Ville-Émard/Côte Saint-Paul

Water power drove a flour mill and supported axe making, shovel manufacturing and a sawmill at Côte-Saint-Paul: William Parkyn received the hydraulic concession in 1853. The Lachine Canal, opened in 1825, transformed land previously devoted to farming. Manufacturers came for both the energy and the transport access available along its banks. On Avenue de l’Église, Saint-Paul church, its presbytery, a boarding school and the former town hall form an institutional cluster dominated by grey limestone and red brick. The boarding school received its first pupils in 1888; the present church opened in 1910.

In Ville-Émard, Ulric Émard purchased a farm in 1899 and began developing housing on the land. Residential streets in Émard and Saint-Paul are lined with trees. Angrignon Park combines woodland, clearings and a lake with children’s play areas. Road infrastructure also reshaped the neighbourhood: Highway 15 altered the surroundings of Côte-Saint-Paul’s institutional centre. Boulevard Monk suffered a decline in commercial activity, made worse by the arrival of the Carrefour Angrignon shopping centre.

Key places

• Avenue de l’Église : street containing the religious and municipal centre.
• Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire boarding school : welcomed pupils from 1888.
• Angrignon Park : woodland, clearings, lake and play areas.
• Boulevard Monk : shopping street affected by commercial decline.