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A year-long celebration to mark the centennial of Park Extension as a community got underway in Athena Park on July 3, with band music, speeches by dignitaries, flags of many nations, and a theatrical re-enactment featuring historical characters from Park Extension’s illustrious past.
Acting the part
For those who might question whether Park Extension has an illustrious past, actors were on hand to establish that fact. They played the roles of George Ball (an early 20th century wood merchant turned speculator who is credited with putting together the land which was first known as the Park Avenue Extension); and the Abbé Alexandre Lebeau (a Catholic priest who was the first pastor at the Église Saint-Roch).
Ball’s legacy lives on as a street in Park Extension, Ball Avenue, named after him. Historical society president Mary McCutcheon, who is largely responsible for planting the seeds which blossomed into the centennial celebration, said the group’s goal this year will be “to tell people about the fact that Park Extension actually has a beginning.”
What Park Ex is about
Part of the program was the sendoff in Athena Park, she added, declaring it an excellent start. “From 1910 up until now, the face of Park Extension has changed a lot,” said Borough Mayor Anie Samson. “But what has remained unchanging over the years has been the willingness of the many communities who established themselves here to make themselves feel at home in an area where the living is good.”
“This is what Park Ex is all about,” said local city councillor Mary Deros. “Every time there’s a celebration of any community, we all come out and celebrate together. A hundred and one different cultural communities. That’s the rich cultural diversity of Park Extension … This is just the beginning of our hundred years celebration. It will continue for a whole year.”
A Park Exer at heart
After drawing the attention of the actor playing George Ball, Laurier-Dorion Liberal MNA Gerry Sklavounos pointed out that his first home in Park Extension was at 560 Ball Ave. “We’re from everywhere in the world and today we celebrate all together,” he said, noting at the same time, as did many others, that part of the area’s history includes the fact that Athena Park is still known to older Park Exers as Greenshields Park.
Former MP and Senator for the area Marcel Prud’homme wore a Park Extension Youth Organization (PEYO) windbreaker that was given to him by the group more than four decades ago. Among the many former Park Exers who learned of the centennial celebration through announcements posted by organizers on the Internet and through various social media sites, was Bob Benedetti, the former mayor of Beaconsfield. Prior to that, Benedetti was a broadcast journalist at CFCF TV, which for many years was also located in Park Ex.
Benedetti comes home
Since the mid-1940s when he was around five years old, Benedetti lived on Querbes, Wiseman and Ogilvy avenues. While he left Park Ex for good when he was 20 years old, Benedetti’s mother remained a resident into the 1990s on Ogilvy. He remembers Park Extension when it was a relatively new neighborhood of Montreal and there was no development north of Jarry.
After living in the area for so long, Benedetti spent a quarter-century working at the CFCF headquarters, which were at 405 Ogilvy Ave. from 1960 until 2003. After being vacant for the past six years or so, the building now houses several businesses and organizations, including the Villeray/St-Michel/Park Extension borough hall.