PLAN OF FIRST STREETS LAID OUT IN VILLE MARIE
St. Peter Street ran down to the common and the street skirting this common was named St. Paul Street, after the patron saint of Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve. This was now formally traced, because the line of houses already built on the north side of this common had been constructed along it.
A fourth street was named St. James, the patron saint of M. Jacques Olier. This was north beyond Notre-Dame, beginning with Calvary Street and terminating with St. Charles Street, of which we shall speak later. A fifth street, eighteen feet broad, was that of St. Francis Xavier, parallel to St. Peter. It was called by Dollier de Casson St. Francis, after his own name, Francis, in honour of St. Francis d'Assissi. Later on, Xavier was added in deference to St. Francis Xavier, the apostle of the Indies. Calvary Street, at the extremity of St. James Street, was given a breadth of twenty-four feet; it went north towards the mountain. Another street of twenty-four feet, going in the same direction from Notre-Dame Street, was called St. Lambert, in honour of the brave Lambert Closse. These streets were broader than the rest, for they were meant for carriage service. [111]
A ninth street, eighteen feet broad, parallel to that of St. Joseph, and abutting on St. James Street, de Casson called St. Gabriel, after the patron saint of Gabriel de Queylus and Gabriel Souart.
Finally the tenth street, parallel to the latter and also abutting St. James Street, was named St. Charles, after Charles Le Moyne, Sieur de Longueuil. The city plan being made, it was necessary to carry it out. Some of the streets afterwards formally laid out, had already been marked out by pathways that had grown up. Thus, that running from the fort to the Hôtel-Dieu, became St. Paul Street; that to St. Jean-Baptiste Street, opened in 1684, was started as early as 1655. St. Dizier Street, opened in 1691, was traced as a path in 1664. Another pathway was traced from the fort to Bon Secours Chapel in 1657. The original Place d'Armes, opposite the fort, was opened in 1650. [112]
Those who had taken land adjoining these streets were, by their contract, obliged to build houses, this same year. But some of the proprietors of lands crossed by these traced roads seemed to have neglected the landmarks placed by Dollier de Casson and went on cultivating and sowing as before. This was resented by those anxious to build, as it blocked the way to the hauling of their building materials. Accordingly in March and June of 1673 there are records of an assembly of inhabitants, including Mademoiselle Jeanne Mance and M. d'Ailleboust, addressing a request to M. Dollier de Casson that as he had himself mapped out the boundaries of the streets, apportioning to each its line, length, breadth, angles, and its name for the building and decoration of the town, he should take means to prevent individuals tilling and sowing any of these streets. To this just demand, Dollier acceded, and he forbade any further cultivation of the roadways, leaving each one free to enclose his lot with stakes or quick-thorn hedges. The offending parties submitted, especially so as they saw that the roads crossing their properties increased their value—an elementary principle of city planning. [113]
By 1675, some had neglected to enclose their ground, and in consequence of the complaint of those that had done so, the seigneurs put up a notice, dated January 12, 1675, warning the tardy ones that if they did not bring the necessary building materials immediately after the following spring seeding, "to rear their buildings, destined for the ornamentation and decoration of their town and to facilitate trade both with the inhabitants and the strangers, the seigneurs would reclaim these concessions, redistribute them, on demand, to others presenting themselves."
One of the delays leading to the erection of houses on the streets, of the upper town section, traced in 1671 was the interruption of the building of the new parish church determined on, on the occasion of a pastoral visit of Mgr. Laval, when at an assembly of the inhabitants, held on May 12, 1669, it was settled that operations should begin on June 8th under the direction of Bénigne Basset at a monthly honorarium of thirty livres. But though stones were brought to commence the work at once, two years elapsed before the site could be agreed upon. That which had been chosen, once the property of Jean Saint-Père, was considered as being too low down. Two years later, the naming of Notre-Dame Street indicated the resolution arrived at by the seminary to build the church of Notre-Dame higher up, at the head of St. Joseph Street and facing Notre-Dame Street. At a meeting held on June 6, 1672, the proposition to build on such land bought by the seminary from Nicholas Godé and the wife of Jacques Le Moyne, was accepted.
Besides, a promise of the grant of the land, the sum of a 1,000 livres tournois for three years was offered in the name of M. de Bretonvilliers, the superior of the Sulpicians in Paris. On June 19th, at a new assembly, it was agreed upon to engage François Bailli, a master mason, to take charge of the construction and to receive one écu for every day's work and thirty livres a month while the operations lasted. If there had hitherto been delay, the next steps were very swift.