Saint Laurent Boulevard, also known as Saint Lawrence Boulevard (officially in ), is a major street in

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. A commercial artery and cultural heritage site, the street runs north west–south east through the near-centre of city and is nicknamed The Main (), which is the abbreviation for " Main Street".

The Main

Beginning at De la Commune Street at the edge of the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawrenc ...

, it transects the

Island of Montreal The Island of Montreal (, ) is an island in southwestern Quebec, Canada, which is the site of a number of municipalities, including most of the city of Montreal, and is the most populous island in Canada. It is the main island of the Hochelag ...

, passing through the

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 ...

of Ville-Marie, Le Plateau-Mont-Royal, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie,

Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension () is a borough (''arrondissement'') in the city of Montreal, Quebec. It had a population of 143,853 according to the 2016 Census and a land area of . The borough of Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extensi ...

, and

Ahuntsic-Cartierville Ahuntsic-Cartierville ( (local accent)) is a borough (''arrondissement'') of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The borough was created following the 2002 municipal reorganization of Montreal. It comprises two main neighbourhoods, Ahuntsic, ...

to Rue Somerville at the edge of the Rivière des Prairies – a total length of about 11.25 km (7 miles). Saint Laurent Boulevard's cardinal direction, on a pseudo north–south axis strongly deported to the west, and aligned with the summer

solstice A solstice is the time when the Sun reaches its most northerly or southerly sun path, excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. Two solstices occur annually, around 20–22 June and 20–22 December. In many countries ...

's setting sun, was outlined by the Sulpicians towards the end of the 17th century. The first post-colonial landowners of the island, then preoccupied to develop a genuine urban

cadastre A cadastre or cadaster ( ) is a comprehensive recording of the real estate or real property's metes-and-bounds of a country.Jo Henssen, ''Basic Principles of the Main Cadastral Systems in the World,'/ref> Often it is represented graphically in ...

on the Coteau Saint-Louis, built a small street, which they named Saint-Lambert, perpendicularly to

Notre-Dame Street Notre-Dame Street (officially in ) is a historic east–west street located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It runs parallel to the Saint Lawrence River, from Lachine, Quebec, Lachine to the eastern tip of the Island of Montreal, island in Poi ...

. Saint-Lambert Street is clearly identified on a plan drawn by François Dollier de Casson in 1672. In the early 18th century, when the lords of Montreal decided to develop agricultural land further north on the island, they prolonged this little street to build a ''King's Way'' exactly along the same axis and named it Chemin Saint-Laurent. Chemin Saint-Laurent became a

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 ...

in 1905 and is often referred to as ''The Main''. It serves as the city's physical division of east and west (in Montreal parlance; in reality east is more like north-northeast and west is south-southwest). Street numbers begin at Saint Lawrence and continue outward, with street names being suffixed by Ouest (West) or Est (East), depending on their orientation. The boulevard traditionally divides Montreal by language, ethnicity, and class. Saint Laurent Boulevard was for generations the symbolic dividing line for the city, with the predominantly English-speaking population to the west, French-speaking population to the east, and immigrant communities in between along the Main and Park Avenue. The Main runs through many of Montreal's ethnic communities, a first stop for immigrant communities for over 100 years — initially Jewish, Chinese and Italian, and later Portuguese, Greek, Arab, Haitian and others.

National Historic Site

In 2002 the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada named Saint Lawrence Boulevard as '' The Main National Historic Site of Canada.'' Then Minister of Heritage, Sheila Copps, speaking at the ceremony, said: "our country does not belong to just two founding peoples. It belongs to all Canadians. his isa first step toward a new story of Canada that includes all of our partners as equals."Hamilton, Graeme. "'The Main' Acknowledged as Historic Site." ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper and the flagship publication of the American-owned Postmedia Network. It is published Mondays through Saturdays, with Monday released as a digital e-edition only.

''. 28 September 2002, page A5.

Historic Jewish Quarter

The Jewish community on the Main sprang up after the heavy immigration of the early to mid-1900s. Jewish settlement occurred first on the lower Main, in a section that now is part of Montreal's Chinatown. Angle du boulevard Saint-Laurent et de la rue Sainte-Catherine Montreal 1905

Angle du boulevard Saint-Laurent et de la rue Sainte-Catherine Montreal 1905

By 1871 a Jewish enclave numbering just over 400 people had formed by the corner of St. Lawrence and Dorchester Street, with the first Jewish educational institution, the Talmud Torah, located at the corner of Saint Urbain Street and De la Gauchetière Street. Middle-class members of the community were already beginning to move up the Main towards

Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( , ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François River, Saint-François and Magog River, Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territ ...

and Prince Arthur Streets, while further west, a small number of well-off Jews lived near

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

. The main axes of the Jewish quarter were Saint Laurent Boulevard, Clark Street, Saint Urbain Street, Esplanade Street and Park Avenue, Montreal. By the 1930s dozens of synagogues were in the area. Culinary landmarks on Saint Laurent that bear witness to this historic community include Schwartz's and Moishes Steakhouse.

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

was the common language in the Jewish district on Saint Laurent Boulevard, with many Jewish immigrants working in clothing factories, once the street's main industry. Overall, Montreal was the main destination for the 125,000 Jews who settled in Canada between 1905 and 1920, making the area a centre of Yiddish language and culture (e.g. theatre in that language). Despite Canada's poor record of Jewish immigration between 1933 and 1948, Montreal became home to the world's third-largest concentration of

Holocaust survivors Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universall ...

, most of them Yiddish speakers. Other cultural institutions such as the Jewish Public Library operated in more than one language.

Culture

Montreal featured the fifth-largest population of

speakers in the Americas, after New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Buenos Aires; by 1930, 60,000 Yiddish speakers lived on or around The Main. The district was home to the second-largest

Yiddish theatre Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta, musical comedy, and satire, satiric or nostalgic revues; melodr ...

in North America from 1896 to the 1940s, with shows at vaudeville houses along the Main as well as the Monument-National, now a National Historic Site and part of the National Theatre School of Canada. The Main was also a centre of Jewish publishing. In 1907 a young Polish Jewish immigrant, Hirsch Wolofsky, started the Yiddish-language daily newspaper '' Keneder Adler'' (English: ''Canadian Eagle''). The paper was initially published from an office on St. Lawrence near Ontario Street. However, when the ''Adler'' became successful, Wolofsky moved the paper to its own building at 4075 St. Lawrence, near Duluth Street. The paper would publish for more than 80 years. Today Wolofsky is remembered with a small park in his honour on Rue Coloniale, between Prince-Arthur and Sherbrooke.

Politics

The poor Jewish quarter had a distinctly left-wing slant. Fred Rose represented the Main's Cartier riding until 1947, when he was expelled from the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

after a controversial conviction on charges of spying for the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. To this day the Main remains the only part of Canada ever represented in Parliament by an openly Communist MP. Area city councillor Joseph Schubert, a Romanian Jew, was a socialist and admirer of

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

. Elected to Montreal City Council in 1924, he was the council's most prominent advocate of worker's rights for 15 years. In 1931, he built a public bathhouse at the corner of Bagg and St. Lawrence, which still stands today as the Schubert Bath (official French name: ''Bain Schubert'').

Decline

By the 1950s many Jews had moved to other communities, and most synagogues were demolished or converted to other uses. The Bagg Street Shul is the only synagogue still remaining. Former prominent Jewish-run businesses on the street included Ida Steinberg's grocery store, founded in 1917 on St. Lawrence near Mount Royal, which went on to become Steinberg's, Quebec's largest supermarket chain. Another supermarket, Warshaw's, was the subject of controversy when the city of Montreal was forced to pay damages after first approving and then rejecting changes to its iconic storefront. The exterior signage for Warshaw's is on permanent display as part of th
Montreal Signs Project
at

Concordia University Concordia University () is a Public university, public English-language research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College (Montreal), Loyola College and Sir George Williams Universit ...

's Loyola campus. As of 2003 fewer than 10 Jewish-owned and family-run businesses remained on the Main between

Sherbrooke Street Sherbrooke Street (officially in ) is a major east–west artery and at in length, is the second longest street on the Island of Montreal, Canada. The street begins in the town of Montreal West, Quebec, Montreal West and ends on the extreme ...

and Mount Royal Avenue.

Neighbourhoods

Today, the stretch of Saint Laurent boulevard is home to, from south to north: *

Old Montreal Old Montreal (, ) is a historic List of neighbourhoods in Montreal, neighbourhood within the List of municipalities in Quebec, municipality of Montreal in the province of Quebec, Canada. Home to the Old Port of Montreal, the neighbourhood is b ...

(from the shores of the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawren ...

to Viger Street) * Montreal's Chinatown (between Viger Street and René Lévesque Boulevard) *A small red-light district surviving between René Lévesque Boulevard and Saint Catherine Street, in the area of the Monument National *The Quartier des spectacles (between Saint Catherine and

streets) *The Main bar district (roughly between

and Duluth streets), *Montreal's Little Portugal, clustered around Duluth and Rachel Streets *

Mile End Mile End is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in East London and part of the East End of London, East End. It is east of Charing Cross. Situated on the part of the London-to-Colchester road ...

between

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 ...

and Van Horne Avenues *

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 ...

between Saint Zotique and Jean-Talon streets *The eastern edge of Jarry Park beside Jarry Street *''Quartier de la Mode'', formerly the centre of Canada's clothing manufacturing, around the corner of Chabanel Street in the Ahuntsic section of the borough of

*Parc Nicolas-Viel, on the north side of Rue Somerville on the shore of the Rivière des Prairies Despite the origin of its name, the Boulevard does not enter the borough of Saint-Laurent, which is entirely to its west.

Famous residents

The Main has produced many of Canada's most prolific individuals in the arts and has acted as a memory space. Novelists

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 ...

, Rejean Ducharme and Michel Tremblay and poets Irving Layton, A. M. Klein and

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...

were all influenced by this area. Canada's most prestigious award for fiction, the

Scotiabank Giller Prize The Giller Prize (known as the Scotiabank Giller Prize from 2005-2023) is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English (including translation) the previous year, after an annual juried c ...

, was named after journalist Doris Giller, a native to the area.

Depictions in popular culture

Sass Jordan's 1992 hit single "Going Back Again" also depicts Saint Lawrence Boulevard as the dividing line between Montreal's English and French cultures, expressing the hope that "Someday we will come together Lord/Reach across this great divide". Trevanian's 1976 novel ''The Main'' is set in the more run-down district of the sixties, before the modern renaissance.

singer Cœur de pirate's 2011 album '' Blonde'' includes a song entitled "Saint-Laurent" that refers to the street. Saint Laurent Boulevard is also mentioned in ''

The Blacklist ''The Blacklist'' is an American crime thriller television series created by Jon Bokenkamp and developed by John Eisendrath. It stars James Spader as Raymond Reddington, an international criminal and one of the FBI's Most Wanted fugitives ...

'' (2013), as the location where Raymond 'Red' Reddington (played by

James Spader James Todd Spader (born February 7, 1960; ) is an American actor. He is known for often portraying eccentric and morally ambiguous characters. He began his career in critically acclaimed independent films before transitioning into television, f ...

) takes Agent Elizabeth 'Lizzy' Keen ( Megan Boone) to meet his liaison for the next attack, within the second episode of the first season, entitled "The Freelancer".

Businesses and attractions

Numerous art galleries and other cultural organisations make their home on the Main, including La Centrale gallerie Powerhouse, Théâtre Espace Go, the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, the Festival International Nuits d'Afrique, the Montreal

Fringe Festival Fringe theatre is theatre that is produced outside of the main theatre institutions, and that is often small-scale and non-traditional in style or subject matter. The term comes from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.Kemp, Robert, ''More that is Fr ...

, Image & Nation Festival, the Society for Arts and Technology, and the Native Friendship Centre of Montreal. Many well-known music venues can also be found on the Main, including Casa del Popolo, Sala Rosa, Club Soda, Barfly, Jupiter Room, Club Lambi, The Academy Club and Divan Orange. Gastronomic highlights include Schwartz's deli and the nearby Main Deli Steak House, both serving Montreal-style smoked meat, as well as the Montreal Pool Room, serving Montreal hot dogs since 1912. The first movies in North America were screened at the Édifice Robillard on 27 June 1896, making this venue the first cinema in both Canada and the United-States. The building was destroyed by fire on 17 November 2016. Other noteworthy and now defunct ventures include the original Cinéma Parallèle,

Dummies Theatre Dummies Theatre was a Canadian Experimental theatre, experimental and interdisciplinary contemporary theatre company known for creating free Site-specific theatre, site-specific works and daring productions in vacant stores located in Montreal du ...

, Lux, Excentris and Softimage. In early June, Saint-Laurent Boulevard becomes the host of the MURAL Festival, an international public art event that attracts artists from all over the world. MURAL celebrates creativity in a street context. For the occasion, the street is closed to car traffic between

and Mount Royal Avenue. The festival attracts around 800,000 visitors each year and won Montreal's Grand Prize of tourism for its first edition in 2013. Since 2003, Montreal bike couriers organise an illegal

time trial In many racing sports, an sportsperson, athlete (or occasionally a team of athletes) will compete in a time trial (TT) against the clock to secure the fastest time. The format of a time trial can vary, but usually follow a format where each athle ...

race named Beat the Main where dozen of cyclists dash the entire 11.5 km (7 mile) stretch between rue de la Commune and boulevard Gouin, mostly ignoring traffic lights and regulations. The Société de développement du boulevard Saint-Laurent (SDBSL) is a merchant's association promoting the economic, social and cultural development of Saint-Laurent Boulevard between Sherbrooke Street and Mont-Royal Avenue.

Transportation

Along most of its length, from Rue St-Antoine northward to just south of Rue Jean-Talon, the street is one-way northbound. The northbound leg of the 55 St-Laurent bus route runs along the street, returning south via Rue Clark and Rue St-Urbain. Saint-Laurent station on the Green Line of the

Montreal Metro The Montreal Metro (, ) is a rubber-tired underground rapid transit system serving Greater Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The metro, operated by the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), was inaugurated on October 14, 1966, during the tenure ...

and De Castelnau station on the Blue Line are situated on Saint Laurent Boulevard. On the Orange Line, Place-d'Armes station is also nearby.

Redevelopment and construction

The corner of Saint Lawrence and Saint Catherine streets is still known as a red-light district, although its days appear numbered as a proposed $167-million development is slated to transform the area, now part of the city's new Quartier des Spectacles. In 2007 and 2008, a section of the street between Sherbrooke street and Mont-Royal avenue underwent extensive construction work, which forced some businesses to close.

Notes

References

*Podmore, Julie. 1999. ''St. Lawrence Boulevard as a Third City: Place, Gender and Difference along Montréal's 'Main'.'' PhD Dissertation: McGill University. *Tremblay, Michel. 1976. ''Sainte Carmen de la Main''. Montréal: Leméac. *Richler, Mordecai. 1969. ''The Street''. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. *Wolofsky, Sandy. Feb 14, 2005 "I've got ink in my veins:I never met him, but my great-grandfather has inspired my life's work" Maclean's Magazine

External links

Société de développement du boulevard St-LaurentA list of all restaurants along boulevard St-LaurentParks Canada - Boulevard Saint-Laurent''Our Street Was Paved with Gold''
a 1973 NFB documentary on The Main

* ttps://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060617.STREET17/TPStory/Travel/?pageRequested=all ''Globe and Mail'' article on The Mainbr>Montreal Mirror: History Passing us by
* *
Pictures of Saint Lawrence boulevard on Image Montreal IMTL.org
{{Coord, 45.510161, N, 73.564426, W, source:frwiki_region:CA, format=dms, display=title Boulevards in Montreal Downtown Montreal Quartier des spectacles Le Plateau-Mont-Royal Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension Ahuntsic-Cartierville Culture of Montreal Ethnic enclaves in Quebec Historic Jewish communities in Canada Shopping districts and streets in Canada National Historic Sites in Quebec Tourist attractions in Montreal Jews and Judaism in Montreal Historic districts in Canada Yiddish culture in Quebec