Heritage buildings: we let them rot
Taylor C. Noakes writes a spirited piece about Montreal’s lost cinemas, making a telling point about how having a neighbourhood movie house was often the anchor point for a neighbourhood’s commercial street. He also notes how toothless the heritage designation can be.
As sometimes happens fortuitously on Twitter, the link to Noakes’ story directly followed a tweet by Heritage Montreal, concerning Fulford House on Guy Street, a building Mario Girard says is in demand both by Chez Doris, for homeless women, and by Concordia University, which has begun to feel it has a sort of eminent domain around its downtown campus.
PatrickC 03:03 on 2022-03-09 Permalink
Excellent article by Taylor Noakes. I’ve followed the Empress story over the years–decades–since it was a favorite of my mother’s in the Cinema V days. It is shameful waste of what could be a wonderful neighborhood resource. Great photo, too, not just for the Loews but for the Murray’s restaurant. My nostalgia is limited by memories of how bland the food was, but there was something quintessentially Anglo Montreal about Murray’s. At least, the white bread (the metaphor is apt here) Anglo Montreal of 50 years ago.