Saint Lawrence Boulevard
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There is also a Boulevard Saint-Laurent in Gatineau, see Boulevard Saint-Laurent (Gatineau)
Saint Lawrence Boulevard or boulevard Saint-Laurent (its official name, in French) is a major street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A commercial artery and cultural heritage site, the street runs north-south through the near-centre of city and is nicknamed The Main and Montreal's third city.
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[edit] The Main
Beginning at De la Commune Street at the edge of the Saint Lawrence River, it crosses the whole island through the boroughs of Ville-Marie, Le Plateau-Mont-Royal, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension, and Ahuntsic-Cartierville to Gouin Boulevard at the edge of Rivière des Prairies– a total length of about 11.25 kilometres.
St. Laurent Street became a boulevard in 1905, and is affectionately referred to as The Main by many Montrealers. It serves as the city's physical division of east and west. 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 southern section of the street in downtown Montreal and the Plateau is lined with trendy shops and restaurants, and is the site of many street-fairs and festivals. What were once run-down factories have been turned into expensive lofts. Saint Lawrence Boulevard is representative of Montreal's shift out of the economic decline in the 1980s and 90s, since the first referendum on Quebec sovereignty.[citation needed] The corner of Saint Lawrence and Saint Catherine streets is still known as a red-light district.
[edit] Culture
The street divides Montreal by language, ethnicity, and class. Saint Lawrence was for generations the symbolic dividing line for the city; English to the west, French Canadians to the east, and immigrant communities in between. It runs through many of Montreal's ethnic communities. The Main has been a first stop for immigrant communities for over 100 years- initially Jewish, Chinese and Italian, and later Portuguese, Greek, Arab, Haitian and others.
In 2002, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada named Saint Lawrence Boulevard a national historic district of Canada. Then Minister of Heritage, Sheila Copps, speaking at the ceremony stated, "our country does not belong to just two founding peoples. It belongs to all Canadians. [This is] a first step toward a new story of Canada that includes all of our partners as equals." [1]
The Main has produced many of Canada's most prolific individuals in the arts and has acted as a memory space. Novelists Mordecai Richler and Michel Tremblay, Poets Irving Layton, A.M. Klein and Leonard Cohen, were all influenced by this area. Canada's most prestigious award for fiction, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, was named after journalist Doris Giller, a native to the area.
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/Reach across this great divide".
Today, Saint Lawrence is home to Little Italy (between Saint Zotique and Jean-Talon streets), Montreal's Chinatown (between Viger Street and René Lévesque Boulevard), a bar district (roughly between Sherbrooke and Duluth streets), and Montreal's Little Portugal, at the corner of Saint Lawrence and Rachel street.
Numerous Art Galleries and other cultural organizations make their home on The Main. Some, but by no means all are Zeke's Gallery, La Centrale/Powerhouse (Canada's oldest women's artsist run centre), Ethnik-art, Ex-Centris, The Festival du Nouveau Cinema, Festival International Nuits d'Afrique, the Montreal Fringe Festival, Image & Nation Festival, and Sensation Mode. Many well known music venues can be found on The Main, including Zeke's Gallery, Casa del Popolo, Sala Rosa, Club Soda, Barfly, Jupiter Room, Main Hall, Club Lambi, The Academy Club and Divan Orange. The street is also home to the National Theatre School as well as the Ex-Centris cinema complex, adjacent to the offices of Softimage. Gastronomic highlights include Montreal's famous smoked meat deli, Schwartz's, Bagel's Etc., Euro Deli, Maestro SVP, Moishe's, Patati Patata, and Prato.
Each year, a street fair closes The Main from Sherbrooke Street to Mount Royal Avenue twice, once to begin the summer in mid June, and a second time to close it the weekend before Labour Day.
There is a novel by Trevanian titled The Main that is set in this district of Montreal.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Hamilton, Graeme. "'The Main' Acknowledged as Historic Site." National Post. 28 September 2002, page A5.
[edit] 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.
[edit] External links
- Société de développement du boulevard St-Laurent
- Parks Canada - Boulevard Saint-Laurent
- A series of CBC Daybreak Montreal broadcasts about The Main with Historian Pierre Anctil
- Restaurants along boulevard St. Laurent
- Montreal Mirror: History Passing us by
- Jewish Bulletin: Remembering "The Main", 4 October 2002
- Pictures of Saint Lawrence boulevard on Image Montreal IMTL.org
