In the tram on the rue Sainte-Catherine

Photo Courtesy of the Archives of the City of Montreal, Centre-Sud. Sainte-Catherine street (the intersection of Champlain). 1928. VM117-Y-1P1948_epr Photo Pierre-Paul Poulin

Centre d’histoire de Montréal, in collaboration

Saturday, 17 February, 2018 23:31

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Saturday, 17 February, 2018 23:31

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A tram on Ste-Catherine

Photo Courtesy of the Archives of the City of Montreal, Centre-Sud. Sainte-Catherine street (the intersection of Champlain). 1928. VM117-Y-1P1948_epr

In 1928, the tramway line 3A runs on the rue Sainte-Catherine Is at the height of Alexandre-de-Sève. Contributing to the success of this great shopping street, thousands of Montrealers descended each day of the trams to consume the new features of its large stores and places of entertainment. Line 3 performs a long journey of Viau street to Victoria avenue. On a trip shorter, the rue du Havre in Atwater, the line 15 is more busy. Sharing the street with motorists is not evident in the peak hours, in particular between Bleury and Atwater, where several tram lines need to make a hook. Their complaints and some private interests have because of the trams, which disappeared from the rue Sainte-Catherine on September 5, 1956. Even today, the spring thaw and excavation works are to emerge the old rails of the bitumen, reminding us of a Montreal is now over.

The small pleasures of the Theatre Arcade

Photo Courtesy of the Archives of the City of Montreal, Centre-Sud. Sainte-Catherine street (the intersection of Champlain). 1928. VM117-Y-1P1948_epr

To the right of the tram, the marquise of the Theatre Arcade draws the eye. The architect Charles Bernier sees this building in terra cota white in 1911. On the ground floor, the pharmacist J. A. E. Gauvin, a gear on the street with great stores. The floors are occupied during the following decades by a manufacturer of textile. Located to the rear of the complex, the Theatre Arcade is accessible through the entrance hall of the rue Sainte-Catherine. Both theatre and cinema, it attracts the French-speaking audience with its light comedy and his ” animated views “. As J.-A. DeSève sentence to be purchased by French films during the war, the theatre is featured as early as 1939. The Company of actors associated are parts French and a few québec creations featuring young actors and future television stars, including Pierre Dagenais, Jean Duceppe, Roger Garceau, Denise Pelletier and Janine Sutto. In 1976, the Theatre Arcade is transformed into a studio for Télé-Métropole (TVA), is hosting today’s MAtv.

The old post office

Photo Courtesy of the Archives of the City of Montreal, Centre-Sud. Sainte-Catherine street (the intersection of Champlain). 1928. VM117-Y-1P1948_epr

On the corner of St. Catherine street and Plessis rises the turret of the former mail Station C, one of the most beautiful heritage buildings in the district. In 1911, the architect Joseph Perrault had designed this sumptuous property inspired Beaux-Arts. In an interview in 1912 with a journalist of the Montreal Witness, the assistant to the post master, L. J. Gaboury, evokes the rapid development of the districts of the east as the main reason for the construction of this new hotel postal. In fact, the mail Station B, which was erected in 1905 near the plants, Angus, is not enough to serve the large working population recently installed. Inaugurated in 1912, the building in the corner accommodates a sixty postal workers, newly motorized. The decline of the neighborhood after 1950 brings Canada Post to abandon the Station C. After the revitalization began as early as 1980, the building has hosted several business projects, among others, the Théâtre Félix-Leclerc, the gay bar K. O. X., an art gallery, and most recently, the club Apollo.