Thames in London and on the St. Lawrence in Montréal. Unless of course it might be to meet the gaze of his French counterpart, Admiral Vauquelin, whose monument is situated directly opposite!

Montréal's Chinatown is one of North America 's oldest Asian neighbourhoods. It came into being initially when Chinese labourers began arriving to work on construction of the transcontinental railway. When the railway was completed in 1886, the workers moved towards the big cities back East, looking for work. Montréal was then the country's biggest city and it received its share of Chinese workers. In 1901, the city counted 1033 men and 4 women in this community. They found it difficult to integrate. They were treated as frightening foreigners by the vast majority of the city's 330,000 British or French-descended inhabitants. Faced with this sort of racism and very often speaking neither English nor French, the Chinese found their work opportunities very limited. The majority created their own jobs, opening laundries, restaurants and small businesses close to the commercial centre of the day, today's Vieux-Montréal. Clustered together along Boulevard Saint-Laurent and Rue de la Gauchetière streets, these small establishments served as living quarters as well for the first Chinese and, from the end of the 19th century onwards, constituted a distinctive neighbourhood.

Still known as "Chinatown," this district today includes far more than just the Chinese community. In the wake of global conflicts, Asian immigration in the 1970s, 80s and 90s has led to the diversification of the area's population. Along its streets one encounters people and businesses from different Asian countries: Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and others.