For over three centuries of history, each founding people marked its territoriy around a symbolic axis : Saint Lawrence boulevard, "The Main", demarcation line between the two "worlds" and starting point for the numbering of addresses. French and English each brought their own way of building homes.
The square Let’s go to St-Louis Square. Traditionally English, the square is a little place surrounded by lovely houses and rows of trees. In the center, a statue or fountain dominates a carpet of grass with diagonal walkways, also bordered by trees.
The Rural House Traditionally French, the rural house becomes a city house. You can find them here and there throughout the district, each an original with dormer windows, slanted roof and long galleries.
The town house and terrace The townhouse and terrace came to be around the middle of the XIXth century (1840-1870). These houses are inspired by the English and Scottish models. They are row houses, adjacent to each other and separated by a party wall. The townhouse is a single family dwelling with rooms on 2, 3 or 4 storeys. The terrace is a serie of townhouses presenting one architectural unit. It regroups at least three houses and formsan homogenous unit. These buildings have either a pitched roof with dormer windows, an attic or false attic or a flat roof with cornices. The facades, in cut grey stone and with great sobriety, are adorned with a porch or an awning with neo-classical pediments over a few arches. You can find an example of a terrace on Cherrier street.
The alleys The alley, a kind of little street, from a secondary network giving access to the backyards of row houses. They allow easy delivery of wood and coal for heating, garbage pick-up and easy access for firefighters in case of a fire. The alley became for many children their playground, as well as shortcuts for pedestrians and cyclists. At the turn of the century, all kinds of roving trades - ice salesmen, rag collectors, cissor sharpeners, fruit and vegetable vendors - ply their trade in these alleys rather than on the streets.
The Urban parc The urban park also comes from the English garden tradition. The fresh air space for the neighbourhood, it often has many separateactivity areas : playground for the children, walkways, waterways. It is bordered by magnificent houses such as those on L’Esplanade in front of Jeanne Mance Park, or those on Parc-Lafontaine street in front of the park of the same name.
Commercial presence On the commercial streets, the buildings have boutiques on the ground level and the windows are right off the sidewalk. Access to the upper lodgings is through a door hidden between shop windows, with a long indoor staircase.
The street corner Buildings on corners are privileged because they have access to two streets and have two walls open to sunlight. They are often more ornate, with turrets, corner balconies or imaginative architectural detailing. There are also typical corner stores, such as fruit store, tobacco store or snack bar, their door on the street corner at a 45° angle, facing each other accross the street.
Victorian Exuberance From 1880 to 1915, a wave of Victorian excess hit Montreal : houses are ornate, from the most refined to the most garish. Some ornaments are sculpted on site by skilled artisans, but most are made in factories and bought through the catalogue. In this period, you can buy through the catalogue cornices and pediments in wood or tin, friezes, columns, plaster capitals and great variety of wooden pieces made in factories : stairway and balcony railings and consoles, door and window casings and all kind of mouldings. Once the decorative elements have been chosen, all that is left to do is assemble according to the taste and imagination for the builder or owner. The diverse combinations, colours and forms create an urban decor which is whimsical, picturesque and original.
The cottage These single family houses are also from the traditional English cottage. They present a great diversity of facades, with or without balconies, and often with a bay window. You enter by a few steps leading to an individual entrance often protected by a porch, an awning or a wooden drum. On the main floor are the living quarters : parlour, dining room and kitchen. A winding wooden staircase leads to the bedrooms upstairs.
Row houses (duplex et triplex) From the fusion of the English terrasse and the Scottish flat (a one-level apartment occupying an entire floor) are born the Montreal duplex and triplex, two and three storey buildings, with superimposed lodgings and one or two lodgings per storey. The row duplex and triplex become the lodgings typical to Montreal and the Plateau. Several different models exist, depending on the social standing of the occupants, from the more modest working-class lodgings to the most luxurious bourgeois houses. The facades are crowned with wooden cornices, worked tin or false attics. Depending on the model, the facade is plain and simple or rich and ornate. The exterior balconies and stairs are reminders of the large wooden galleries of the rural houses. As well, building exterior staircases is a money saver as well as a space saver, but it is first and foremost a cultural trait. For the Francophones, the stairway became a social setting reflecting their latin mentality and conviviality, reminiscent of rural life. They also allow each lodging to have its own entrance. They have become one of the most original characteristics of the Plateau. Duplex and triplex will now adorn their facades with all kinds of stairs : straight, L or S shaped, single or double and will be characteristic of the Plateau Mont-Royal. Exterior stairs will be forbidden in the 1940’s due to pressure from the elite who are shocked by this folklore. In the back, directly accessible by the balcony or a footbridge are grey tin sheds, with a small wooden service staircase inside.
The worker duplex Progressively, in the working class neighbourhoods, an authentic and original architecture is created. It is a result of the fusion of several traditions, English and French, urban and rural. The workers duplex is built onto the sidewalk. A porte-cochere, a kind of tunnel going all the way through the building, gives access to the backyard from the street. It is a two storey building, sometimes with two semi-attached houses, built on the same lot. The workers duplex is characterised by a plain red brick front, generally without a balcony or sometimes with a balcony over the sidewalk. On the sidewalk level, there are two doors side by side, one opening into the first floor lodging and the other onto an indoor stairway leading to the upper lodgings. Because of the porte-cochere, the first floor lodging is reduced to only 3 rooms, while the upper lodging has 4 rooms. From the back gallery, stairs give access to the backyard.
The two and three lodgings Duplex The duplex has two or three storeys with one lodging on the first floor and one or two on the upper levels. Access to the upper storey is by an exterior staircase.
The three lodging Triplex The three lodging triplex has three storeys with one lodging per storey. The exterior staircase leads to the second floor and an interior staircase leads to the third floor. Inside, the ceilings are 2.8 to 3 meters high, with big sash windows, wooden casings around the doors and windows, ceiling cornices and wooden floors.
The five to six lodgings Triplex These buildings have three storeys with one or two lodgings on the first floor and two lodgings per storey. Its main characteristic is its long pillared balcony on all three storeys. The exterior stairs lead to the second floor balcony which has 3 doors, one for each lodging on the second floor and one for the stairway leading to the two lodgings on the third floor. The adjacent lodgings on each floor have 4 rooms in a row along a lateral hallway. A gallery leads to the shed in which a service staircase leads to the back alley.
