Thursday, August 14, 2014

Snowdon's strangest building

Two Montreal books tell the story of Snowdon in the 50s and they're both the creation of a local guy named Bill Conrod, who recently put out his second tome More Memories of Snowdon in the 50s.
   Of course this is an incredibly small niche market and Conrod hasn't done any social network marketing, so I thought it worth mentioning.
   The book is solid, from what I'm told, although I have never seen either it or its predecessor.
   One Snowdon building I'd be very curious to know more about is the 1929-built, 36-unit Queensway Court building on Snowdon (north side) just east of Decarie.
   The 5257 has a weird little alcove up a flight of stairs with a few tiny stores in them. (Photos borrowed from the excellent Spacing site). According to tax records, the $3 million + building was purchased about five years ago by some local Chinese but it looks the same as ever.
   I visited one evening after the stores were closed with my son and we were sufficiently freaked out to see a small hairdresser and tailor inside the then snowy-icy courtyard which is not visible from the street.
    Apparently I'm not the only one who found the place spooky, judging from this anecdote on that same Spacing post:
  1. Growing up gay in the 50′s and 60′s was pretty tough. But Snowdon wasn’t too bad for me, compared to other places I’ve heard and read about.  The annex steps and courtyard in this photo were always interesting to me as a child.  Recently, however, I’ve recovered an upsetting memory about that exact spot.One pleasant evening when I was about aged 6 I was with my father on Queen Mary, for some reason.  On our way home we stopped in front of the annex steps and he said, “Stand right here and wait for me; I’ll be back soon.”  I waited and waited — a very long time — but he never returned. I wasn’t sure what to do.  But then I remembered that I’d been to Steinberg’s with my mom, and it was just across the street (where Metro is now).  I told myself, “You know how to walk home from here. It’s not far.”  And I did just that.  When I arrived home, Dad was already there.  “What happened to you?” I yelled.  He just stared back blankly at me.  I told my mom what had happened, and she said, “Oh, he probably just got to talking with someone, you know your dad, and he forgot.”  I accepted her explanation and put the event behind me.
    Thinking this over as a grey-haired, middle-aged man now, I’d still like to give my dad the benefit of the doubt.  He was a good father.  He was always kind, generous and loving toward me.  But he was a man’s man. He loved hockey — all sports, really — and I guess I was a disappointment to him, since I wasn’t much interested in that.  So, I can’t help but wonder about it all, and I suppose some questions will haunt me for the rest of my life: Who would leave a little kid standing in a doorway on a very public street at night? And, should I change the word “leave” to “abandon?”
 
 


24 comments:

  1. It has only been in recent years that the street-level entrance to 5257 Queen Mary Road was fitted with a screen-type barrier and padlocked overnight, presumably because of increasing break-ins, vandalism, and "homeless" squatters. Up until then, anyone could access those stairs 24/7.

    Previous businesses up in the courtyard included a photography studio and a postage stamp dealer.

    To acquaint those "newbies" among us, directly to the east across Trans Island Avenue was a Steinberg's supermarket, part of the large grocery chain which eventually closed in 1992 and was at this location replaced by the currently-existing Metro supermarket.

    Originally, Steinberg's only occupied the easternmost part of the ground floor as the westernmost section was a Zeller's whose main offices were at that time located upstairs before later partially moving into other nearby buildings including a few offices of the nearby Royal Bank building and even later still into 5100 de Maisonneuve before Zeller's HQ left Montreal for good and was later put up for sale. Most of its stores were recently purchased by Target.

    Another oddball building in the district is the former Bank of Montreal branch at the southeast corner of Decarie and Cote Ste. Catherine Road which I believe was the first drive-in bank in Canada at the time. The former teller access window is still visible at the rear.

    Since this building has remained intact despite being abandoned for decades, I suspect that the BOM still owns the property, perhaps keeping it mothballed for a possible re-opening at some future date.

    How many realize that the Armstrong World tile manufacturer complex further north on Decarie above Vezina is now officially closed and waiting for a buyer. The Lancaster, Pennsylvania HQ decided to shut it down due to lagging market conditions during the recent recession.

    Since opening in 1946 the plant used to be quite busy although the tile-making process left a distinctively skunk-like stench in the neighbourhood!

    Will this choice location remain zoned as industrial or will condos and/or townhouses possibly replace it--right next to the railway line?!

    ReplyDelete
  2. A Lovely post by Mr. Urban Legend, THE Expert on Montreal doings!

    I was NOT aware of the small court up the stairs @ 5257 QMR ( and we lived on Saranac just South on Decarie in the Forties just after the War ) until I read about it on Coolopolis!!

    We shopped at the Zellers and took the 65 Cote de Neiges streetcar from old Snowdon Junction @ QM before Terminus Garland was built. We sometimes took the 29 Outremont to go to the North end, Ahuntsic and Montreal Nord, a long trip by streetcar.

    My Mother's cat came from a Mrs. O'Niel, a cat lady they knew from the Thirties, way out on Gouin.

    The other way we took the 48 St Antoine, getting on at Snowdon Ave and the Private Right of Way to go South.

    We went to 'Movies' in the Snowdon theatre before TV.

    We shopped at a supermarket opposite Saranac and Dalou on Decarie.

    There was a Supertest? on Decarie at Saranac?? and, of course, the Chish and Fip place @ Dalou.

    I was NOT aware about the first drive-thru bank until I read it here!

    Thank You, Sir.

    Decarie in the Pare area became SLUMMY after the War, with all sorts of cruddy plants West of Decarie and the Tramways beyond the Orange Julip.

    The Orange there now is not the original, and is larger.

    http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/0f/b0/48/0fb0487a4ecea263cca7399d6f733184.jpg

    Trolley Wires for 17 Cartierville in rear of view.

    Bell had a coin sorting facility in there somewhere where I used to have to take payphone proceeds at the end of my shift, it having a large room full of sorters cascading thousands of coins. You were buzzed in thru an electric door lock.

    Bell had a telephone reconditioning plant North West of the Decarie Circle.

    C. 1962 there was a factory fire off Pare, Bowling equipment place??? @ Devonshire???? and the foundation was there for ever.

    Once the streetcars came off on 17 Cartierville, you could go under the CPR North of Vezina and follow the old right of way past Blue Bonnets where the Blue Bonnets cars diverged.

    In the Sixties the Pare area was a warren of Industrial Spurs of both CNR and CPR up to Decarie Circle, and one could always find a yard engine or two shuffling around on a humid summer's day.

    Anyway, a disgusting area when smog was still a new word, made even worse in the Sixties as cars multiplied.

    New highways and bridges in the Sixties = costly aged infrastructure 50 years later.

    ( Just wait until the New Highway 30 over the Seaway @ Beauharnois get old!! a la Pont Champlain )

    Another old Champlain Bridge gets 'Fixed' . Love the ripples in the ice.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYTdVuLeg7k

    Thank You, Sir for a great post!

    It would be nice to see many more of THIS style of writing.

    I wonder what is WORSE for the environment, a factory providing jobs, a product and variousTaxes, or a high-density housing complex on its once-footprint with hundreds of toilets and gallons of grey water using KW of power with many folks therein in on the dole, with hundreds of automobiles parked outside soon to clog the already-jammed roads and requiring the other bane of cars, PARKING!!! and anitfreeze dripping all over?

    ( Hmmm, AM I starting to sound like other U. L.??? )

    Time to get drunk and go to the cellar and run the 1200 for a while, facing the 96-inch screen and 3D computer graphics. Remember Harry Chapin in his taxi in the song, stoned on what might have been?

    A 1200, the series went into the 1300s.

    http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/91/9f/0f/919f0f9cd312072a03713dd32eeecb54.jpg


    Thank You.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wasn't the (former) Armstrong plant originally within the city limits of Cote St. Luc?

    Current CSL map: http://www.cotesaintluc.org/streetmap

    1945 map showing CSL and its 3 "exclaves" (the Decarie Square one; the Hampstead/Snowdon one, and another just to the west of Blue Bonnets - this one was probably sold/ceded to Montreal at some time - as well as the part of the Decarie Square one east of Decarie): http://services.banq.qc.ca/sdx/cep/pleinecran.xsp?eview=CARTES_PLANS/65557/65557_01.tif&id=0000065557&mention=

    ReplyDelete
  4. Here are views of streetcars in Decarie area.

    Northbound 17 Cartierville car ascends trestle over CPR just North of Vezina. Decarie to right.

    http://dewi.ca/trains/montreal/pix/a005_13.jpg


    Southbound 17 descending trestle approaching Vezina.

    http://dewi.ca/trains/montreal/pix/a005_14.jpg


    Streetcar MTC 1046 facing south at Snowdon Junction @ Decarie and QM. Building with curious roof on balcony was on East side of Decarie just South of Snowdon Theatre.

    http://www.newdavesrailpix.com/mtc/htm/cnr_h_mtl_1046_snowdenloop_bvjh_17.htm



    48 St. Antoine car about to turn into Terminus Garland. Note hose tower on fire station at Van Horne and Trans Island.

    http://dewi.ca/trains/montreal/pix/a005_09.jpg

    Same view on Google

    https://maps.google.com/?ll=45.490179,-73.64243&spn=0.000015,0.006899&t=m&z=17&layer=c&cbll=45.490126,-73.644134&panoid=y0KwvxpDPiVK-BhPn6viEw&cbp=13,107.8,,0,-0.35


    Northbound 17 Cartierville just leaving Terminus Garland.

    http://dewi.ca/trains/montreal/pix/a005_12.jpg

    Decarie to left, looking South. City of Montreal Sicard dump truck w/ low sides so workers can shovel sidewalk sand into truck in spring. Device on right track is for expansion and contraction of rails. There was one of these where Tramways crossed CSL road near Girouard.

    Thank You.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Correction regarding the access to 5257 Queen Mary Road:

    The front gate would not be padlocked at night but instead the knob would incorporate a key lock.

    Such a lock would obviously need to be quickly openable from the inside by the apartment tenants in the event of a fire or other night-time emergency.

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  6. The BANQ has the first Bill Conrod book.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yes, Cote St. Luc still maintains its enclaves for the tax benefits it reaps from them.

    In addition to the Armstrong property, the Decarie Square shopping centre is once again part of CSL along with the housing along Tommy Douglas, David Lewis, and Abraham de Sola Avenues.

    This tract of land briefly reverted to Montreal during the ill-fated merger--although you may want to check with CSL city hall to verify the details as to who owns what.

    ReplyDelete
  8. When we lived on Queen Mary, that little "arcade" always fascinated me, when we passed in front of it on the way to the Steinberg or the Zeller's (one half of the current Métro was Steinberg, and the other, Zeller).

    It wasn't until I was well grown-up that I finaly managed to climb up those mysterious stairs, only to be disappointed in finding an anticlimatic handful of nondescript stores... :(

    * * *

    Yeah, the Côte-st-Luc exclaves; what a wonderful way for them to get huge tax-revenues from the high-rises while inflicting their nuisances to Montréal & Hampstead residents...

    ReplyDelete
  9. Just for the record, Lovell's Directory of 1933-34 shows the first listing of a Supertest service station at 4659 Decarie (the NE corner with Saranac Avenue).

    However, beginning with the 1938-39 edition, that address lists a T.J. Nesbitt--likely the proprietor of the station.

    Subsequent proprietors such as A.L. Walker took over the premises until the final listing in 1963 as Lauzon Drive Yourself, after which the east side of Decarie was razed for the depressway; the corner apartment buildings, commercial businesses, and one duplex building to the east of them demolished into oblivion.

    The Supertest group was sold to BP in 1971, but that Decarie location was likely sold to another major oil company long before then. Surely another reader of this blog will recall which one? Was it Texaco, Shell, Esso?

    I am unfamiliar with more specific details about that particular neighbourhood since as a kid I has no reason to hang around there. I do not recall the fish and chips place although of course I do remember the original Royal Bank, the Dionne Grocery, and a bicycle shop further south during the late 1950s early 60s.

    Tracking down and researching the names and locations of former gas stations through Lovell's Directory is complicated by the fact that they were not comprehensively indexed by their parent oil company name but rather by the dealer-owner instead.

    Since I have not researched this subject in depth, I have no idea if such stations were considered a type of "franchise" or if there another kind of dealer arrangement which exists even today. For example, how does one decide on a full service dealership over a self-serve-depanneur type of outlet? Presumably the oil companies own the actual station property and facilities?

    Furthermore, one has to wonder how such arrangements benefit the individual dealer. I am still puzzled as to why for decades there were TWO Shell stations operated by different people and located directly opposite each other: one still at 3405 Decarie on the northeast corner with Sherbrooke Street West and the other formerly at 2155 Decarie on the southeast corner which later closed and was replaced by the current Kentucky Fried Chicken.
    Did the two dealers have to "battle it out" until inevitably one of them had to capitulate?

    Strange also that there remains only one Irving Oil station left in Montreal at 5910 Notre Dame East.

    Lately, it certainly looks as though the oil companies have some sort of deal to unload their up-for-sale service station properties to condo developers before anyone else. Does this mean that gas station dealers are then arbitrarily given the boot or are they offered another location as compensation?

    ReplyDelete
  10. There were two Shell stations across from each other at Sherbrooke and Decarie because they were two separate companies at one time.

    Canadian Oil Companies owned the White Rose brand, so one of them was a White Rose station (I can't remember whether it was the one where there is a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise today on the southeast corner or the current Shell station on the northeast corner.)

    Nesbitt Thomson & Company of Montreal bought Canadian Oil Companies from its American owners in 1938. The White Rose brand was sold to Shell in 1962 with the brand slowly disappearing in the mid-1960s being replaced by Shell logos on everything.

    You're quite right. It was an odd sight for a number of years to see two Shell stations across the street from each other.

    The Supertest station on the northeast corner of Saranac and Decarie lasted until they started demolishing everything on that side of Decarie for the Expressway.

    Many gas stations and brands have disappeared from the neighbourhood and from the city. There used to be a B/A or British American station on the northeast corner of Cote St. Catherine and Decarie for years. Their logo was green and red. Gulf Oil gained control in 1966 changing the logo colours to blue and orange but leaving the B/A during Expo 67. Supposedly this was so Canadian customers wouldn't be miffed while at the same time subtly showing American visitors the corporate connection to the American Gulf Oil. I believe there is a seniors' residence on the site today.

    The site should have special significance to Coolopolis readers because Kristian featured it on Oct. 28, 2012. When the B/A station was being expanded in 1947 a duplex on the north side of the site was moved to a new location on Trans Island.

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  11. Gazing at the 1947 aerial map of Montreal, it is clear that in the succeeding years many of the original dwellings along Decarie Boulevard were replaced by apartment buildings.

    The one which was jacked up and moved to its new location on Trans island must have been unique indeed! The current residents would doubtless be amazed to know the history of their home!

    Lovell's Directory until 1951 lists a Joy Oil gas station at 5575 Decarie which was soon after replaced by the drive-in Bank of Montreal branch.

    Then in 1952 Lovell's shows J. Paul Roy at 5701 Decarie, who was in fact the proprietor of the new B/A service station that opened up there. Decades later B/A was replaced by a Gulf station and after that by Ultramar which itself gave way to the current seniors' condo.

    I feel sorry for the residents of the apartment building directly behind that condo now that their previous view (such as it was) has been completely blocked out--although those who have since moved in wouldn't know any different, of course.

    In the late 1950s a BP station appeared on the previously long-empty northeast corner of Bourret and Decarie. This station too closed decades later and a paint store (of all things) now sits on the spot.

    There was a White Rose service station on the northeast sector of the Decarie Circle and another at the northwest corner of Darlington and Barclay. What exists there today is a Centre de Service Outremont.

    Replacement gas stations seemed to pop up overnight like mushrooms! You would see it happen literally overnight with all of the brand name signage being changed! The power of oil money!

    The old familiar brands such as Texaco, Gulf, Fina, Sunoco, Supertest, White Rose, BP, B/A have come and gone from the Canadian landscape, merged and swallowed up by the survivors Petro Canada, Shell, Esso, Ultramar (formerly Golden Eagle), etc., although some of those former brands still exist south of the border alongside Mobil, Arco, Citgo, 76, etc. which never appeared up here.

    When watching old movies, it is always amusing to see how gas station pumps have evolved over the years as well--not to mention, of course, how cheap gas used to be!

    ReplyDelete
  12. And while we are on the subject of Snowdon, only much older residents would remember the gas station on the northeast corner of Decarie and Queen Mary. It was a Red Indian station, not a brand name any corporation would dare use today.

    The station was there from the mid-1930s to the mid-1940s being replaced by the new Bank of Toronto building, which by 1955 would be known as the Toronto-Dominion Bank after a merger. The building housed a Quebec Liquor Commission store when I saw it on my last visit to Montreal.

    There was another Red Indian station in the little triangle formed where Monkland and Sherbrooke meet near Loyola. After the gas station closed, the building was renovated and housed a variety of businesses on the ground floor. Restaurants have been in the ground floor space since 1960 with Mr. Hot Dog being there probably the longest for 41 years from 1966 on. Today, Dagwoods is in the spot (although probably no relation to the famous long gone Dagwood's in St. Laurent.)

    The Red Indian brand was first used by the McColl Brothers Oil Company, which had its beginnings in 1873 in Sarnia. They marketed grease, oil and other lubricants to railroads. A few decades later they quickly realized the new automobile market was going to be far more lucrative.

    In 1927 they merged with the Frontenac Oil Company of Montreal becoming McColl-Frontenac. In 1936 Texaco started buying McColl-Frontenac shares gaining control of the company just two years later. The McColl-Frontenac name was kept until 1959 when it became Texaco Canada. The stations however had been selling Sky Chief gasoline, Texaco's first brand since it was introduced in 1941. Other Texaco products were on the shelves until the Red Indian name slowly disappeared.

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  13. Urban Legend...

    Since we are talkig about gas stations and gas stations in Snowdon, I have more for you and anyone else who may be interested.

    You were speculating about the B/A gas station on the northeast corner of Decarie and Cote St. Catherine and the house move mentioned in Kristian's blog of 2012. You did excellent research back then on where the house went and who lived in it.

    While franchisee J.Paul Roy took over the new B/A gas station on that corner in 1952, B/A had owned the property for some time. The first mention of anything at that 5701 Decarie address is a B/A service station in the 1936-37 directory.

    Lionel Robert was the franchisee by 1938-39 but Leo Daoust took over by 1939-40. The Ls. Miron you mention, operated it until the original building was demolished and the new one built in the late 1940s.

    If you look carefully in one of the photos of the house move (the milkman delivering milk) in the Oct. 28, 2012 post, you can see a small portion of the orignal smaller service station building in the background. You can also clearly see it on the 1947 aerial map of Montreal. The original building looked very much like service stations of the 1930s with their high peaked roofs and often dormers as well.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Fascinating information--to those of who care about such things, of course...lol.

    I've often dreamed how great it would be if everyone who ever lived in their neighbourhood could have collected and stored their vintage family photos with the proviso that they eventually be downloaded to a nostalgia website so that all of the blanks could be filled in for the benefit of future generations.

    Reading all of these memories and historical records, one can easily imagine having a time machine and passing innocently by on the street watching yourself as a kid growing up. What perspective!

    Hmmm...the temptation to walk over and give advice with the benefit of perfect hindsight would be so compelling. But then, of course, children would have been told not to talk to strangers.

    ReplyDelete
  15. For the expert sleuths on Coolopolis.

    I have mentioned this building move B4.

    C. 1955 a small two-story commercial building was moved on large beams and wooden rollers pulled by a truck FROM NE Corner Somerled and Prince of Wales across from the small parking lot to the East of Steinbergs, and a bank, still there, constructed.

    The building was moved North TO Fielding, then West to a vacant lot on the North side @ 6618 Fielding btwn Rosedale and King Edward. Google shows as Rocky Montana Fruit.

    This was a big deal, and all sorts of Sidewalk Superintendants appeared to supervise.

    I ASSUME, similar to the Trans Island move, the building was quite new, and could be moved to another location cheaper than constructing a new ground-up building at the 'new' location, rather than just tear it down?

    Many buildings were moved along the route of the Seaway in areas to be flooded.

    ( As an aside, I wonder if the Atwater Swing Bridge was moved in one piece on a barge, or disassembled?? Many bridges on the CPR were taken apart and moved to new locations. CPR used to move small bridges and turntables to locations on their property until required elsewhere.)

    Another Bell story.

    There used to be a Taxi phone in the parking lot to the East of Steinbergs on Somerled @ PoW mentioned above.

    One day this call came in the phone was not working.

    Men on Repair were sent out and could not find the problem.

    I got the call on a Service Order and went out, as Installation did Repair, when slow.

    I went to the phone. Dead, not even a ground hum, the cab guys adjacent chattering like ducks re BTCo.

    Went into Steinbergs armed with the S/O to the Manager and asked to go the basement as thats where the terminal was.

    ( I REALLY want to see the Steinbergs end of the tunnel that went under Somerled to the once-huge parking lot on the East side of Walkley opposite the slummy oil-stove-heated appartments along the South end of the Tramways wye. Tunnel entrance still in basement@ SE corner, as thats where conveyers along Somerled windows came down, but, boarded up. Groceries moved in boxes. )

    Anyway. Taxi line worked at terminal end of it's wire.

    Followed wire, open black three-way, up thru basement wall and saw where it went out into parking lot.

    There was a large billboard facing the Bank on PoW mentioned above with large girders into concrete in ground and lattice girders holding sign.

    I could fit in between rear girders and Steinbergs and followed wire strung on drive hooks and beam clips until I found wires had been cut, but, only two, leaving one to hold up wire giving the illusion it was okay.

    Peeled back insulation, Nicopressed on some sleeves, and Fixed!!

    The cab drivers were estatic as they tested the phone, and villified, en Francais, the two other lazy Bell guys who couldn't find their asses with their hands and the phone had been Out of Service for days, etc. etc. etc. Quack, Quack, Quack and Quack.

    Made Bell look stupid, too.

    My Foreman back @ 5757 UL asked, and I told him what I had done.

    He was not impressed and was 'Going to look into it' re other guys sent out.

    Junior Man fixes phone 'Out for Days' whlie Beer-gut old guys on Repair in Taverne with the Post Office guys slopping up Beer in 'Quarts' and scarfing lunch.

    Gosh!!!!, some of those beer guts needed road cones!!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. ( Another aside. On WEST side of Steinbergs @ Walkley, NW corner, was an impressive lattice structure to bring Hydro Quebec into basement. Still there on Google. ( Why is building next North on Walkley blocked out on Google? ) Streetcar track for North leg of Wye on Walkley visible in street in front of truck backed in on Google. Track curving South on Grand visible, too.

    ( Just noticed this on Google!! There appears to be one of those 'oblong' four-hole man hole covers right in centre of intersection @ Grand and Somerled. Once common, now rare! I understand these were a hazard, as cover could fall into hole whereas a round one could not. )

    On black three-wire, one wire had one ridge on outside to identify it, the next had two, and third had NO ridge, so Ring, Tip and Ground would be identified at far end from terminal.

    Usually indoor wire ( JKTN ) had Red, Green, Yellow, and, later, Black inside it's sheath.

    The Black allowed you to run two single-lines inside one wire, or a Princess Light, let say, if power was in basement.

    I used to work at the Pay Phone Group when it was on Jean Talon near Jenkins Valves on South Side. Shortly after Pay Phone Group was moved to 5757 UL.

    There was an MTC bus garage in the area with all sorts of Autobuses in series we did not see in NDG.

    The last MTC 400 series lived in Verdun just before EXPO 67 and the new Flxibles and GM Coaches in 5xxx Series killed most of the Shorty fleet. There was another bus garage just North of the Lachine Canal not far from Atwater.

    A MTC 200 lived on the Hampstead route from QM and Decarie, and looked ridiculous alongside the then new Can Car 4800s.

    The Autobusses became Blue and White and that changed so much.

    Ditto CPR going to Action Red and Multi Mark on trains.

    Hmmmm. Did a face plant off my Mountain Bike today, rock in grass.

    Still hurt.

    Blah, Blah, Blah, or, Quack, Quack, Quack???

    Thank You.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Another West End vignette.

    When we lived on Saranac just after the War, we had a dial phone in the hall, metal 302, and it had a ELwood number, later HUnter on Monkland. Into the fifties, the exchange occupied only the East half of the block between Hingston and Hampton by the YMCA, but, with the Baby Boom in effect, new houses were spreading rapidly thruout the later-HUnter calling area, and the West half of the exchange was built c. 1951.

    A predcessor Central Office once was at Walkley and Sherbrooke NE Corner and it later became Meldrum the Mover office.

    The caption here is WRONG. The streetcar is westbound on Sherbrooke @ Walkley with ex CO/MtM office with ivy to left of streetcar by walkers.

    http://www.newdavesrailpix.com/mtc/htm/cnr_h_mtl_1655_sherbrookemarcil_bvjh_24.htm

    ( Rosedale School had four rooms added on the North end c. 1951, and four more rooms added c. 1959 on the South end. The Janitor, who fired the furnaces, etc. lived in the next house South to the school on Mariette. )

    Anyway, my parents decided to buy new in NDG @ West Broadway.

    ( W B USED to be about 20 feet wider, when built in 1950. Narrowed c. 1970 when redone.

    No phone cables, yet.

    So a payphone and booth was set up btwn Somerled and Fielding-to-be for new home dwellers to use.

    My Aunt and Uncle, who rented upstairs from us on Saranac, moved to Prince of Wales @ Monkland, across from then-brand-new Benny Farm, and they too had a payphone and booth on the street just down the block until Bell PF ( Plant Facilites ) caught up.

    We then were given a DExter number and were on a two-party line for a time.

    TV came soon after on CBFT Channel 2 Bilingual 60/40 until CBMT 6.

    Airplanes arriving Dorval diagonalled NDG over approx Cavendish and Somerled, their fuselages reflecting TV signals and distorting image on rabbit ears. The noise from pre-Jet prop planes covered the sound.

    On Victoria Day, fireworks used to be launched from the park on Benny between Monkland and Terrebonne opposite the High school South of the artificial ice rink.

    When a plane landing was on Approach, they would stop the fireworks.

    There used to be a public stage in this park at the Benny Farm end.

    The planes landing scared my Mother's cat which came from way out on Gouin into hiding, as did Sicard snow blowers.

    Thank You.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Another Bell story. As mentioned previously, Installation would work Repair if slow.

    I received a Repair Service Order which said 5 or 6 separate telephone circuits were 'Grounded Out'.

    This often was a cable failure where the sheath had been damaged and water had gotten in, usually after a lot of rain.

    Well, we had had quite a bit of rain, BUT all the troubled lines were fed from the same Terminal on one of those odd streets East of de Courcelle, South of Saint Jacques near the St. Henri Car Barns.

    ( I had my Polio shots in a clinic down there. )

    I pulled up to the terminal location on S/O, a wall-mounted one on a angle bracket with hammer-driven nails into expandable anchors into the bricks.

    It was upside down hanging on the in and out of the cable loop, having been pulled off the wall by kids??

    Anyway, I tried to right it, and it sounded full of water which sloshed, the cover, on a chain, being water proof when right side up.

    I carefully used the handy Bell socket wrench tool to unlock the cover and dumped the water out.

    The binding posts conected to pairs represented for subscribers' lines were covered in rust from the cover, old cob webs, as spiders LOVED terminals and ran webs outside for insects, and dirt, all which grounded out the pairs.

    Dried off the terminal blocks as best I could, and, Fixed!

    I then redrove holes in bricks, installed larger anchors and nails, putting terminal upright again.

    ( CNR used to have a small yard in there which had an active steam crane on rails until 1967 or so. )

    I tried to have a live and let live policy about other Bell guys mistakes I found, as I made lots myself and was getting ECRs ( Employee Caused Reports ) all the time.

    BUT, one day I was called to install a new phone, the terminal another wall mount on bricks rear of 5596 Snowdon where all the streets were wierd near Dufferin behind the Synagogue on CSL.

    Anyway, the terminal was brand new, as no corrosion nor rust, replacing a lead-type NF-16 I suspect.

    Whoever did the job had broken all the bricks in the wall with his hammer drive drill, moving in some of the bricks until they hit the inside wall. Much damage.

    BIG mess on the ground with cut wire ends, insulation, cable sheath and general Bell junk not even related to this job all around.

    Looked awful, and was really a destructive mess re the wall.

    I could see I was the second guy in by Scotchlocs applied, wrong, of course, to first pair accessed.

    I told my Foreman as I was ashamed to see such a mess making our craft look bad, even if it was the Cable and Construction Guys who were usually very professional.

    I found out later it was NOT a Construction crew guy who did it, but did not find out who.

    I later cut a fire alarm circuit at a terminal in an appartment lining CSL just to the West, bringing all the Hampstead fire trucks. Hmmm. Who is professional, now??

    Wonder what the wall looks like now, Fifty years later.

    Thank You.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Off topic. A Cat Story.

    After I worked for the Bell I decided to get out of Montreal ( Quebec, lets say ) as I was not enthused about things going on after EXPO 67.

    Pierre Laporte and Trudeau's War Measures Act came after I left.

    The Walter Leja affair really made me wonder what was going on, in Montreal, my HOME!

    I was told, off the record, I had no future in Bell as I had wrong last name and Mother Tongue and cut backs on way to many hired 'just to make EXPO 'work'.'

    My cousin's husband, a cable splicer, moved to Ontario.

    The old Engineer on the CNR Electrics in the MRT was fed up, and hurt, also. He was going to leave at Pension time.

    Anyway, I hired on CPR and lived way out in the bush for ten years, nearest town Population 64, on a good day. My neighbour lived in a Company House and had a cat and a just-born baby.

    Railway track telephone for Sectionmen was Magneto and would get electrified when lightning hit open wire line on cross arms. Lighting arresters would blow fuses, throw sparks and flames when wires 'hit'.

    The cat was lovely, but a pest, always wanting in, then out, then in, then out. Meow, Meow, Meow.

    I said I would install a 'cat door' on hinges, but, as Company house, I put it in a sheet of plywood inserted into the wooden sliding up and down kitchen window.

    Wonderful. The cat caught on right away and just loved it. A saw horse on ground outside he could leap up from.

    Now he found another way to be a pest.

    He hated winter, but, would go outside thru the snow and under trees where the ground was dry and catch mice and do his business.

    He brought in live mice and birds thru the cat door, let them go, and chase them around inside where it was warm.

    He would sit on the window sill, half in, half out, the cat door on his head watching the world go by, his rear half all toasty warm inside in winter, tail hanging down swinging like a furry pendulum as he saw birds.

    The door was open, letting all sorts of cold air in around the cat, and you'd feel cold air on your feet sitting in the living room.

    I'd go pull his tail, he'd yell, but could not turn around, and would have to jump or turn on the outside sill.

    I'd hold the door shut, making him really mad 'til he got really cold, then let him in and he'd go sulk by the gas heater until food was mentioned.

    I installed a magnet to hold door shut in wind.

    Anyway. Fall was on the way and a black bear was hanging around, mooching from crews and looking for Caboose garbage.

    I saw him, and chased him away from my place with a lit red 10 min. fusee from CIL used for railway signalling and flagging. Green fusees were 5 min, on a wood dowl, and hard to find.

    The red and yellow fusees had a nail on bottom end and would, hopefully, when dropped from a moving Caboose, stick in a railway tie.

    Anyway. one day the cat was in the kitchen and started growling, howling and hissing, fur all puffed up.

    I went in and Mr. bear had his nose in the cat door smelling supper on the stove.

    I grabbed the broom, a straw one, and whacked his nose like playing baseball.

    He left.

    I slept in my truck a few nights, electric heater on extension cord in cab as Mr. bear would follow you in the dark.

    More to life than BTCo. and blogs.

    One has to make it happen, or it won't

    Thank You.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Not sure if Google street maps HQ must be called first to block out specific address plates on buildings--as some European countries have insisted upon for privacy concerns--or if this is only done during the next street photo upgrade, which could take years.

    But really, all one has to do is compare adjacent housing to determine the address numbers of the blocked-out dwellings and then refer to a Lovell's or Criss-Cross Directory to identify it.
    So much for "privacy"! (maybe a Mafioso lives there...lol)

    Obviously, the Google cars' cameras are not entirely perfected since I notice plenty of glitches.

    ReplyDelete
  21. ROBERT CRESTOHL

    We moved to Jean Brillant Street in April 1958 when I was nine years old. There was a great gang of kids on our street and we played kids games all day long. I loved hitting a ball more than anything else and pick up games of ball was our main pastime. I didn’t always use good judgement in those days and I remember stealing a baseball glove (the most expensive one they had…$35 in 1959) from Gerry Snyder’s and when my mom saw it and asked me where I got it…I told her I had found it. To make a long story short, she didn’t believe me and marched me back to Snyder’s and made me return it. I remember he was very nice about the whole thing. I never stole anything again.

    I went to Iona school for grade 5 and 6 and had a great group of friends…some whom I remember are Hershey Deutsch, Carmy Ghingold, Howard Pashlin. The principal was a Mr. H.H. Cooke and he wasn’t a nice man. He strapped a whole bunch of us just because we were didn’t hear the bell ending recess. I never let a teacher hit me again although a few tried to strap me in high school. When we heard that Mr. Cooke died a few years later…we cheered!!!!

    I made friends with Mr Lew who owned Black & White which was the busiest store in the neighborhood…he allowed me to read the new comic books as long as I bought some (I bought and saved all the Superman comics (they were 10 cents and I complained when the price was raised to 12 cents in 1961). I convinced him that I knew how to handle comic books and read them in a way so that they still looked like new when I was finished. I got my old comics from Archie’s Record Bar and assembled quite a collection. I became a major comic book dealer when I grew up and made a good enough living at it that I was able to buy a beautiful house right at the very top of Circle Road where I still live today. I never left Snowdon and love living here after nearly 60 years.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Part 1 - Corrections, additions, etc.

    Reading through the preceeding comments today (Dec. 20, 2019), I thought I would take this opportunity to add a few updates, corrections, and comments...as follows:

    1) Anyone who remembers the Armstrong World tile manufacturing plant on Decarie just north of Vezina Avenue will undoubtedly have noticed the enormous condo project currently underway there (see Westburymontreal.com for the hype clearly targeted at the deep-pocketed). Personally, however, even if I could afford it I wouldn't dream of living next to the busy expressway. Presumably, that portion of land is still owned by the City of Cote St. Luc, unless of course it had been sold back to Montreal around the time of the merger debacle. I have not researched further. It seems like just about every empty lot formerly occupied by an industrial complex, gas station, etc. is quickly gobbled up to make make way for a condo project and the resultant tax revenue.

    2) Regarding former gas/service stations, island of Montreal, I wonder why the Irving Oil dynasty seems content running so few in the province than it once had. The station at 5910 Notre Dame East is evidently the only left on the island. There used to be one at the north east corner of Decarie and Sorel but which closed, I believe, back in thelat 80s early 90s--its original building still there but in decrepit condition. Does Irving still own that property? Incidentally, does anyone remember the address of the White Rose service station on Mount Royal Boulevard back in the day? There is a vintage photo of a route 7 streetcar number 2196 heading westbound and showing an Esso to the west of the White Rose. Using Google Maps today isn't much help considering the many changes since then, of course, but I suspect that White Rose was close to Iberville. Gulf is slowly making a comeback in Canada with a lubExpress at 8055 Langelier. About those Red Indian gas stations likely being considered today as a disparaging term by the overly-sensitive (as well as the McGill Redmen, etc.), odd that the Indian Motocycle company is still alive and well. I suppose context is everything, not to mention intent.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Part 2 - Corrections, additions, etc.

    3) Correction: upon further examination, the gas station seen in the background behind the photo of the milkman standing in front of the on-the-move 5707 Decarie duplex must be of the BA on the northeast corner of Decarie and Cote St. Catherine and not the Joy Oil on the southeast corner, the latter later being demolished to be replaced by the drive-in Bank of Montreal, itself later closed and currently empty and up for rent as of 2019. See the aerial photo link below which shows the duplex still in its original location just north of the BA. As I initially considered this photo to be taken somewhat earlier in the morning than those of the two others, it would have created a situation which, based on the earlier viewing angle, would instead have brought the Joy Oil station directly into such a background view. Furthermore, despite the unique dormer-castle style of those Joy Oil stations, it cannot be ruled out that BA likewise constructed some similarly-styled stations--although no such design is evident thus far via Google Image research. Early BA signage had a horizontal arrangement and not the more well-known circular style as happened in later years, plus the minuscule piece of the station's sign which is barely seen in the photo next to the duplex's right balcony post is obviously quite different from the ones Joy Oil used at the time. Then there are the likewise barely viewable circular gas pump heads, which, despite their being significantly out of focus, would suggest they belong to BA and not Joy Oil. Finally, the apartment building directly behind the BA station is easily identified as 5265 Cote St. Catherine Road which exists to this day virtually unchanged.It would be of significant value to gain access to the original photos of this house move along with many others most certainly taken by the moving company itself along with those of neighbourhood bystanders. Indeed, many of the "mystery location" photos posted in this blog could be much more easily identified since the originals would more often than not show more revealing details.

    4) Regarding the former Atwater Bridge, base on what I have determined from relevant newpaper archives, it was disassembled first and transported to its new home on the Ontario locks network free-of-charge but presumably having to fork out the transportation costs.

    Incidentally, lately I am finding Google Maps a more cumbersome tool than it used to be. The screen tends to freeze-up way too often and where searches often dump the would-be user directly inside shopping complexes, beneath underpasses, etc., rather than onto streets, it can drive one to distraction!

    Aerial view link: http://archivesdemontreal.com/greffe/vues-aeriennes-archives/jpeg/VM97-3_7P13-20.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  24. Addendum to the thread concerning 5257 Queen Mary Road:

    http://spacing.ca/montreal/2007/12/18/snowdon-discoveries/

    ReplyDelete

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