Saint-Léonard

Saint-Léonard · 83 photographs · 1947–1975

In Saint-Léonard, a cave once kept butter, milk and cream cool before they were taken to Montréal’s markets. Farmhouses can still be recognized along Rue Jarry, the former Côte Saint-Michel. Dairy farmers also organized collectively: the Ferme Saint-Laurent cooperative was founded in 1927 and bought by Laiterie Laval in 1938. The municipal council had already required permits from farmers selling milk in Montréal in 1916. Without refrigerators, dairy products were kept in iceboxes using blocks of ice cut from the St. Lawrence River in winter.

Between May 1956 and September 1962, the Coopérative d’habitation de Montréal built 655 detached homes in Saint-Léonard to help families with modest incomes become homeowners. Private developers subsequently added duplexes during the 1960s. Builders from the Italian community shaped this residential landscape, introducing Mediterranean influences and sloping driveways leading to basement garages. Despite alterations to individual houses, the former cooperative retained its street pattern, lot dimensions and setbacks, together with planted spaces inside its crescents, as described in the survey published by Spacing.