Mont-Saint-Hilaire () is a suburb of Montreal on the South Shore of southeastern Quebec, Canada, on the Richelieu River in the Regional County Municipality of La Vallée-du-Richelieu. The population as of the Canada 2021 Census was 18,859. The city is named after the Mont Saint-Hilaire.
A significant deposit of the semi-precious mineral sodalite is located near Mont-Saint-Hilaire .
History
Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville was granted the seignory of the region in 1694.Charlotte Gray 'The Museum Called Canada: 25 Rooms of Wonder' Random House, 2004 By 1745 a mountain village had been formed with the first chapel being built in 1798 near the Richelieu River. Nearly twenty years later, in 1822, a ferry operating between Beloeil and Mont-Saint-Hilaire came into service. A bridge, enabling Beloeil and St. Hilaire to be connected by rail, was built in 1848 by the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railway.
The Campbell family, which owned the mountain after the Rouvilles, sold the mountain to an English officer, Brigadier-General Andrew Gault, who owned it for 45 years. Gault then bequeathed the mountain to McGill University before his death in 1958.
Demographics In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Mont-Saint-Hilaire had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
Population trend:Statistics Canada: 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016, 2021 census Census Population Change (%) 2021 18,859 1.5% 2016 18,585 2.1% 2011 18,200 15.8% 2006 15,720 10.2% 2001 14,270 9.2% 1996 13,064 6.5% 1991 12,267 15.9% 1986 10,588 5.2% 1981 10,066 30.9% 1976 7,688 33.5% 1971 5,758 N/A
Mother tongue language (2021)2021 Statistics Canada Community Profile: Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Quebec Language Population Pct (%) French only 17,025 91.5% English only 565 3.0% Both English and French 260 1.4% Other languages 665 3.6%
Attractions
The Gault Nature Reserve on Mont Saint-Hilaire includes over a thousand hectares of primeval forest. Owned by McGill University, the nature reserve is used for research and recreation. The Museum of Fine Arts (Le Musée des beaux-arts) of Mont-Saint-Hilaire is the major art museum on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River. It was founded in 1993 to promote the work of regional artists Jordi Bonet, Paul-Émile Borduas and Ozias Leduc. Exhibitions also feature art from the area, such as Saint-Hilaire et les Automatistes in 1997, and Leduc, Borduas et le paysage de Saint-Hilaire in 2008, as well as other Quebec artists such as Jean Paul Lemieux and Nancy Petry. Art Station Art centre Ozias Leduc Manoir Rouville-Campbell Saint-Hilaire church
Infrastructure
Mont-Saint-Hilaire is served by the Mont-Saint-Hilaire commuter rail station on the Réseau de transport métropolitain's (RTM) Mont-Saint-Hilaire line. Local bus service is provided by the RTM's Vallée du Richelieu sector.
In 1864, Canada's worst rail disaster occurred here when a passenger train passed a red signal and fell off an open swing bridge into the Richelieu River, killing around 99 people.
Education
The town is home to 4 primary schools: Au-fil-de-l'eau (659 pupils), de l'Aquarelle (354 pupils) and de la Pommeraie (383 pupils) and Paul-Émile-Borduas. There are also 2 secondary schools, including Ozias-Leduc, with 1,480 students and Collège Saint-Hilaire, a private high school that receives students from the region.Collège Saint-Hilaire
The South Shore Protestant Regional School Board previously served the municipality.King, M.J. (Chairperson of the board). "South Shore Protestant Regional School Board" (St. Johns, PQ). The News and Eastern Townships Advocate. Volume 119, No. 5. Thursday 16 December 1965. p. 2. Retrieved from Google News on 23 November 2014.
Notable people Louis Domingue, ice hockey player most recently for the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, football player most recently for the New York Jets of the National Football League Thomas Bertrand-Hudon, football player for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League
Photo gallery
See also List of cities in Quebec St-Hilaire train disaster Jordi-Bonet Bridge
References
External links
Town of Mont-Saint-Hilaire