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Mile End is a neighbourhood and municipal electoral district in the city of
Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
,
Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
, Canada. It is located in the city’s Plateau-Mont-Royal borough.


Description

Since the 1980s Mile End has been known for its culture as an artistic neighbourhood, home to artists, musicians, writers, and filmmakers such as
Arcade Fire Arcade Fire is a Canadian indie rock band from Montreal, Quebec, consisting of husband and wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, alongside Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury, and Jeremy Gara. The band's touring line-up includes former core ...
, Bran Van 3000,
Godspeed You! Black Emperor Godspeed You! Black Emperor (sometimes abbreviated to GY!BE or Godspeed) is a Canadian post-rock collective that originated in Montreal, Quebec in 1994. The group releases recordings through Constellation Records (Canada), Constellation, an in ...
, Ariane Moffatt,
Grimes Claire Elise Boucher (; born March 17, 1988), known professionally as Grimes, is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Her lyrics often touch on science fiction and feminist themes. The visuals in her videos are elabora ...
, Plants and Animals,
Wolf Parade Wolf Parade is a Canadian indie rock band formed in 2003 in Montreal. The band released three full-length albums before taking a five-year hiatus in 2011. They announced their return in 2016, releasing a self-titled EP in May of that year, and ...
and Mac Demarco. Many art galleries, designers' workshops, boutiques and cafés are found in the neighbourhood, which have played a large role in Mile End being included on numerous lists outlining the world's most cool and unique neighbourhoods. The comic book company
Drawn & Quarterly Drawn & Quarterly (D+Q) is a publishing company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, specializing in comics. It publishes primarily comic books, graphic novels and comic strip collections. The books it publishes are noted for their artistic con ...
was founded in Mile End in 1989, and in 2007 opened up a flagship store on Bernard that is now regarded as the literary hub of the neighbourhood. In 1993 a former Anglican church (south of St. Viateur on Park Ave.) was transformed into Mile End Library, renamed Mordecai Richler Library in 2015. This opened the door for a community artistic movement that first hosted exhibitions from Images de Femmes in 1994, and later a variety of other exhibits. In 1998 Mile End art gallery and co-op Ame Art were formed with the assistance of the Park YMCA. The computer graphics software house Discreet Logic made a mark on the area by renovating part of an old clothing factory in 1993. In 1997, this space became the new Montreal studios of computer game developer
Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', ' ...
, which has since expanded to take over the remainder of the building. Mile End became noticeably
gentrified Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has been us ...
during the 1980s and 90s, and rents continue to increase while shops become more upscale – notably the Laurier West strip. Many small businesses have been closing because of the rent spikes, notably on Bernard Street, and Saint Viateur avenue. Citizens have been protesting against these rent spikes, such as in an event in March 2021 when hundreds of people showed up at an old bookstore, S.W. Welch, on Saint Viateur Avenue with their favorite books to support this cornerstone of the community, which was in danger of closing. S.W. Welch closed its doors in July 2023. These factors have subsequently moved much of the artist community and poorer residents of Mile End further away from
Downtown Montreal Downtown Montreal (French language, 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 ...
to Park Extension and other adjacent neighbourhoods. The writer
Mordecai Richler Mordecai Richler (January 27, 1931 – July 3, 2001) was a Canadian writer. His best known works are ''The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (novel), The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz'' (1959) and ''Barney's Version (novel), Barney's Versi ...
grew up on Saint Urbain Street in the 1930s and 40s, and wrote about the neighbourhood in several of his novels. Wilensky's Light Lunch, which is still open on Fairmount at Clark, features memorably in '' The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz'' and the
film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
based on it. The independent comics publisher
Drawn & Quarterly Drawn & Quarterly (D+Q) is a publishing company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, specializing in comics. It publishes primarily comic books, graphic novels and comic strip collections. The books it publishes are noted for their artistic con ...
maintains its head office and flagship store in Mile End. Imago Theatre, a feminist theatre company and one of the oldest Anglophone theatres in Montreal, is located in the neighbourhood.
William Shatner William Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor. In a career spanning seven decades, he is best known for his portrayal of James T. Kirk in the ''Star Trek'' franchise, from his 1966 debut as the captain of the starship USS Enterpri ...
grew up in Mile End until he moved to
Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (, , ), commonly known as NDG, is a residential neighbourhood of Montreal in the city's West End, with a population of 166,520 (2016). An independent municipality until annexed by the City of Montreal in 1910, NDG is today o ...
during his high school years. In 2005, Mile End was described in several music magazines, notably Spin and
Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music magazine founded in 1996 by Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis. It originally covered Alternative rock, alternative and independent music, and expanded to cover genres includin ...
, as the heart of the city's independent music scene. The neighbourhood continues to be a thriving centre for many artists & musicians. Several venues on Saint Laurent Boulevard and Park Avenue have contributed to the development of the local scene, including popular medium-sized venues Casa del Popolo, La Sala Rossa, and Mile End Cabaret (now Théâtre Fairmount); jazz club Résonance Café (closed due to pandemic-related strains), El Salon (now closed), and The Green Room (''Le Salon Vert'', closed after a fire in 2010). In the 1980s there were Checkers and
Club Soda Club soda is a form of carbonated water manufactured in North America, commonly used as a drink mixer. Sodium bicarbonate, potassium sulfate, potassium bicarbonate, potassium citrate, or sodium citrate is added to artificially replicate constitu ...
on
Park Avenue Park Avenue is a boulevard in New York City that carries north and southbound traffic in the borough (New York City), boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the wes ...
. Many indie labels such as Arbutus Records, Dare to Care Records / Grosse Boîte, Bonsound, Indica Records, Mindique, Constellation Records, The Treatment Room Studios, and the famous
hotel2tango The Hotel2Tango (sometimes referred to as Thee Mighty Hotel2Tango and abbreviated H2T) is a 24-track Analog recording, analogue recording studio situated in the Mile End, Montreal, Mile End district of Montreal, Quebec. The current facility is th ...
recording studio are also located in Mile End, as is the headquarters for Pop Montreal. Independent record label Mile End Records is also named after the neighbourhood as one of the founders once lived there. The area is home to the city's two most famous
bagel A bagel (; ; also spelled beigel) is a bread roll originating in the Jewish communities of Poland. Bagels are traditionally made from yeasted wheat dough that is shaped by hand into a torus or ring, briefly boiled in water, and then baked. ...
bakeries, Fairmount Bagel and St. Viateur Bagel. A branch of the popular vegetarian restaurant Lola Rosa is located in the area, as is the first branch of the Montreal supermarket chain PA Supermarché. Various local entrepreneurs immortalized the area with their products. Well-known examples are the famous
brewpub Craft beer is beer manufactured by craft breweries, which typically produce smaller amounts of beer than larger "macro" breweries and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as emphasising enthusiasm, ne ...
Dieu du Ciel! offering an English-style mild ale called "Mild End" and a Belgian-style saison called "Saison St-Louis", named after the former village of Saint Louis du Mile End, and brewpub HELM that named all of its beers after the neighbourhood and its streets. The district has become so popular as a stand-in for New York City on such American productions as '' Quantico'' and ''
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
'' that in November 2016, the borough announced restrictions on new film and TV shoots, in an area described as "heart" of Mile End, between Parc Avenue, Bernard Street, Saint-Urbain Street and Fairmount Street.


Geography

The boundaries of Mile End are unofficially Mount Royal Avenue to the south, Van Horne Avenue to the north, Hutchison Street to the west, and Saint Denis Street to the east. The municipal electoral district of Mile End is one of the three in the borough of Plateau Mont Royal, along with Jeanne Mance and De Lorimier, and returns one city councillor and one borough councillor. The main streets running through Mile End from north to south are
Saint-Laurent Boulevard Saint Laurent Boulevard, also known as Saint Lawrence Boulevard (officially in ), is a major street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A commercial artery and cultural heritage site, the street runs north west–south east through the near-centre of ...
, Clark Street, Saint Urbain Street, Waverly Street, Esplanade Street, Jeanne-Mance Street, and
Park Avenue Park Avenue is a boulevard in New York City that carries north and southbound traffic in the borough (New York City), boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the wes ...
. Running east to west are Mount Royal Avenue, Villeneuve Street,
St Joseph According to the Gospel, canonical Gospels, Joseph (; ) was a 1st-century Jews, Jewish man of Nazareth who was Espousals of the Blessed Virgin Mary, married to Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus ...
, Laurier, Fairmount, Saint Viateur, Bernard and Van Horne.


History


Origins

Nineteenth-century maps and other documents show the name Mile End as the crossroads at Saint-Laurent Road (now
Boulevard A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America, any urban highway or wide road in a commercial district. In Europe, boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former ...
) and what is now Mont-Royal Avenue. Originally, this road was Côte Sainte-Catherine Road (heading west) and Tanneries Road (heading east). It is probable that the name Mile End was inspired by the East London suburb of the same name. Contrary to popular belief, the place is not precisely a mile away from any official marker. It is, however, a mile north along Saint-Laurent from Sherbrooke Street, which in the early 19th century marked the boundary between the urban area and open countryside. (Several decades later, the Mile End train station near Bernard Street was situated coincidentally one more mile north along Saint-Laurent from the original crossroads.) Mile End was also the first important crossroads north of the tollgate set up in 1841 at the city limits of 1792. From the crossroads to the city limits the distance was . The city limits were located 100 chains (1.25 miles or about 2 km) north of the fortification wall, and intersected Saint-Laurent just south of the current Duluth Avenue. As early as 1810, there was a Mile End Hotel and tavern, operated by Stanley Bagg, an American-born entrepreneur and father of the wealthy landowner Stanley Clark Bagg. The earliest known published references to Mile End are advertisements placed by Stanley Bagg, in both English and French, in '' The Gazette'' during the summer of 1815. He announced in July: "Farm for sale at St. Catherine Outremont">Outremont,_Quebec.html" ;"title="/nowiki>i.e., Outremont, Quebec">Outremont/nowiki>, near Mile End Tavern, about two miles from town...". On 7 August, he inserted the following:
STRAYED or STOLEN from the Pasture of Stanley Bagg, Mile End Tavern, on or about the end of June last, a Bay HORSE about ten years old, white face, and some white about the feet. Any person who will give information where the Thief or Horse may be found shall receive a reward of TEN DOLLARS and all reasonable charges paid. STANLEY BAGG. Montreal, Mile End, August 4, 1815.
A photograph of 1859 shows members of the Montreal Hunt Club at the Mile End tavern. The road variously known as ''Chemin des Tanneries'' (Tannery Road), ''Chemin des Carrières'' (Quarry Road), or ''Chemin de la Côte-Saint-Louis'' led to a tannery and to limestone quarries used for the construction of much of Montreal's architecture. The village of Côte Saint-Louis (incorporated 1846) sprung up near the quarries, its houses clustered east of the Mile End district around the present-day intersection of Berri Street and Laurier Avenue. It was to serve this village that a chapel of the Infant Jesus was established in 1848 near Saint Lawrence Road, on land donated by Pierre Beaubien. In 1857-8, the chapel was replaced by the church of :fr:Église Saint-Enfant-Jésus du Mile-End, Saint Enfant Jésus du Mile End. The church, made even more impressive by a new façade in 1901-3, was the first important building in what would become Mile End.


The coming of the railway

The transcontinental railway gave Mile End its first growth spurt and separate identity. In 1876, the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway – a project vigorously promoted by Antoine Labelle and Louis Beaubien – came slicing through the area on its way from east-end Montreal to Sainte-Thérèse,
Lachute Lachute () is a town in southwest Quebec, Canada, northwest of Montreal, on the Rivière du Nord (Laurentides), Rivière du Nord, a tributary of the Ottawa River, and west of Mirabel International Airport, the Mirabel International Airport. It i ...
, and
Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...
. This railway was bought in 1882 by the
Canadian Pacific The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...
, and it was by this route that the first trains departed for the Prairies in 1885 and for
Port Moody Port Moody is a city in British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. It envelops the east end of Burrard Inlet and is the smallest of the Tri-Cities, bordered by Coquitlam on the east and south ...
,
British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
in June 1886 (extending to
Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
in 1887). The first Mile End station building was erected in 1877 on the east side of Saint-Laurent Road, near what is now the intersection of Bernard Street. (A much larger station was built in 1911; it closed in 1931, when service was moved to the new Park Avenue Station (Jean-Talon), and was demolished in 1970 to make way for the Rosemont–Van Horne viaduct.) A portion of the Mile End station's metal structure remains today as a performance venue called Entrepôt 77. In 1878, the village of Saint-Louis-du-Mile-End was incorporated, population 1319. Its territory consisted of the western third of Côte Saint-Louis: bounded on the west by the limit of Outremont (generally along Hutchison Street), on the south by what is now Mont-Royal Avenue, and on the east by a line running mostly just east of the current Henri-Julien Avenue. The northern border was north of present-day De Castelnau Street or just south of Jarry Park.


Growth and annexation

The second growth spurt of Mile End coincided with the introduction of electric tramway service in 1893; the area can be considered an example of a
streetcar suburb A streetcar suburb is a residential community whose growth and development was strongly shaped by the use of streetcar lines as a primary means of transportation. Such suburbs developed in the United States in the years before the automobile, when ...
. The agricultural and industrial exhibition grounds at the southwest of the village, near
Mount Royal Mount Royal (, ) is a mountain in the city of Montreal, immediately west of Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The city's name is derived from the mountain's name. The mountain is part of the Monteregian Hills situated between the Laurentian M ...
, were subdivided in 1899 for housing. The village became a town in 1895 and changed its name to simply Saint-Louis. Apart from a tiny street located just ''outside'' the town's northwestern limit, and (for its remaining years) the railway station, the name Mile End passed out of the official toponymy for close to a century, coming back into use as a municipal electoral district only in 1982. The town of Saint-Louis built in 1905 a magnificent town hall on the northwest corner of Saint-Laurent and what is now Laurier Avenue; the building still serves as a fire hall and firefighters' museum. The town was annexed by the expanding city of Montreal on 29 May 1909,See the entry for boulevard Saint-Joseph in ''Les rues de Montréal'' (reference below). taking effect as of 1 January 1910, and became Laurier Ward (''quartier Laurier''). Population growth had been explosive: in 1891, the village had 3537 residents; in 1911, after annexation, the ward's population was about 37,000.Marianne Ackerman
A Century in This House
.
Perhaps the most recognizable architectural symbol of Mile End is the Church of St. Michael the Archangel of 1914-5, on Saint-Viateur Street at the corner of Saint-Urbain. The church, designed by Aristide Beaugrand-Champagne, was built for an Irish Catholic community, as expressed by omnipresent shamrock motifs; yet the overall style of the building is based on Byzantine rather than Western architectural traditions. Even more striking, the church has a slender tower that resembles a
minaret A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...
. The building has been shared since 1964 with the Polish Catholic mission of St. Anthony of Padua, which officially merged with the parish of St. Michael in 1969 to form the current parish of St. Michael's and St. Anthony's; masses are celebrated in Polish and in English.


Twentieth-century evolution

The ethnic composition of Mile End changed constantly over the course of the twentieth century as the area became home to successive waves of new immigrants. Marianne Ackerman's series of articles on her 100-year-old house gives a vivid picture of the changing vocation of the neighbourhood. The southwestern portion of Mile End was first a bourgeois suburb,See the postcard ca. 1910 of Park Avenue with discussion on th
Plateau history blog
then Montreal's principal Jewish area until the 1950s (later made famous by
Mordecai Richler Mordecai Richler (January 27, 1931 – July 3, 2001) was a Canadian writer. His best known works are ''The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (novel), The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz'' (1959) and ''Barney's Version (novel), Barney's Versi ...
and others) and later home to Greek and Portuguese communities, among others. The Hassidic community has maintained a visible Jewish presence in the Mile End and in neighbouring Outremont. After gaining a reputation as a neighbourhood of artists and musicians in the 1980s, the area underwent
gentrification Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has ...
in the 1990s. The area north of the railway, rarely referred to as Mile End any more, developed separately since the rail corridor interrupts many north-south streets. Early twentieth century immigrants from Italy settled here creating Montreal's
Little Italy Little Italy is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an Urban area, urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian cul ...
. The city's largest remaining public market, Jean Talon Market, opened here in 1933. Parts of Mile End were heavily industrialized in the first half of the century because of the proximity of transportation by rail. Much of Mile End served as the heart of Montreal's garment district for many decades. Municipal electoral reform in 1978 replaced the old wards with smaller, more uniformly sized districts and further reform in the 1980s grouped districts into
boroughs A borough is an administrative division in various English language, 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 ...
(''arrondissements''). Within the borough of Plateau Mont Royal/Centre-Sud, the name Mile End was given in 1982 to a district covering essentially the part of the old Laurier Ward lying south of the railway tracks. This is the area that is now generally associated with the name. The electoral district was expanded eastward to Saint Denis Street in 2001 (the borough having been renamed Le Plateau-Mont-Royal) and as far as Laurier Park in 2005, so that it now includes the historic centre of the village of Côte Saint-Louis. Most of the former northern half of Saint-Louis-du-Mile-End now lies within the Saint-Édouard district of the borough of
Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie () is a borough (''arrondissement'') in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located centre-east of the island. Geography The borough is bordered to the northwest by Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension, ...
.


See also

* Famous bagel shops * Places in Montreal * Rialto Theatre (Montreal)


References


Bibliography

*Various historical maps of Montreal, available online a
Bibliothèque et archives nationales du Québec
*Philip Fine

in ''Forum'' (Université de Montréal), 11 October 2005 (quotes historian Susan Bronson; journalist credited only in French version) *Marianne Ackerman

originally published in ''The Gazette'', 11 March-8 April 2006 *Michèle Benoit and Roger Gratton, ''Pignon sur rue: Les quartiers de Montréal''. Montreal: Guérin, 1991. *''Les rues de Montréal: Répertoire historique''. Montréal: Éditions du Méridien, 1995. *ATSA
"Frags"
(series of posters on the history of Saint-Laurent Boulevard; in French), 2006.


External links


Mile End Memories
(historical society; in English and French)
Comité des citoyens du Mile-EndImages of Mile-End district on IMTL.orgSociété d’histoire du Plateau-Mont-Royal
(historical society; in French)

by Jorge Pomalaza Ráez (photo)

by Jorge Pomalaza Ráez (photo)

by Jorge Pomalaza Ráez (photo)
Plateau Mont-Royal history blog
by Gabriel Deschambault
MILEENDMONTREAL.COM
*''Mile End'' three-part series by Marianne Ackerman, in ''The Gazette'', Montreal

** ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090528155340/http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=1c7d32c5-46b3-49e5-bb24-2887432d9a66 "Real estate's booming – after 100 years", 18 November 2007
"Where future greatness gets its break", 19 November 2007
{{Authority control Neighbourhoods in Montreal Streetcar suburbs Jewish Canadian history Jewish communities in Canada Jews and Judaism in Montreal Orthodox Jewish communities Le Plateau-Mont-Royal Gentrification in Canada