Montréal, Québec, Canada (Sault-au-Récollet) (Côte-St-Michel) (Côte-St-Paul)
1895 - Montreal

Montreal, a city of the province of Quebec, Canada, the commercial metropolis of the Dominion of Canada, situated on the S. side of the Island of Montreal, in the St. Lawrence River (here above 2 miles wide), 180 miles S.W. of Quebec, 620 miles from the sea, and 420 miles N. of New York. Lat. 45° 31' N.; Lon. 73° 34' W. It is at the head of ocean navigation, and at the commencement of lake and river navigation, and has railway communication with the chief cities of Canada and the United States.

The Island of Montreal, on which the town is built, is situated at the confluence of the Ottawa with the St. Lawrence. It is 32 miles long, by about 10 miles broad at the widest part.

Montreal occupies a low tract of land about 2 miles wide between a beautiful elevation, called "Mount Royal," and the river. It is divided into 9 wards. Some of the streets are narrow and ill paved, but the majority will compare favorably with those of any city. The principal streets have large well-built edifices, constructed chiefly of lime stone quarried near the city. These buildings, combined with the effect of the lofty towers and spires, give the city a very imposing appearance.

The principal buildings are the city hall, court-house, post-office, custom-house, seminary of St. Sulpice, convent of Notre Dame, general hospital, Grey Nunnery, Montreal College, McGill University, St. Mary's College, Young Men's Christian Association building, Theatre Royal, Dominion theatre, medical school, Victoria skating-rink, Protestant House of Industry and Refuge, St. Bridget's House of Refuge, Protestant Orphan Asylum, St. Patrick's Orphan Asylum, deaf and dumb asylums (Protestant and Catholic), the Hôtel-Dieu, Ladies’ Benevolent Institution, Female Home, Protestant Infants' Home, Queen's Hall, Mechanics Hall, barracks, drill-shed, Sailors' Institute, St. George's Home, St. Andrew's Home, St. James' Club, Crystal Palace, Montreal telegraph office, &c., and 8 markets, including the Bonsecours, a magnificent pile with a lofty dome. There are also a Society of Natural History, a Mechanics' Institute, a Canadian Institute, Merchants' Exchange, Mercantile Library, Board of Trade, Corn Exchange, &c., and 58 churches. The cathedral of Notre Dame is capable of containing from 10,000 to 12,000 persons. It is 255 feet long and 145 feet broad, with two towers 220 feet in height. In the N.E. tower is a fine chime of bells, and in the N.W. is a bell weighing 29,400 lbs. Christ Church cathedral, a very fine example of Gothic architecture, is built of Montreal limestone with Caen stone dressings. The church of Gesu, a very imposing edifice, is 230 feet long and 102 feet wide, with a transept 152 long. The walls and ceiling of the interior are beautifully frescoed. Another magnificent pile is the Roman Catholic Bishop's Church,--St. Peter's, —after a model of its namesake in Rome. Trinity, St. George, St. Andrew, St. Paul, and the majority of the other churches are handsome edifices. The largest banking houses in the Dominion have their head offices in Montreal, and have very handsome and costly structures. The harbor of Montreal, which is formed towards the St. Lawrence, is secure, and the quays are built of limestone, and, uniting with the locks and cut-stone wharves of the La. chine Canal, present for several miles a display of continuous masonry. A broad terrace, faced with gray limestone, the parapets of which are surmounted with a substantial iron railing, divides the city from the river throughout its whole extent. Improvements in the harbor are yearly being made to accommodate the large increase of shipping.

Among the manufactories are foundries of iron, distilleries, breweries, sugar-refineries, soap- and candle-works, manufactories of hardware, carriages and sleighs, corn brooms, wooden-ware, glass, paints and drugs, edge-tools, locomotives, steam-engines, boilers, india-rubber goods, printing-presses, agricultural implements, musical instruments, paper, rope, sewing-machines, types, pins, tobacco, woollen and cotton goods, boots and shoes, &c. There are, besides, saw- and flouring-mills, rolling-mills, lead-works, brass-foundries, and many other industrial establishments.

This city is the terminus of 2 divisions of the Grand Trunk Railway, and other railways connect it with Quebec and Ottawa. The head offices and chief works of the Grand Trunk are at Point St. Charles, a suburb in the western part of the city. The Victoria bridge (built 1854–59) here spans the river St. Lawrence. It is 9184 lineal feet in length,—24 spans of 242 feet each, and one (the centre, 60 feet above the river) of 330 feet. The bridge cost nearly $7,000,000.

The city has about 20 banks, 4 savings-banks, 40 assurance and insurance agencies, 3 medical schools, 2 general hospitals, an asylum for aged and infirm women, 3 orphan asylums, a lying-in hospital, 2 magdalen asylums, a dispensary, a ladies' benevolent society, 2 houses of refuge, an infants' home, a newsboys' home, and a number of institutions under charge of Sisters of Charity. There are published 7 daily, 4 tri-weekly, 17 weekly, 1 fortnightly, and 15 monthly newspapers and periodicals, besides religious and scientific journals.

The educational means of the city comprise a university with faculties of law, art, science, and medicine, a Roman Catholic theological college, a Jesuit college, a high school, 2 normal schools, several classical and scientific academies, and a number of private and public schools; also 2 affiliated medical colleges, one to Bishop's College, Lennoxville, the other to Victoria College, Cobourg.

Montreal returns three members to the House of Commons and three to the Provincial Legislature. It is the seat of an Anglican and a Roman Catholic bishop. The climate in summer is hot, often reaching 90° in the shade, and the winters are severe, the temperature ranging very often from zero to 10° and even 30° below it. Pop. in 1844, 44,093; in 1851, 37,715; in 1861, 90,323; in 1871, 107,225; in 1881 (area increased), 155,237; in 1891,216,650, composed chiefly of French Canadians, English, Irish, and Scotch.

On the 3d of October, 1535, Jacques Cartier first landed here, and found an Indian village called Hochelaga. Cartier named the place Mount Royal. It first began to be settled by Europeans in 1542, and exactly one century after wards the spot destined for the city was named Ville Marie, a name which it retained for a long period. In 1760 it was taken by the English. At this time it was surrounded by a wall flanked with eleven redoubts, a ditch, a fort, and a citadel. Montreal is surrounded by villages whose united population numbers over 20,000.

Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World Containing Notices of Over One Hundred and Twenty-five Thousand Places ... Joseph Thomas January 1, 1895 J.B. Lippincott

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