You've probably seen this strip mall on St. James at Mountain streets, and thought to yourself, "That is a strip mall."
But back in the day when Montrealers haggled for live chickens and told the butcher to keep his blood-and-feathered thumb off the scale, and took their kumquats and green onions home in yesterday's papers, and made sure to count their change while guarding their pocketbooks from barefoot street urchins (Shut up! - Chimples), the St. Antoine Market was the place -- er, one of the places -- to go.
Erected in 1861, at the foot of Mountain and Aqueduct and between Torrance and St. James (conveniently across the street from the produce wholesalers working the Grand Trunk railway depots), the St. Antoine Market was the destination of choice for humble West Enders as well as the most discriminating chefs from the palaces of the Golden Square Mile just a few blocks up the hill. 
You can just sort of barely make it out in the centre of this picture, taken by a Notman studios employee with guts enough to scale a smokestack of the Street Railway Company's powerhouse (demolished) near St. Anne's Church (also demolished).
Here it is from the Aqueduct St. side on the west. The market closed in 1933, when it was replaced by the Atwater Market -- which was also by the tracks at that time (and until the '70s). You can buy thumb by the kilogram there.
I moved to St-Henri in 1991, right by the market, and there were still tracks (with cars) going there back then.
ReplyDeleteEventually, the tracks were lifted and the Super-C built, as well as a swanky appartment (not a condo — go figure) building.
But the track is still there and once in a while, a little train put-puts along the canal to bring grain to the flour mill.