Saint-Henri

Before the factories came the tanners. They worked beside a stream, which supplied the water leather making needed, and outside Ville-Marie because of the smell. The Lachine Canal then drew companies looking for water power. The RCA building housed the record and gramophone industry, then radio, television and space technology.

Atwater Market opened in 1933, built as an unemployment relief project to replace the Saint-Antoine Market. Butchers, cheesemongers and produce growers still trade in its Art Deco building by the canal. The Gadbois recreation centre followed in 1959–1960. 1970 changed the neighbourhood: building a large high school meant demolishing the church and much of the old town centre, and in November the canal closed to shipping. It reopened to pleasure boats in 2002.

Key places

• Lachine Canal : water power for industry, later recreational boating.
• Atwater Market : Art Deco market near the canal.
• Gadbois park and centre : sports and recreation facilities.
• RCA building : recording, radio and space technology industries.