The facilities date to the 1930s and were nicknamed camilliennes after then-mayor Camillien Houde, who had them built as make-work projects.
Renovations of historic Place d’Armes have uncovered more than crushed crockery, the city’s first well and church walls from a bygone era.
They’ve also unearthed a public washroom.
The city has just completed a $15.5-million rejigging of the Old Montreal square to bring it back to its former glory.
Workers excavating the area uncovered the original walls of the city’s first church — one that predates Notre Dame Basilica — and the first well used by early residents, the Puits Gadbois.
As for the public washroom, it dates back 80 years and has been closed for 30.
Gone the way of the Dodo bird, public bathrooms were places where Montrealers could relieve themselves before fast-food restaurants with tidy washrooms were invented.
Named vespasiennes — after the Roman emperor who introduced public urinals in Rome during his reign (AD 69-79) — Montreal once boasted more than 20 of these restrooms.
The majority were built just after the Great Depression as a make-work project instigated by Mayor Camillien Houde.
Locals called them Camilliennes, not the best way for a flamboyant mayor to be remembered.
They were built around the same time as many of the city’s public baths, with an emphasis on hygiene when many homes lacked running water.
The Place d’Armes pissoire, as these kinds of public structures were called in Paris, was completed in 1934 and boasted men’s and women’s facilities, complete with an attendant to keep the place clean and safe.
The facility was put underground so it didn’t deter from the view of the historic square or the busy traffic because of the nearby Craig St. (now St. Antoine St.) tram terminal. A ventilation tower and stairs were the only indication of what lay underneath the square.
Designed by architect Jean Omer Marchand in the clean lines of the Art Deco style to reflect the economic constraints of the time – no elaborate doodads or useless flourishes – the Place d’Armes vespasienne cost $51,255.
The bathroom was open 365 days a year from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. There were eight stalls and 10 urinals for men and 11 stalls for women. Each segregated bathroom had six sinks and a water fountain. The entire underground structure was 270 square metres.
Two large granite entrances allowed natural light into the heated washrooms, which were equipped with glass block windows, a relative oddity in 1930s Montreal, said Michel Devoy, with the city of Montreal parks department.
“This was a changing spot for all sorts of passengers using the tram so it was very busy,” Devoy added.
In the 1960s, Place d’Armes was renovated, but the bathrooms remained, though with a migration of the financial sector up to Dorchester Blvd. (René Lévesque) and the building of the métro, there was less foot and public transit in the vicinity.
In the 1970s, the need and cost of vespasiennes led to their demise. Some of the above-ground ones were torn down; others, like the one in Dominion Square, were filled in. The entrance to that washroom now houses an icecream and coffee stand during the summer months.
The Place d’Armes vespasienne had become rundown, dirty and the scene of dodgy behaviour.
“It was closed in 1980 for moral and cleanliness reasons,” Devoy said.
“Drugs weren’t the problem, but people were playing dice in there, craps,” he said with a laugh.
The powers that be left the facility whole and merely walled up the two entrances and planted over them. The Place d’Armes vespasienne is the only intact structure of its kind remaining.
When Montreal decided to revamp the square and make it more people-friendly, as befits the 1693 roots of this meeting place, the city commissioned a study looking at the feasibility of restoring the bathrooms.
The age of the structure precluded patrimony status, and the costs of the renovations would be prohibitive.
Plus, there are plenty of options these days for anyone needing a restroom, in the various restaurants and buildings around Place d’Armes.
The city uses part of the underground space for storage, and the toilets and sinks were removed for safety reasons.
For now, the public can’t go down to see the vespasienne. A rag-tag bunch of journalists were let in for a once-only tour on Thursday.
Helen Fotopulos, who handles culture and patrimony on the city’s executive committee, said that if someone came up with the money to fix up the site and make it safe, it might be feasible to open it for public visits in the future.
So the next time you’re standing in Place d’Armes, admiring the newly buffed and cleaned statue of Sieur Paul de Chomedy Maisonneuve, just think: There’s more beneath your feet than just paving stones.