There are 800 vacant buildings in Montreal. Many could be reused, and a number even have strong heritage value. Here are the stories of some of these abandoned places and the dreams to bring them back to life.
Located in the heart of the most densely populated neighbourhood in downtown Montreal, the former Bourget Academy building was to be completely renovated to house a first public school in the Peter-McGill neighbourhood. While Quebec invested $21.3 million, the work that began in 2022 has been suspended, and the future purpose of the building remains a mystery.
A few months after starting work, the Centre de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM) put an end to the project because the location was no longer ideal and the project would ultimately cost too much for too few classes. “A larger school than the one we can build on the site of the former Bourget Academy would better meet our needs in this area of downtown Montreal,” the CSSDM said in an email, declining the interview request from the Duty.
Decontamination and clearing work was nevertheless launched on the site in 2022, involving a sum of 1.47 million, according to documents consulted by The duty.
The Peter-McGill neighbourhood, which has no public schools, will have to wait a little longer before students in the neighbourhood can attend a school close to home. The neighbourhood has three high schools, all private, as well as a private elementary and secondary school. To send their children to public school, parents in the neighbourhood must enrol them in schools in Westmount or Little Burgundy. “This forces children in the neighbourhood to travel more than an hour by bus to get to school,” laments Jennifer Maccarone, Liberal MNA for Westmount–Saint-Louis. This is ironic for the neighbourhood, which is home to the campuses of McGill and Concordia universities, as well as Dawson College.
While 450 primary school-age children are looking for a place in a local public school, the Bourget building could only accommodate 300. Mme Maccarone believes that the Bourget school was never a good project. She says that a vocational training centre should be established in the building or a French language centre for the many immigrants who come to settle in the neighbourhood.
Construction site suspended without explanation
The suspension of work caused great dismay to Serge Sasseville, independent municipal councillor for the Peter-McGill district, who has been campaigning strongly for the opening of the Bourget school since 2016. “We have noticed [en 2023] that the work had stopped, and we did not know why at the time despite our request [déposée en janvier 2024] “, he complains, adding that this is a considerable loss of public funds. A few months later, in March 2024, he received a letter signed by Stéphane Chaput, deputy director of the CSSDM, explaining that the CSSDM was studying other, larger sites that would meet all of the neighborhood’s needs in one go. Communication with the CSSDM is, according to Mr. Sasseville, very poor.
To (re)read, in the same series
Currently, the Bourget building is still surrounded by a construction fence from the St-Denis Thompson firm, which prevents anyone from approaching the building. There is no visible trace of activity on the site, several windows are broken, and waste is accumulating there. Construction permits can be seen posted on the doors of the building, but it is not possible to read them.
Mr. Sasseville does not intend to give up anytime soon. “The Bourget Academy issue is one that is very dear to me, because there is no public school [dans ce quartier du] downtown Montreal. That’s my big battle,” he said in an interview with The duty. “We want to attract even more families to the downtown core. To attract families, we need public schools. And we don’t have any public schools. Honestly, I’m a pretty emotional person, and the abandonment of this building upsets me.” Statistics from the Peter-McGill Neighborhood Table show that families leave the neighborhood as soon as their children reach elementary school age.
A neighborhood of contrasts
In the eyes of Stéphane Febbrari, president of the Peter-McGill Neighborhood Table, the renovation of the Bourget building would have had positive repercussions in any case: “The Bourget school sector is interesting. It’s small, of course, but the population of the neighborhood is experiencing demographic growth not seen in recent years. So considering the number of towers that are springing up downtown, we’re going to need a lot of elementary schools, regardless of their size.”
Mr. Febbrari emphasizes that, in any case, the work in the Bourget building should not be abandoned.
“Several community organizations have left the neighborhood in recent years. With rents increasing, Bourget School could become a social hub. We recently lost the YWCA, we will soon lose the YMCA [de la rue Drummond] which was put up for sale… The Volunteer Action Center has left [le quartier] also after 100 years of activity, like others. The social fabric in the city center is crumbling despite the increase in population. ” According to him, 1230, rue de la Montagne would be a very suitable place for holding community activities.
A building with great heritage value
In 1914, architect Georges-Alphonse Monette was commissioned by the Montreal Catholic School Board to build this new public school. The Bourget Academy opened its doors the following year under the responsibility of the Sisters of the Congrégation Notre-Dame, and welcomed 240 students. The sisters moved to the neighboring building, at 1214 rue de la Montagne. This building is also abandoned today.
The congregation taught not only a mixed but also a bilingual public. “There has always been, in Montreal Catholic education, an English-speaking sector to serve the Irish community, among others,” explains Sébastien Lecompte-Ducharme, a doctoral student in history at the Université du Québec à Montréal and research advisor at the Fédération des centres de services scolaires du Québec.
The sisters closed the establishment “with great sorrow” in 1968. “We understand that our parish is no longer as residential as it was in its origins. Little by little our school has almost emptied,” we can read in their archives.
Despite the sisters’ departure, 1230 de la Montagne Street remained active. For a year in 1969, the building hosted adult education classes. In July 1973, Concordia’s Faculty of Arts began renting it for student exhibitions. The Bourget Gallery appeared on campus maps until 2009.
In 2005, the City of Montreal classified the building as having “exceptional heritage value”. In 2007 and 2009, still rented by Concordia, it hosted the Montreal Biennale. These were the last public events to take place in this building, to the knowledge of the Duty.