In 1973, in the deindustrializing Montreal neighbourhood of Pointe-Saint-Charles, local women activists—normally preoccupied with jobs, housing, and food security—made the fate of a 82-year-old fire station their top concern. Pointe-Saint-Charles was the proposed site for a new highway construction: le Projet Georges-Vanier. If built, this artery would have sliced the working-class community in half, destroying the fire station as well as a much-loved public park, and displacing about 140 families in turn. This article situates an important but understudied moment in Montreal’s preservation struggles in the pivotal early 1970s, proposing that heritage is not an object but rather a social, cultural, and political process. It further considers the fragility of collective memory about who saved this building, and the neighbourhood as a whole.
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The Keystone of the Neighbourhood by Dr. Cynthia Hammond
Gender, Collective Action, and Working-Class Heritage Strategy in Pointe-Saint-Charles, Montréal
Peer-reviewed article by Dr. Cynthia Hammond
“The Keystone of the Neighbourhood: Gender, Collective Action, and Working-Class Heritage Strategy in Pointe-Saint-Charles, Montréal.”
Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d’études Canadiennes, special issue on Critical Heritage Studies in Canada, guest editors Andrea Terry and Susan Ashley. 52.1 (2018): 108-148.
The facade of the Saint-Gabriel fire station/caserne no. 15, Pointe-St-Charles. Since 1975 the edifice has been called Bibliothèque Saint-Charles. Photograph: C. Hammond.