Before being a large building project, Griffintown was an industrial district that saw birth of first large factories in Canada and before to be an industrial area it was a residential area separated in small part for houses, squeezed between Village St. Gabriel the faubourg des Récollets and Victoriatown.
The occupation of this sector is very old with institutions such as the St. Anne Church (now demolished) and the first College of Montreal (built in 1806 it was located near William Street. The last vestiges of this college became military barracks of necessity in 1862 were destroyed in 1974).
In year 1790, the sisters of the Hotel-Dieu sold a portion of this sector to Mary Griffin who will begin the subdivision. Is that the origin of the district name? Or is it the massive presence of Irish who occupied the district once, having Griffin as common name, proofed by all famous Irish people with this name involved in the life of Montreal in the second half of the nineteenth century.
With the increasing industrialization, the proximity to the first Montreal railroad and the entrance to the Lachine Canal, area was set for industries to settle in Griffintown. Most of industries were gathering around the Wellington Street. Mostly occupied by Irish immigrant, sector was a working class district and the quality life then deteriorating with each passing year.
Griffintown Village Project
The Davimco Company recently made public its draft for Griffintown development. Already owner of most lots and buildings by agreement, the developer intends to develop high-rise residential buildings joint to large commercial spaces. Far from being the final draft, project has his Special Planning derogations. Groups like Heritage Montreal call for prudence and respect of patrimonial buildings in the development while the Conseil du Patrimoine de Montréal severely criticise several consequences of the project as the disappearance of streets having more than 200 years old.The Conseil du Patrimoine also requires archaeological excavations for some islets.
The project covers an total area of 1.2 million square foot on the ground for a total of 5.3 million square foot square including storey. This project sustain nearly 3830 housing units (including 15% of social housing), close to one million square foot of commercial space, a performance hall of 3000 places and 200000 square foot of office space and around 5000 underground parking spaces. The presence of two hotels is also planned. For the city this is 33 million dollar annual tax revenue instead of the current 1.1.
The Village Griffintown project raises many reactions. We take this momentum to make a tour of heritage buildings and streets of this area south of Montreal downtown.