Montreal’s 378th birthday
Sunday is the 378th anniversary of the founding of Montreal – at least, by the French as a fortress called Ville-Marie, in 1642. As the Wikipedia will tell you, the island had a life before 1642, didn’t become a city till 1832, and elected its first mayor the following year. So 1642 is a mild piece of casuistry, but is generally accepted as true.
david100 21:24 on 2020-05-17 Permalink
This is neither here nor there.
There’s an urban legend at McGill that the site of the Hochelaga village was approximately where the Arts Building now sits, and I’ve seen/heard it debunked all sorts of times. The Arts Building, for those who don’t know, was originally the McGill College building, and the west side was Molson Hall, and east side was Dawson Hall. These, with the newer Moyse Hall form the Arts Building as it was renamed back way before my time. That grand entrance, of course, is nothing more than a hallway now.
Anyway, if you look at the Marsan and Linteau histories of the city, the McGill/Hochelaga urban legend starts to make some sense. The area outside the “walls” where the first nations people weren’t allowed, was blocks away – darkly marked by the 720 expressway these days. But poorer people lived outside the walls, and the walking trails (such as what became Sherbrooke, the Cotes, RL/Dorchester) show the major commercial/other paths. I saw some exhibit years ago at the McCord that documented the McGill site as where First Nations would trade or even base camp when they came into town.
Obviously, we’ll never see an archaeological dig on McGill’s campus. But it’s interesting to wonder if that whole history might actually be true (or true-ish).