Joe Beef Market, 2010

Message from the Point History Society and the PSC Community Theatre:

Joe Beef Market takes place this Saturday, September 11 th 2010, at the Joe Beef Park, located on Centre Street, at the corner of Richmond in Point St. Charles, from 10am until 4pm.

This event is a joint effort between the PSC Community Theatre and the Point History Society with the objective of bringing local History alive and having some fun doing it ! It is a real family event !

Some of the activities planned for this year include:

• Historical skits by the PSC Community Theatre, with actors dressed in period costumes, and highlighting both Joe Beef and Thomas C. Keefer. Each year we honour an individual that has a street named after him/her in the Point and this year it is Thomas Keefer. (A small part of Atwater St. in the Point was recently changed to Thomas Keefer Street)
• A number of Artisan Booths selling very interesting & unique goods
• Joe Beef will be serving Free Soup from noon until 1pm
• Some Irish music by Belfast-Andi
• Information booths from Parks Canada & the Montreal Fire Museum
• And much more…..

And this year, for the first time, we will also have an afternoon of free entertainment with a variety of singers; dancers, and other talent acts from both the Point – and other parts of the city.

There be lots of stuff to see and do, so if you have an opportunity, do drop by the Joe Beef Market this Saturday.

Griffintown is Waiting

Check out this wonderful article published in the Gazette, Griffintown is Waiting.  The Gazette also provides a list of interesting places in the neighbourhood that you can visit: Landmarks tell as story of a neighbourhood.

Residential Street Speed Limit Now 40 km/hr

The speed limit on residential streets in the Sud-Ouest arrondissement is now 40 KM/hr.

This includes some major roads such as Monk, Centre and Notre-Dame.  Some major streets/highways remain at 50 km/hr.   Speed limits near parks and schools are 30 km/hr.

For a complete map of the speed limits in the Sud-Ouest, click here. Additional information is available in English and French.

Fête des Voisins Solidaires. Villages des Tanneries. June 5, 2010.

Where: Village des Tanneries. Cazelais street and 780 St-Remi.

When: June 5, 2010. 1PM until 10 PM

A roster of bands will perform live on stage; a bazaar, a BBQ as well as a group photo exhibit and film screening about Turcot will take place. Local businesses and merchants are contributing food and $700 in prizes. Lucky winners will win supper with the borough mayor Benoit Dorais at restaurant Bitoque, luxury spa treatments, gift certificates as well as hourly door prizes. Proceeds of the $5 raffle tickets sold will help finance 2010 summer projects in the Village des Tanneries.

http://fetedesvoisins-solidaires.wikispaces.com/

Free Flowers and Shrubs for your Garden, 2010

The Sud-Ouest Arrondissement will be distributing free flowers and other plants on May 29th. The flowers and plants are distributed on a first-come first-served basis.  Get there early!  All that was left by 9:15 last year was a few shrubs and impatients.   The dogwood that I acquired last year is going strong.

Don’t forget to bring proof that you live in the Arrondiseement (ie. bill statement). This annual event is a great way to meet your neighbours and talk about gardening.

When: Saturday May 29th 2010. Starting at 9 AM…people start lining up around 8:45.

Where:

• Parc Sir-George-Étienne-Cartier (rue Notre-Dame Ouest)
• La Coalition de la Petite-Bourgogne (741, rue des Seigneurs)
• Le Centre Saint-Charles (1055, rue Hibernia)
• Le Parc Clifford (angle Hadley et Clifford à l’extrémité de la rue Laurendeau).

Mobilisation Turcot. Public Action-Manif. May 10, 2010.

Yves Bolduc must protect our health!

Public Action: Mobilisation Turcot

When: Monday May 10, 2010. 5:30 PM

Where:  Collège des Médecins du Québec. 2170, René Lévesque Ouest. Corner of Tupper (near metro Atwater)

More Information: http://www.mobilisation-turcot.info

Information Meeting: City of Montreal’s Turcot Proposal

Residents of the Sud-Ouest arrondissment are encouraged to attend an information meeting about the City of Montreal’s Turcot interchange proposal that was submitted to the MTQ last week.  This is an opportunity to learn more information about the proposal, and to ask officials questions about the proposal.

Date: Thursday Apri 29, 2010. 9:30 PM.
Location: Centre récréatif, culturel et sportif Saint-Zotique (CRCS).  75, square Sir-George-Étienne-Cartier.

Concordia Fine Arts Exhibitions

Every year students from the Concordia University studio arts program exhibit their thesis work, and studio work from the semester.  This year there are two exhibits in St-Henri.

Collision 6: MFA Thesis Exhibition

Steve Bates, Dan Gibbons, Nicole Grinstead, Tara Nicholson, Aaron Zak
Apr. 15 to 24 (Vernissage – Apr. 15 at 6 p.m.)
Parisian Laundry, 3550 St. Antoine St. W., 514-989-1056

Index: Photography Undergraduate Student Exhibition
Apr. 16 to 29
Les Ateliers Jean Brillant, 661 Rose-de Lima St.,theconcordiapsa@gmail.com

For more information about these exhibits and the other Concordia University studio arts exhibits throughout the city visit: http://finearts.concordia.ca/newsandevents/events/studio-arts-shows.php

OperationMontreal.Net

From the website of operationmontreal.net (City of Montreal)

“Montréal will be holding a large clean-up operation throughout the city. On April 24 and 25, participating radio stations will be visiting streets, alleys and parks, meeting with members of the community or groups who are pitching in to clean up certain areas of the city. Team up with your neighbours or friends and be part of this spring clean-up event. There are prizes to be won and fun to be had.”

To participate, visit: operationmontreal.net .

Riverside School

Picture yourself living in the working class Irish neighbourhood of Pointe-St-Charles in 1871, and the closest elementary school is over a 30 minute walk away in Griffintown. What to do? In 1871, over 272 citizens petitioned the Protestant School board to build a school that would accommodate over 500 children from the Point. Plenty of discussions and petitioning ensued, and five years later, Point St. Charles school was opened on Favard Street at the corner of Ste-Madeline . The school was renamed Riverside school in 1886.

Postcard. Collection BANQ.

Riverside school was enlarged in 1894 and 1907, to accommodate a growing population. Although the school was the centre of the community, the school had to be closed several times because of fire in 1927 and 1949.

Insurance plan of the area, 1940. Collection BANQ.

Due to dwindling enrolments in the 1970s, the school was closed in 1978, just two years after its centenary. Local citizens from the Pointe-St-Charles Intervention Group (PSCIG), wanted to save the building and turn it into cooperative housing in the early 1980s. In October 1982, the PSCIG was outbid by the City of Montreal for the building and land. The building was demolished, and transformed into Parc des Cheminots.

Parc des Cheminots, Google Streetview.

Sources:

City bid imperils Point homes plan. (1982, October 7). The Montreal Gazette. p. A3. Retrieved from: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Fr8DH2VBP9sC&dat=19821007&printsec=frontpage.

Damaged School Reopens Shortly; Six Buildings Under Construction. (1949, December 22). The Montreal Gazette. p.13. Retrieved from http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Fr8DH2VBP9sC&dat=19491222&printsec=frontpage

Macleod, R. & Poutanen, M. A.(2004). A meeting of the people: school boards and Protestant communities in Quebec, 1801-1998. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press.

Protestant board shuts more schools. (1978, March 16). The Montreal Gazette. p.2. Retrieved from March 16, 1978. Montreal Gazette. p.2.Retrieved from: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Fr8DH2VBP9sC&dat=19780316&printsec=frontpage.

Riverside School Not All Destroyed. (1927, March 2). The Montreal Gazette. p.4. Retrieved from http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Fr8DH2VBP9sC&dat=19270302&printsec=frontpage.

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I welcome any comments about this blog post, especially if anyone has memories of Riverside School.