Turcot Generations

When the city of Montreal decided to build the Turcot interchange, they had to destroy dozens of houses and displace a lot of families that were living in the area. My mother's family lived on De Roberval and York (link) in Cote Saint Paul, before and after the overpass was built. This post will show you how the area looked like before the elevated autoroute was even conceived. You can see in the background of the top two photos and the photos on the left the apartments & houses that were destroyed to make way for the interchange.

The photos on the left are from various periods. They show the houses and apartments and trees that were there before the overpass was built in 1965. The photos on the right are from almost the same vantage point but obviously after the overpass was erected, after 1967. My grandparents' house was just at the edge, on De Roberval. This was fortunate and unfortunate. My grandparents didn't lose their house that they build themselves but they had to adjust their lives from then on and had to deal with an incredibly ugly and noisy eyesore.

Because of age, of bad urban planning (the overpass was designed for traffic with 10s of thousands of vehicles a day, not 100s of thousands), the Turcot interchange is crumbling and is a possible danger to the public who live around it and who travel over it so they're now planning to destroy the overpass and build a new highway that's less of an eyesore (link). The diagram at the bottom shows what areas are going to be affected. The house where the photos were taken are within the De La Verendrye green circle. It's amazing that so many families were displaced and so many old vintage houses were destroyed for something that today (only 46 years later) will be destroyed once more. And like so many other highways or railroads projects in Montreal, this created "dead zones" like the entire St Patrick street area which became isolated from everything. The new highway will not affect the houses on the south side of the overpass, where my grandparents old house is, but many of the buildings and houses north of highway 15 & 20 will be demolished once they finally decide when the reconstruction will begin. Because of the current economic situation, the project has apparently been postponed but they have to eventually deal with the crumbling infrastructure at one point. The whole thing is crazy!

Photos on the left row: my great-grandfather; my grandfather; my mother; my mother when she was a little girl. The photos on the right: my mother in the late 1930s/early 40s; my brothers and sister(I'm in the photo); my grandmother and mookie; my brothers and sister once more. The big photo after that is from Google maps. And the following two photos of the aging overpass were taken in the summer of 2010. You can compare those photos with the ones taken in the 1960s and 1970s, on the right row.

Fire guts beautiful stone house - St-Henri

A fire gutted this beautiful house that was converted into a business in Saint-Henri, on rue Saint-Jacques and rue Lacasse. You can see how it looked like before the fire in the last photo taken from Google Maps.

I also included a small video clip of the destroyed stone building.

Kostas & Dominion - Verdun

The restaurant and grocery store burned down a few years ago. A laundromat was also destroyed in the fire, which can be seen in the first photo on the far right. When it burned down, the restaurant was a fish & chip place and the store was called AXEP. Previously, both establishments were more famous for being the legendary Kostas pizzeria and the Dominion store. There's even a Facebook discussion about Kostas. Since the fire, it's a vacant lot. A project of condos and grocery store has been planned but nothing has been done yet with the vacant lot.

(photo credit: top two photos

Bottom photo: Google Maps)

Provigo on Verdun st in Verdun

The lease for the Provigo on Verdun street hasn't been renewed and will soon close. No date has been given or what will replace it (one can guess). The store and original store owners have a long history in Verdun (see article).

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(photo credit: google maps)

Maurice Boyer Pro Shop - Verdun

Maurice Boyer Pro Shop is a long standing business in Verdun that specializes in bowling equipment. It's situated on Bannantyne street near De L'Eglise. The business was recently sold and from my sources the building will be destroyed for a condo project. They didn't officially said they will destroy it (yet) but my source is very reliable.




(photo credit: google maps)

Salon de quilles Léon Houle and Porte et Fenetre Verdun

Bowling alley on De L'Eglise in Verdun will be destroyed and a big condo project will take its place. The bowling alley has been there for over 50 years. Behind the bowling alley, on Galt street, there was a Porte et Fenetre Verdun building (different than the one near Gibbons; next post) which has already been razed to the ground. Condos will also be built there.

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(photo credit: google maps)

Porte et Fenetre Verdun - Verdun

Porte et Fenetre Verdun is a business that specializes in windows/doors. It was established in Verdun and their manufacturing building was a constant presence in the neighborhood (at different addresses but always in Verdun). A few years ago, their big main building near Gibbons was destroyed and condos were built there. This photo was taken from Google Maps which still shows the main building but you can see the construction going on around it. It's ironic that there are franchises everywhere now, including Ottawa, except in Verdun. Another business out of Verdun.





(photo credit: google maps)

CKVL - Q92 (CFQR) radio station in Verdun

Famous radio station building in Verdun housed many Montreal radio stations, including CKVL, CKOI and Q92 (which used to be CFQR). The solid building was demolished a couple of years ago and it's been an empty lot since then. Why did they have to destroy it just to leave an empty lot? Weird. The radio station building was a landmark in the Verdun neighborhood.

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(photo credit - top photo: Le Messager; bottom photo taken from Google Maps)

Montreal

A montage I created with photos I took of Montreal.

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Funeral home in Verdun

Abandoned funeral home in Verdun was recently sold and will be converted into condos(who wants to live in a building that was a funeral home?).

I love the groovy honeycomb design on the facade which will undoubtedly be demolished when they build those condos. It's a unique design. I've rarely seen this kind of look anywhere and it will be gone soon. Sad.

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Old Molson Bank in St-Henri

This Molson bank has been abandoned for many years now. It's a nice solid structure and yet it gets no love.

Motel Raphaël

photo above: The Gazette


Famous/infamous Montreal landmark was closed 1 years ago, in October of 2009. Many won't miss it as they saw it as an eyesore but it's been in business for over 40 years and became, in spite of itself, a Montreal Landmark. The motel was supposed to have been demolished this past spring but somehow it was still standing when I took the "after" photos in November 2010. The "before" shots were taken from google maps when it was still open for business. It's somehow sad that it's gone because that area is one of the many real Montreal dead zones with few memorable spots and the motel was a reference point whenever driving by that somewhat ugly area.

I wonder what will they build there. According to an article at The Gazette, 20,000 vehicles drive by there a DAY. Who would want to live at such a busy location?

Place d'Armes Square

The Place d'Armes square in Old Montreal, in front of the Notre Dame Basilica, was totally leveled this past summer. And what a sight it was. The square as it used to look like can be seen in the bottom picture (from google maps).

Considering that it took the city forever to update Dorchester Square in Downtown Montreal, I didn't go back in Old Montreal to see if it was completed yet.

Addendum: I just read an article at La Presse about this and the square has been like this since september 2009 and they stopped the renovations during the summer of 2010, at the height of tourism, and probably only restarted this fall. It's amazing that it's taking longer than the Dorchester Square renovations. Also, the square was spruced up back in 1960. The last photo shows a computer simulation on how it's going to look like. 2 years to lay down some pavement.

Second addendum: I just learned that the renovation was delayed because while digging up around the square, they found archeological finds, like an old sewer and a wall that was part of one of the first buildings built in the area.

Industrial building - Pointe-Saint-Charles

An anonymous industrial building, just next to the massive Alstom factory, was demolished and replaced with condos. I took a 35mm photo of it one summer and the next summer there was a finished condo complex. The snapshot from google maps below shows the unfinished stage. When I was there, it was completed. One of the fastest construction projects I've ever seen.

Autumn

A view from my apartment just a few weeks ago

CN Bonaventure Building

The ugly building on the left, which stood for 59 years on Peel street, just parallel to the soon-to-be gone Planetarium, was destroyed a few years ago to make way for a huge condo complex of several buildings. The land where the Bonanventure building stood is still vacant but the land behind it is where the construction took place. Also, the ETS school built an adjacent complex on the same bit of land. It's odd that they destroyed the building but only built around it, leaving a big empty space where it once stood.

I actually went inside that building and it's no big loss but it was there for so long that it was part of the Montreal landscape, in spite of itself.

I took the first photo a year or so before it was leveled.

The second photo is from this link





















This Google Maps image shows where the building used to stand (I highlighted in purple). To the South: the condo complex; east: the ETS building; and north; the doomed Planetarium. The huge piece of land has been empty for many years which makes you wonder why they tore it down.

Abandoned Building on rue de Richelieu

This building on rue de Richelieu in St Henri has been abandoned for over 20 years. It's not accessible from the street as it stands next to the Ville Marie expressway. It's a big building, spanning 3 or 4 blocks. The site is apparently toxic and will cost a lot of monry to clean up.


Updated


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