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Montreal Advice

JasonParis

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OK, I thought I'd use UT for a bit of crowd-sourcing...

So I've likely been to Montreal approaching 20 times if I had to guess. I know the city very well. I have a few friends there and always enjoy it immensely.

In fact, I'm headed there for the long weekend next week, but it isn't with a huge deal of excitement for once. I'm starting to feel like I've done it all and seen it all. Sure, it'll be good to get away, but I know the city must have more to do than my usual tour of neighbourhoods, the Canadian Architecture Centre, The Village, shopping, biking the Lachine, etc.

Thereby, I'm asking UT (and especially those in the 514 know) on some advice on unique things to do in Greater Montreal. Architectural, arts, cultural, industrial, urnbanistical (is that even a word?) you name it. Just dispense some unusual things/places I haven't thought of and I will be hugely grateful. For the record, we will have a car with us, so this doesn't need to be limited to the Island itself.

Thanks in advance!
 
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Mirabel is about to be torn down. If you can still get into the access roads, it's worth checking out. Have you been to Exporail? It's a decent railway museum (with a MTC streetcar usually making a circut on its track - check ahead of time).
 
I join the request! My friends and I are planning to visit Montreal on a weekend, however we have never been there before.
 
Damn. Wish I had seen this thread before.

Montreal is my home town -- obviously -- and I would have had suggestions.

For example, if you've biked the Lachine Canal, you've probably gone to the Atwater Market. Have you tried the Jean Talon Market?

One of the things I like to do -- and this isn't as crazy as it sounds -- is take photos of doors. For example, in the "Golden Square Mile" where all the robber barons built their mansions, the doors are astounding. Even in more modest, middle class neighbourhoods built in the 20s-30s, along Van Horne in the Cote Des Neiges area say, the low-rise apartment buildings have the most stunning art deco flourishes.

Lobbies are another thing. Older buildings that went up when Montreal was the money capital of Canada can blow you away with their elevators, light fixtures, marble, etc. The Dominion Square Building is a classic example.


Jason, you know how to find me on Facebook so, if you still want tips, message me there.
 
One of the things I like to do -- and this isn't as crazy as it sounds -- is take photos of doors. For example, in the "Golden Square Mile" where all the robber barons built their mansions, the doors are astounding. Even in more modest, middle class neighbourhoods built in the 20s-30s, along Van Horne in the Cote Des Neiges area say, the low-rise apartment buildings have the most stunning art deco flourishes.

Lobbies are another thing. Older buildings that went up when Montreal was the money capital of Canada can blow you away with their elevators, light fixtures, marble, etc. The Dominion Square Building is a classic example.

Do you have these photos posted anywhere? Sounds cool....
 
Do you have these photos posted anywhere? Sounds cool....

It's on my retirement to-do list.

One of the great things about Montreal was the fact that it suffered financially, thanks to the October Crisis etc. The outflow of capital began, really, with the rise of the West (oil, Pacific Rim). People think the migration peaked after the PQ but, in fact, it was in 1973, although the departures did continue for many years after that.

Why was that good for Montreal?

Because, had it continued (especially under Mayor Jean He-Who-Loved-Poured-Concrete Drapeau), much of this heritage architecture would have been lost. He worked very hard to destroy Place D'Armes in Old Montreal, for example, and the fight over the old Van Horne Mansion will never be forgotten by many Montrealers.

Instead, now you can actually track Montreal's population growth by the "rings of architecture" from downtown and out. I can't think of any other way to describe it.

Montreal also had a wealth of master builders, probably because of all those churches everywhere. So that's why there's all that exquisite ironwork you see on those outside stairways, for example, great stone cutting, and, if you could go into what were essentially the working and middle-class duplexes and triplexes of the Plateau, fantastic plaster work. Toronto, on the other hand, had (with certain exceptions such as upper Cabbagetown), a very Presbyterian attitude, partly I guess out of extremely rapid growth spurts post-wars. So we have horrible sameness here: the standard town-type house (narrow, upstairs bay window, two or three floor) that rose up in the early 1900s, the "Leaside Box" as I call it of East York and other hoods of the 20s/30s and then, of course, that ubiquitous bungalow. Montreal has the box and the bungalow but only in very limited areas such as Western NDG.
 

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