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Ville-Marie
French settlers founded Fort Ville-Marie in 1642
Old Montreal was founded by French settlers in 1642 as Fort Ville-Marie. Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve built a fort in 1643, as the headquarters of the Société Notre-Dame de Montréal.
Wood and stone
A royal order banned wooden houses in 1721 but was never fully respected
Gaspard Chaussegros de Léry built fortifications in 1717. Inside the walls, a large concentration of wooden houses with fireplaces led to many fires. In 1721 Montreal received a royal order from France to build in stone.
Fires
Two fires in 1765 and 1768 took nearly half of the buildings
In May 1765 a fire destroyed about 110 houses. In April 1768 another fire burned 88 houses, including the Congregation Notre-Dame convent. The city was then rebuilt even more densely.
1849
A Tory crowd burned down the Parliament building in 1849
In 1849 a riot protesting against a law caused a fire when a Tory crowd burned down the Parliament building in the old Marché Saint-Anne. In 1903 the site housed Montreal's first fire station, now the Centre d'histoire de Montréal.
Saved
A highway plan was dropped, and the district was classified in 1964
City planners considered wider streets, which would have meant razing many older buildings. A proposed elevated highway spurred a movement to preserve the district. Daniel van Ginkel persuaded authorities to abandon an expressway, and in 1964 most of Old Montreal was classified a historic district.
Day 1, morning
It comes after Place Jacques-Cartier. Then Notre-Dame Basilica.
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Old Montreal, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.