#montreal history

[fannyrosie]

On an August day (see HERE the outfit post), I discovered the Montreal melon during my visit of the Lachine museum, and it became an obsession for the few following days. In the early 20th century, a special kind of melon, called the Montreal melon, was being grown by the Decarie family around the area where the Decarie highway is currently situated. It was a melon really hard to grow and costed a fortune (similarly to those fancy melons in Japan). People from around Canada and the US would import it for its surprising spiced tasted and status symbol. Sadly, due to the urbanisation of Montreal, the difficulty of cultivation and the arrivals of other cheaper imported melons, the Montreal melon almost completely disappeared.

Up until in the 90s, when a man from l'Île-Perrot found some Montreal melon seeds in the US, and revived it. However, it's still extremely rare, and I have yet to try it. Interestingly, during my researches, I discovered that the Île-Perrot cultivator was one of dad's old patients (!!!), so we went to visit him and his wife for more information. Sadly, he doesn't cultivate Montreal melons anymore because it's too much of a pain, but he has created hybrids. The only ones who are still trying to grow the Montreal melon are McGill university (we went to see them, and they told us the squirrels ate all their melons) and the Lachine museum (they had only one).

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Promenade historique dans Montréal," Le Petit Journal (Montreal). May 20, 1934. Page 13. --- Un groupe de membres de la Société historique du Canada, dont le siège est à Toronto, et de la Société historique de Montréal ainsi que plusieurs autres fervents de P'histoire, ont fait samedi après-midi une promenade historique, à pied, à travers la partie la plus ancienne de la ville de Montréal, celle qui borde le fleuve.

Ce pelerinage du souvenir s'est fait sous la direction de M. Victor Morin, président de la Société d'archéologie et de numismatique de Montréal et membre de la Société historique. Le savant cicerone a réuni ses compagnons à la place d'Youville où se trouve le monument de la Société. Ils se sont ensuite dirigés vers l'emplacement du fort de Montréal, sur l'ancienne Pointe- à-Callieres (ainsi nommée en mémoire du gouverneur de ce nom), ont fait halte à la Place Royale (ancienne Place d'Armes), se sont acheminés par la rue St-Paul vers l'ancien site du château de Maison- neuve, de l'ancien hôpital de l'Hotel-Dieu, vers la place Jacques-Cartier, où se trouvait le château de M. de Vaudreuil, vers le marché Bonsecours, très ancien lui-même, et construit sur l'ancien emplacement du palais de l'Intendance. De là ils sont entrés à l'église de BonSecours, la plus ancienne de la ville de Montréal, ont continué jusqu'à l'ancienne rue Fripponne où se dressaient les magasins du Roi, puis sont montés à la rue Notre-Dame pour cheminer vers l'ouest en faisant une station au Château de Ramezay, riche de souvenirs canadiens, en s'arrêtant devant l'hôtel de ville et le vieux palais de justice où se trouvait autrefois l'église des Jésuites. Sur la rue Notre-Dame, ils ont passé plus loin devant les emplacements d'édifices aujourd'hui disparus, comme la maison Duluth, où se trouve maintenant l'immeuble Duluth. Après un arrêt sur la Place d'Armes, au pied du monument Maisonneuve, fondateur de la métropole, ils ont continué leur route vers le gratte-ciel de la Banque Royale, y sont montés à la terrasse et ont contemplé l'étendue de la ville actuelle, qui forme un si grand contraste avec celle du dix-huitième siècle.

C'est la cinquième promenade his- torique qu'organise M. Morin.

[sebastocrat]

In this book by Rémi Tougas about my 7x great-grandaunt, Marie Brazeau, it is detailed that my 8x great-grandfather, Nicolas Brazeau, his wife (& my 8x great-grandmother), Perrette/Perrine Billard, and his son (& my 7x great-granduncle), also named Nicolas Brazeau, were called to testify in the first trial for sacrilege carried out in colonial New France. This trial had to do with circumstances which occurred on March 2, 1686, inside of the Brazeau home in Montreal (then still a frontier settlement), wherein a crucifix was damaged as the defendants (two young soldiers) tried to break through a door inside of the Brazeau home with an ax as they tried to reach another man with whom they had quarrel.

Interestingly, my paternal grandfather, Sylvio A. Brazeau, was born on March 2, 1918 - exactly 232 years later. Given his early passing and the tragedy it unleashed in his branch of latter-day Brazeaus, one would be forgiven for seeing an ill omen if inclined to superstition. I, for one, simply find a certain satisfying symmetry in it and could not pass on mentioning it.

[vintagecamping]

An instructor teaches archery to a camper in the summer camp "Wooden Acres"

Montreal, Quebec

1942

[annieqattheperipheral]

Black Life: Untold Stories | episode 6: More Than A Game

pk subban's ig

CBC Gem | Black Life: Untold Stories is an eight-part documentary series that reframes the rich and complex histories of Black experiences in Canada.

[humanoidhistory]

Postcards from the Expo 67 world's fair in Montreal, Canada, 1967.

(Fresno State)

[evilrobotdog]

Don’t ask me to explain

[la-belle-histoire]

Mme. G.F. Murray (Montreal, QC). William Notman & Son. 1886.

[oldshowbiz]

January 1981.

[thingsmk1120sayz]

[soffecoeur]

Pou's first penalty, MTL at OTT, January 2nd 2024.

[entropy404]

Parmiggiani, Claudio. 1999. Venere Di Montreal (Venus of Montreal). Sculpture. Montreal, QC. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

[valenciamidknight]

“Rage” 2024 alongside the original photograph (est. early 1960s, Montreal)

Inspired by the repressed anger of “keeping sweet”, especially within mid century housewives.

[vintagecamping]

Camfrie cooking on St. Helens Island

Montreal, Quebec

1955

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Quebec has designated Montreal’s Chinatown neighbourhood a provincial heritage site, protecting nine buildings in the district from demolition or significant alteration without permission.

The province says the new designation protects the “institutional core” of the city’s Chinatown, including a 19th-century school building and a former cigar factory.

Quebec’s Culture Department says the neighbourhood bears significant markers of Montreal’s more-than-century-old Chinese community, such as the stone arch at the western entrance of the district.

Members of Montreal’s Chinese community have for years lobbied the city and province to protect the neighbourhood, which is among many Chinatowns across North America that have been threatened by gentrification.

Work to officially bestow the heritage label on Montreal’s Chinatown has been ongoing since January 2022. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada, @vague-humanoid

[yz]

Olmec art at the Point-a-Calliére Montreal Museum of History.