Video - Trinity Anglican Church / Eglise St-Sauveur

Trinity Church/ Eglise St Sauveur - Destruction

Epic. That's all I can say.

These photos were taken on February 17 at around 2:30pm. The entire thing was unbelievable.

Click on the photos to view all the details.

Photos of before the demolition can be seen here and here.

Depotium - Cote Saint Paul

The Depotium in Cote Saint Paul north of highway 15 & 20 of the Turcot Interchange will be destroyed when they do the reconstruction the Turcot interchange. The building is an eyesore and won't be missed by many but it's another business that's gone. As the 4th photo shows, the Ministere des Transports du Quebec owns the property. The front part is abandoned but the back of the huge structure still shows activity (I passed by there yesterday).

The RED ARROW on the google maps image below shows where the Depotium is situated next to the Turcot overpass. It's on Cabot street. The ORANGE ARROW shows where my grandparents' house is situated (see article below).

Turcot Interchange

Two photos of the crumbling Turcot Interchange I wanted to add to the blog.

The top photo was taken in the summer of 2010. The bottom one was taken in the winter of 2010. As all photos here, to view a larger version and see all the details, just click on the photos. I love the top photo.

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).

link



(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.

link







(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.

Link




(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.

google maps

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.