St. Anne's Market () was a public

auction house An auction house is a business establishment that facilitates the buying and selling of assets, such as works of art and collectibles. Overview The auction house is the physical facility where the objects are catalogued, displayed, and presented ...

located at Place d'Youville in

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 1844 to 1849, it served as the home of the

Legislative Council A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...

and Assembly during the pre-

Confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

era. On April 25, 1849, the building was burned down by

Loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...

rioters.

History

The original St. Anne's Market was built in 1832 to accommodate produce stalls in Old Montreal. Merchants sold fruit, vegetables, grains, meat, and fish in approximately 60 stalls. The two-storey, Georgian building was designed by John Wells and

Francis Thompson Francis Joseph Thompson (16 December 1859 – 13 November 1907) was an English poet and Catholic mystic. At the behest of his father, a doctor, he entered medical school at the age of 18, but at 26 left home to pursue his talent as a writer a ...

and was built atop a section of the Little River. The market was acquired by the municipal government in 1842, and became the first permanent

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seat of government after the parliament was moved in 1844 from

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to Montreal; the first legislative session at the St. Anne's Market site was held on November 28, 1844. A new wooden building was built to house a new replacement market directly north and on east side of rue St. Pierre. After the Parliament fire in 1849 St Anne’s returned to that site and the wood replacement became a fish market. The fish market gave way to Central Fire Station in 1904 an now used as Centre d'histoire de Montréal). The passage of the

Rebellion Losses Bill The Rebellion Losses Bill (full name: ''An Act to provide for the Indemnification of Parties in Lower Canada whose Property was destroyed during the Rebellion in the years 1837 and 1838'') was a controversial law enacted by the legislature of ...

on the night of April 25, 1849, led to the sacking and arson of the St. Anne's Market parliamentary building. The fire, set by

rioters attempting to disrupt an ongoing Assembly session, spread to nearby building and burned rapidly. Firefighters sent to respond to the fire at St. Anne's Market were slowed by mobs of rioters, leading to the building's total destruction within two hours. Over 23,000 volumes in the parliamentary library, as well as the partial archives of Upper Canada and Lower Canada, were lost in the fire. The parliament reconvened the following day, April 26, at the

Bonsecours Market Bonsecours Market () is a two-story domed public market located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada at 350 Rue Saint-Paul in Old Montreal. For more than 100 years, it was the main public market in the Montreal area. It also briefly accommodated the Parl ...

, where the business of the session was finished. The capital then alternated between

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and

Québec City Quebec City is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a population of 839,311. It is the twelfth -lar ...

until moving permanently to

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

. A new stone market building, designed by George Browne, was built at the site in 1851. It was later expanded to house a

fish market A fish market is a marketplace for selling Fish as food, fish and fish products. It can be dedicated to wholesale trade between Fisherman, fishermen and fish merchants, or to the sale of seafood to individual consumers, or to both. Retail fish ma ...

and warehouses. The second market was destroyed in 1901 and later replaced with a

parking lot A parking lot or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface. In most jurisdi ...

at the newly created Place d'Youville. Since 2010, the parking lot has been the site of an

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

excavation by the

Pointe-à-Callière Museum Pointe-à-Callière Museum (, ) is a museum of archaeology and history in Old Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was founded in 1992 as part of celebrations to mark Montreal's 350th birthday. The museum has collections of artifacts from the First Natio ...

, unearthing artifacts lost during the 1849 fire. To celebrate the 375th anniversary of Montreal's founding, the city plans to open part of the collector sewer beneath the site of St. Anne's Market in 2017.

References

{{Coord, 45.5005, N, 73.5560, W, format=dms, type:landmark_region:CA-QC, display=title 1903 disestablishments in Quebec History of Montreal John Wells (architect) buildings Demolished buildings and structures in Montreal Buildings and structures in Canada destroyed by arson