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Warning to the reader Published in the Summer 1983 edition of Continuité magazine, and preserved thanks to Érudit. Please note that this informational article drawn from archives may contain out-of-date information.
by Mark London, architect and urban planner, Executive General Manager ofHéritage Montréal (1979-1987)
If we had to set a birth date for the current conservation movement in Canada, we might well choose September 8, 1973, the day the Van Horne Mansion in Montreal was demolished. That's not to say that there weren't major heritage protection efforts before that date, or that other cities didn't wage their own struggles. But the battle to save the Van Horne Mansion, and the events that followed, marked the beginning of a movement that rapidly evolved to become part of urban planning.
During the sixties and early seventies in Montreal, a few isolated civic actions opposed certain projects, such as the urban redevelopment of Little Burgundy, the levelling of a dozen city blocks to make way for the Radio-Canada complex, and the expropriation of thousands of homes in various neighborhoods for the construction of the Ville-Marie expressway. The loudest protest came from the Milton Park citizens' committee, who fought against the disappearance of six city blocks to make way for the La Cité complex.
However, the destruction of tens of thousands of homes, hundreds of churches and other architecturally and historically significant buildings went largely unnoticed. In those days, progress was a form of divine intervention, both desirable and unthinkingly inevitable.
By the early 1970s, citizen protests were on the rise. Residents of certain buildings, located on the edge of the growing downtown area, opposed evictions and demolitions. The Friends of Windsor Station, for example, tried to prevent the dismantling of this building, and when the Van Horne Mansion was also threatened, a common front emerged, bringing together several associations. Support was particularly strong when the Ministère des Affaires culturelles refused to classify the building as a historic site: it had no value for Quebec! The city was then forced to issue a demolition permit on a Friday afternoon, and the very next morning, the developer razed the Van Horne Mansion to the ground in front of a dismayed crowd. Two weeks later, Sauvons Montréal was founded.
Over the next few years, at least a dozen committed preservationists met every Wednesday afternoon in a small room, to discuss the week's hot topics. A dozen topics studied, policies established, tasks and responsibilities assigned, and each week everyone did their duty, the volunteers invested energy, money and thousands of hours in a war considered noble since it was waged against the bulldozer.
For the first two years, they fought mainly to preserve isolated buildings - often by applying to have them listed on Gouvernement du Québec - or by raising funds through flea markets and balls. Long-term activities were also included: public education, research, changing laws.
Following a fundraising campaign for Sauvons Montréal and its organization Espaces Verts, the organizing committee created a permanent foundation to support the various preservation groups: Héritage Montréal. After protecting Montreal's heritage as a whole, Sauvons Montréal turned its attention to advising the various neighbourhood groups that were springing up across the city on how to lead their own struggles. But it continued its own struggles when necessary, particularly in the downtown area.
Over the years, the movement lost some of its youthful exuberance. By the late '70s, the energy of the early volunteers had waned, and the organization lost momentum despite the influx of new blood. SOS Montréal, its monthly newsletter, is now published only every three months.
However, during this same period, the conservation movement grew to a respectable size. Héritage Montréal was able to raise sufficient funds and provide some of the services offered by Sauvons Montréal on a voluntary basis, such as the documentation center, research and long-term planning.
Today, both organizations exist, as do a dozen neighborhood community groups, but the movement has evolved and fragmented. While the dynamic elements of the early days no longer meet weekly to plan certain strategies, they remain no less attentive.
Beneficial spin-offs
The conservation movement will soon be ten years old. It's hard to assess the role of individuals in this process, whether they are leaders or simply prophets of the turnaround that has taken place in Montreal over the past decade. Without Christopher Columbus, wouldn't America have been discovered anyway?
The action of these few key people surely catalyzed the formation of the movement, and without them, awareness would not have been what it is. It's also likely that more demolitions would have taken place. What's more, the election of a new provincial government and opposition municipal councillors helped.
The preservation movement proved very important in the following areas:
1 Public perception:
Ten years ago, a poll on whether Windsor Station should be demolished would have overwhelmingly revealed: "Yes, get rid of this pile of old grey stone so we can have a beautiful modern building". Today, I'm sure the percentages would be reversed and 95% of the population would opt for preservation.
The 1970s saw a veritable "war" between conservationists and promoters.
Thanks to hundreds of events, newspaper and magazine articles, reports, books, speeches, lectures and later films, Montreal has discovered its heritage to such an extent that it has become a marotte. The municipal administration has at least assimilated the jargon of the conservation movement, particularly at election time, to proclaim: " Ville de Montréal improves the quality of the environment...", which means planting a few shrubs around a parking lot, for example.
2.demolition:
The demolition wave has subsided. Developers, aware of the slowdown that public protests can provoke, are looking for vacant land as much as possible. In fact, Sauvons Montréal has clearly demonstrated that downtown's open spaces would allow over a hundred years of construction without demolition. It also produced the first comprehensive inventory of heritage buildings, which was subsequently adopted by the City. Finally, both the province and the City have legislated to control at least residential demolition.
SOS Montréal, October 1976. Saving modern buildings such as the Laurentian Hotel did not attract much public attention. The concept of heritage was limited to its traditional aspect.
3.neighborhood renovation:
Spurred on by civic action, the city reduced zoning in all central neighborhoods to limit building heights, and adopted a series of programs to renovate older buildings.
However, its priority seems to be to increase its revenues. It is now looking to repatriate some of the 200,000 people who moved to the suburbs during its grandiose projects.
As a result, low-income earners are often displaced. The growing co-op housing movement, such as Milton Park (the largest co-op renovation project in Canada, developed jointly with Héritage Montréal), is responding to this problem.
4.preservation of historic buildings:
Many important monuments still exist only thanks to the efforts of citizens: the Mother House of the Grey Nuns, the Notre-Dame Congregation, the Convent of the Good Shepherd, Mont Saint-Louis, the Shaughnessy House, among others.
The City and the MAC have created a municipal company (SIMPA) to stimulate the preservation of buildings of historical and architectural interest. Developers are beginning to realize that it's often cheaper to renovate than to build, and that heritage character sells better.
Future challenges
The preservation movement is certainly a great success, but the work is far from over. The city and developers have recently attacked green spaces, and many of the island's most important natural sites have disappeared. Despite a promise made seven years ago, Montreal still has no master plan for downtown development. The future of major religious institutions has yet to be determined. Montreal is one of the few North American cities without a heritage law, and the tax system still favors demolition over renovation.
In fact, we have the impression that Montreal is lagging behind, no doubt due to the autocratic leadership of the municipal government and other institutions. Decisions are imposed by people who don't necessarily know the latest developments or the real needs of the population.
Now that the latter is becoming increasingly involved and demanding to be consulted on decisions affecting its environment, it may well be able to decide in any case, and then the conservation movement will have reached maturity.
