Ontario Street (Montreal)

Ontario Street
	Rue Ontario
Native name	French: Rue Ontario
Part of	Ville-Marie, Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve
Length	6.1 km (3.8 mi)
Location	Between Sherbrooke Street and Sainte-Catherine Street
From	Saint-Urbain
To	Rue Ida-Steinberg (slightly east of Rue Viau)

Ontario Street (officially in French: rue Ontario) is an east-west artery in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It crosses the boroughs of Ville-Marie and Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. In the later the street becomes mixed residential and commercial and is known as Promenade Ontario.

Promenade Ontario shopping area in Hochelaga

History[]

John S. Cartwright, a banker from Kingston, Ontario and J. B. Forsyth, a local merchant, purchased and subdivided the farm of Sir John Johnson in the north part of the Faubourg Quebec. They gave the three new streets the names of three different Great Lakes: Erie, Huron and Ontario. Ontario Street was later extended in stages toward both the east and west. Until 1948, it was believed that the street was named after the province of Ontario, but the discovery of the subdivision documents by a city of Montreal historian corrected this inaccuracy. Although it had been known as Ontario Street since 1842, the name was made official in 1867.

The neighbourhoods that the street traverses, the Centre-Sud and Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, fell into economic decline by the 1980s, leading to many closed businesses and a reputation for poverty and crime.^[1]

The street has long been notorious for prostitution, particularly the eastern segment.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

Since the 2010s the street has gentrified considerably, in part due to the expansion of the village on the downtown section of the street, and the Promenade Ontario shopping area in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, which becomes pedestrian in the summer.^[5]^[6]^[7]

Geography[]

Ontario Street runs from Saint-Urban Street in the west (in the Quartier des Spectacles) to slightly east of Rue Viau in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. The downtown portion of the street is more urban and commercial, while the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve segment is mixed residential and becomes pedestrian in the summer.

West of Saint-Urban Street it's known as President Kennedy Avenue (French: avenue du President-Kennedy. President Kennedy Avenue is home to various hotels and condominiums. This portion of the street is named after the 35th U.S. President, John F. Kennedy.

Two metro stations are located on Ontario Street: Place des Arts and Frontenac. The STM runs the 125 bus the length of the street as well.

In popular culture[]

It is the subject of Bernard Adamus's Rue Ontario, a 2010 single that portrays the street generally unfavorably.^[8]

The street is also the focus of Richard Beaulieu’s Chroniques du Centre-Sud, a 2014 graphic novel.^[9]

References[]

^ Jump up to: ^a ^b Forget, Dominique (8 May 2013). "Mon quartier me rend malade" (in French). Montreal: L'Actualité. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
^ "Une nuit avec Capone" (in French). Montreal: La Presse. 26 October 2009. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
^ Nadeau, Roxanne (24 September 2003). Pute de Rue (in French). Éditions des Intouchables. ISBN 9782895491194.
^ Hamelin, Louis (1991). Ces Spectres Agités (in French). Boréal. pp. 60–62. ISBN 9782764620571.
^ "Le droit au quartier". Montreal: Actualités UQAM. 11 December 2018. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
^ "L'évolution de la Promenade Ontario: un indicateur". Montreal: Carle Bernier-Genest. 22 June 2015. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
^ "La rue Ontario sera piétonne cet été". Montreal: Journal Métro. 22 June 2020. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmhskszxZF4 Rue Ontario by Bernard Adamus
^ Suicide, Richard (March 2014). Chroniques du Centre-Sud (in French). Éditions Pow Pow. ISBN 9782924049143.