Protest over rent control
A protest was held Tuesday to press the Quebec government to institute effective rent control, and another protest involved hotel workers demanding emergency support from both levels of government – not only individual assistance, but support for the industry generally.
david222 01:42 on 2020-11-11 Permalink
They should protest to rebuilt the old port building at 0:12 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aPhLF7yfU8
I know it has come up before on here, but I heard it again a few months ago from someone completely random and outside my circle that they did store this somewhere, and planned to rebuild. The urban legend won’t die!
Kate 10:19 on 2020-11-11 Permalink
That building wasn’t made of Lego, david. The land it was built on is old landfill – the original port of Montreal didn’t have dry land in that spot. I’m no structural engineer but even I could see from outside that the ground under the building was shifting: there were visible cracks in the walls by the end, segments of bricks parting away from other segments.
The structure looks like it was made of distinct cubic forms, and you could “rebuild” it on a computer screen that way, but in fact it was bricks. There would’ve been nothing to store but a pile of bricks.
I liked that building, don’t get me wrong. But that isn’t a good place to put a building.
Max 11:55 on 2020-11-11 Permalink
The port police headquarters building had a smaller sibling on the other side of the tracks. Opposite the bottom of Berri, it made use of the same materials and architectural style. On an old map I have somewhere it was labeled ‘Port Infirmary’. You can see it (barely) on this aerial shot from 1963:
https://i.imgur.com/0Y9NFAm.jpg
Max 17:48 on 2020-11-11 Permalink
Here’s a better look at it, from the Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours chapel, also in 1963:
https://i.imgur.com/uY2KyLA.jpg
Handsome little thing it was. Too bad there are so few pictures of it.
David474 02:38 on 2020-11-12 Permalink
That’s pretty neat. Do you know the function? The building I’m mourning would have been a fairly central port building back in the day (way before my time but I’ve heard stories), what did function did this small one serve, do you know?
David474 02:56 on 2020-11-12 Permalink
Tell me this isn’t just evil: https://goo.gl/maps/oBZ9tBFjVBLwkkLY9
Kate 10:46 on 2020-11-12 Permalink
David, Max says it was labelled “port infirmary” so it presumably functioned as a first aid station, maybe looked at immunizations and checked sailors over who’d come from other places suffering from illnesses. You can see how that might have been useful back when this was a working port.
Max 11:26 on 2020-11-12 Permalink
This map from 1940 labels it ‘NHB Traffic Office’, NHB being the National Harbours Board. So I guess the building’s vocation changed over time?
https://i.imgur.com/3rUnxJf.jpg
My collection of historic aerial photos tells me it disappeared sometime between 1963 and 1970.