Pedestrian city - Montreal in the 1890s

 Seems appropriate to describe Montreal before cars on car free day here in Montreal.
  W.G. Radford's four-part description ( 1, 2, 3 - Aug 7, 1948 p. 6 no link available 4) of growing up in downtown Montreal in the 1890s portrays a city where most people walked everywhere. On St. Catherine Street from 1885-1900:
  "It was a thoroughfare of walking people, walking to school, walking to office and work bench, walking from office and work bench, walking to evening amusements, walking from evening amusements, walking, walking, walking.
  It is probably significant that with the abandoment of walking went the happiness of life.
...
Pedestrians have all the rights and privileges but seldom does any traffic move fast enough to interfere with their leisurely crossing of the street of anyone at any time at any place."
  St. Catherine was laden with two story buildings and had many empty spaces filled by billboards.
   At Peel looking north you'd see the Little School as it was known, which also housed a military academy run by a blonde man named Sandy Shewan who would hold candies in one pocket and a strap in the other. The students were given tickets with a C for conduct. Each misbehaviour would result in the loss of a ticket. If at the end of the day you had no tickets, you had a problem. They also gave out R tickets for proficiency. Every time you did something impressive you would receive one of these. One student came to school all the way from Lasalle on a Shetland Pony or dog cart. The school burnt down and when it was replaced the entire old system had been replaced.
  Just west of Peel on St. Catherine Street sits Bryson's Drug Store which had a display window featuring "large glass containers filled with coloured fluid."
  "Kindly pleasant middle-aged ladies in long aprons" served "colourful cakes and shiny buns" at Mrs. Scott's confectionery.
 At the western corner of Guy sat Mr. Jordan's grocery store. Behind the store was a barn where he bred fast horses and bull terriers. Next to that was police and fire Station 10.
   Also on the Western corner of Guy and St. Catherine sat Turner's boot and shoe repair shop. Boys would come around to watch him repair boots and he would eventually started a hockey team for the kids called Turner's Tigers. He was deeply involved in that endeavor.
   Another corner held a cab stand. Cabs back then were horse drawn carriages. There were no telephones so you had to actually go fetch one. You would send your children to do this. Radford favoured a horseman named Barney would allow him to hold the reigns. For a big thrill the family would go up to Mount Royal and eat ham sandwiches drink Gurd's root beer and look at the sights, including the fireman's monument.
   He reports that at least three toll gates dotted the west side, including one at Greene and Sherbrooke, one at the base of Upper Lachine and another at "the crest of the hill on Cote St. Antoine."