These side-by-side aerial images show how the lower NDG area has changed between 1947 and nowadays.You can see a ton more aerial overhead shots of Montreal by clicking here and switching the last digits in the URL following this legend.
Warning: these images will keep you up all night if you're a Montreal geography junkie because they're pretty amazing and I plan to post a few more images in the coming days.
This particular then-and-now demonstrates how the old Brodie farm on Oxford and St. James extended right up to the tracks and a couple of farmhouses stood the southern end of what's now Oxford Park.
A huge patch of Wilson's southern tip sat empty as well.
The real action (click above link to see it in its full glory) lay below the tracks where countless trains were moving back and forth.
(Thx to Emdx for the tip. My email addy is in the margin for any other such tips).
16 comments:
I can now see just who is going to be up all nite!
Images of Turcot, the Coal Chute with the sand piles to the North and the Roundhouse are marvelous.
Check out the following two views of same location.
Derailed Streetcar 91 Lachine, 1944.
http://www.imagescn.technomuses.ca/road/index_view.cfm?photoid=42101568&id=34
Same Location from the air, top right of photo.
http://archivesdemontreal.com/greffe/vues-aeriennes-archives/jpeg/VM97-3_7P8-15.jpg
Note station on Tramways, to left. Bridges over R. St. Pierre.
In another view, LaSalle Coke South of the Canal is immediately identifiable from aloft!!
The whole place was far more intriguing in 1949 than it is now.
Thank You.
Hey Kris+Chimples!
Just to let you know, there are 3920 photos in the Archives Montréal aerial set, and the naming convention is more complex than just changing the number at the end of the link.
But fear not, Archives Montréal has an index map and a list of all the links (tedious system though) to access them all:
http://donnees.ville.montreal.qc.ca/fiche/vues-aeriennes-archives/
I'm currently working on stitching all those beauties together into a high-resolution map (à-la-Google Map), but don't hold your breath, that's 3920 stitches... even my grandma couldn't do it that fast!
Cheers!
Another Bascule Bridge, a Basin, a Hydro Electric Plant and the Swing Bridge at Atwater on the Lachine Canal.
Downstream from the Cote St. Paul Locks on the Lachine Canal was once a basin on the South side of the Canal with it's own Bascule Bridge on St. Patrick carrying both the road and the CPR Canal Bank Spur.
Basin is to the right in photo South of stern of ship in Canal.
http://archivesdemontreal.com/greffe/vues-aeriennes-archives/jpeg/VM97-3_7P7-19.jpg
There was a steam winch on the East side of the basin to pull vessels in and out.
This bridge was removed c. 1958.
In the left of the photo at the CsP locks on the South side was once a small hydro-electric plant as shown here in it's own channel South of downstream lock gates.
To the South of the factories can be seen the 'Roof' of the water flume used to supply water power to industries.
The following view shows the Atwater Swing Bridge!!
http://archivesdemontreal.com/greffe/vues-aeriennes-archives/jpeg/VM97-3_7P7-22.jpg
I WAS up much of the night and am amazed at just how EMPTY most areas still were. Many of the creeks, farms and fields we used to explore as kids in NDG and CSL are plainly visible.
One photo shows that Westminster ended at a 'T' where it met CSL road where Galardos would later be built.
The frail City Hall is on the SW corner.
The level crossing over the CPR to the North was then to the West of WM.
In 1960ish when they installed the underpass North of Galardos on WM they put in a temporary level crossing to the West.
The small creek that used to cross WM at Westover where the old Municipal traffic signal from 1959 is in a recent Coolopolis entry is plainly visible, as is it's route under the 1916 culverts beneath the CPR above Adalbert.
The culverts will still be there, but, not much else.
Over the years we walked most of the creeks from the golf course over by Sortin yards thru to near Pare, keeping ahead of the backhoes, pavers and concrete mixers.
The wheel-screeching curve on the CPR to the East of Adalbert was not built until 1950 or so concomitant with the construction of the then-new CPR St Luc Yard at the top end of Westminster.
The 'Triangle' of undeveloped land within the CPR to the North of the CSL Shopping centre is a rare thing.
Further out, a 92 streetcar sits at the end of track at 56th in the-then wilderness, another car en route between the Terminus at 56 th and to where the line turns South on 45th.
Mostly open country.
It will be nice to see all the images 'stitched' together.
Thank You all for a wonderful resource back to the past.
There's a steam engine (and train) in Montreal West station.
http://archivesdemontreal.com/greffe/vues-aeriennes-archives/jpeg/VM97-3_7P12-10.jpg
Nice to be able to see the single-track loop of the 31 streetcar that went up Old Orchard, west along today's Upper Lachine (Western in those days) and back down Belgrave. Belgrave was not really built on as can be seen here:
http://www.davesrailpix.com/mtc/htm/mtc35.htm
It shows how the 1880s Brodie house had been chopped in front to widen Upper Lachine then (St-Jacques), and what had been gardens leading down to the canal was already rough wasteland.
Very cool! Thank you very much for posting. Found my old hood in Baie d'urfe. Mostly farmland at the time.
Thank You, David.
I did NOT know where that photo of the 31 car on Belgrave was taken.
I don't think I ever rode the 31, but did ride the old 48 and across the old CSP Bridge and down Church by streetcar aeons ago.
Never rode the 101 Cote St Luc bus, nor the original 162 ex Elmhurst once the streetcars came off, either, that I can remember.
My, My, My.
The southern part of Wilson, empty nt he first photo became the location of the PSBGM Gilson School which was there until the 70s when it was replaced by duplexes and Protestant kids had to go north to Herbert-Symonds (until it closed) or Willingdon.
Here is a view of the Decarie Traffic Circle, 'Continental Can' on the Tramways, at Cote de Liesse and Decarie.
http://archivesdemontreal.com/greffe/vues-aeriennes-archives/jpeg/VM97-3_7P18-22.jpg
With the Tramways bisecting the circle North/South.
To the South in the image, the Tramways split off Decarie to the SW and went along, out-of-frame, behind the Orange Julep, Miss Montreal et al. on the West side of Decarie to Snowdon Junction at Queen Mary.
The old Orange Julep was smaller. Looking West, Tramways tracks to the rear.
http://foodguymontreal.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/orange-julep-1950s.jpg
Thank You.
MP&I - great handle - wish I'd thought of it! Lots of fun tracing their rights of way (http://goo.gl/maps/BMRvF).
But why I really wrote is that I am upset that I ONLY SAW THE ADDICTION WARNING TODAY! I've lost a lot of sleep looking at these. :-)
There was another Orange Julep on Sherbrooke Street East and another on the south shore on Route 132 in the Ste. Catherines/Delson area.
Such "globular" structures are not unique to Montreal, however. No doubt there were older ones in the U.S. which Mr. Gibeau copied.
Why the one on Decarie Blvd. has never bothered to build an indoor eating facility like the former one on the south shore is puzzling.
Regarding the PSBGM: nobody at the EMSB has bothered to reply to my email request as to the reason why Monklands High School was the original name of the newly-built school building on the corner of Somerled and Draper, and why it was renamed a year later to West Hill High School.
This puzzle was raised in an earlier post. The original West Hill High was at the top of West Hill Avenue and itself later renamed Monkland High School following West Hill High's swap to Somerled and Draper.
An enigna within a mystery, etc.
According to http://lostschools.mcgill.ca/ , the original West Hill HS was called Westward HS from 1952-55 before it became Monklands HS.
Click on "The Name Game" on the menu at the left for the complete story.
Fascinating website about West Hill High, Monklands High, and the history, evolution, and end-of-an-era.
I had no idea the name-changing was the subject of so much wrangling.
Then there was the oddity about students not being permitted to use the front entrance of schools--although I seem to remember this rule being relaxed at West Hill High's Somerled building when I was a student there. I'm pretty sure I even remember students sitting on the front steps!
Students required to use strictly the many side entrances was standard procedure among most of the PSBGM schools I went to, including elementary.
I can only assume that the schools wanted to maintain some kind of "decorum" to any officials or parents who visited and who would logically arrive at the front entrance.
Exactly when and who initiated that rule would be interesting to learn. Perhaps an official complained about rowdy students inadvertently or deliberately hampering his arrival?
In high school, boys had to wear ties and a jacket or sweater. At first only a white shirt was permitted, but later any straight colour was allowed but no patterns as I recall.
Girls were required to wear those dark blue, knee-length tunics with a sash, although I remember after a few reported incidents of boys pulling the often dangling sash, the rule was changed and the sash was to be short and snug-fitting: no more loose ends!
During the final days of the school year in June, however, students were not required to wear the uniform.
In the mid-60s, of course, many boys grew their hair longer, but only to a certain collar-length was tolerated. Some boys managed to get away with it being longer if they had a note from their parents, as I recall. Some boys even claimed to be in local rock groups to keep it long!
After I graduated, the PSBGM dress code was dropped entirely, and there is a continual controversy as to whether a "no dress code" contributes to falling grades.
Recent studies have shown that wearing a uniform generates a attitude of organized behaviour, self-respect and--particularly with girls--much less unnecessary rivalry.
Idle Thoughts.
I attended Iona, Rosedale and Monkland ( 4400 WH )and it was frowned on to use the front doors at the latter two.
At Rosedale the students were not allowed to use the Mariette Ave. gates, either.
A Dorothy Pickle was the Principal.
North and South and the two side entrances facing Rosedale had the words 'Boys' ( North End ) and 'Girls' ( South End ) cast in the concrete above, later covered, but possibly still there, when the regime changed in Quebec.
The words 'Rosedale School' were above the Mariette entrance.
There were too many students to house in Rosedale school, so we first went to the Church Hall at Mariette and Terrebonne SE corner, the adjacent church to the East at Rosedale was new.
At the time we still sang 'God Save the King' said the Lord's Prayer, and saluted the Flag, either the Union Jack or the Red Ensign.
The old church hall was being demolished when JFK was shot.
Rosedale School. Note lack of North 1951 and South 1959 additions.
http://archivesdemontreal.com/greffe/vues-aeriennes-archives/jpeg/VM97-3_7P12-12.jpg
The boilers were under the Gym and burned coal thru 1957? H.J. Brydges, Oil firing introduced. Students in the 2nd floor hallway could gaze down into the Gym from the hall inside.
There was a chain hoist by the Boys side entrance to remove ashes for haulage.
All paper was burned in an Incinerator and mades clouds of smoke from the chimney.
The Janitor's house came with the job and was South of the school on Mariette. A Mr. Heron at the time I was there.
In '51 the North extension to Rosedale School was completed and we were put into one of the new rooms upstairs on the Mariette side.
These new rooms had cloak rooms at the rear of the class room rather than the sliding-door lockers in the hall in the rest of the building, and Greenboards instead of Blackboards, the former later painted Black.
Seating 6 x 6. Flag in right corner with the PSBGM Calendar. Days in Red were weekends and Holidays.
The clocks all slaved to the big clock by 'The Office' and clicked every minute as the relay activated in the main clock.
The desks were portable and the floors, tile in the new addition at Rosedale.
The older part of the building had tongue and groove wood floor with the old-style sloped desks with the fold down seat on the front of the next rear desk, a little inkwell in the right corner. Pens had nibs and blotters were supplied. We were issued newsprint practice books for scratch work and glossy paper books for ink work.
Art was with water paints colours from dried blocks in a long closing tin and messy.
In 1959 a South addition was added and the coats were back in the hall behind sliding heavy duty Vinyl curtains.
The School 'Uniforms' were a good idea! Tho' hot come June.
The student pressure eased with the opening of Somerled School and Sir Arthur Currie on Chester at Rosedale.
Monklands ( 4400 ) was a monolith and the steam heat antediluvian. Mr. Hewson, Principal.
There was a song in the era called 'Steam Heat' which summed it up, sans the romance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1YHL2E2sR4
C. 1962 the chairs in the auditorium, formerly folding hard wood were replaced with cushy luxe cushioned ones and dire threats were issued from the podium about what would occur to anyone caught defacing same.
Lots of names at the website. My photo appears in one of The Banners not listed.
Wagar High also removed student pressure.
The steam engines at St. Luc all scrapped by then.
Before the PSBGM building was constructed at Fielding and CSL, Fielding dead ended at Hampton and motorists had to travel North on Hampton to get to CSL thru 1957?
Many memories.
Glad its over.
Thank You.
I had similar experiences at Elizabeth Ballantyne school (Montreal West) in the 50's and early 60's. A few rooms still had the screwed-to-the-floor desks, but they were gradually replaced by the standard wooden desks and chairs. (we had to be sure the chairs were placed on top of the desks before we left for the day).
Some had greenboards; some had blackboards - but all had windows which could lift up from the bottom - or downwards from the top using a long pole.
Overcrowding reached its peak around 1957 (just before Westminster School opened) - with classes being held in the library and the gym. By the time I left, most of the classrooms in the "basement" were being used for art, music, storage, etc.
You never used the main entrance (on Northview) - the boys used the "Boys" entrance; the girls used the "Girls". Get in line and don't talk, or else the door monitors would report you.
"Senior" year (i.e. grade 7) students took daily turns sitting outside the "office" - running messages for the principal, and pressing the button to ring the bells for recess, lunch, etc. (that eventually became automated).
As the previous writer stated, the clocks made a loud "tick" every minute. Sometimes the Daylight/Standard time adjustments were made during school hours, and we would have to listen to the clock move forward one hour (or 11 hours - I don't think it could move backwards).
We also had the Union Jack, and the PSBGM calender with its red holidays. "God Save the Queen", "O Canada", pledge to the flag, and a coupe of hymns to start the day.
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