CHAPTER XXV
1672-1675
TOWN-PLANNING AND ARCHITECTURE
THE FOUNDATION OF THE PARISH CHURCH AND BON SECOURS CHAPEL
THE FIRST STREET SURVEY—"LOW" TOWN AND "UPPER" TOWN—THE ORIGIN OF THE NAMES OF THE STREETS—COMPLAINTS AGAINST CITIZENS STILL CULTIVATING THE STREETS—ORDERS TO BEGIN BUILDING—THE NEW PARISH CHURCH—THE FOUNDATION STONES AND PLAQUES—THE DEMOLITION OF THE FORT FORBIDDEN—THE CHURCH OF BON SECOURS—THE POWDER MAGAZINE IN ITS GARRET—A PICTURE OF MONTREAL.
In 1672, peace prospects being bright, town planning received its first conscious impetus. Hitherto "Low Town," the neighbourhood of the fort and principally the portion near the Hôtel-Dieu and Maisonneuve's house, now the manor of the Seigneurs of the Seminary, with the small collection of houses around the fortified redoubts at Ste. Marie and St. Gabriel, had housed the slender population, fearful of attack. The advent of the troops enabled them to think of opening up higher land, and of forming a future "Upper Town," on which some had already taken concessions. There it was intended to build a parish church; for at present the chapel of the Hôtel-Dieu served the purpose.
Accordingly, following the procès verbal, of March 12, 1672, we find Dollier de Casson, representing the Seigneurs, accompanied among others by Bénigne Basset, at once town clerk and town surveyor, tracing the first streets, [109] starting from the site of the land reserved for the projected parish church of Notre-Dame, and making out the limits of the concessions granted. Notre-Dame Street was first marked out, starting from a well opened by a former syndic, Gabriel le Sel dit Duclos, and extending eastward to the mill redoubt on the elevated portion of ground called afterwards "Citadel hill." [110] Notre-Dame Street, then the greatest street of the city, was thirty feet broad. Bénigne Basset placed a post at intervals on either side of this road, affixing the leaden stamp of the seminary to each. St. Joseph Street, now known as St. Sulpice, having been already named and used as a trail and in some sort a street, had a breadth of eighteen feet assigned it, and the property lines marked out. A similar breadth was given to St. Peter Street, in honour of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, the patron saint of M. Pierre Chevrier, Baron de Fanchamp, one of the first founders of the Company of Montreal.
