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The Griffintown (sometimes also called Griffontown) is a common name given to the former southwestern downtown part of Montreal, Canada, derived from an old industrial community of the same name, existant throughout the 19th and up to the second half of the 20th centuries and mainly populated by Irish immigrants of low income families. It is believed to have been vaguely defined by Notre-Dame street to the North, McGill and Guy streets to the East and the West respectively, and the Lachine Canal to the South, making Griffintown the earliest and largest faubourg ever annexed to Old Montreal (and its outskirts) before the introduction of the tram car in the 1840s. Nickname: Motto: Concordia Salus (well-being through harmony) Coordinates: , Country Province Region Montréal Founded 1642 Established 1832 Government - Mayor Gérald Tremblay Area [1][2][3] - City 365. ...
The Lachine Canal in 1920 The Lachine Canal (Canal de Lachine in French) is a canal passing through the southwestern part of the Island of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, through the boroughs of Lachine and Le Sud-Ouest on land originally granted by the King of France to the Sulpician Order. ...
Faubourg is an ancient French term approximating suburb. It is itself a derivative of Forsbourg, a descendant of Latin foris (out of) burgum (town or city). ...
This article refers to public transport vehicles running on rails. ...
Ethymology
The name Griffintown comes from the ingenious Irish family name Griffin which was widely distributed over Irish immigrants of the 19th century. Since those immigrants stayed together most of the time and tended to establish themselves in one particular town site of Montreal, its town was given the name of Griffintown.[1]
History It was first settled by mostly Irish immigrants in the early nineteenth century, though the Irish Catholics were supplemented with French Canadians and Anglo Protestants as the century progressed. The Irish Catholic residents of Griffintown in the nineteenth century were primarily unskilled labourers, who worked to construct the infrastructure of Montreal, such as the Lachine Canal (built 1821-5, expanded in the 1840s and 1870s), the Victoria Bridge (opened 1859), as well as the various railways and Montreal harbour expansions of the nineteenth century. They also found employment in the developing industry in Griffintown and along the Canal in the 1840s and 50s.
The Irish community was centred around St. Ann's Catholic Church, at the corner of McCord (now rue de la Montagne) and Basin Streets, across from Gallery Square. St. Ann's opened in 1854, and was closed and torn down in 1970, having lost most of its parishioners.[2] The site is now a park, appropriately named Parc Griffintown-St-Ann. The old foundation of the church can still be seen, and park benches are placed as if they were pews in the once-erected church.
By the early twentieth century, Griffintown was also home to growing Jewish and Italian communities. The Irish, for their part, were moving out by the early twentieth century. By 1941, they had lost their status as the largest group in "the Griff," replaced, briefly, by the French Canadians. By the early 1960s, Italians and Ukrainians were the majority. In 1968, the Irish comprised one-fourteenth of the population of Griffintown, which itself had fallen to 810 by 1971. The neighbourhood itself was officially bulldozed in the 1960s in order to make way for the Bonaventure Expressway. [3] However, it still remains an central point in Irish Catholic history in Montreal. The debates surrounding the aftermath of deindustrialization surround this area. Deindustrialization is the process by which the manufacturing-based economy of a country or region declines. ...
In 1962, the city of Montreal re-zoned the neighbourhood as "light industrial", though by this point, Griffintown was already seriously depopulated, as the residents moved out en masse during the 1950s, during the postwar economic boom in Canada. The neighbourhood disappeared in the 1970s, as a result of this deindustrialization and the construction of the Bonaventure expressway.[4] It was renamed the "Faubourg des Recollets" in 1990, and only somewhat resembles what it once was due to the historical architecture that remains. The Cité du multimédia was built partly above the ruins. The remainders are preserved in the McCord Museum. The McCord Museum (in French, Musée McCord) is a public research and teaching museum dedicated to the preservation, study, diffusion, and appreciation of Canadian history. ...
Actual status Today, this area is part of the borough of Le Sud-Ouest. It spans theorethically from the neighbourhood of Point St. Charles to the Old Port, and north to Notre-Dame street. Currently, it holds the stables for the horses that provide tours in carriages (calèche) around the Old Port. Many technological companies built office space in the area, and École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS) built its residence there. Very little of the original architecture remains, however, and those who grew up in the area keep old ghost stories alive. The city of Montreal is divided into 19 boroughs (in French, arrondissements), each with a mayor and council. ...
Le Sud-Ouest is a borough of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ...
Pointe-Saint-Charles is a neighborhood in the city of Montreal. ...
Old Port of Montreal Old Port of Montreal Stretching for over two kilometres along the St-Lawrence River, the Old Port Of Montreal has been the social, economic and cultural soul of Montreal ever since early French fur traders used it as a trading post in 1611. ...
Created in 1974, École de technologie supérieure (Higher School of Technology) is an engineering university member of Université du Québec network. ...
In 2006, the project to move the Montreal Casino to the Peel Basin, as part of an entertainment complex in partnership with the Cirque du Soleil, caused a controversy because of the social impact of the establishment of gambling in an underprivileged district. The project was finally abandoned. In July 2007, promoter Devimco announced plans to develop 12 hectares of the neighborhood into a modern complex of office towers, big-box stores, and residential homes [1]. Casino de Montréal The Casino de Montréal is a casino located on the Ile Notre-Dame in Montreal. ...
Cirque du Soleil (French for Circus of the Sun) is an entertainment empire based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy Laliberté and Daniel Gauthier. ...
It has been suggested that List of superstores be merged into this article or section. ...
On the City of Montreal Website, additional plans to update the now-renamed Griffintown are described.
Griffintown as part of Montreal's culture Michel Régnier made a film on the subject in 1972, which used archival photos of Griffintown, along with interviews of former residents in order to paint a picture of the landscape, community, and a people.[5] David O' Keefe published a historical book titled The Ghosts of Griffintown. These are some of the attempts to capture the memories of what once was a prominent part of Irish Catholic Montreal. The Griffinsound Project is a walking tour that is designed to be completed individually. It provides a background and interviews regarding the changing landscape of this space.[6]
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