Verdun ( , ) is a borough (arrondissement) of the city of Montreal, Quebec, located in the southeastern part of the island. From 1907 to 2002, Verdun was a separate municipality from Montreal.
Long known as a working class neighbourhood, it has experienced significant gentrification and social change in the 21st century.
Etymology The borough's name originates from the seigneurial fief of Verdun established by Zacharie Dupuy, an early settler from the Saverdun region in France.
History Early history
There is archaeological evidence of indigenous peoples in the area as early as 5,500 years ago. A portage along what is now the boulevard LaSalle was used to pass the Lachine Rapids.
A trading post was established at nearby Fort Ville-Marie in 1611 and colonization of the Island of Montreal began in 1642. In 1664 the Île-Saint-Paul (now Nuns' Island) became a seigneury.
The first colonial settlers were militiamen granted concessions in 1665 in exchange for defence against the Iroquois. Afterwards, the area was known as Côte-des-Argoulets (Sharpshooter's Ridge), in reference to the arquebus, an infantry gun. The settlement was where the grande Saint-Pierre river drained Lac à la Loutre into the St. Lawrence River. The lake has since been filled to create the Turcot rail yard, and the St. Pierre partly covered over and partly integrated with canals.
In 1671, the Fief of Verdun is created when land is granted to Zacharie Dupuy, who derived the name Verdun from his native village of Saverdun in France. Two years later he donated the land to the Congrégation de Notre-Dame, who in 1710 built the building now preserved as the Maison Nivard-De Saint-Dizier. This house is named for Étienne Nivard Saint-Dizier, whose father bought the lands from the nuns in 1769."Le voisinage Crawford." Grand répertoire du patrimoine bâti de Montréal. Accessed 1 July 2011.
Following the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701, farmers settled along Lower Lachine Road (now boulevard LaSalle), which connected Fort Ville-Marie with Lachine.
Around 1800, Chemin de la Rivière-Saint-Pierre (now rue de l'Église) was opened."Le noyau institutionnel et commerçant de Verdun." Grand répertoire du patrimoine bâti de Montréal. Accessed 1 July 2011. The Canal de l'Aqueduc, now Verdun's northwestern boundary, was dug in 1854 to furnish Montreal with drinking water from the St. Lawrence."Secteur du canal de l'aqueduc." Grand répertoire du patrimoine bâti de Montréal. Accessed 1 July 2011.
In 1874, a group of local land-owners met in a farmhouse called Le Pavillon, located at the corner of Lower Lachine Road and Chemin de la Rivière-Saint-Pierre, and decided to found the village of Rivière-Saint-Pierre. Chartered by the government of Quebec, it became the municipality of Verdun the following year. Settlement had been hampered due to frequent flooding, but a dyke was built starting in 1896; its completion resulted in a population boom. The dyke itself became host to Verdun's popular Boardwalk, before land reclamation in the 70s led to the expansion of the waterfront park along the whole length of Verdun's riverbank.
The first Église Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs (now part of the school of the same name) was built in 1899, followed by a combined town hall, fire hall, and police station in 1908. The tramway also arrived in 1899, connecting Verdun to downtown. A larger Église Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs de Montréal was built in 1914.
20th century In 1881, the Montreal Hospital for the Insane was founded as a Protestant counterpart to the Catholic Hôpital Saint-Jean-de-Dieu (now Hôpital Louis-H.-Lafontaine) east of the city. It would be built on two farms, purchased in 1887 and 1907, in the western end of Verdun. Affiliated with McGill University in 1946, it was renamed the Douglas Hospital in 1965. Today, not only is it one of Verdun's largest public institutions, but its campus is one of the borough's most important greenspaces.
Verdun became a town in 1907 and a city in 1912. Between 1911 and 1924 the population tripled and urbanization expanded rapidly "westward" (according to "Montreal directions" - actually due southward), and the farms were divided for residential use. The Moffat area west of rue Desmarchais was built in with "plexes"—the typical Montreal layered apartment—between 1920 and 1930,"Le voisinage Moffat." Grand répertoire du patrimoine bâti de Montréal. Accessed 1 July 2011. and the Crawford Park area in the far west of the town was built starting in 1945, in a more suburban style unlike the orthogonal grid used in the rest of Verdun. The Verdun Natatorium was built in 1930, the Verdun Hospital in 1932, and the Verdun Auditorium in 1938.
The municipality of Île-Saint-Paul, occupying what was by then universally known as Nuns' Island or Île des Sœurs, was annexed to Verdun in 1956. Then a chiefly agricultural area, it was rapidly urbanized following the opening of the Champlain Bridge in 1962, with development including contributions by the famous Modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe."L'île des Soeurs." Grand répertoire du patrimoine bâti de Montréal. Accessed 1 July 2011. Rapid development would continue to the present day, with the erosion of the sensitive natural woodland of the Domaine Saint-Pierre becoming an increasingly pressing concern.
Back in Verdun proper, in the post-war period, the area around the church, along rue Wellington and rue de l'Église, became the nucleus of commercial development. A new city hall was built on Rue de Verdun in 1958."History and Heritage: Verdun City Hall." Ville de Montréal: Arrondissement de Verdun. Accessed 1 July 2011. The Green Line of the Montreal Metro was extended into Verdun in 1978, its construction delayed due to a collapse in rue Wellington during the construction of De l'Église station."De l'Église Metro: History and trivia." Metrodemontreal.com. Accessed 1 July 2011. Besides De l'Église in downtown Verdun and Verdun station in front of the town hall, LaSalle station was built in vacant land in a former industrial area in the east of the borough, left vacant by the demolition of the vast British Munitions Supply Co. facilities; the Metro station would become the heart of a new residential area called La Poudrière after the munitions factories."LaSalle Metro: History and trivia." Metrodemontreal.com. Accessed 1 July 2011.
However, improved access to downtown Montreal meant a decline in local commerce. A program of subsidies and revitalization starting in the 1990s reinvigorated the rue Wellington commercial corridor.
Verduners voted 68% "no" in the 1980 sovereignty referendum and 59.6% "no" in the 1995 referendum. In 1992, Verduners voted 53.66% in favour of the Charlottetown Accord.
21st century
In 2002, the municipal reorganization of Montreal saw the city of Verdun become a borough of Montreal. The majority of Verduners chose not to hold a demerger referendum in 2004-2006.
Earlier in the 20th century, Verdun was a partially dry community, with taverns, night clubs and cabarets banned since 1965, and alcohol sales restricted to restaurants with liquor licences, grocery stores and the SAQ."'Prohibition' in Verdun and the Scott Act." Ville de Montréal: Arrondissement de Verdun. Accessed July 1, 2011. In December 2010, the borough announced that it was planning to allow some microbreweries or performance spaces to sell alcohol. The ban was eventually lifted entirely in 2013, and today Verdun is home to many thriving microbreweries and bars.
In recent years, Verdun, along with the neighbouring Le Sud-Ouest borough, have experienced rapid gentrification and social change. Long considered to be one of the city's poorer neighbourhoods, it's today one of Montreal's most desirable areas to live, with a large influx of students and professionals arriving in the last decade.
In 2019, Verdun hosted a part of the Jazz Fest on Wellington Street, to much praise from the public and critics.
In 2020, it was listed as the eleventh "coolest" neighbourhood in the world by Time Out magazine.
Geography The borough of Verdun is partly located on the Island of Montreal, as well as including all of Nuns' Island.
The Montreal Island part of the borough is defined on its eastern side by the St. Lawrence River, and on the west by the Canal de l'Aqueduc. Several bridges cross the canal to connect Verdun with Ville-Émard and Côte-Saint-Paul. To the south it extends to Avenue Gérald and LaSalle. To the north it extends to Pointe-Saint-Charles and the Quebec Autoroute 15 which connects it to Nun's Island.
Neighbourhoods within Verdun include; Desmarchais-Crawford (also called West Verdun), which includes dense early 20th-century residential development, the sprawling Douglas Hospital campus, and the post-war suburban area of Crawford Park Wellington-De l'Église, the borough's commercial and institutional downtown surrounded with historically working-class blocks of two- and three-story "plexes" (duplexes, 3-, 4-, 5- and 6-plexes) with their characteristic winding staircases and balconies L'Île-des-Sœurs (Nuns' Island), located offshore, home to upscale condo developments and BCE's headquarters
Demographics Demographics of Verdun:
+Home language (2016) Language Population Percentage (%) French 41,085 64% English 13,880 22% Other languages 9,080 14%
+Mother tongue (2016) Language Population Percentage (%) French 40,120 61% English 10,870 17% Other languages 14,530 22%
In the early part of the 20th century, Verdun had a majority English-speaking population and until 1954 — when the 80,000 residents made Verdun the third largest city in Quebec— the anglophone and francophone populations were roughly equal.Population description It is now about two-thirds French-speaking.
+Visible Minorities (2016) Ethnicity Population Percentage (%) Not a visible minority 53,340 79.2% Visible minorities 13,995 20.8%
Economy
Verdun was historically a chiefly residential area; however, the late 1990s and 2000s saw a gradual revival of the Wellington Street commercial artery, with several shops, restaurants, and cafés opening.
Bell Canada is also headquartered in Verdun, on the northern tip of Nuns' Island."Contact Us ." Bell Canada. Retrieved on August 24, 2009.
Other commercial areas include Verdun Street, Church Street (rue de l'Eglise) and Commerce Place (Place du Commerce) on Nuns' Island.
The Montreal Highland Games, located in Verdun, bring visitors to the neighbourhood each August.
Transport Verdun has at least one protected bike lane along the entire length of Verdun street, as well as a path along the river. During the summer, Wellington Street fills up with pedestrians, and is closed to motorized traffic. By 2020, Wellington was considered one of the city's trendiest streets, comparable to Mount Royal Avenue in the Plateau, and hosted part of the Jazz Fest in 2019.
Cycling is also available along the Canal de l'Aqueduc on the opposite edge of the borough; on rue de Verdun; and around and through Nuns' Island, including the cycle-accessible Champlain Bridge ice structure connecting to Île Notre-Dame and the south shore.
Verdun is served by Quebec Autoroutes 15 and 20, which skirt the northern and eastern edges of its mainland portion and merge with Autoroute 10 on Nuns' Island. The island is connected to the Island of Montreal and the South Shore via the Champlain Bridge.
The borough is contemplating the possibility of building a service bridge between the Island of Montreal and Nuns' Island. The bridge would connect Boul. Marguerite-Bourgeoys on Nuns' Island with Rue Galt in mainland Verdun. It would be accessible to city services, public transit, cyclists, and pedestrians."Report by the special committee examining the appropriateness of building a bridge connecting the two shores of the Verdun borough." Arrondissement de Verdun, July 2, 2008. Accessed July 4, 2011. Portland, Oregon's Tillikum Crossing is an example of this type of bridge.