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This June 1956 photo was indeed taken on Elmhurst in NDG, that's the only info listed on the photo but it is presumably looking north from near St. James towards Sherbrooke.
This June 1956 photo was indeed taken on Elmhurst in NDG, that's the only info listed on the photo but it is presumably looking north from near St. James towards Sherbrooke.
Lasalle?
ReplyDeleteQuick opinion with no checking.
ReplyDeleteElmhurst looking North to CPR at Montreal West Station and, in distance, apartments on Sherbrooke.
Thank You.
Looks somewhat familar.
ReplyDelete1955 Chevy, too.
These are the rears of buildings on Patricia Ave. in "Westhaven Village" or "Elmhurst Development" (I'm not sure what the politically correct name is for the area nowadays). The photographer may have been standing near Elmhurst Dairy on St-Jacques. A "now" photo of the same buildings (some still with their rear sheds):
ReplyDeletehttp://goo.gl/maps/B239N
Elmhurst is the street on the left of the photo; the buildings in the distance are the still-standing buildings on Sherbrooke St. W (with the Place Sutton apt. bldg. blocking the current view).
Yes, MP&I, those buildings are on Patricia. The windows match up and the enclosed stairways are now the open, spiral type.
ReplyDeleteMany young Concordia students would rent apartments along Elmhurst during the 80s, often in need of extra cash and willing to relax the muscles of tired executives before they caught their train
ReplyDeleteI remember witnessing a major drug bust there in the 1980's. Some of the dealers were found hiding in false walls and closets of some of the apartments.
ReplyDeleteI’d say between Elmhurst (left) and Patricia (buildings on the right), too, looking north.
ReplyDeleteYou can clearly see the little slope Elmhurst is going up to towards Sherbrooke.
We can see the notch in the roofs of the houses on Patricia right here: https://maps.google.com/?ll=45.45452,-73.637913&spn=0.002544,0.004624&t=m&z=18&layer=c&cbll=45.454459,-73.63906&panoid=AU6HoSo4iQC-PSplCHW3Aw&cbp=12,114.21,,2,-4.62
Thomas Anderson Trenholme, founder of the Elmhurst Dairy, passed away on April 23, 1917 at his home on 7044 Western Avenue.
ReplyDeleteHe was often called "the Millionaire Milkman".
For further details, see the article in the Montreal Daily Star, page 3 of the aforementioned date.
Mr. T.A. Trenholme ran his dairy business from 1878 until 1901 when he turned it over to his two sons. In 1910 bottled milk was introduced in Montreal. The name Elmhurst was adopted by the family originally for the home which was surrounded by a grove of elm trees, and then for the dairy itself. In 1928 a modern planr was opened. See Gazette article of Oct. 16, 1928, page 7 entitled "Elmhurst Dairy in New Building".
ReplyDeleteThe Trenholme home was located at 7044 Western Avenue, just west of the dairy itself. On April 23, 1917, T.A.Trenholme passed away, his widow remaining in the home.
Lovell's 1931-32 directory shows the renumbered address as 7486 Western. The 1932-33 edition has Western Ave. renamed as Upper Lachine Rd.
Lovell's 1944 edition shows a Mr. George Green residing at the address, presumably because Trenholme's widow had herself passed away the previous year. The 1948 edition lists a new resident: Mr. Rich Stone.
The 1949 edition has the Salvation Army Eventide Home at the address, but no longer listed in the 1965-66 edition around which time Upper Lachine was renamed St. James West (now St. Jacques O). The Salvation Army later moved from the building which had replaced Trenholme's house. The building is currently abandoned and rotting away, its fate apparently still under dispute.
In 1958, Elmhurst ceased its house-to-house delivery of pint milk bottles, as quarts were increasingly more popular. See Gazette article of Nov. 12, 1958, page 37.
Sometime in the mid-1980s, home milk deliveries ceased due to, among other things, high transportation costs and the fact that consumers tended to purchase milk and other dairy products more frequently from supermarkets and grocery stores. No more milkman! Fortunately, I kept a souvenir milk bottle of the 1980s. Vintage milk bottles are collectible today and are easily found in antique shops. Bottle tops are also collectible.
How many remember when restaurants would give you a tiny glass bottle of milk with its cardboard top for your tea or coffee? These disappeared sometime in the 1970s, I believe, and were replaced by the cheap little paper or plastic containers we see today. Luckily, I found one of the glass ones at a flea market.
I remember in the early 50s when a bottled quart of milk was around 25 cents. I think chocolate milk cost a little more. We would put a cardboard ticket inside the empty bottle as payment and leave it on the doorstep for the milkman who arrived at the crack of dawn, his bottles clinking together.
On cold winter days, the top cream level of the homogenized milk in the bottle would freeze and the cap forced off. However, it was still perfectly drinkable. Depending on where we lived, our milkman was at first from Elmhurst and later Borden's. Other well-known Montreal dairies were Guaranteed Pure, Purity, Hope, J.J. Joubert, and others.
The dairy industry throughout the world has unfortunately been plagued by price-fixing and government interference, with many smaller dairies gobbled up by a few major ones. Despite this, their products have been well-received and reliable.
Eventually, Elmhurst Dairy was purchased by a conglomerate which included Sealtest, later purchased by Parmalat. Following a huge scandal in Italy, Parmalat was restructured, its Montreal dairy products now sold under the Beatrice label.
How well I remember when Sealtest had an ice cream counter at its St. Jacques building. People would drive from miles around. There were huge cow heads sticking out of the front of the building. Sadly, it eventually closed years later.
The house-to-house milkman still exists in some countries, notably in the U.K. where they drive uniquely-built milk wagons.
Coincidentally, There is also an Elmhurst Dairy in New York State, founded in 1919.
Chuggamuggamilkaday! (or, as the Brits say: Drinkapintamilkaday!)
@UrbanLegend
ReplyDeleteSome areas of Montreal still have milkmen!
A
What is the name of the dairy that still delivers milk in Montreal door-to-door?
ReplyDeleteElmhurst became Dominion Dairies, a division of Ault Foods, a unit of the Toronto Bronfmans' Brascan. Beatrice is an operating division of Parmalat, the 7470 St-Jacques O. offices being registered to Parmalat Canada.
ReplyDeleteArnold the mikman , still in NDG. An amazing man.
ReplyDeleteI saw him in his truck just yesterday on Chester and then a few minutes later on Westminster in MoWest.
DeleteWho else remembers milk lockers built in the side of houses?
ReplyDeleteHere is an interesting webpage about Elmhurst and other dairies in Quebec:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.laiteriesduquebec.com/laiteries/mtl-elmhurst.htm
Milk lockers?
ReplyDeleteIf you mean those little outside doors with another inside door on the sides of homes, there's still many around on the older houses of Montreal West, Westmount, etc.
I guess they were quite a handy feature to have, especially on freezing cold days when milk bottles left on the outside porch could freeze up.
Have sort of gone the way of skylights and coal chutes, which were very common years ago.
I believe the former Salvation Army home (and property) is owned by the dairy, which wanted (wants?) to expand - but its neighbours on Brock South (Montreal West) have objected.
ReplyDeleteElmhurst Dairy had the last horse-drawn milk wagon that I remember (in Montreal West) in the 1950's.
There were also door-to-door bread deliveries as well - using similar tickets to purchase bread as for milk.
I moved with my family from England to this very spot in 1957. We lived on Westmore. I started school up the street at Montreal West High and I used to play in this field before they build those wretched ugly apartments on it. I remember, as a five year old, finding a roll of toilet paper in this field and draping it all over the buses like tinsel...
ReplyDeleteYes Parmalat still owns the old Salvation Army Eventide home. Parmalat burned down part of the building then ripped down the area in the back and put a trucking distribution area in the land that was part of the Salvation Army property. Parmalat installed the 30 foot tall monster wall around the trucking yard that sits in the back yards of houses on Brock south in Montreal West. The Eventide home was supposed to be restored and used as office space as part of the deal they promised to residents in the area and the city of Montreal. They have left it empty and must hoping it will deteriorate enough for them to rip it down and expand their ugly and noisy dairy.
ReplyDeleteThis photo is the vacant field between Elmhurst Avenue and Patricia Avenue with Upper Lachine Road or St. Jacques where the cameraman is standing looking north to cross-street Harley continuing north over train tracks (Montreal West Station) up to Sherbrooke St. West - the 7400 block - Sutton Place Apartments. Shell Station on left corner behind which was the 105 bus terminal. I grew up in "Westhaven Village" starting at 2063 Patricia Avenue - a duplex - landlord was Mrs. Salinas and I went to St. Ignatius of Loyola Elementary School on Terrebonne and Westmore. That is how I recognized it. That was 1955 - in a land far away - long ago - they had Unicorns. Val Frost on Facebook
ReplyDeleteElmhurst went north, OVER the Train Tracks. To the left you would spot the Montreal West Train Station. Eventually, right on Harley Avenue, a shopping centre was built - ASSALY's grocery store, there was a Magazine store with papers, mags, gifts, stationery - a Hair Dresser, a restaurant and the SUNBEAM Appliance place too.
DeleteHere is a Google Map (as taken June 2017) of 7486 St. Jacques corner of Connaught Avenue.
ReplyDeleteThis was where T.A. Trenholme's house was located. He died in 1917 followed by his widow in 1943.
Circa 1948 the former Salvation Eventide building replaced the house. It later closed and is still (!) boarded up and abandoned--deliberately allowed to deteriorate by the adjoining Beatrice Dairy which owns the property.
Why there are seemingly no laws against this all-too-common ploy is hard to understand. "Property rights" do have limitations but evidently not in this and with others in the city such as the former and subsequently demolished Hunt Club on Cote St. Catherine Road.
Not sure when last post was or if anyone will see it but is this area safe to live in today in? November 2020 that is.
ReplyDelete