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| Nittolo's |
St. James Street West (officially called St. Jacques) was known as Upper Lachine west of where the two streets merged at Hampton. St. Jacques (aka St. James) took over after 1964. After the fork further west, what's now known as Ste. Anne's Boulevard (the stretch where Motel Raphael sat) was called Mtl-Toronto Road.
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| Belvedere Motel |
The Belvedere was at 7250 Ste, Anne de Bellevue Rd,, it's now an empty field.
The most impressive landmark in that area was the Midas Muffler having a magnificent huge roadsign sign in the form of the Midas Muffler guy. It was a helluva landmark and my attempts to find a photo of it have been futile. If anybody has a photo of that thing I would absolutely love to see it.
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| A huge likeness once stood at 6260 St James St W. |
Another weird fact: I know a guy who has been living in a trailer behind one of those industrial buildings for at least 40 years. I haven't looked in on him recently but he was still there the last time I looked. I won't say where because it's possible that he's not supposed to be living there. He says the view is pretty good and his radio reception amazing.
I used to love it in the early 80's when my dad would be driving us back to NDG from somewhere at night and go along St.Jacques so we could see all the big neon signs lit up for all the motels and businesses along the way. It's one of my fav childhood memories.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite sign was the big tall atomic- era looking Rosebowl sign. From the looks of it, it looked like it was from the 1950's- early 1960's and I remember it saying "Fairview" at the top of it. That always stuck in my mind as I couldn't figure out why it said "Fairview" when it was the Rosebowl. I hate the bland sign they replaced it with, they should have stayed with the vintage one. Wish I could find a photo of it but nothing comes up on Google.
St. Jacques/James/Upper Lachine/Avon was once a very busy throughfare before the Turcot Interchange era.
ReplyDeleteMuch of the Montreal/Toronto/Ottawa truck traffic used it, climbing up the hill from St. Remi to Decarie, it being Routes 2-17, 2 going to Toronto, 17 to Ottawa, splitting at-now Dorion.
Streetcars used this stretch of St. J. also, west to Girouard until 1959.
A single-track streetcar went north on Old Orchard, west on-then Western by the CPR tracks and turned back east out at the over/underpass is where then-Western and St. Jacques join.
The over/underpass was constructed c. 1957?
Cavendish was joined down from Sherbrooke to Rose Bowl with an underpass in 1956.
In the sixties there was a 106 Upper Lachine autobus which operated along Upper Lachine next to the tracks and turned back at Harley at Montreal West Station.
The 90 Lachine bus turned there, also.
You could walk north across the tracks and get the 102-105-162 at Elmhurst Loop by the Shell gas station.
Decarie was also another major truck route north on-then Route 11 via Cartierville to the Laurentians.
I understand then-2-17 down the hill past Ruffo's Motel was constructed in the early forties and was one of the first grass-divided highways in Quebec?
Ruffo was a contractor who built many new homes in the NDG area after the War, and had a salvage yard with an old house inside on Cote St. Luc by the streetcar right of way, which we kids thought was haunted.
We used to get the 102 Somerled Autobus there after the streetcars came off.
Thank You.
Two more thoughts about NDG.
ReplyDeleteNitollo of the motel had a snow clearing contract and his yellow trucks and plows, badged 'Nitollo' would be seen scurring around after each snowfall.
On old 2-17, just after it split into the grass-divided highway from St. Jacques at International Truck/SKF Bearings/Coca Cola and started down the hill to Ruffos Motel, there was a fake wooden 'Wishing Well' with a little Vee-shaped roof, as in a cartoon, situated on the grass between the two lanes.
As I recall, there was a sign hung from it, under the little roof?
Anyway, we, as children, always looked for it when passing by on a trip to Dorval and the Lakeshore.
Just past Ruffo's was a single-track CNR level crossing and occasionally the whole highway in both directions would have to stop for a freight or engine going to/from St. Laurent and EJ Junction or via Jacques Cartier Junction to Bordeaux.
Between Nittolos east to Rose Bowl there were gardens and nurseries on the south side overlooking Turcot Yard and, afar, LaSalle Coke.
A bit west of SKF, on the south side, was Peg's Motel, a real questionable place even in the fifties.
Big Diesel trucks were always parked there, their fronts covered in colourful license plates from many far states and provinces.
I stayed there for a few nights 'after moving on?' in life, forty years ago.
Hmmmm.
Thank You.
Before the motels, there were cabins all along Upper Lachine in the 40s.
ReplyDeleteHusband Transport had their yard along there, where Super C is now...then CN, Canada's most disreputable company, bought them, became Route Canada, moved to Lachine...and folded up.
The Belvedere Motel, where Canadian Tire is now...International Harvester Trucks...SKF Ball Bearings...Coca-Cola Bottling...Campbell-Gilday Roofing Supply....Robert Morse...Auto Audio...Dunkin' Donuts...etc.
St.Jacques (St. James) Street swapped its name in 1956 with the aforementioned small section of Upper lachine Road to avoid confusion as these streets did not line up in a logically continuous manner for many years--at least cartografically.
ReplyDeleteUp until the swap, St. Jacques ran west until it changed into Upper Lachine Road and then became St.Jacques again where Montreal-Ste. Anne de Bellevue Blvd. forked off of it.
It must have been odd when residents wrote letters to their friends who, noticing the name change on the envelope
would inevitably ask, "What. Did you move?". "No. The street did!"
Then, of course, the ongoing construction of Western Avenue (later renamed de Maisonneuve) and the opening of the Cavendish underpass in early August of 1956 improved access to this sector of NDG.
For those who may have wondered: yes, there was indeed a Lower Lachine Road. It is now called LaSalle Blvd.
Bus route 31--originating from the Craig Street Terminus--ran up the small stretch of Old Orchard to Western Avenue and looped back at Belgrave Avenue.
In the 1930s there was a "camel-back" bridge linking Westminster Avenue over the CPR railway tracks, but this rickety and unsafe structure was eventually replaced by the currently existing one.
As for Lachine itself, decades ago it absorbed the town of Summerlea and the "townlet" of Dixie although later it gave up much of its territory to the newly-formed town of laSalle.
Back in the 1930s, there was a notorious gambling establishment in Lachine called "The White House". Thus far, however, I have been unable to track down its exact location, but I would hazard a guess that it was somewhere near the former Motel Raphael building which burned down a few days ago.
The long-awaited "Cavendish extension" promised to go over or under the railway yards has been a political football and a farce since the 1950s with many of the same stupid arguments and red herrings rehashed and tossed back and forth by the usual idiotic politicians 60 years later.
The recent connection with Toupin Blvd., however, just might force the issue once and for all. Hope I live long enough to see it, though!
Wayne: You forgot the Donut King.
ReplyDeleteOne of the last businesses of the "old" St Jacques strip closed up recently: Eonizer rustproofing; their big "e" crown logo now gone.
Speaking of businesses on this road, looks like Picasso's Restaurant (next to the Super C) has given up plans to renovate and reopen. It's now just an abandoned building for the most part.
ReplyDelete@Mitch
ReplyDeleteYeah, another Sergakis enterprise that ain't going nowhere.
I think the guy has lost his spunk, because the only time he's in the press over the past half-decade has been to complain about stuff.
In fact, the decline of his empire started with the ban on smoking indoors.
Makes me wonder if any of his bars and restaurants were doing business in illegal smokes.
-Kevin
There was the sign that attracted us as kids: "Industrial Bags" - which has since been 101'd to "Sacs Industriels". There was "Pilot Steel and Tool" - owned by a guy who lisved across the street from us. And not to forget Coca-Cola (free samples after a tour), and Elmhurst Dairy's ice cream counter, where I would give a friend working on the other side of the counter a dollar bill, and he would give me a milkshake and 4 quarters in change. (free samples there as well after a tour)
ReplyDeleteThere was the A & W Drive-in just outside Rose Bowl; the Bon Voyage Tavern; the Gem Motel; the Cavalier Motel; etc.
Upper Lachine Road in Montreal West became Avon Road, and it retained its St. Jacques name in Ville St. Pierre (where we would buy our firecrackers at Chevrier's hardware, or at the "old lady's" across the street (later a bicycle shop)).
@Marc:
ReplyDeleteAhh the Donut King. My siblings and I used to love when our father had a business trip and flew back to Dorval; he always picked up a dozen assorted donuts for us on the drive back to NDG...
My father used to bring us there for Sunday breakfast when I was about 15. It wasn't really enjoyable because he would talk a lot and it was stressful listening to him.
ReplyDeleteWhen did Nittolo's close?
ReplyDeleteI know the mothballed restaurant and "fine Italian foods" neon sign on the side of it was there right till it was razed for Loblaws.
I grew up in Snowdon & Notre-Dame de Grâce.
ReplyDeleteFirst on Walkley, Montclair, then Queen-Mary and Monkland, right before moving to Outremont (for a french, it was a cultural shock when you were served in french in stores after growing-up in an english neighbourhood). In a recent job, a young squirt cow-orker explained he faced the same culture shock when, after growing up french in Pointe-Claire, he bought a condo in Laval… Different decades, different ’burbs…
St-Jacques (it never, ever was named St-James, except on rhodesian stationery) street always filled me with dread. When we headed west to my grandparents every other sunday or so, I would fervently hope my father would drive through Montréal Ouest (where on weekdays my father would ride the CPR train from his job downtown and my mother would pick him up; we would wait right in front of the now demolished supermarket right by the bus loop) by the statue of the soldier, then through St-Pierre and on to the 2-20.
To this day, when I ride the 211 or the 747 into town, I sometimes think it would be better to rot in Turcot traffic hell for 1 hour (it once took that, with a big jerk loudly yapping on his cellphone the whole time) than go on St-Jacques, which it does often when there is too much traffic (I once saw the 747 go via Côte-de-Liesse & Décarie!!!)…
But sometimes, he would drive down Girouard and take Upper-Lachine, then St-Jacques and subject me to the horrors of that ugly strip mall that I always found horrifically badly-planned; no nice aligment of buildings, but a haphazard jumble-tumble of buildings of all sizes and shapes.
Another ugly strip-mall, Côte-de-Liesse, however, didn’t have negative connotations, even though it was just as ugly as St-Jacques… That’s because before my great grandmother died in 1966, she would hold lavish Jour de l’An parties in a hotel there, which were a lot of fun.
And Décarie, also a strip mall north of Jean-Talon, was fun, because it had the “big orange”…
Emdx is an idiot ! And what about the Arc ? Watched the Debs play through the rips in the tinted windows. lol
ReplyDeleteI remember that bar. Saw the Debutantes there, but in the comfort of the bar lol
DeleteHey Urban Legend, you mentioned gambling in Lachine, you might be interested in this story by Saul Bellow. It takes place in Lachine and while it doesn't mention gambling there are the hints of crimes:
ReplyDeletehttp://nbu.bg/webs/amb/american/5/bellow/lawrence.htm
Dead link, unfortunately.
DeleteFound that Mr Muffler picture you were looking:
ReplyDeletehttps://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsieur_Muffler
The Aubin Motel and Garden Centre were my family's up until the late 80s. The garden centre went the way of the dinosaur in the 90s and I've just heard that the motel and old house have been demolished (Nov 2017). Too bad too... that old house was built in the 1920s and was a NDG landmark for decades. Not sure what is being built in it's place.
ReplyDeleteI remember a few places that seem to have been forgotten on the St. Jacques Street strip. When I was a young boy in the 1970s my family would re-enter the city and NDG via this artery after spending the summer at the country house.
ReplyDeleteAt the corner of St. Jacques and Cavendish was Gordon’s Tire Center where most west end residents had their tire needs addressed, my father was a loyal customer for years. Today, there is a Tim Hortons located here.
Directly across the street, there used to be one of the first A & W drive-ins in Montreal. I still have one of their glass Root Beer mugs when a waitress who served our car back in the 1970s forgot to pick it up when our meal was finished.
There was also the Alsatian Pub(Brasserie) where the new Loblaws is located. When I became legal drinking age in the early 1980s, I recall having a few pitchers with some friends there and it is long gone as well.
Finally, further west on the strip was the Canadian headquarters for K-Tel Records. I owned so many of their records as a young teen such as Sound Explosion and Canadian Mint. So many great memories!
Interesting discussion here. But seems to be a big piece missing. All I think of this strip is sleaze/hookers/mafia. Non stop jokes from the time we all became teenagers, driving into NDG for school from the West Island.
ReplyDeleteThis post suggests there was a time when it was a lot more functional and innocent. When was the big shift to sleaze?
What about the crime and sleaze-pit Colibri Motel at 6960 St. Jacques, its ramshackle building barely visible from the street. Read the critical reviews online. It's a wonder they're still in business (you may even want to conduct more research about it).
ReplyDeleteThe street sign of this motel, first listed in the 1954 Lovell's directory (during the time when that section of St. Jacques was originally named Upper Lachine Road), even appears briefly onscreen during the introductory credits' drive-into-town of the film "Intent to Kill" (1958), the plot of which for the most part takes in the then new Montreal General Hospital building on Cedar Avenue.
Incidentally, this film is a fascinating time capsule of the late '50s with parts of N.D.G.'s Sherbrooke Street West and the marquees of our downtown, sadly-now-defunct movie theatres and various other no-longer-existing commercial establishments such as Oslind's clearly visible for sharp-eyed viewers.