We all know Place des Arts in its current form, a vast space of concrete that grabs mucho tax dollars away from citizens to the old-fashioned elitist cummerbund-crowd listening to chamber music and opera.
The government-owned Place des Arts transformed a vital area in the heart of downtown from a potentially lucrative revenue source to a source of loads of red ink.
The top photo shows the 45,000 square meter block now occupied by Place des Arts, the top image looking north with St. Catherine running left to right at the bottom. The image below looks southward, with Ontario Street running horizontally near the bottom of the image.
Streets like Plateau, Winning were wiped off the block and others nearby like Platt, Kimberly, Benoit, Vienne, Vallee and others were lost to the wrecking ball.
The block was vulnerable to development largely beacuse much of it was unoccupied.
The seven story Kellert building at the NW corner of St. Urbain and St. Catherine, seen above and below, was built by H.H..Kellert, wholesale clothiers who had a factory on nearby Clark Street.
It was one of the jewels of the downtown area after it was built around 1910, with Francois Xavier Vezina getting killed by a falling beam during the construction in November 1910, while two workers barely escaped death three months later after slipping from a scaffolding two storeys up. The Woodhouse furniture store opened on the ground floor in 1917 and stayed until the end. The building survived a three-hour blaze in 1931. But the entire building went up in flames on Sat. 6 April 1963 in a nasty conflagration that claimed tow firefighters..
The Domique Savio Orphanage sat on the site as well and was forced to move to St. Hubert Street when the building was demolished in August 1960.
A pair of 15x30 foot mural paintings byy Napoleon Bourassa (Henri Bourassa's father, but no relation to Robert Bourassa) adorned its walls. The building was about to be demolished but the government couldn't find a buyer for the works of art and threatened to burn the murals. The building was demolished in August 1960. The murals were transferred to St. Joseph's Oratory.
St. Catherine Street looking east from St. Urbain.
Another peek southbound from Ontario Street (now President Kennedy).
Politicians gleefully embark on the demolition for an early-60s photo op.
Part of Napoleon Bourassa's murals August 1960
Dominic Savio Chapel August 1960
Dominic Savio Chapel August 1960
Corner Jeanne Mance and Alcide September 1960
The block looking southwest, with the Hydro Quebec building under construction in the background Feb 1961
Workers axe trees, view looking south Feb 1961
North side of St. Catherine between Jeanne Mance and St. Urbain July 1960
West side of St. Urbain corner Josephine
West side of St. Urbain, corner de Montigny July 1960.
West side of Jeanne Mance, corner Alcide July 1960.
Looking east on St. Catherine, north side July 1960.
Looking northeast on Winning Street. Tall structure in the middle at Ontario and St. Urbain, remains intact. July 1960.
Looking northeast on Winning Street.
View towards the northeast on Winning Street July 1960.
Demolition at the corner of Winning and Plateau Streets
North side of Plateau Street, June 1960
West side of St. Urbain north of St. Catherine June 1960
Rear of a home on Plateau Street. March 1960
Looking west from Jeanne Mance. March 1960. The International Ladies Garment Union Building in the distance, tha's on the north side of Plateau Street.
Plateau Academy on the left, on the right the buidlding that housed the Polytechnic School from 1875-1904. Feb 1960.
Winning and Plateau Streets, Feb. 1960
Southwest corner of St. Urbain and Ontario, February 1960.
Corner Jeanne Mance and Ontario Feb 1960.
Demolition at Winning and Plateau Streets. January 1960.
St. Catherine and Jeanne Mance. Dec 1959
Looking north on St Urbain from near St. Catherine. June 1960
Demolition begins on the building that housed the Catholic Commercial Academy of Montreal, aka the Plateau Academy, on Winning Street, June 1960.
Looking north on St. Urbain. The tall structure on the right is still there, pretty much all else was wrecking balled. June 1960
West side of St. Urbain, corner Josephine. The Plateau school is in the background. June 1960
Inside a home on Plateau Street, March 1960
Inside a home on Plateau Street, March 1960
Inside a home on Plateau Street, March 1960
Southwest corner of Ontario and St. Urbain, January 1960. Everything was demolished.
Looking east from St. Urbain. Aug 1958.
The Place des Art project was slated to include the Kellert building but that plan changed after it was hit by a blaze that killed a couple of firefighters. It was demolished after that. Aug 1958 photo.
Looking east on St. Catherine August 1958.
South side of St. Catherine. August 1958. These buildings were all demolished for the Guy Favreau building. Pop star Andy Kim's father is said to have run a barber shop in one of these doors.
Looking south from Jeanne Mance with St. Catherine Street buildings in the back. The man is holding a sandwich in his paper bag. August 1958.
Looking west from Jeanne Mance. Aug. 1958.
Looking west from Jeanne Mance. Parking is for the Blumenthal building corner Balmoral and St. Catherine.
Looking south on Jeanne Mance. The street bore the name St. Georges south of St. Catherine at tha ttime. August 1958.
Protestant Church on West side of Jeanne Mance. Aug 1958
Looking south on Plateau Street.
Looking south on Jeanne Mance. Anglican church on the left and the Wilder building on Balmoral Street.
North west corner of Ontario (now President Kennedy) and Jeanne Mance. August 1958.
Ontario Street, north side, between Jeanne Mance and St. Urbain
Looking east on Josephine and St. Urbain August 1958.
Looking north on St. Urbain towards Ontario, the taller Bell Canada building is still there. August 1958.
Looking east from St. Urbai and de Montigny. Big gas tank in the distance.
Inside the Dominic Savio Chapel, also known as the Ste. Therese de l'Enfant Jesus oratory. Art by Napoleon Bourassa.
Southeast corner of Plateauand Jeanne Mance Nov 1960
Looking north from St. Catherine rooftop Feb 1961
As far back as the late 1940s (and perhaps even earlier than that) there was public and media pressure for Montreal to build a centrally-located venue large enough to hold major festivals and other various events dedicated to the arts. Indeed, "Civic Centre" was the original name for what eventually became Place des Arts.
ReplyDeleteLogically, any older run-down buildings, including residential slum dwellings, would be targeted for demolition, the usual tactic being the creation of shell real estate companies sent out to quietly survey potential properties without revealing the exact reason for their purchase in order to avoid having to pay exorbitant costs that inevitably would be demanded by existing owners. In particular, railway companies became well-prepared and savvy in that regard.
See the link below for Montreal Gazette, August 31, 1948:
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19480831&id=nXotAAAAIBAJ&sjid=AJkFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4264,5278825
Outstanding. Might i suggest you put or link 'View to the south towards Dorchester and Dufferin Park' (above) in your Dufferin Square page (2007 Jan), as any view of it seems indeed rare?
ReplyDeleteOld car photos and vintage buildings..around the time when I was born…..thanks
ReplyDelete"Concert Hall Start in April", is the headline (with photo) on page 3 of The Montreal Star for January 13, 1961.
ReplyDeleteThe article includes the identification of the architects and the various attributes that Place des Arts would offer the public.
I, for one, only ever had one occasion to see a concert there featuring veteran, aging blues artists. Rarely were rock concerts permitted to use the place, presumably to prevent potentially over-excited, rowdy youth from causing damage--a policy not without some justification based on what had occurred in other cities.
Instead, most big name rock bands were forced to perform in the original Montreal Forum and Paul Sauve Arena with their lousy, often headache-inducing acoustics, venues which were never intended for music shows.
The 2 firemen killed in the Woodhouse fire in 1963 were not killed in the west Woodhouse building but the east Woodhouse...there were 2 stores on the same corner.......
ReplyDelete