The streets have their memory.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
They see characters pass by, families settling in, loves running out of steam. They see businesses open and shut down. Communities take shape, fashions evolve. Many knew horses before cars, BIXIs and mini-Segways (I’ll never get used to mini-Segways). The majority of them have had several lives… And some want to discover the smallest secrets.
Among them, Karim Larose.
The literature professor recently embarked on an ambitious adventure, in collaboration with the Center for Research in Art and Social Engagement Artenso. Do you have photos or stories relating to Saint-Hubert Street in Montreal? He would like to hear from you…
It’s because he’s working on a digital project, The Hand of the North, which will dissect the history of this important thoroughfare in the La Petite-Patrie district. “Rue Saint-Hubert, in the district, is the street of ‘mediation’, Karim Larose explains to me. Everyone has been there. Everyone there had dreams and cries. »
For now, it’s time to collect images and memories. And it must be said that Karim Larose has an impressive community to feed him…
In April 2020, the professor had the idea of occupying his confinement by collecting a few dozen archive images of the La Petite-Patrie district on his Facebook page. surprise; the album has been shared over 3000 times!
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PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE MAGNUS POIRIER FAMILY
Young Magnus Poirier, in front of a pony-drawn carriage at 96, rue Saint-Zotique, circa 1907. The Magnus Poirier family, a Petite-Patrie business that will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year, provided this photo.
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PHOTO CONRAD POIRIER, PROVIDED BY BANQ
Seamstresses from the Laniel clothing factory, at 7542, rue Saint-Hubert, in 1941
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PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE LAURIER CHARLEBOIS FAMILY
Rare photo of the Villeray quarry, in 1923 (current location of Villeray park)
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PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE SYLVAIN ANCIAUX FAMILY
First construction of sidewalks in front of 7585, rue Berri, probably in 1922
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PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE ERNEST MANZO FAMILY
The oldest photo of Jarry Park, around 1919-1921 (even before the creation of the park, in fact)
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PHOTO REAL FILION, PROVIDED BY CCDMD
Baseball game at De Normanville Park, in 1971
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PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE ALBERT GAGNON FAMILY
Albert Gagnon, doing a bit of acrobatics in Jarry Park, in 1930
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“I had the impression that it filled a void, that it opened up a type of space for dialogue that existed too little,” he recalls.
These archives resonated with former inhabitants of the district, who recognized the places and told their story. In fact, this project very quickly turned into an exercise in listening to these words, stories, affects and trajectories.
Karim Larose, at the origin of the project The Hand of the North and the Facebook group Memories of Petite-Patrie, Villeray and Little Italy
Karim Larose therefore began to think of a space where he could ask questions of neighborhood residents, present and past. He ended up creating a group, still on Facebook, Memories of Petite-Patrie, Villeray and Little Italy.
“I speak of the district in the singular because historically, Villeray, Little Italy and La Petite-Patrie are part of the same group, north of Des Carrières and south of Crémazie”, specifies the professor before adding that in within a year and a half, the group had attracted 10,000 members.
I am, by the way! Even if I don’t live in the area… The truth is that I’m fascinated by what I discover there. There is something infinitely touching in this encounter between history and emotions. It’s hard to remain insensitive to the intimacy revealed by the members when they show us the underside of their old house, or even their old life.
This was precisely the primary objective of the project: to allow citizens to tell their stories, in times of a pandemic. Obviously, there was also a desire to know the evolution of the district; knowledge generated collaboratively, insists Karim Larose… “The group’s mechanics identify car models to date the photos, for example, and former officials from the City of Montreal tell us about the development of the tramway and the trolleybus in Montreal . »
I admire the concern for mediation that one can guess behind each interaction in the group, this conversation between historians and “witnesses of the past”, as Karim puts it. Between different generations, too…
“The group is very diverse, but it brings together a lot of seniors who participate in discussions, offer archival photos, tell their family history, pass on their knowledge. »
We have a lot of work to do to create a society that gives a place to seniors that is neither paternalistic nor infantilizing, but which relies on the dignity and the quality of the dialogue we have with them.
Karim Larose
Some of these testimonies particularly marked the professor, moreover. He talks to me about secrets about the way children were brought up in the past; the relationship with alcohol, in the neighborhood; poverty, too.
“I remember this lady telling me that sometimes, at the end of her working day, her father was crying,” slips Karim Larose.
He also cites to me “an abortion in a mustard bath in the 1930s, the abuses in institutions under the care of the clergy, the experience of vacant lots in the north of Villeray, the strength of these generations of women, the parish volunteering and labor in the neighborhood”…
Despite the harshness of certain memories, what I find magnificent is that this memory is of real use. Well beyond nostalgia, it is part of our present. According to Karim Larose, our perspective changes when we know that a stone’s throw from our house once existed an orphanage, a factory or a soda company.
“This social fabric, disappeared or threatened, has been and is important: it reminds us that the society in which we live is a construction and that we have our say in this construction. To take it where we want it. »
Nothing is truly frozen in time.
Not even our homes, our memories or our tomorrows.
If you would like to contribute to the bank of images and memories relating to the neighborhood (which contains approximately 12,000!) or to share a story about Saint-Hubert Street, contact Karim Larose.