Chapter LXXVI: Conclusion: The Last Phase of City Development

In order to preserve the continuity of the historical pictures of the physical growth of this city from 1898 to 1914, the following picture summing up the confusing changes going on during the greater part of the last two decades of commercial activity, may serve as a review.

The city is now undergoing a reconstruction and remodeling that is confusing even to its middle aged citizens, who were born in the old humdrum city. Landmarks are disappearing; the buildings in the older part of the city and even parts of the new are being replaced with wondrous celerity, baffling the mind of one not a statistician. It is the age of the house-wrecker and steam-rivetter. Montreal is being modernized--becoming a second New York--but in spite of all, manages to preserve its unique, psychological and historical characteristics. Commenting on the changes, now undergoing in 1914, a writer in one of our daily journals (the Montreal Star of April 11, 1914, from which the following is adopted) describes the present period as the era of the house-wrecker and steam-welder.

This is a substantial description of the optimistic state of the city shortly before the war of 1914.

THE BOOM BEFORE THE WAR OF 1914

The dust of the house-wrecker, followed by the chatter of the steam-rivetter marks more than the mere replacement of building by building, it marks the gradual alteration of the very face of the city--and the house-wrecker and the steam-rivetter are abroad in the land six days in the week and fifty-two weeks in the year.

The truth of the matter is that plan and excavate and build as we can, we cannot keep abreast of our requirements. What seems enormous to-day, fit to withstand the demands of the next half century, is almost to-morrow found inadequate. In New York they are tearing down buildings erected but a few years ago, of modern construction, and climbing up nineteen or twenty stories into the air, because they do not pay, replacing them with the aid of night and day shifts by buildings which shoot upwards for forty stories. In a lesser degree that is what is happening here.

Let us take a few concrete instances of what has happened within the memory of hundreds, if not of thousands, of Montrealers, using St. James Street as an illustration.

The site of the new Bank of Commerce offices on St. James Street gives a good instance of the steady advance in the principal down-town street of Montreal. Where the great stone pillars rear their bulk to-day, a church once stood, the St. James Methodist Church. A congregation, receding before the steady advance of commerce, drove the church uptown, where the Allan private residence on St. Catherine and St. Alexander streets, was purchased, and the down-town church went the way of all old buildings. On its site rose the Temple Building, considered at the time to be adequate to meet all needs for many years. This was in the late ’80s, and the Temple Building lasted only till 1909, when it, although it still served a useful purpose, made way for the huge building now on the site. Where the London, Lancashire and Globe Building now stands, there stood a huddle of small shops and cottages built in the ’70s. These gave way to the Barron Block, which was a four-story brick affair, considered at the time to be the last word in office architecture. The Barron Block went up in flames eventually, but it was doomed anyway, and for the same cause that spelled the end of the Temple Building across and down the street; the space was needed. Freeman’s restaurant, a name associated with Montreal for many years, also located at this spot, suffered demolition about the same time, but sprung up again a few doors away.

The “Star” needed a permanent and adequate office on St. James Street, and to make way for it a famous old commercial house stepped aside, J. and W. Hilton, furniture makers. A little later and almost next door an even greater transformation was going on when the Dominion Express Building sprung into the air, shouldering the historic old St. Lawrence Hall back on to Craig Street. St. Lawrence Hall had for many years allowed the C.P.R. a corner of its space on the ground floor, together with a drug store of immemorial antiquity. Now, the ten-story Dominion Express stands as a monument to what commerce and industry demand. Across the street its bigger neighbour, the Transportation Building marks the spot where a three-story building once sheltered Picken, the broker; the R. & O. and several other tenants. The new Bank of British North America, one of the finest bank buildings in Montreal, is another illustration of what is continually happening, the steady inroad of the big building upon the small. Next to the present Transportation Building to the west stood at one time the Montreal Post Office, before the present one was erected; it too has undergone many interior changes and exterior enlargements.

The Royal Trust Building has replaced the Imperial Insurance Building. The Credit Foncier Building stands where a ramshackle collection of little buildings once stood on Little St. James Street and St. Lambert’s Hill. The courthouse annex has succeeded St. Gabriel Presbyterian church. During the last twenty years Craig Street has suffered less changes, the Montreal Light, Heat and Power Building, one of the biggest in its class in Canada, and the new Herald Building, being the only two outstanding structures which have gone up.

In Victoria Square, the changes have been numerous, the Eastern Townships Bank Building replacing the original Morgan store, as perhaps the most notable. McGill Street has changed since those disturbed days of flood when skiffs could be rowed across Youville Square. The McGill Building, the Shaughnessy Building, the Dominion Express Building, and the huge head offices of the Grand Trunk have all grown up within the memory of young men, and the completion of the new Customs House below Youville Square bids fair to transform the lower end of McGill Street completely.

It is, of course, impossible even to enumerate the buildings which have gone up north of Craig Street within the last two decades. St. Alexander Street is a good illustration of what is happening from day to day. No less than three huge office buildings have gone up on this short street in as many years, and apparently the end is not yet.

Rip Van Winkle is reported to have found many changes after his twenty year siesta. The Montrealer who has come to the years of discretion can share in Rip’s sensations of astonishment if he only stops to think what is going on, methaphorically speaking, under his nose. All he has to do is to imitate Rip, wake up, and realize that his city has changed during every one of the years when he has been too busy to note. And, incidentally, he will realize that these changes will become more instead of less frequent, in the years to come.

Another account summarizing the changes occurring in 1913-1914 is as follows:

On St. James Street and Notre Dame there have cropped up in the business section of La Sauvegarde, opposite the Court House, the Lewis Building on St. Francis Xavier; the Versailles, on St. James Street, near Place d’Armes; the Bank of British North America Building; and the Reford Building on Hospital Street, the latter a small four-story structure of unusually fine finish. Other big downtown buildings are the Shaughnessy, on McGill Street, and the McGill, at the corner of Notre Dame and McGill streets--all but the one in the ten storey class, and all completed within the last year.

The present shows the great advance in growth of uptown structures.

That big buildings soon will be common uptown has been shown by the coming into being of three that have been erected almost simultaneously,--the Drummond, at the corner of Peel and St. Catherine streets; the Guarantee Building on the Beaver Hall Hill; and the Dandurand, the first ten storey building east of the Main Street and North of Craig, at the corner of St. Catherine Street and St. Denis Boulevard. Accommodation has been booked heavily in all three, and already there are projects for more to be erected in the course of the next year. The Scroggie Building, erected by the Peter Lyall Company, who have built most of the “big stuff” in Montreal, including the Transportation and Express on St. James Street, constitutes something of a record--ground was broken in December, 1912, and the place was occupied by November 1, 1913. The area covered by the structure is 127 feet by 345.

Another large structure, that has gone up quietly with little interference with traffic and public convenience, is the ten-storey addition to the Power Building on Craig Street--work was begun in June and already the lower storeys are occupied by some of the office staff. One of the more remarkable of the newer buildings is the Southam Press Building, the novel front of which attracts the eye of many a traveller in Bleury Street. Four stately female figures support the front, which is frescoed with small colored lizards and snakes.

The ground floor has an area of 4,525 square feet.

The new Montreal High School in University Street, which covers about five acres of ground, and which has been in construction for more than a year, will be vacated by the builders in about two months. The new Sun Life Building on Dominion Square, which, the Company claims will have cost when finished upward of one and a quarter million dollars, has already been fitted with its skeleton of steelwork, and will be nearly completed by the end of the summer. Another large building on which a great deal of work remains to be done is the new custom house building on McGill Street, which will not be finished for two years, the object being to allow of the proper “seasoning” of the main structure, and the settling of the foundations. Considering the extent of building operation in the city, there are comparatively few accidents, the death list being proportionately smaller than that of New York, where every skyscraper exacts its toll of several deaths before completion.

The growth of the city of recent years has been so rapid and great that it can be best gauged about 1913 by the testimony of a Montrealer, Mr. Donald McMaster, who had been absent for a few years:

“As I came up the river last night on the boat, I was astounded by what I saw in the way of industrial development in the East End of the city.

“Belching chimneys, great mills and factories, the glow of furnaces, the signs of an eager and aggressive industrialism. And then today when I went westward and saw what was being done there in the way of expansion in the building up of the environs of the city, in the multiplicity of machine and car shops, along the Lachine canal, I said to myself that such growth surpassed that of London or Paris proportionately to population.

“Why, you will have a million, not in a decade, but in a lustrum. You don’t see all this growth as a stranger sees it. I am not a stranger, of course; but I have been absent. I tell you I am amazed at what I see, and proud of old Montreal.”

DURING THE GREAT REAL ESTATE BOOM

Montreal has been so steadily growing into metropolitan proportions that we must now let students use their imagination by a glance at the following figures and studies.

They are put on record here as reflecting the grounds on which optimistic calculators were looking to the future in 1913 before the outbreak of the Great International War.

I

REAL ESTATE ASSESSMENTS

The growth may be estimated by the following increase in real estate assessment values:

1880 $ 78,387,759.00
1890 122,859,859.00
1900 185,744,531.00
1901 190,952,235.00
1902 194,045,075.00
1903 200,622,335.00
1904 207,338,585.00
1905 219,047,960.00
1906 255,013,389.00
1907 272,761,032.00
1908 299,157,416.00
1909 329,933,089.00
1910 428,585,356.00
1911 501,291,812.00
1912 638,021,625.00
1913 791,820,595.00

To present a picture of the present activities the following list shows the buildings valued over $70,000 which are under construction in Montreal at the present time, or have been finished since April, 1912.

II

STATEMENT OF BUILDINGS OCCUPIED BY PROPRIETORS OR TENANTS, ALSO
VACANT, AND IN ERECTION (1912)

TABLE LEGEND

Column A = Number of dwelling houses by tenants
Column B = Number of dwelling houses occupied by proprietors
Column C = Number of vacant dwelling houses
Column D = Number of dwelling houses in erection
Column E = Number of store and office buildings
Column F = Number of store and office buildings in erection
Column G = Miscellaneous buildings

WARD A B C D E F G

East 60 4 2 -- 165 2 21
Centre 2 -- -- -- 207 2 8
West 1 -- -- -- 306 -- 6
St. Ann 970 170 13 1 532 4 63
St. Joseph 859 159 36 2 282 1 24
St. Andrew 873 601 28 19 139 -- 58
St. George 786 439 34 9 379 6 106
St. Lawrence 1,306 241 41 6 418 10 69
St. Louis 1,650 370 27 9 340 2 77
St. James 669 184 19 3 134 2 34
Lafontaine 939 562 20 4 121 1 20
Papineau 1,080 462 17 14 292 2 28
St. Mary 688 438 6 29 239 -- 18
Hochelaga 1,001 642 51 49 106 6 48
St. Jean Baptiste 1,137 461 11 17 186 2 23
Duvernay 586 396 6 6 89 5 5
St. Denis 2,479 2071 71 4 444 13 52
St. Henry 954 610 13 32 70 -- 57
St. Cunegonde 332 113 1 -- 59 1 10
Mount Royal 127 158 6 9 16 -- 11
De Lorimier 799 340 31 46 99 9 14
Laurier 2,149 1,265 49 95 241 3 63
Notre Dame de Graces 374 378 51 116 22 -- 30
Emard 697 212 29 17 30 -- 12
Longue Pointe 550 330 18 5 52 -- 26
St. Paul 234 172 3 7 36 -- 11
Bordeaux 205 158 21 11 15 -- 7
Rosemount 139 122 12 40 9 -- 5
Cote des Neiges 52 48 2 4 4 -- 6
St. Gabriel 877 423 10 2 56 -- 34
Ahuntsic 64 118 8 14 16 -- 7
------ ------ --- --- ----- --- ---
22,639 11,647 636 570 5,100 71 953

III

RECENT BUILDINGS

The buildings here listed represent a total value of $13,623,330 and aside from the Grain Elevator and Dominion Government warehouses are for the most part office buildings, apartment houses and factories. They give a good idea of the present prosperity of Montreal, and its growth of population and business:

Owner, Location and Description-- Value.

Harbor Commission, foot of Berri Street, grain elevator $2,500,000
Canadian Steel Foundry, Maisonneuve, factory 1,000,000
Dominion Government, McGill and Youville, storehouse 900,000
City of Montreal, Gosford Street, City Hall Annex 712,000
Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, Sherbrooke and Drummond, hotel 663,330
Royal Trust Company, 107 St. James, office building 500,000
Bank of B.N.A., 140 St. James, bank and office building 500,000
Alexander Building Company, St. Alexander Street, warehouse 480,000
A. Sommer, Berthelet Street, office building and factory 400,000
United Shoe Machinery Company, Boyce Street, Maisonneuve, factory 400,000
Sir Thomas Shaughnessy, McGill and St. Paul, office building 350,000
Lewis Building, St. John and Hospital, office building 350,000
McGill Property Syndicate, McGill Street, office building 300,000
Y.M.C.A., Drummond Street, club 300,000
The Herald Building, Craig Street, office building 275,000
Unity Building Company, Limited, Lagauchetiere Street, office building 225,000
Frontenac Breweries, Casgrain Street, brewery 220,000
La Sauvegarde Company, Notre Dame and St. Vincent, office building 200,000
Séminaire St. Sulpice, St. Denis Street, seminary 200,000
Sisters of Cong. of N.D., Sherbrooke and Atwater, school 150,000
A.M. Vineberg, Duluth and St. Lawrence, office building 150,000
Sir Rodolphe Forget, Ontario Avenue, residence 142,000
Fabrique St. Stanislaus, Boulevard St. Joseph, church 142,000
Quebec Amusement Company, Bleury Street, theater 140,000
J.O. Gravel, Notre Dame and St. Sulpice, office building 136,000
John W. Peck, St. Dominique Street, factory 135,000
Séminaire St. Sulpice, Cote St. Antoine Road, apartments 125,000
Protestant School Board, Esplanade Avenue, school 120,000
Fabrique St. Irène, Atwater Avenue, church 110,000
Regent Construction Company, Amesbury Avenue, apartments 100,000
National Bridge Company, Longue Pointe, factory 100,000
J.C. Wilson Company, Ltd., Lagauchetière and Alexander, warehouse 100,000
J.A.E. Gauvin, St. Catherine and Maisonneuve, office building 100,000
O.L. Henault, Bishop Street, apartments 100,000
Johnston Bros., St. Catherine W., offices and store 100,000
Imperial Tobacco Company, Bourget and Rose de Lima, factory 100,000
Belgo-Canadian Realty, Bleury Street, offices 95,000
Grand Trunk Railway Company, Wellington and St. Etienne, warehouse 90,000
Imperial Tobacco Company, Bourget and Rose de Lima, factory 100,000
Belgo-Canadian Realty, Bleury Street, offices 95,000
Grand Trunk Railway Company, Wellington and St. Etienne, warehouse 90,000
W.H. Creed, Cote des Neiges Road, apartments 90,000
Northern Electric Company, Notre Dame and Guy, factory 88,000
Harbor Commission, Notre Dame and Davidson, warehouse 80,000
O. Lamoureux, Esplanade and St. Urbain, apartments 80,000
P.A. and H.A. Adams, Prince Arthur and Oxenden, apartments 79,000
Engineers’ Club, 9 Beaver Hall Square, club building 76,000
D.C. Macarrow, Peel Street, residence 70,000
University Club, Mansfield Street, club building 70,000
St. Lawrence Flour Mills Company, Notre Dame West, factory 70,000
Jas. H. Mayer, Cote des Neiges Road, apartments 70,000
Canadian General Electric, St. Antoine Street, warehouse 70,000
Winter Club, Drummond Street, club building 70,000

IV

METROPOLITAN POPULATION

In 1891 the census returns showed for Montreal proper a population of 220,181; in 1901 a population of 266,826; in 1911, 466,197. Including the unnamed municipalities the total population of Montreal we may place in 1911 at 586,756. This allows us to make a comparative study of the growth of Montreal from the beginning of British rule.

CITY POPULATION

1760 3,000
1765 7,000
1800 9,000
1809 12,000
1825 22,000
1831 27,000
1839 35,000
1844 44,000
1870 100,000
1890 220,181
1901 266,826
1911, city proper 466,197
1911, Greater Montreal 587,756

COMPARATIVE GROWTH

In the years from 1900 to 1910 Montreal has shown a greater percentage of growth than has any of the great cities of the United States.

The growth in Montreal’s population since 1900 has represented an increase of 188,270 people, or 70.3 per cent.

New York has shown the greatest growth of any city in the United States. The percentage of increase in the same ten years was 38.7.

The following are the comparative figures:

Per cent. Area
----Population---- of increase in sq.
1910. 1900. 1900-1910. miles.

1 New York 4,766,883 3,437,202 38.7 326¾
2 Chicago 2,185,283 1,698,575 28.7 190½
3 Philadelphia 1,549,008 1,293,697 19.7 129½
4 St. Louis 687,029 575,238 19.4 61⅓
5 Boston 670,585 560,892 19.6 42⅔
6 Cleveland 560,663 381,768 46.9 45
7 Baltimore 558,485 508,957 9.7 31½
8 Pittsburg 533,905 451,512 18.2 41
9 Detroit 465,766 285,704 63 40
10 Montreal (proper) 456,000 267,730 70.3 18.7
11 San Francisco -- 342,782 -- 43
12 Buffalo 423,715 352,387 20.2 42
13 Milwaukee 373,357 285,315 31 22¾
14 Cincinnati 364,463 325,902 11.8 43½
15 Newark 347,469 246,070 41.2 23
16 New Orleans 339,075 287,104 18.1 192
17 Washington 331,069 278,718 18.8 69¼

A contemporary study of the population of Montreal for 1912 may also be put on record.

There are in regard to population, two Montreals: the people within the civic boundaries and the community of which Montreal city is the heart.

The whole is necessarily greater than the part, and in considering the size of Montreal, in the matter of population, it is the whole which should be discussed. To take the naked figures of the census would be utterly misleading, for they do not include even the whole of the area within the city’s limits. That is to say, between the taking of the census and the publication of the results, Montreal had annexed a number of large towns contiguous to it. But this is not the only respect in which the relation of Montreal to the census is unique. It contains, within the city’s limits, or bounded by the city on more than one side, but under distinct municipal government, three other cities--Westmount, Maisonneuve and Outremont It also possesses suburbs, such as Lachine, which are merely manufacturing outposts of the city proper, and others, such as Longueuil, St. Lambert and Montreal West, which are in effect the city’s dormitories.

In figures given below, therefore, are included the population of these and other suburbs which are to all intents and purposes part of Montreal. They are part of the communal life, and the only respect in which their people differ from those of Montreal is that they have distinct municipal administrations.

If we were to take the figures of the 1911 census, Montreal’s population would stand at 466,197, whereas the population of the metropolitan community, as given by the census, is 590,919. Here are the figures in substantiation of this claim:

Montreal 466,197
St. Cunégonde 11,172
St. Henry 30,337
Westmount 14,327
Lachine 10,778
Longueuil 4,016
St. Lambert 3,350
Montreal South 790
Montreal West 703
St. Laurent 3,502
Outremont 4,745
Cote des Neiges 2,447
Notre Dame de Grâce 5,217
Verdun 11,627
Longue Pointe 3,037
Maisonneuve 18,674
-------
590,919

No one who knows the relation of these towns to Montreal will deny the justice of grouping them as integral parts of this community.

It must be remembered that these figures, first published a year ago, are the result of a census taken in June, 1911. During the decennial period 1900-1910, the city proper increased in population an average of 19,000 yearly. The increase during the latter years of the period was much greater than at its beginning, and it is a matter of common knowledge that it is the suburbs which of late years have shown the fastest growth. From these facts as a basis, it can be argued with every probability of accuracy that this community has grown since the census was taken, by at least 35,000 people, making the total population at this time not less than 625,000.

Of the seventeen cities mentioned in the foregoing table Montreal stood sixteenth in 1900, Newark only being below her. Now, assuming that the population of Greater Montreal is 625,000, she jumps to sixth place, taking rank above all except New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Boston. In justice to the cities she has passed in the race, it must be acknowledged that they have doubtless also added to their population since the census was taken, but it will hardly be claimed that the leader among them, Cleveland, has jumped from 560,663, its census standing, to the 625,000 of Montreal. If it be urged that perhaps some of the cities which Montreal has passed should also be credited with the population of their suburbs, the answer is that neither Cleveland, Baltimore, Pittsburg, nor Detroit, possesses as many or as large suburbs as does Montreal. Boston is a striking exception to this rule, and if the community of which it is the nucleus was included in computation, the result would probably raise Boston to fourth place among the cities.

V

MONTREAL AND WORLD CITIES

But there is still another interesting comparison to be made--how does Montreal stand among the cities of the world? Here is the answer:

1. London 7,429,740
2. New York 4,766,883
3. Paris 2,763,393
4. Tokio, Japan 2,186,079
5. Chicago 2,185,283
6. Berlin 2,101,933
7. Vienna 2,085,888
8. St. Petersburg 1,678,000
9. Canton 1,600,000
10. Pekin, estimated 1,600,000
11. Philadelphia 1,549,000
12. Moscow 1,359,254
13. Constantinople 1,125,000
14. Osaka, Japan 1,117,151
15. Calcutta 1,026,987
16. Buenos Ayres 1,000,250
17. Rio de Janeiro 811,265
18. Hamburg 802,793
19. Bombay 776,006
20. Warsaw 756,426
21. Glasgow 735,906
22. Buda Pesth 732,322
23. Liverpool 702,247
24. St. Louis 687,029
25. Boston 670,585
26. MONTREAL, 1911 625,000
27. Brussels 612,401
28. Manchester 606,751
29. Bangkok 600,000
30. Cairo 570,062
31. Naples 563,541
32. Cleveland 560,663
33. Baltimore 558,485
34. Amsterdam 557,614
35. Madrid 539,885
36. Munich 538,983
37. Pittsburg 533,905
38. Barcelona 533,090
39. Birmingham, Eng. 522,182
40. Dresden 516,996
41. Madras 509,346
42. Leipzig 503,672
43. Melbourne 496,079
44. Milan 491,460
45. Marseilles 491,161
46. Sydney 481,830
47. Copenhagen 476,806
48. Breslau 470,904
49. Detroit 465,766
50. Rome 462,783
51. Lyons 459,099
52. Odessa 449,673
53. Hyderabad 448,466
54. Leeds 428,953
55. Cologne 428,722
56. Buffalo 423,715
57. San Francisco 416,912
58. Sheffield 409,070
59. Toronto, and suburbs 381,000
60. Kioto, Japan 380,568
61. Shanghai, est. 380,000
62. Milwaukee 373,357
63. Rotterdam 370,389
64. Cincinnati 364,463
65. Lisbon 356,009
66. Lodz 351,570
67. Belfast 349,180
68. Newark, N.J. 347,469
69. Kobe, Japan 345,952
70. Mexico City 344,721
71. New Orleans 339,075
72. Bristol 339,042
73. Turin 335,656
74. Frankfort 334,538
75. Santiago 334,538
76. Washington 331,069
77. Yokohama 326,035
78. Alexandria 319,766
79. Kiev 319,000
80. Stockholm 317,964
81. Edinburgh 316,479
82. Palermo 309,694
83. Minneapolis 301,408
84. Montevideo 298,127
85. Nuremburg 294,426
86. Antwerp 291,949
87. Dublin 290,638
88. Nagoya 288,039
89. Hong Kong 283,905
90. Teheran 280,000
91. Bradford, Eng. 279,809
92. Bucharest 276,178
93. Havana 275,000
94. Jersey City 267,779
95. MONTREAL, 1901 267,730

VI

OPTIMISTIC SPECULATIONS AND PROPHECIES

By this table Montreal jumps to twenty-sixth place in the list of great cities. In 1901 she stood ninety-fifth in the same list. This position, however, is not as conclusively Montreal’s due as is her rank in the table of North American cities, for the reason that it is not possible to speak with exactitude regarding the actual size of the cities below Montreal when their suburbs are included. Manchester, so considered, is no doubt much larger. However, the position accorded the city cannot be far wrong, and there is no gainsaying the fact that Montreal has grown in ten years from the ninety-fifth place among the cities of the world to a place in the first thirty or forty.

There is good reason for believing that Montreal is now the largest city in the self-governing Dominions of the Empire. Only London, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester, in the British Isles, can claim to exceed her in population. If we exclude from the calculation the densely populated cities of the East, and Occidental cities, she will rank among the first twenty. And is there a city, among those which now surpass her in population, which is showing as large a percentage of growth? As the metropolitan city of a virgin half-continent, towards which the tide of immigration is yearly rushing with greater force, Montreal is growing with Canada’s growth, and every man who is convinced of the tremendous development Canada will witness within the next decade must realize that this development will mean that Montreal must move, in that time, close to the million mark.

In 1901 Montreal had a population of 267,000. Her suburbs then were small, but supposing we put them at 33,000, and call the greater city 300,000. If today this greater city is 625,000 the growth in eleven years has been 325,000, or about 30,000 per year. Is it unreasonable to assume that in nine years’ time we will have a million souls on this island?

The following computation also will be interesting in later years as a specimen of current speculations and prophecies in 1914 of Montreal’s growth:

“At this rate,” says a contemporary writer, “the city’s population will be considerably over the million mark in 1919. By 1931, two years would be quite sufficient to add to the population of the spreading city, more people than are at present living in both the city and suburbs. If the present rate of increase should remain constant, twenty-six years from today would see a city containing a greater population than the whole of the Dominion of Canada can boast of today, and with seven and three-quarter millions of people, exclusive of suburbs, considerably larger than the London of the present time. A trip further in the future is too dizzy for the brain of any but the trained mathematician, but the array of figures are sufficient to show that within the life-time of the present citizens the city on the shores of the St. Lawrence is likely to stand in the fore-front of the leading centers of the world. Of course, it is only natural to expect that the increase will not be maintained at the present rate, but the addition of growing suburbs will likely prevent any considerable decrease in the rate of advance.”

Before concluding these statistical pictures we may sum up the vital figures of the metropolis:

VII

THE GREATER MONTREAL OF 1912

Population of Greater Montreal, estimated, 625,000.

Assessed valuation of city nearly equals $1,000 per head of entire population of greater city.

City’s revenue from all sources, $8,200,000.

Montreal’s customs receipts are $20,000,000 a year.

The city of Montreal is divided into 125,141 lots.

The city of Montreal is owned by 29,123 people.

If the land upon which the city is built was divided up among the population the per capita share would be about one and one-sixth lots.

Montreal’s assessed valuation this year is $601,000,000.

Exemptions from real estate assessment in the city amount to practically one-quarter of the whole.

Montreal has 1,200 streets and more are being opened up every week.

Montreal’s police force numbers close upon seven hundred officers and constables.

The city’s militia units have an enrolled strength of approximately four thousand two hundred officers, non-commissioned officers and men.

Montreal has over five hundred firemen, divided up among nearly thirty stations.

There are 150 churches in Montreal.

The longest street is Notre Dame Street, with a total length of nearly fifteen miles.

Montreal’s port is visited during the season by nearly eight hundred ocean steamers and thirteen thousand lake and river steamers, the whole fleet having a tonnage of approximately seven million tons.

Montreal has three grain elevators, with a total capacity of 4,750,000 bushels, which is to be added to by another 2,000,000 bushels.

Montreal’s annual snow removal bill amounts to over one hundred thousand dollars, a considerable portion of which is paid by the Montreal Tramways Company.

Montreal has sixty moving picture theaters, with half a dozen others building in different parts of the city.

St. Helen’s Island is visited annually by close upon two hundred and fifty thousand people, mostly children.

Montreal has nearly three thousand privately owned automobiles, representing capital worth approximately six million five hundred thousand dollars.

Greater Montreal comprises two cities, three towns, and half a score of small municipalities.

Montreal’s annual civic light bill is $200,000.

Investigations show that on an average 3,022 school children in Montreal spend $188.70 a week on picture shows.

Montreal has 805 acres of park area.

Montreal’s banks, head offices and branches, number 112.

Montreal’s bank clearings average between fifty-five million and sixty million dollars weekly.

Montreal has one general postoffice, nine branches and eighty sub offices.

One hundred and fifty passenger trains enter and leave Montreal railway depots every twenty-four hours.

The death rate of Greater Montreal is about 40.5 per 1,000.

The city building inspection department has so far this year issued 3,150 permits.

Montreal has 260 miles of streets, of which sixty-five miles are paved.

Montreal’s 240 miles of brick sewers, if placed end to end, would reach from here to Ottawa and back, with sufficient over to reach Coteau.

Montreal’s tramways system owns and operates 125 miles of line all over the island.

Montreal’s streets are illuminated by over three thousand separate lights.

Montreal street cars this year have carried over one hundred and twenty million passengers.

There are sixty-three parishes and 800 priests in the diocese of Montreal.

Montreal has 731 schools, public, high and convents.

There are seventy-two hospitals, public and private, and asylums in Montreal.

The city has two seminaries and two universities.

Other educational establishments in Montreal include eight classical colleges.

Property under the jurisdiction of the Montreal Harbor Commission on the Montreal side of the river is worth over twenty million dollars.

Montreal’s moving picture show theaters have a seating capacity of 35,000.

Realty transfers in Montreal this year are in the neighborhood of one hundred and twelve million dollars.

There are 172,000 names in the Montreal directory for 1912.

Montreal’s area is 27,747 acres.

Greater Montreal’s daily water supply exceeds sixty-eight million gallons.

The daily per capita consumption of water in Greater Montreal is 112 gallons.

The City of Montreal waterworks supply the needs of 351,000 people.

The Montreal Water and Power Company daily pumps 25,100,000 gallons for 251,000 people.

VIII

A CITY PLAN FOR GREATER MONTREAL

Seeing the future growth of the city, a movement was started in 1909 by the City Improvement League, an association of good citizens, desirous of the best for their city. The report of its secretary for 1912, states the progress of the city plan movement as follows:

The City Improvement League has, from its commencement, consistently promoted the movement for a preconceived city plan to be adopted for the future expansion of Montreal. Its City Planning Committee, backed by the cooperation of the great commercial and philanthropic bodies of the city, has been recognized as the exponent of the wishes of our best citizens, having already two years ago secured the appointment of a Metropolitan Parks Commission, whose duty it was to study the needs of the city for such a plan.

This Commission, after a careful study, reported to the Government on January 5, 1911, on the very urgent necessity of the city immediately undertaking some action in city planning, and it recommended the establishment of a permanent Metropolitan Parks Commission, to carry on the work already initiated by the present temporary use. The Commission presented a report drawn up for them by Mr. F.M. Olmstead, on subjects dealing with the selection of lands for parks and playgrounds, and with the location of boulevards and other main lines of urban and suburban transportation, as necessary preliminaries in the formation of a city plan for Montreal. In addition, the Commission presented a draft bill for an act to establish a permanent Metropolitan Parks Commission.

A bill based on the above draft was presented in March at the following session of the Provincial Parliament, but was not passed, being held over for the next year. In the meantime, the temporary Commission having presented its report, for which it was appointed, automatically expired. The efforts of the League, to overcome the difficulties in the way of the bill, have since occupied a great part of the last year’s work.

Apart from meetings, and consultations of experts of a technical nature, every occasion was used to keep up public interest in the demand for a permanent commission.

In October the Fourth General Assembly of the Royal Architectural Society of Canada was held in Montreal, and on October 2d, at a special meeting of the delegates of this convention, and a large and representative gathering of citizens called together by the City Improvement League, to discuss the town planning situation, the following resolutions were carried:

“That this assembly of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada earnestly desires to urge upon the several Provincial Governments, the necessity of providing without delay, parks and playgrounds and housing commissions for each large city under their jurisdiction, especially with the object of preventing excessive mortality, and making better provisions for the health, comfort and recreation of the masses.

“That the Government of the Province of Quebec is especially urged to appoint a permanent Metropolitan Parks Commission with executive powers.”

In December the Public Health Association of Canada called its first convention, it being held in Montreal. A very valuable session on city planning, which was well attended by members of the League, provided much stimulating thought to Canadian public health officers and city planners.

A resolution to the following effect was proposed by Mr. H. Bragg, and seconded by Dr. Adami, president of the City Improvement League, viz., that this convention should recommend that Provincial legislatures should create Park Commissions, to regulate the growth of towns and cities, and to control their housing conditions, with powers of city planning and housing to extend even to suburban areas.

The matter was debated and finally left over to the Executive Committee of the Canadian Public Health Association, which next day passed the following modified resolution:

Moved by Doctor Bryce (Ottawa), and seconded by Doctor Sheriff (Ottawa), “that this association deems it worthy of urgent necessity that Provincial legislatures pass Acts making provision whereby urban municipalities can make house planning and land purchase schemes, whose operation may include suburban areas.”

During the year public bodies interested in the bill renewed their resolutions in its favour. Thus, for instance, at the annual meeting of the Board of Trade, it was resolved on the motion of Mr. R.W. Reford, seconded by Mr. Armand Chaput, “That the Montreal Board of Trade, which since February, 1910, has advocated the creation of a Metropolitan Parks Commission for the Island of Montreal, now notes with gratification that the Quebec Legislature is considering the appointment of such a commission and the board, in annual general meeting assembled, hereby prays that Legislature to adopt, during the present Session, legislation to that end.”

The above resolutions are quoted as indicative of the general trend of expert thought, which has helped to form public opinion in the city, in favour of a Metropolitan Parks Commission.

During the last two years every draft bill that has been drawn up for the above movement has always had conjoined with it clauses of a “housing” aspect, since city planning and the comfort of the working classes should never be separated. Consequently, the League has constantly promoted the study of city housing and advocated schemes for garden cities and for model workingmen’s dwellings, side by side with those for more parks, playgrounds and open spaces, as desired by all town planners.

The following associations lent valuable cooperation: The Board of Trade and La Chambre de Commerce, The Canadian Manufacturers’ Association, The Architects’ Association of the Province of Quebec, The Trades and Labor Council, The Parks and Playgrounds Association, The Citizens’ Association, The Canadian Club, The Local Council of Women, The Montreal Women’s Club, The Fédération Nationale, The Association St. Jean Baptiste, The Children’s Aid Society.

To Mr. W.D. Lighthall, K.C., Convenor of the City Planning Committee, and to its members, was due a large measure of the success of the bill. Among these may be mentioned J. George Adami, M.D.; Sir William Van Horne, E.P. Lachapelle, M.D.; J.L. Perron, K.C.; Hon. J.J. Guerin, M.D.; Controller Ainey, Sir Alexander Lacoste, L.A. Lavallee, K.C.; J.I. Finnie, M.D., M.L.A.; W.S. Maxwell, J.R. Gardiner, F.G. Todd, W. Rutherford, Prof. J.A. Dale, J.V. Desaulniers, Farquhar Robertson, Olivar Asselin, Leslie H. Boyd, K.C.; William Lyall, the late Professor Gregor, W. Johnson, H. Bragg, Dr. W.H. Atherton, secretary, and others.

Later an association entitled the Greater Montreal Housing and Planning Association was formed to assist in carrying on the above movement.

The plan movement has made uncertain progress, but still it is appreciable, especially as having overcome initial difficulties and in promoting preparatory measures and amelioration, leading toward the desired goal.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This expropriation caused the demolition of the old historic Chapel of Notre Dame de Pitié. There were many who were grieved at this act of vandalism.

Transcriber’s note:

Footnotes cited in tables were moved to the end of the table, even if the table spans multiple pages and the original footnote was therefore in the middle of the table. All other footnotes were moved to the end of their respective chapters.

Illustrations in the original were presented on special plate pages, followed by a blank facing page. The illustration pages were numbered while the blank facing pages were not. These pages usually split a paragraph and sometimes even a word. Where they split a paragraph, they have been moved to follow the paragraph.

Tables too wide to display well on a screen have been divided into multiple tables with repeated row labels. Lists displayed in multiple columns simply to better use space now appear as single vertical column.

This work contains a very large number of deviations from accepted spellings, common diacritical markings, capitalization and punctuation rules, even for the period of the book. It is impossible, in the majority of the cases, to determine which of these deviations were desired by the author, which deviations reflect referenced or cited material, and which were printing errors. They have therefore not been changed, with the exception of obvious punctuation printing errors, and the items below:

35,00 changed to 35,000 on page 666.

1911 changed to 1811 on page 127.

926,34.46 changed to 92,634.46 on page 193.

1910 changed to 1913 in the table heading on page 606.

Repeated sentence removed from page 493. (As Montreal is a port of importance the sociological value of this movement is apparent.)