By Louise Legault

In our previous post, we visited 14 places in Montreal where the Saint-Pierre River once flowed. We resume our tour moving south of Meadowbrook with 12 stops and, once again, a few pleasant surprises. South of Highway 20, these spots are scattered all over southwestern Montreal, from Lachine and LaSalle to Pointe Saint-Charles.

(1) Geomorph, Saint-Pierre interchange; (2) Former Lac Saint-Pierre or Lac-à-la-Loutre now Turcot interchange; (3) Carrefour Angrignon, LaSalle; (4) Snow depot, LaSalle; (5) Angrignon Park ; (6) Douglas Institute; (7) Beurling Park; (8) Woonerf Saint-Pierre ; (9) Lac-à-la-Loutre Park; (10) Grenier Park; (11) Sutherland-Sackville-Bain Park; (12) Arthur-Therrien Park; (13) D’Argenson Park; (14) Joe Beef Park.

The map for this section shows a number of other Montreal rivers. From west to east: the Glen in Westmount, the Ruisseau de la Montagne along Côte-des-Neiges Road, the Ruisseau Prud’homme, the Torrent de la rue Peel and lastly the Petite rivière in Old Montreal. Note the location of the old Canal Saint-Gabriel between the St. Pierre River and the Petite rivière.  Click on image to enlarge.

A geomorph in Lachine

At this point, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention a geomorph (a geographical feature that still follows the contours of a river even though the river is no longer there) in the Saint-Pierre district of Lachine, identified by environmental historian Laetitia Deudon : the Saint-Pierre interchange (1), where the layout of the streets and even the highway ramps are reminiscent of the river’s former presence.

According to Virginie Destuynder of the École de technologie supérieure, the river drained a basin of 56 km². It flowed for 43 km, not counting the detour to Pointe-à- Callière via the Saint-Gabriel canal, which added another 3.9 km to its course. At the foot of the Falaise Saint-Jacques, the river formed Lac-à-la-Loutre, a shallow lake covering an area of 30 ha (2). (The lake was drained in the 19th century with the creation of the Lachine Canal, an old dream dating back to the early days of the French colony, in order to bypass the rapids on the St. Lawrence River).

On to Angrignon Park in LaSalle

Today there is nothing left of the river in Angrignon Park (5); according to Professor Valérie Mahaut’s map, it flowed in the southeast corner, at the corner of des Trinitaires and de la Vérendrye boulevards. Could the park’s ponds have originated from the river? According to François Arteau of Les amis du parc Angrignon, who is currently researching the park’s history in preparation for its centenary, this is not the case: the ponds were created entirely by human hand between 1956 and 1958.

Next stop: the Douglas Institute

We move on to the Douglas Institute (6), where a bowl at the corner of Stephens Street and Champlain Boulevard could be, according to Christian Nadeau, a member of the former Comité de protection et de mise en valeur du patrimoine bâti et naturel de Crawford Park, a remnant of the ancient watercourse. The river also used to flow through Beurling Park (7).

Sud-Ouest borough

In Saint-Henri, the borough of Le Sud-Ouest has built a woonerf (8) (a shared street for pedestrians, cyclists and cars) over the Saint-Pierre collector,  stretching from Sainte-Émilie Street to Parc du Lac-à-la-Loutre. The construction of the collector, a titanic work built during the Great Depression to put the unemployed to work, channeled much of what remained of the river and  left a large scar there.

Woonerf on the Saint-Pierre collector. Photo Louise Legault.

A salute to the former Lac-à-la-Loutre, parc du Lac-à-la-Loutre (9), at the corner of Saint-Patrick and Courcelle, lies at the eastern end of the former lake, at the confluence of the Saint-Pierre River and the ruisseau Saint-Martin. A micro-forest has been planted here, and a community garden adds greenery to this area of dense condo development.

Micro-forest at Parc du Lac-à-la-Loutre, with Le Galdin under construction in the background.. Photo Louise Legault

Verdun (Sud-Ouest borough)

We had previously visited the Duquette, Grenier (10), Sutherland-Sackville-Bain (11) and Arthur-Therrien (12) parks during a tour organized as part of the recording of a 2023 podcast about the Saint-Pierre River by the Centre de recherches interdisciplinaires en études montréalaise (CRIEM). With its elongated shape, Grenier Park (10) on Strathmore Street in Verdun can be considered a geomorph, embracing the shape of the river even though it’s no longer there. The mouth of the Saint-Pierre River where it flowed into the St. Lawrence River originally faced Nun’s Island and was located where we now find Arthur-Therrien Park (12). Today, the outlet of the Saint-Pierre collector can be found there, overlooking the aptly-named “Baie des Capotes”; this nickname comes from the way the area looks when the collector’s overflow is emptied directly into the St. Lawrence during heavy rains. Beurk!

At d’Argenson Park (13), the Sud-Ouest borough has recently redeveloped with a pump track (!), the Saint-Pierre River is recalled by a rain garden, a nature-based solution for controlling rainwater runoff. Another spot on the St. Pierre River’s path is Joe Beef Park (14).

Old Montreal

One last place that recalls the Saint-Pierre River is the Dream Collector at the Pointe-à-Callière museum in Old Montreal. It’s worth noting that the river was diverted in part into the Little Saint-Pierre River by the Sulpicians to power mills. The museum highlights the William Collector, a true 19th-century engineering jewel which trapped the Little Saint-Pierre River, made unsanitary by the lack of proper sewers in 19th-century Montreal. It was here in 1642 that the first Montrealers, Sieur de Maisonneuve and Jeanne-Mance, landed. It doesn’t get more Montreal than this!

By Louise Legault

I’ve long wanted to retrace the passage of the Saint-Pierre River in today’s Montreal. I seized my chance when I met Virginie Destuynder from Hippo Vert l’Avenir.

A student in hydrogeology at the École de technologie supérieure, Virginie superimposed former Université de Montréal Professor Valérie Mahaut’s map of ancient watercourses, trough lines and watersheds on the island of Montreal onto today’s street grid. Thanks to Virginie’s map, we were able to pinpoint many of the places where the river has left a trace. Our tour offered a few pleasant surprises.

Bringing two maps together: the rivers of yesterday and the streets of today.

A quick glance at the map reveals a number of wetlands that are part of the river’s footprint (circled in green on the map). They are identified in the Interim Control By-law (RCI) adopted by the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM) in 2023. Many of these properties are owned by Canadian Pacific, and adjoin the largest rail yard in Eastern Canada.

The City of Côte-Saint-Luc is undoubtedly the city of the Saint-Pierre River. Côte-Saint-Luc is an honorary member of 200 mètres – Gardiens de la rivière Saint-Pierre et de ses droits for its participation in the campaign to save the last visible section of the river on the Meadowbrook golf course. No fewer than ten of the sites visited on this first tour are in Côte-Saint-Luc.

A footbridge in Côte-Saint-Luc’s Nathan Shuster Park. Photo Louise Legault

Among the surprises we discovered was Nathan-Shuster Park (1), at the very top of Cavendish Boulevard, a charming woodland with landscaped paths and a footbridge over a wetland. Guess which river it is? Côte-Saint-Luc has also preserved two other woodlands, the first in Pierre-Elliott Trudeau Park with landscaped trails (the St. Pierre River is said to occur nearby in a fenced wetland (2) alongside the Canadian Pacific rail yard). The second woodland, Ashkelon Forest (3), is located on the grounds of City Hall on Cavendish Boulevard, a wetland identified by the RCI. In fact, there’s no better remedy on a hot summer’s day than to find yourself in the shade of these tall trees.

Also of note in Côte-Saint-Luc are the soccer fields at the Aquatic and Community Centre (4) on Mackle Road and Allan J. Levine Park (6). Are they to be considered geomorphs, given their elongated shape? A geomorph is a landscape feature that retains the shape of a geographic feature, despite the absence of the latter. Allan J. Levine Park, for example, stretches between Wentworth and Blossom avenues, aligning one sports field after another.

A pair of mallards at the temporary pond on Côte-Saint-Luc Road. Photo Jo Ann Goldwater

According to the map, three tributaries of the St Pierre flow through the Meadowbrook golf course: the one in the axis of Guelph Road (7), the one that crosses Côte-Saint-Luc Road (8) and the one that crosses the course in a long meander, giving it its name.  The Côte-Saint-Luc Road tributary comes back to life every spring, flooding the neighbouring wet meadows, part of the golf course and forming a temporary pond at the entrance to the golf course (9). A small bridge could have marked the spot where it crosses Côte-Saint-Luc Road, but a less picturesque culvert was chosen instead.

A quick hello to Toe Blake Park (10), another geomorph whose triangular shape bears witness to the river’s past presence.

Pond at the end of Mackle Road, CSL, unfortunately overgrown with phragmites. Photo Louise Legault

Les amis du parc Meadowbrook would have liked to see the temporary pond on Côte-Saint-Luc Road (9) added to the list of CMM wetlands, as well as a permanent pond at the end of Mackle Road (5). Surprise: a wetland at the southern tip of Meadowbrook (12), on the other side of the railroad line, was chosen instead.

Our tour would not be complete without a mention of the Côte-Saint-Luc Shopping Centre on Côte-Saint-Luc Road (13). In the document Un pont vers 2040 Imaginer ensemble l’avenir de Côte-Saint-Luc Guide du processus de révision du plan d’urbanisme published by the City of Côte-Saint-Luc in 2022, the presence of an area of undeveloped land between the two railroad tracks behind the shopping center was highlighted: was this where people used to swim in the 1950s?

Some people also told us they remembered the river at Hampstead Park (14), which is also shown on our map.

Come to think of it, this system of wetlands and streams would have formed the perfect basis to create a natural rainwater management system that could have absorbed the overflow during heavy rains – increasingly frequent with climate change – and relieved Montreal’s struggling sewage system. With the burying of the St. Pierre River at Meadowbrook, however, the system is missing a key element. Maybe the St. Pierre can be daylighted in the future and bring back that possibility.

On May 9, 2024, les amis du parc Meadowbrook and Sauvons la Falaise were invited to participate with many other environmental groups and representatives of the City of Montreal and the academic community in a co-design workshop that focused on three green corridors being contemplated in Montreal:

– A link between Meadowbrook and the falaise Saint-Jacques

– Connectivity in the greater southwest, notably between the Lachine Canal and the St. Lawrence River

– The Ruisseaux corridor, linking the St. Lawrence River to Rivière-des-Prairies in east-end Montreal.

Organized by the Conseil régional de l’environnement de Montréal and UQAM’s Pôle sur la ville résiliente, the workshop identified the challenges of these projects, possible solutions and partners which could lend a hand.

With regard to the link between Meadowbrook and the Falaise, several possibilities were identified, ranging from a two-way bike lane on Brock Street South in Montreal West to facilitate access to the Bande verte via the de Maisonneuve Boulevard bike path (which could definitely use some greening!), to the continuation of a stretch of bike path on West Broadway in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce to join Hydro-Québec’s green corridor in Montreal West. Many of these suggestions appear to have been included in Montreal’s 2019 Bicycle Plan, but have not been implemented to date.

Participants also discussed the possibility of opening up the Saint-Pierre district by creating a bike path along Milton and Ronald avenues to reach the Bande verte. Unfortunately, a veritable spaghetti of railway tracks and power lines dubbed the “Bermuda Triangle” prevents any direct access by Lachine residents to the Meadowbrook site.

The main obstacles to connectivity and active mobility were found to be the presence of road and rail infrastructure, and the absence of bicycle paths in Montreal West. Participants also noted the dangers posed by the pedestrian and bicycle tunnel under the St. Pierre Exchange, which cyclists travelling to and fro cross at their own peril.

Also on the agenda was the conservation of the Falaise arc (the Falaise actually extends all the way to Dorval, and is visible along Highway 20), which in places consists of thin strips squeezed behind buildings.

A question of environmental justice

In examining the possible links between the falaise Saint-Jacques (in the center right of the map) and Meadowbrook (opposite, in the center left), we turned our attention to the map of the area’s vulnerabilities, particularly its vulnerability to flooding.

We were struck by the fact that lower-income neighbourhoods are often the most vulnerable (sections in red and orange on the map), with Saint-Pierre (VSP) – in the middle of our illustration- and Westhaven (WH) – a bit further up-being two examples.

To find out if your area is vulnerable to flooding, look up the Atlas des vulnérabilités web site at https://atlas-vulnerabilite.ulaval.ca/

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)