Rue Notre-Dame Ouest (Montreal) 22-09-2006

Little Burgundy (french: La Petite-Bourgogne) is a

neighbourhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural are ...

in the

South West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

of the city of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Geography

Its approximate boundaries are Atwater Avenue to the west, Saint-Antoine to the north,

Guy Street Guy Street (officially in french: rue Guy) is a north-south street located in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Concordia University's Integrated Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Complex is located on this street, as is the John Mols ...

to the east, and the

Lachine Canal The Lachine Canal ( in French (language), French) is a canal passing through the southwestern part of the Island of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, running 14.5 kilometres (9 miles) from the Old Port of Montreal to Lake Saint-Louis, through the boroug ...

to the south. The adjacent neighbourhoods are the borough of Ville-Marie and

downtown Montreal Downtown Montreal ( French: ''Centre-Ville de Montréal'') is the central business district of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The district is situated on the southernmost slope of Mount Royal, and occupies the western portion of the borough of Vil ...

to the north and northeast,

Griffintown Griffintown is a historic neighbourhood of Montreal, Quebec, southwest of downtown. The area existed as a functional neighbourhood from the 1820s until the 1960s, and was mainly populated by Irish immigrants and their descendants. Mostly depopulat ...

to the southeast,

Pointe-Saint-Charles Pointe-Saint-Charles (also known in English as Point Saint Charles, and locally as The Point, or "PSC") is a neighbourhood in the borough of Le Sud-Ouest in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Historically a working-class area, the creation of m ...

to the south, and

Saint-Henri Saint-Henri is a neighbourhood in southwestern Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in the borough of Le Sud-Ouest. Saint-Henri is usually considered to be bounded to the east by Atwater Avenue, to the west by the town of Montreal West, to the north by Au ...

to the west. The neighbourhood comprises the former city of Sainte-Cunégonde and Saint-Joseph's ward.

Origin

There are differing accounts of the origin of the name Little Burgundy (''Petite-Bourgogne''). A surveyor's map of 1855 identifies a property called Bourgogne, owned by the heirs of the Hon. Louis Guy (brother of

Étienne Guy Étienne Guy (February 16, 1774 – December 29, 1820) was a surveyor and political figure in Lower Canada. He was born in Montreal in 1774, the son of Pierre Guy, studied at the Collège Saint-Raphaël and then spent over a year at the Col ...

, for whom

was named). The property corresponds to the areas bounded today by Rue des Seigneurs, Rue Notre-Dame, Rue Saint-Martin, and Rue Saint-Antoine. Official use of the name "Petite Bourgogne" originates from the 1965 preliminary study for the

urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...

program to refer to the area between the Lachine Canal, the CN railway right of way (now expanded to the

Autoroute Ville-Marie Route 136 (R-136), formerly Autoroute 720, known as the Ville-Marie Expressway (English) or Autoroute Ville-Marie (French) is an Autoroute highway in the Canadian province of Quebec that is a spur route of Autoroute 20 in Montreal. Its western ...

), Atwater street and Guy Street in the 1965 preliminary study for the urban renewal program.Montréal : Service d’urbanisme. ''La Petite Bourgogne: Bulletin Spécial no. 1.'' Montréal: Ville de Montréal, 1965. Archives de la Ville de Montréa
VM097-Z_025op
p. 1. The report takes inspiration from the writing of E.Z. Massicotte, archivist of the City of Montreal and resident of Sainte-Cunégonde, who described the area as a meadow known as "la petite Bourgogne."Massicotte, E.
''La cité de Sainte-Cunégonde de Montréal: notes et souvenirs''
1893. The reference is on page 4. The authors of the urban renewal study "kept this name, full as it is of poetry and nostalgia for another landscape," and this name was retained as the name of the neighbourhood after the renewal program ended. In the early 1980s, the City of Montreal renamed Little Burgundy to ''Quartier Georges-Vanier'', after the Governor General

Georges Vanier Georges-Philias Vanier (23 April 1888 – 5 March 1967) was a Canadian military officer and diplomat who served as governor general of Canada, the first Quebecer and second Canadian-born person to hold the position. Vanier was born and ...

, in an attempt to remove the stigma of the low-income area which public officials believed was deterring investment from private developers. During the public consultations for the City of Montreal's Master Plan (''Plan d'urbanisme'') in 1990, residents requested that the name Petite Bourgogne/Little Burgundy be reinstated.

History

Pre-industrial history

Essentially agricultural until 1810, today's Little Burgundy began to be built up the ward of St. Joseph, a faubourg spreading outside the city walls. The area around Richmond Square was built up in 1819."Fiche de secteur: Place Richmond."
Grand répertoire du patrimoine bâti de Montréal. Accessed July 4, 2011.

Early industrial period

Development accelerated in the mid-19th century with the construction of the Lachine Canal attracted many so-called "smokestack" industries, most notably the

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rai ...

yards The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly 0.914 ...

, and the Steel Company of Canada (or

Stelco Stelco Holdings Inc. (known as U.S. Steel Canada from 2007 to 2016) is a Canadian steel company based in Hamilton, Ontario. Stelco was founded in 1910 from the amalgamation of several smaller firms. It continued on for almost 100 years, until it ...

) plant, among others. A residential sector was built north of the factories between 1857 and 1864. Originally part of the parish of Saint-Henri-des-Tanneries, it was set up as the village of Delisle in 1864,"De Sainte-Cunégonde à la Petite Bourgogne."
iMTL. Accessed 4 July 2011. then Sainte-Cunégonde in 1876, becoming a town in 1884."Fiche de secteur: Coursol."
Grand répertoire du patrimoine bâti de Montréal. Accessed July 4, 2011. The name derived from St.

Cunigunde of Luxembourg Cunigunde of Luxembourg, OSB (german: Kunigunde) ( 975 – 3 March 1033), also called Cunegundes, Cunegunda, and Cunegonda and, in Latin, Cunegundis or Kinigundis, was Empress of the Holy Roman Empire by marriage to Holy Roman Emperor Henry II ...

, wife of St.

Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor Henry II (german: Heinrich II; it, Enrico II; 6 May 973 – 13 July 1024), also known as Saint Henry the Exuberant, Obl. S. B., was Holy Roman Emperor ("Romanorum Imperator") from 1014. He died without an heir in 1024, and was the last ruler ...

, a reference to the neighbouring parish. The industrial development along the Lachine Canal attracted many prestigious businesses to set up in the Ward of St. Joseph along Rue Notre-Dame, resulting in the construction of many handsome buildings which are the mainstay of today's antiques district."Fiche de secteur: Notre Dame et Des Seigneurs."
Grand répertoire du patrimoine bâti de Montréal. Accessed July 4, 2011. Sainte-Cunégonde was absorbed into the city of Montreal in 1906; the former town hall is now a public library and community centre, located on Vinet Street. Sainte-Cunégonde was bounded by the Lachine Canal, Atwater Avenue, Dorchester Street (now Boul. René-Lévesque), and a straight line from the corner of Atwater and Tupper streets to the basin of the Lachine Canal just west of the St. Gabriel locks. Saint-Joseph Ward was bordered by that line, St. Antoine Street, Victoria Square, McGill Street, and Notre-Dame Street. At this time, the Grand Trunk Railway ran directly through the area, terminating at St. Bonaventure Station.

Deindustrialization and urban renewal

Already hurt by the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

before the war, like the rest of the area around Lachine Canal, Little Burgundy was hit hard by the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1956 and the closure of the canal in 1970. Numerous industries left for the suburbs, leaving the area in a state of decay. In 1966, the City of Montreal launched a large urban renewal project in Little Burgundy by demolishing countless residential and commercial buildings, replacing them with

public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

developments, and revitalizing other parts of the neighbourhood. Also, the part of the neighbourhood north of Rue Saint-Antoine were demolished in 1970 to make room for the Ville-Marie Expressway, a provincial project. Between Little Burgundy and Saint-Henri, 1160 households were evicted for the expressway. The demolitions resulted in a dramatic displacement of the residents. Between 1968 and 1978, 1441 units of low-income public housing were constructed in Little Burgundy, beginning with ''Habitations Îlots Saint-Martin'' (Saint Martin's Blocks). Although Habitations Jeanne-Mance was the first public housing project in Montreal, Îlots Saint-Martin was the first public housing under Quebec's provincial housing authority (''Société d'habitation du Québec'') and was managed by the municipal housing office (''Office municipal d'habitation de Montréal''). In 1991, public housing was 39.3% of all housing in Little Burgundy and nearly 55% of the area's rental housing.

Gentrification

The city's urban renewal program in Little Burgundy had failed to attract the levels of private development anticipated. Between 1961 and 1971, the proportion of welfare recipients grew dramatically from 10% to 40%. Meanwhile, the area’s population dropped from 14,710 in 1966 to just 7,000 in 1973. The failed renewal scheme displaced up to 70% of the neighbourhood's

Black community Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in s ...

, particularly affecting business owners and the Black middle-class. As much as a third of the land was vacant by the end of the 1970s. By the 1980s, Little Burgundy became an area of concentrated poverty and was publicly associated with drug use, crime, and youth gangs. In the 1980s, Little Burgundy became one of the targets of the programs ''Opération 10,000'' and ''20,000 Logements'' (Operation 10,00/20,000 Homes), which aimed to increase property tax revenue by bringing a stable homeowner population back to the city. The ''Logements'' programs auctioned lots from the public land bank, much of which had been acquired through the renewal program, to private developers at below-market rates. The land acquired from the removal of the CN railyards in 1982 also figured in the new construction. Between 1980 and 1986, 1179 housing units were constructed through the Logements programs, 233 of which were nonprofit or co-operative housing. Many of the townhouses in Little Burgundy were constructed through the ''Logements'' programs, as well as the Foyer Hongrois home for the elderly. Today, the neighbourhood has endured several phases of

gentrification Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and urban planning, planning. Gentrification ...

. The sociodemographic profile of the neighbourhood has changed substantially. By 1991, 30% of dwellings were owner occupied. Devertreuil wrote, "Petite Bourgogne saw a 200% increase in administrators and professionals between 1981 and 1986, compared to a 39% increase in St-Henri and a 16% increase in Côte St-Paul." The redevelopment of the

into a linear recreational park during the 1980s and 1990s and the conversion of industrial buildings along its shores into condominiums also contributed to the shifting sociodemographic profile of the neighbourhood. Other factors contributing to the gentrification of the neighbourhood include the 2002 reopening of the Lachine Canal to boat traffic, the revitalization of the Atwater Market, and, towards its eastern boundary, the continued expansion of

Université du Québec The University of Quebec ( French: ''Université du Québec'') is a system of ten provincially run public universities in Quebec, Canada. Its headquarters are in Quebec City. The university coordinates 300 programs for over 87,000 students. Th ...

École de Technologie Supérieure École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) is a public engineering faculty in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974, the École de technologie supérieure is a constituent of Université du Québec system. Specialized in applied teaching in ...

and the intense redevelopment of Griffintown.

Black community

Starting in 1887, Little Burgundy came to acquire a unique niche as the home of Montreal's working-class

English-speaking Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the '' Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest langua ...

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

community. Montreal’s emergence as a railway hub in the late nineteenth century led to the migration of hundreds of black workers from the United States, the Caribbean, and the Maritimes. Sainte-Cunégonde, as the area was then known, became home to a great many

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

Black Canadian Black Canadians (also known as Caribbean-Canadians or Afro-Canadians) are people of full or partial sub-Saharan African descent who are citizens or permanent residents of Canada. The majority of Black Canadians are of Caribbean origin, though t ...

and

Afro-Caribbean Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the ...

workers due to its location near Montreal's train stations. Many West Indian women, from both the Francophone and Anglophone Caribbean, came to the neighbourhood after the Domestic Immigration Program of 1955 was established. To combat poverty and social exclusion, the nascent Black community founded numerous social organizations: the Coloured Women’s Club of Montreal in 1902, the Union United Congregational Church in 1907, the

UNIA ''Unia'' ( en, Dreams), released on 25 May 2007, is the fifth full-length studio album by the power metal band Sonata Arctica, following the album ''Reckoning Night''. The first single from the album was " Paid in Full", released on 27 April 2007 ...

in 1919, the

Negro Community Centre In the English language, ''negro'' is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black people, Black African heritage. The word ''negro'' means the color black in both Spanish and in Portuguese, where English took it from. T ...

in 1927, and the Elk's Victory Lodge in 1941."Little Burgundy."
McGill University Faculty of Architecture. Accessed July 4, 2011. The parents of American Civil Rights leader

Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Is ...

met each other in Montreal through their involvement in the UNIA. The neighbourhood became famous for producing several talented

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

musicians;

Oscar Peterson Oscar Emmanuel Peterson (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) was a Canadian virtuoso jazz pianist and composer. Considered one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, ...

and Oliver Jones are the two best-known. During

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

and the later pre- Jean Drapeau years as an 'open city,' Little Burgundy was home to several

nightclubs A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

featuring homegrown and international performers; one of them was Rockhead's Paradise, owned by

Rufus Rockhead Rufus is a masculine given name, a surname, an Ancient Roman cognomen and a nickname (from Latin ''rufus'', "red"). Notable people with the name include: Given name Politicians * Rufus Ada George (born 1940), Nigerian politician * Rufus A ...

, after whom a street is named. The decline of passenger train travel in the 1950s and 1960s hit the community hard, as hundreds of men were laid off. At the same time, Black-owned properties were

expropriated Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

by the city to build new highways, and many homes were torn down to clear land for a public housing project. Many Black families moved away. Little Burgundy, which was once home to 90 per cent of the city’s Black residents, by 1996 was now home to only 2 per cent of all Blacks in Montreal. In 1996, 21.2% of Little Burgundy residents were Black. By 2016, this number further declined to 15.9%.

Infrastructure

Transportation

This neighbourhood is served by the

Georges-Vanier station Georges-Vanier station is a Montreal Metro station in the borough of Le Sud-Ouest in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is operated by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) and serves the Orange Line. It is located in the Little Burgundy area. ...

on the

Montreal Metro The Montreal Metro (french: Métro de Montréal) is a rubber-tired underground rapid transit system serving Greater Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The metro, operated by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), was inaugurated on October 14, ...

. Lionel-Groulx station is also located nearby to the west in

. Major thoroughfares are Atwater Avenue, Georges Vanier Boulevard, Guy Street, Saint Antoine Street, Saint Jacques Street, and Notre Dame Street. The Ville-Marie Expressway bounds the neighbourhood to the north.

Institutions

The

École de technologie supérieure École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) is a public engineering faculty in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974, the École de technologie supérieure is a constituent of Université du Québec system. Specialized in applied teaching in ...

is located in the eastern end of the neighbourhood. Many young Francophone teens from the area attend Polyvalente St-Henri which is located in the adjacent neighbourhood of St-Henri, while the Anglophone teens depending on religion attended James Lyng & Westmount High School.

Recreation and culture

Sporting facilities include the Centre sportif Georges-Vanier, Parc Oscar-Peterson, and Parc Vinet, and the green spaces along the Lachine Canal. A library and cultural centre is located at the corner of Workman and Vinet. Several historic sites and buildings are located in the neighbourhood, including the Lachine Canal Natural Historic Site of Canada and its Pointe-des-Seigneurs archeological site and the Negro Community Centre.

Commerce

The Atwater Market is located at the southwestern corner of the neighbourhood. Little Burgundy is home to the North American arm of

Ninja Tune Ninja Tune is an English independent record label based in London. It has a satellite office in Los Angeles. It was founded by Matt Black and Jonathan More (better known as Coldcut) and managed by Peter Quicke and others. Inspired by a visit ...

records, many architecture and design offices, new restaurants, as well a longstanding antiques row along Notre-Dame West, formally organized as the "Quartier des Antiquaires".

Demographics

Home language (2006)

Points of interest

Union United Church The Union United Church of Montreal is Montreal, Quebec, Canada's oldest black congregation. It was founded in 1907 by several members of Montreal's black community who experienced racial conflict and were banned from entering all-white churches. ...

* Oscar Peterson Park * Rue Coursol * Youth In Motion Community Centre * Tyndale St. George's Community Centre * Lili et Oli Cafe * Burgundy Lion * Vinet Parc * Atwater market * Campbell Parc * Le Bon Vivant * Le Salon 1861 / Le Salon Richmond, located in the former St-Joseph parish church * Le Théâtre Corona * Atelier 850 * Burgundy Lion * Joe Beef * Liverpool House * Barley Bar * September Cafe

Notable people

Tyrone Benskin Tyrone Benskin (born 29 December 1958) is an English-Canadian actor, theatre director and politician. He was elected Member of Parliament in the Jeanne-Le Ber riding, in Montreal, Quebec, in the 2011 Canadian federal election and served as an M ...

, former member of Parliament for

Jeanne-Le Ber Jeanne-Le Ber was a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 2004 to 2015. Its population in 2006 was 112,863. It was abolished for the 2015 election and dissolved into Ville-Marie� ...

Réjean Ducharme Réjean Ducharme (August 12, 1941 – August 21, 2017) was a Québécois novelist and playwright who resided in Montreal. He was known for his reclusive personality and did not appear at any public functions since his first successful book was p ...

, reclusive

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

who lived the last 25 years of his life on Quesnel Street. *

Aegidius Fauteux Aegidius Fauteux (27 September 1876 – 22 April 1941) was a journalist, librarian and historian. He was designated a Person of National Historic Significance by the Canadian Government in 1955. Rue Aegidius-Fauteux in Montreal is named after hi ...

, journalist and historian * Nate Husser, rapperNantali Indongo
"Little Burgundy's Husser poised to take up mantle of Canada's rap royalty"

CBC News CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.ca. ...

Montreal, November 20, 2017. *

Michaëlle Jean Michaëlle Jean (; born September 6, 1957) is a Canadian stateswoman and former journalist who served from 2005 to 2010 as governor general of Canada, the 27th since Canadian Confederation. She is the first Haitian Canadian and black person ...

, journalist, broadcaster, and Governor General of Canada * Oliver Jones, jazz pianist and composer *

Preme Raynford Avery Humphrey (born January 8, 1986), better known by his stage name Preme ( ; formerly P Reign), is a Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He was formerly signed to The Blueprint Group (BPG) and RCA Records. He is ...

, hip hop artist (born in Little Burgundy) *

, jazz pianist and composer *

, soldier, diplomat, and Governor General of Canada (born near the street now named for him) *

Alexsandra Wright Alexsandra Wright (born February 17, 1971) is a Canadian actress. She was previously in a relationship with Mathew Knowles and has one child with him. Biography and personal life Wright was born on February 17, 1971, in Montreal, Quebec. In ...

, actress

References

External links

{{Authority control Black Canadian culture in Quebec Black Canadian settlements Ethnic enclaves in Quebec Neighbourhoods in Montreal Le Sud-Ouest Gentrification in Canada Hipster neighborhoods

External links

Walking in Little Burgundy

Geography

Origin

History

Pre-industrial history

Early industrial period

Deindustrialization and urban renewal

Gentrification

Black community

Infrastructure

Transportation

Institutions

Recreation and culture

Commerce

Demographics

Points of interest

Notable people

See also

References

External links

External links