Rue de la Montagne, also known as Mountain Street, is a north–south street located in

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

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 thirte ...

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 to ...

. It starts at Wellington Street in the south and continues to above

Doctor Penfield Avenue Doctor Penfield Avenue (officially in french: Avenue du Docteur-Penfield) is a one-way eastbound street located in the Golden Square Mile neighbourhood of the borough of Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Spanning 1.7 kilometres, it begins a ...

in the north, where it stops in a dead end just short of

Pine Avenue Pine Avenue (french: avenue des Pins) is an east–west street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. This street serves as the dividing line between the downtown Ville-Marie borough and borough of Le Plateau-Mont-Royal, and also serves as the northern ...

. Notable businesses located along the street include

Ogilvy's Charles Ogilvy Limited, or Ogilvy's, was a department store in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, founded in 1887. For much of the 20th century, Ogilvy's was one of Ottawa's higher-end department stores. Charles Ogilvy (1861-1950) was born in Edinb ...

, an upscale

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic appe ...

Name

According to the Quebec Toponymy Commission, the street is named after

Mount Royal Mount Royal (french: link=no, Mont Royal, ) is a large intrusive rock hill or small mountain in the city of Montreal, immediately west of Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The best-known hypothesis for the origin of the name Montreal is the ...

. A 1761 map shows a trail at the location of the current street called ''chemin des Sauvages de la montagne''. It is also found under the name ''chemin de la Montagne'' in later maps, such as the map by surveyor Jean Péladeau in 1778. There is an

urban legend An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...

that it was named after

Jacob Mountain Jacob Mountain (1 December 1749 – 16 June 1825) was an English priest who was appointed the first Anglican Bishop of Quebec. He served also on both the Legislative Council of Lower Canada and the Legislative Council of Upper Canada. Biography T ...

, first Anglican bishop of Quebec, or his son Bishop

George Jehoshaphat Mountain George Jehoshaphat Mountain (27 July 1789 – 6 January 1863) was a British-Canadian Anglican bishop (3rd Anglican Bishop of Quebec), the first Principal of McGill College from 1824 to 1835, and one of the founders of Bishop's University and ...

. However, Jacob Mountain was neither the bishop nor resident in Quebec until 1793, long after the creation of maps bearing the name ''chemin de la Montagne''.

References

Streets in Montreal Downtown Montreal {{Montreal-geo-stub