The Notre-Dame-De-La-Paix church in Verdun is set to be demolished to make way for an intermediate resource center, according to this announcement at the city's website: link. The beautiful church has been abandoned for some time now. It was inaugurated with a midnight mass on 24 December 1950. This church replaced an older church with the same name (see second to last photo). It's location is sorta of an issue: it's isolated by LaSalle boul, Ethel street, Strathmore street and Gertrude street. It had two addresses: on Ethel and Strathmore. This is sad for several reasons which I won't go into but Verdun has probably more churches per square kilometer than any other borough on the island. And not just ordinary churches but BIG churches. 10 years or so ago I wanted to make a book on the churches of Verdun because many of them are (were) quite impressive including the St John the Divine church (link) on Moffat street which was converted into condos. I abandoned the book project after St John the Divine was converted into condos.
If you want to see more photos of the church just go at my Flickr account: Vanishing Montréal
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L'église Notre-Dame-De-La-Paix à Verdun est prêt à être démoli pour faire place à un centre de ressource intermédiaire, selon ce communiqué sur le site de la ville: lien. La belle église a été abandonnée depuis quelque temps. Elle a été inauguré par une messe de minuit le 24 Décembre 1950. Cette église a remplacé une ancienne église du même nom (voir avant dernière photo). Son emplacement est un problème en sorte: elle est isolé par LaSalle boul, rue Ethel, rue Strathmore et de la rue Gertrude. Elle avait deux adresses officielles: sur Ethel et Strathmore. C'est assez triste pour plusieurs raisons (que je ne décriras pas maintenant) mais Verdun a probablement plus d'églises par kilomètre carré que n'importe quel autre arrondissement sur l'île. Et pas seulement les églises simples mais des GRANDES églises. Au allentour de 2000 ou 2001 je voulais entrependre un projet sur les églises de Verdun parce que beaucoup d'églises dans ce quartier sont (étaient) assez impressionnantes, y compris le St John the Divine (lien) sur la rue Moffat qui a été converti en condos. J'ai annulé le projet à cause de cela.
Si vous voulez voir plus de photos de l'église juste aller à mon compte Flickr: Vanishing Montréal
(photo: ville de Montréal)
I took this photo in 2011...J'ai pris cette photo en 2011
I lived right by there from 2003 until 2008. I use to hear the bells and see the church and tower from my window. I always thought that building was over a hundred years old. Guess I was wrong. In any case they will never build them like that. They take that beautiful building down and they are destroying the character of the neighborhood which should be preserved. What a shame. Thank you for showing how Montreal is changing. We have so many temporary people living and then leaving that it is obvious nobody cares.
ReplyDeleteWhat irks me too is that the replacement is more often then not an eye-sore. I grew up in the Hollywood, California area in the
60s and the beauty was destroyed there in that city of L.A. I guess it eventually will happen to Montreal as well unless it's Old Montreal. That will stay preserved.
In any case it's sad about this church because I use to see the tower from a distance and it would orient me when I first moved to that area. I mean it, it really adds a lot of charm to the area and it really is terrible news to hear.