Louis Rastelli

Well, once again there’s a plan to raze the historic (classified heritage at the federal level) block on the west side of St. Laurent and Ste. Catherine St.I wrote an article for the Montreal Mirror that just appeared available here:

 http://www.montrealmirror.com/2009/052809/news2.html

If it weren’t for all the empty lots surrounding the block, and if they weren’t violating the zoning (and neighboring scale) to put up an office building, it might be worth considering the idea. Much of the block could use a makeover — but the trend these days is to level everything first (see the Griffintown project, the hole in the ground where Le Spectrum or where Ben’s was etc.)

At least there will be public consultations and time for people to send in written opinions (info, forms on doing so and all documentation about this project are available here)

I guess if it weren’t for Club Soda having set up shop across the street a decade ago they would have demolished that too.

Here’s the NEW corner of St. Laurent and Ste. Catherine St.:

Here’s the street level on Ste. Catherine St. (keep in mind that you can’t see the top 8 floors or so of the office tower, and that most of those old facades are just stuck to the base of the tower):

It’s interesting to note that since this illustration was presented to the public on May 26, they airbrushed the Q out of most of the documents you can find on the weblink posted above, except for this image:

Here’s the Clark St. side:

And here’s the floor plan, with portions of the current interior volumes of the spaces that are there now preserved (and highlighted in red). Note that less than half of the current interior space of, say, Montreal Poolroom are preserved. These will be VERY tiny retail spaces (at the presentation they were described as the minimum needed for a small commerce to be viable). They want Clark St. to come alive with teeny tiny stores too. (My guess is they’ll end up going with an interior food court, for all the same reasons such office buildings usually go with them).

In any case, they mentioned they will not rent to bars or concert halls so aside perhaps from a couple of tiny restaurants, there will only be daytime business anyway (so why not a food court?) This raises probably the most important heritage issue, one that isn’t mentioned whatsoever in the heritage studies made by the city or the promoter — that for 200 years or more, that block was very much a NIGHTTIME block, with lots of activity at night. This goes back to when Montreal was a walled city through the 1700s and early 1800s and Saint-Laurent Boulevard was the street that led to the main gate of the walled city (hence its shortened nickname “The Main”). Being just outside the main city made it a perfect place for such sinful businesses as bars, strip clubs, brothels and opium dens. Much later, during the glory days of the city’s jazz and burlesque scene when Montreal was Canada’s “Sin City”, the block was still central to the action, with Lily St-Cyr and other burlesque legends performing on or around that block. Putting an office complex that is completely closed at night would put an end to 200 years of night life.

I’m not saying they should build a brothel and opium den there instead — all that stuff is pretty much gone from that block already. Aside from Café Cléopatra which is considered one of the safest and least dingy strip clubs downtown, pretty much all the drugs and prostitution that were on that block have moved further east on Ste. Catherine St. Basically, the argument that the Hydro-Québec tower will finally “clean up the area” is completely false. In fact, because they would be vacating the Place Dupuis office tower near Berri Métro to move employees to this block, this project will have a very negative effect on that area which is far more populated with homeless people and drugs than the corner of St. Laurent. Some might say that just moving the “undesirables” a bit further east, out of the way of Jazz Festival tourists, is part of the plan– either way, it doesn’t jibe with the notion that this project will be a net positive for the area.

If you want to know more about the history of the area, I wrote a long piece about that specific block some years back. Here’s an excerpt (click to go to the full piece):

For Montrealers, the intersection of St. Lawrence Boulevard and Ste. Catherine St. downtown has always been a special place. St. Lawrence (or St. Laurent) is of course the main street of the city, usually called simply The Main (or “La Main.” This habit goes back to when the street passed through “the main gate” of the city walls when Montreal was a walled city—roughly between 1650 and 1800. One assumes that the habit of saying “The main gate” was shortened to just “The main,” and the habit persists to this day.) For its part, Ste. Catherine St. has been a major shopping artery since the 1840s. Ever since then, for some reason, the intersection of these two streets has been the colourful heart of Montreal’s “red light” district.
The term “red light” arose around 1865, when public officials tried to restrict prostitution to specific houses where doctors could certify that the women had no VD. A red lantern in the window of a house was supposed to tell customers they could have a relatively safe good time.
The area by the end of the 1800’s was also home to many opium dens (run by the fledgling Chinese community), gambling houses, booze cans and more. There have literally been dozens of initiatives proposed to clean up the area “for good” in the past 150 years, but to this day you can still go there and buy hard drugs or cheap hookers; you can still eat the same greasy food that was served there 100 years back; you can still gaze at the same run-down buildings and run-down people who hang out there. The area is home to sex shops, live peep shows, arcades, drag cabarets, male and female strip bars, and hotels with hourly rates only. Unlike the so-called “Old Montreal” district, where old facades cover up buildings long gutted of their interiors and their character, this intersection preserves not just buildings but the people, businesses and general atmosphere of a past era.

The piece is illustrated by Jean-Pierre Chansigaud (who also illustrated my novel). I am extremely happy I paid him whatever it was to go do some sketches of that block and that old man bar, now that the bar was closed (on purpose to add to the decrepitude that justifies razing the block).  Here’s a couple of the illustrations: