National Historic Site of Canada

The Main National Historic Site of Canada

Also known as Saint-Laurent Boulevard, Boulevard Saint-Laurent

One block of this Historic District.
Photo: Parks Canada Parcs Canada 1996 (Gordon Fulton)

Recognized: 1996
By: Government of Canada

The register’s text, word for word

Description

The Main is a 6-kilometre long district along Boulevard Saint Laurent in Montreal from la rue de la Commune in the south to la rue Jean-Talon in the north where consecutive waves of immigrants settled, establishing businesses and homes. The district is characterized by a mixture of small factories, shops, theatres and restaurants established and developed over time by numbers of peoples from a variety of ethnic backgrounds.

Heritage value

The Main (Boulevard Saint Laurent) was designated because:

the district is a special place in Canada speaking to the emergence and development of cultural communities representative of Canadian society as a whole;
as the immigrants' corridor, the district's cosmopolitan character and the constant renewal brought about by the merging and mixing of cultures and aesthetics give it a very special sense of place;
with its textile and clothing factories, its numerous small businesses and the world of the theatre and entertainment, it has evolved a way of life that has inspired novelists, poets, singers, and film-makers.

The heritage value of the district resides in its association with successive waves of immigrants and their efforts to establish lives in Canada. The district is characterized by a variety of functional building types, usually of a modest scale, and their successive redevelopment by numbers of peoples from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, imparting to the district a distinctly cosmopolitan flavour.

SourceHistoric Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, June 1996.

Register entry

No. 1813

Recognition: National Historic Site of Canada
Recognized by: Government of Canada
Statute: Historic Sites and Monuments Act
Date recognized: June 5, 1996
Historic function: Settlement
Themes: Extraction and Production, Migration and Immigration
Address: Saint Laurent Street (de la Commune- Jean Talon), Montréal, Quebec, H2T, Canada

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Cite this entry

Reference

“The Main National Historic Site of Canada.” Heritage Guide, Canadian Register of Historic Places entry 1813. https://heritageguide.ca/the-main-national-historic-site-of-canada-montreal-quebec.

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://heritageguide.ca/the-main-national-historic-site-of-canada-montreal-quebec |title=The Main National Historic Site of Canada |website=Heritage Guide |id=Canadian Register of Historic Places entry 1813}}

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Character‑defining elements

The elements that characterize the heritage value of the district include:

the linear quality of the 6-kilometre stretch of street;
the evolutionary nature of the streetscape with buildings dating from many time periods;
the modest scale of most structures;
a variety of functional building types including small factories, shops, restaurants,- theatres, as well as religious, institutional and community structures;
the orientation of most buildings to the street;
a preponderance of masonry structures;
a strong presence in certain sectors of Montreal's "urban vernacular", 2 to 3 storey structures with grey Montréal stone facades and brick party walls;
the variety and constant evolution of aesthetic expression.

End of the register’s text