Historical bits for Sunday
The Centre des mémoires montréalaises has an interesting bit Sunday about a 19th‑century restaurant owner who wasn’t Joe Beef. Philip “Dolly” Isaacson had a resto on St‑François‑Xavier in the days when the Canadian parliament was on Place d’Youville. Isaacson was also invited to open a buvette in the parliament building, but so much drinking went on there that he lost the contract.
CBC looks briefly into a historical heist of 1980, in which a set of rare misprinted stamps was made off with. They’ve never turned up.
Radio-Canada has a piece on Chinatown, and how it’s had to defend itself for 120 years. In the 1950s, 5000 people from China are said to have lived in the area, by the mid‑1980s it was down to 500, and now I would be surprised if more than a few dozen Chinese folks lived nearby.
DeWolf 18:54 on 2022-01-30 Permalink
The 2021 census data isn’t available yet, but in 2016 there were 1,120 people of Chinese descent living in and immediately adjacent to Chinatown, out of a total of 3,513 people. The biggest concentration of Chinese people in Chinatown is in the Guy Favreau complex, which is home to 544 people, 58% of whom are Chinese.
Kate 20:41 on 2022-01-30 Permalink
I tend to forget the GF complex has residential space as well as government offices. Thanks, DeWolf.
MarcG 10:55 on 2022-01-31 Permalink
Lots of old folks we probably don’t see much of are living in the https://www.montrealchinesehospital.ca/home_en.html as well.
Kate 14:49 on 2022-01-31 Permalink
A few years ago I realized that one kind of retail still vigorous there were Chinese herbalists, most of whose clientele would be on the elderly side. A lot of their stock is liniments of various kinds for creaky limbs. I don’t know how many are still in business.