Before-and-after photos
A nice series of before‑and‑after photos of city scenes from La Presse photographer Hugo‑Sébastien Aubert.
Wondering about the caption on the last one: “Un autobus de feu la Commission de transport de la Communauté urbaine de Montréal (CTCUM), ancêtre de la STM, se dirige vers l’ouest, rue Craig, devenue depuis Saint‑Antoine.” No year is given for the photo, but the Communauté urbaine de Montréal (and thus the CTCUM name) began in 1970, and I’m certain that photo’s from an earlier date. Earlier names for the transit commission are listed on this Wikipedia page.
Nicholas 02:29 on 2024-12-29 Permalink
Kate, I think you’re right this couldn’t have been CTCUM, but MTC or CTM, probably the latter.
The two buses in the photo were put into service in 1946, based on the serial numbers and the incredible resource of the CPTDB Wiki, which was the Montreal Tramways Company era, surely continuing onto CTM. Unfortunately it doesn’t have an end date for either, but 24 years is a long time, though not impossible.
Second, the bus stop signs suggest earlier as well. This STM history page has a number of photos with bus stop signs. The kind in the La Presse photo, a hollow circle with a cross in the middle, are found in a 1953 STM photo, but by 1956 they have replaced the signs with a solid disk. (Obviously it may have taken some time to replace all the signs, but for such a prime location downtown, you’d think it’d have been done quickly, not a decade and a half.) Go back to 1943 and you can find a photo almost identical to the La Presse one (same location, same St Hubert line, same sign), just a few years earlier.
I’m also reliably told the clothes look early ’50s.
bob 07:42 on 2024-12-29 Permalink
You can just make out “Tramway” on the sign in this better version of the photo, so ti was the time of the Montreal Tramway Company. And the image name seems to indicate it was taken in 1943.
https://www.stm.info/sites/default/files/histoire/hb2_1943_3-943-002_bus_acf_ligne_saint-hubert.jpg
And here’s the color scheme:
https://www.stm.info/sites/default/files/histoire/hb2_1947_s5-10.3_bus_twin_coach.jpg
Kate 09:49 on 2024-12-29 Permalink
Wonderful research from both of you. Thanks!
carswell 11:34 on 2024-12-29 Permalink
Were the CTCUM and the MUCTC the longest French-English mirror-image acronyms ever in common use in Montreal?
Kate 12:32 on 2024-12-29 Permalink
They definitely beat MUHC and CHUM.
Kevin 19:30 on 2024-12-29 Permalink
MUHC and CHUM are two different places.
It gets even more confusing if your doctor tells you to come to MUCC (Medical Urgent Care Clinic).
Kate 20:22 on 2024-12-29 Permalink
Kevin: true, but they are a kind of mirror image, conceptually.
I tried to work out if CIUSSS has a reverse version, but it doesn’t. Is CIUSSS the longest acronym in common usage here?
Joey 20:56 on 2024-12-29 Permalink
Tied with CNESST.
Kate 22:01 on 2024-12-29 Permalink
Ah yes, the TSSENC!