The earliest ordinances governing city improvement have already been mentioned in the ordinances of Governors Gage and Burton. Those following on the great fire of 1765 have also been treated elsewhere.
In the letter of an English traveller, dated March 22, 1795, occurs the following reference to Montreal: “Montreal is not equal in size to Quebec, but has considerably the advantage in point of cleanliness. On the whole Montreal has more the appearance of a middle sized country town in England than any place I saw in America. The principal streets are flagged. The houses are built of stone, on the French plan, with this exception that they are in general, much lower and present a greater appearance of neatness than French houses usually do. * * * The amusements of Montreal are exactly similar to those of Quebec. In winter, all is dance and festivity. * * * I have seen few places where a veteran officer of moderate income might entrench himself for life better than at Montreal.” (Canadian Antiquarian and Numismatic Journal, Vol. IX.)
In order to provide for a uniformity in the planning of the streets to meet the growth of the city and the suburbs the legislature by an act of 1799 (36 George IV, Cap. 5) authorized the appointment of a surveyor “who should draw plans of the city and land adjacent and that commodious streets should be opened and ground reserved for public squares.” At the same time an act was passed for the repairing and the changing of the roads and bridges of the country. Montreal was affected by this and was taxed accordingly.
“The houses at the beginning of this century,” says Mr. P.S. Murphy, writing in 1879, “were generally of ‘rubble masonry,’ or of wood, one or two stories high—the former with iron shutters. Some houses on St. Paul Street were two or three stories high, of Ashlar masonry. The buildings in the old city proper were generally of stone.”
At this period Simon McTavish’s castle was standing. He had died in 1805 and left it unfinished. There it stood deserted on the site now covered partially by the Allan property till the latter part of December, 1860—the abode of ghosts according to the credulous.
In 1800 Beaver Hall, the mansion of Joseph Frobisher, one of the founders of the North West Company, was built. It was then far in the country. Being of wood it was burned down in 1845.
A badly preserved map of the city of this period (1801), made by Louis Charland, inspector of roads, reveals that certain streets’ names were applied to localities since renamed. St. Marie was that given to the present Sherbrooke Street; St. James to St. Catherine; Dorchester to St. Jean Baptiste. The present names begin to appear in the map of 1825 by John Adams.
In 1800 an engineer was named by the legislature with a salary of £200 a year to direct the opening of new streets, and with jurisdiction beyond the city limits. The new engineer set to work to pave St. Paul and Notre Dame streets and then to open up others under the direction of the magistrates. In 1815 the road across the property of Etienne Guy was opened. In 1817 the opening was legalized of King, Queen, Prince, George, Nazareth and St. Gabriel streets. St. Paul Street was extended to McGill Street and St. Maurice Street was opened. In 1818 St. Helen, Lemoine and Dubord were opened. At the same time the construction of the fashionable esplanade of the period, the Champ de Mars, was begun and the demolition of the citadel erected under the French régime allowed Notre Dame Street later to be extended to St. Mary Street.
In 1802 His Majesty assented to the last reserved acts regarding the removal of the walls around the city of Montreal. In 1801 a bill for the removal of walls was passed by the legislature, with some amendments, but reserved by Sir Robert Milnes in case any further consideration from a military point of view might be thought necessary. On the 10th of June, 1803, a proclamation was issued giving effect to the reserved bills. Thus at last the fortifications were to be demolished! They had been threatened many years previously. Mr. Brymner (Archives Report for 1892) tells the story. “So far back as 1791 General Mann, then a captain of the Royal Engineers, reported that, while in the infant state of the colony the works around Montreal were useful as a protection against the Indians, they were no longer required for that purpose and that their ruinous condition made them rather a nuisance than a benefit. Part of the materials of the walls, he recommended, should be preserved, the rest to be used by filling up the ditch or for any other purpose in the reforming of the town. Citadel Hill, he considered, should be levelled and barracks built on part of it, or by levelling the hill to any easy slope Notre Dame Street might be opened to the Quebec suburbs, forming a good entrance and a great improvement to the town. The cross streets should lead to the mountain and a road be preserved along the front of the river, which in time would form a fine quay or promenade. * * * In July, 1793, Mr. Dundas approved of the removal of the walls, but directed Lord Dorchester to ascertain whether the owners of the adjoining property had or had not the right, as they maintained, to have their property extended on the removal. In 1797 Prescott, lieutenant governor, informed the legislature that the petition for the extension of the property consequent on the removal of the walls desired the assembly to take measures to prevent litigation between owners, past and present, and stated that the officer commanding the Royal Engineers would be directed to make a plan of the town and fortifications, which should show the reserves proposed to be made for the use of the crown.” In November, 1797, the colonial secretary wrote that the bill had been received and would be returned with such directions as might be necessary, which were sent in August, 1798. The rest of the history has been told above.
