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About 40 Park Extension residents with a sense of curiosity about the history of their neighbourhood got a chance last Sunday to learn more during a guided walk of the area held in conjunction with the upcoming 100th anniversary of Park Extension.
The tour was organized by the Comité citoyen de Parc-Extension, Vrac environnement and the Park Extension Historical Society, on the same day that Jane’s Walks, a series of urban walking tours, were taking place in cities all over Canada, including Montreal. Park Extension’s origins date back at least to 1907, when a company, Park Realty, engaged in land speculation and bought three tracts beyond the northern end of Park Avenue in an undeveloped area.
A working class area
The tour of Park Extension started at what is probably the area’s most celebrated and historic building — Canadian Pacific’s former Park Avenue Station, which was built in 1931 during the Great Depression. Seen across from the station and on several of the nearby streets are huge, multi-storey industrial buildings which for decades housed dozens of clothing companies that hired thousands of workers from Park Extension.
With the Canadian apparel industry increasingly unable to compete with manufacturers from Asia, many of those buildings have been undergoing a gradual change of vocation. The local CLSC and some departments of the University of Montreal are among the new tenants. Ironically, Park Avenue Station, which is the property of Loblaw’s, is about to become a retail outlet for the company’s in-house brand of clothing, which is manufactured mostly in China.
The Empire Theatre
The next stop on the agenda was the former Empire Theatre at the corner of Durocher and Ogilvy avenues. Although it is now designated as a Greek community facility, the building is in a state of semi-abandonment and disrepair. All the same, the Empire is considered to be one of the few remaining artifacts of architectural importance in Park Extension.
According to local historian Jean-François Leclerc, who explained some of the history behind the theatre, the Empire was built around 1937, the same year Walt Disney released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was an era when the film industry was expanding its operations beyond downtown, with smaller theatres being located in neighbourhoods like Park Extension.
Art Deco influence
Although you could easily miss it, the Empire is an example of “art deco” design. “Now you may be asking yourselves what’s art deco in what you see here,” he said, pointing at the rundown building and getting a few laughs from the crowd. However, the exterior façade does include some art deco motifs inspired by ancient Egyptian and modern Cubist influences.
Although the building last served as a theatre in 1978, John Marshall, a longtime Querbes Avenue resident, recalled how decades ago the working class moms and dads who lived in Park Extension would drop the kids off at the Empire on Saturday mornings so that they could get a little shopping done. “There were three movies for 50 cents,” he said. “They would leave the children. Inside, the ushers would take care of them Saturday morning at 10 o’clock. You’d do your shopping in all the stores, then come back, and the kids would be waiting for you at 12 o’clock outside. It was a daycare centre for 50 cents. That’s how they worked it.”
Many churches in area
Today Park Ex has a number of churches which are considered historic, if only because of their age. The Église de Dieu de Bethel on Bloomfield at Ogilvy, which was built in 1928, was initially a Presbyterian church, although it eventually was taken over by an Armenian Apostolic congregation. Today it houses a congregation of Evangelical Christians of Haitian origin, whose services are known in the neighbourhood for being highly demonstrative.
The Greek church at the corner of Champagneur and St. Roch has an interesting distinction. It was designed by André Blouin, an important architect originally from France who did some important work on the pavilion of France at Expo 67, which is now the Montreal Casino. He also designed Place des Nations, where Expo 67’s opening and closing ceremonies were held and where memorable concerts have also been staged over the years.