Mrs. Pinkerton on Jean Talon, 1954.
"Join the mighty throng going to the opening of The North End Suburb" read the first-findable mention of Park Extension, in 1908, known at the time as Park Avenue Extension. Developers promised that they have "land, not mud, for sale," "dry as tinder and almost as level as the top of a billiard table."
These photos were mostly shared on Flickr's Park Extension Historical Society page and Facebook's Park Extension Memories. Coolopolis claims no ownership. We thank and salute all those who took the care to shoot these photos, those who preserved them lovingly for a long time and finally those who shared them on the internet.
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Park X resident John Clarke was one of the first newsmakers from the area. He took some cash out of the bank at Laurier and Park and then visited some nearby bars to drink. He came outside and rang a doorbell to ask directions to Park Ex. He grabbed the man by the sleeve, ripping it. The man turned out to be police officer Emile Legault who shot him dead. Local residents demanded the city pay his widow $10,000.
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Playing baseball 1965.
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Nellie Cassidy with her daughters Grace, Elnora and Francis at 6980 Durocher in 1947.
Early day promos promised that King Edward Blvd would be 80 feet wide and a mile in length. "and will be popular a residential street as King Edward is now the popular Monarch of Greater Britain and Canada." King Edward was penciled in to be just west of Park Ave. Acadie was Allan Ave., and later McEachern, Wiseman was Vendome, other strets included St Adele, Birckerdike, Geenshields, Abraham, Dickson, Howard.
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Jarry Street 1926
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Bill Scrimgeour tending the horses for firehall 41, early 1950s. "Horses were used when motor vehicles couldn't negotiate the muddy streets in the early days."
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Jean Talon and Hutchison 1940s.
Developers included such "well known and shrewd businessmen as Robert Bickerdike, George Ball, (both former MPs) J.N. Geenshields, Sydney P. Howard, R. T. Hopper and F Abraham. Lots have 25 feet frontage and cost $90 and up payable 5 percent cash, with the first 50 buyers getting a 10 percent discount,.according to an advertisement published 28 March 1908. Prices doubled by 1910. By 1911 it had a neighbourhood baseball team. First real news story from the area 31 July 1912 a disoriented man was found wandering naked in a field. People started shortening the name to Park Extension starting around 1913, and within about 10 years nobody was calling it Park Avenue Extension anymore.
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Park Avenue, near Beaumont
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Donald Tarlton (Donald K Donald) in Park X.
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After much local lobbying, a tramway was finally opening to the area may 6 1921 from the norther side of CPR tracks to Ball via park. It ran from 6 a.m to midnight.
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Montreal pedestrian tunnels in 1932 at Jarry Park
The area sits next to Town of Mount Royal, which became a suburban garden city thanks to the Mount Royal Tunnel that was drilled through the mountain between 1911 and 1918, a process that led to considerable land speculation. Park X is smaller, poorer and, unlike TMR, built on a grid. Homes in Park Ex are smaller than many other parts of the city. The two neighbourhoods are divided by a fence on Acadie, which has aroused much irritation over the decades. The area became a landing pad for new immigrants, populated largely by Greeks for many decades and now others from East and South Asia. Census data from around 2000 indicated that it and Point St.Charles were the city's poorest areas, the difference being that Park Ex is working poor, while Point St. Charles is welfare poor. The most famous people from Park Ex were hockey star Dickie Moore and actor Glen Ford who lived there for some time as a young child.
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M. Lucien Fortin, senior clerk at J.C. McLaren Belting Co. Ltd., 6836 de l'Épée, c. 1940
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Larose Hardware on Beaumont c. 1920
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1928 Morin gardens on Beaumont
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8555 Bloomfield 1955
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8532 Bloomfield 1956
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Jean Talon and Bloomfield 1967
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King George VI at Park train station 1939
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Jean Talon and Durcoher around 1920
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Jean Talon and Durocher looking east c. 1921
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1974 car racers on de l'Epee
Great stuff Mr.Coolopolis, such a great site , appreciate , take care Mr.Cool.....Kristian
ReplyDelete#4 Ace Holden's 4 man team managed by my dad Pat Patterson.
ReplyDeleteLoved this.
Those phitos are so nicely scanned, I am not from Montreal but used to drive through giung out east in the 80’s when I was a kid
ReplyDeleteWally "Walter What Ya Need" Ziobro he turned out to be quite the character!!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for the memories.
ReplyDeleteI was raised in Park-Extension on Querbes street near Jean-Talon from 1963 to 1978. So many memories. Thank you for posting. Photos of Park-ex are so rare...
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ReplyDeleteThese are really interesting. My Dad (born 1929) grew up in Park Extension, then moved to BC after marrying. All these street names are like poetry to me, as he would mention them so often ... Durocher, Ogilvy, Bloomfield, Jean Talon. One day I'll go through his photos and share any that are interesting.
ReplyDeletePlease do!
Deletegreat walk down memory lane, thank you for posting. #25 is the Carinci family(both couples) one of the boys is a Fuoco :)
ReplyDeletethanks for posting. #21 is Carinci family (both couples & one boy, the other boy is a Fuoco) . where did you get these photos?
ReplyDeleteThank you very much! It is really nice to see old pictures of our neighborhood. :)
ReplyDeleteAmazing pics!
ReplyDeletePark Ex was my 'hood from sometime around 1949 to about 1958. Barclay School, where they still used the strap wth alacrity. The Piggery, where CFCF-TV now stands. Jarry Park. before the Expos, before tennis when it was just a bog park. The actual orchards with real apples on d'Anvers Ave. Playing "American Baseball" and "stand-o" and "five-ten" in the street.
ReplyDeleteWhen the art deco style CPR railway building in Park Ex (built in 1931) was closed in 1984 and partially converted into the Jean Talon Metro station and a commercial space, there was talk of installing a fountain in the frontage area. This would certainly brighten up the place if it ever happened, but we are still waiting.
ReplyDeleteWho remembers the Empire Theatre at 451 Ogilvy Avenue (the northwest corner with Durocher) which closed in 1968 and has evidently been transformed into apartments and/or a cultural centre, although it appears that the corner roof ornamentation has remained intact.
There was the trolley bus route 95 which at its western end ran along Jean Talon and circled around Greenshields Park (later renamed Athena Park) for the return trip east along Belanger Street. The trolley bus network was discontinued in 1966.
Not sure if actor Glenn Ford (born 1916 in rural Ste. Christine d'Auvergne, Quebec) ever lived within the actual district boundary of Park Extension, however--unless someone has evidence to the contrary.
Lovell's Directory for 1921 lists Glenn's then railway conductor father Newton Ford at 753 Bloomfield between Van Horne and Lajoie which is in Outremont and not the section of Bloomfield further to the north within Park Ex. The Fords moved to California in 1924 and rest is history.
Years back, I unfortunately caught only the end of a TV interview of Glenn Ford by CTV's Don McGowan, so I missed anything significant he might have said or even remembered about his very early youth in Montreal.
you guys will be happy to know much of it hasn't change! We just have more holes on the road.
ReplyDeletegreat post thanks
ReplyDeleteLoved the photos! I lived in Park Ex from 1972-1980 and went to Malcolm Campbell for 1 yr before we moved. Both the neighbourhood and school still have a place in my ❤️
ReplyDeletePic#51 is not in parc-x.
ReplyDeleteIt's at a former Greek church holy trinity. Next to the beautiful Godin building st -laurent/sherbrooke.
30 years next maybe we'll say that today is our memories
ReplyDeleteGrew up in Pk X from 1945-1959 Remember John and Bobby Smith ," Pinhead" Wilson, Kenny Meadows,Annette Goodman,Don(Tiger) Tarleton,Barry and Nigel Cutler, Principal Pibus Barclay School was a cousin(still used "the strap" on me tho.Catching grass snakes down at Black Bridge.Great palce to be young.
ReplyDelete