Process: Lac aux Loutres

Went to the Théâtre Corona in Saint-Henri on Sunday to join in on the celebrations for the 25th anniversary of RESO (Regroupement économique et social du Sud-Ouest). L’autre Montréal started off the all-day event with a bus tour of the Sud-Ouest. I’ve always appreciated their extremely well-researched tours; generously animated by Bernard Vallée, this circuit was no exception.

First stop was the Georges-Vanier building in La Petite Bourgogne, site of the first francophone public library in Canada when Saint-Cunégonde was annexed into the city of Montréal in 1906. Highlights was learning about the beautiful old buildings converted into artist spaces: L’Espace Verre in what was once Fire Station no. 21 in Victoriatown, and Quartier Ephémere in the Fonderie Darling building close to Griffintown, one the oldest working class neighbourhoods in Canada. We also visited the site of a new urban project, La cité des artistes, which will be situated in Les Bassins du Nouveau Havre on the north berg of the Lachine canal. The four original St-Gabriel Basins – which were built between 1848 and 1885 – will be excavated as part of the new development. The proposed plan also includes living/working spaces for artists, rental spaces for art and community organizations, as well as housing for families.

With all of the debate over the Turcot interchange reconstruction project and the threat of expropriations in St-Henri's Village des Tanneries, it was sobering to go through what used to be Victoriatown. This community, also known as Goose Village, was razed down in 1964 in preparation for Expo 67. All that is left now is what is called the Black Rock, a memorial to the thousands of Irish immigrants who succumbed to typhus in the 1840s. In Griffintown, we passed the site of St. Ann's Catholic Church, torn down in 1970, and the stable which houses the Old Port’s calèche horses – symbol of another era. In Pointe Saint-Charles, the seigniorial era is recalled by its toponymy. In 1663, the Sulpicien priests were granted land in the Pointe which is why the area used to be called ferme Saint-Gabriel or ferme des sulpiciens. At the end of the 1860s, much of the agricultural land had been parceled off in response to the rising industrialism along the Lachine canal and the development of the Grand Tronc rail yard. All that is left is a road sign – Rue de la Ferme.

It reminded me of my Gaspésie trip when I arrived to a point where I thought there was going to be a village called La Ferme, but did not see any dwellings. Perhaps a name on a map was all that was left of a small farming community? Here in Montreal, I wonder if the rue Angers in Ville-Émard, which runs from St-Patrick canal-side to a grove of old trees in a park, refers to Angers in France or simply indicates that it used to be an old farming road?

The overall sense that I gleamed from the tour is that the Sud-Ouest is lacking in monuments that reference its rich history since so many cultural and architectural landmarks have been lost. Bernard Vallée did mention some recent efforts like the official signage in parks which explain the site's history and public figures. I wonder if some of this memorialization is also taking place online, in an unofficial way? On a grassroots, collaborative level, rather than on a grand, monumental scale? The associative nature of the Web, its palimpsest quality, makes it the ideal tool to document layered narratives through time as evidenced by the many blogs on the subject of history, architecture and urban planning. I found this richly detailed blog by Andrew Emond that documents hidden waterways in Montreal by way of an interactive map quite interesting. Another blog of note is Walking Turcot Yards where I first came across a ghost lake back in 2007 – Lac aux Loutres.

Working on my pathmap the last couple of weeks, I decided to deviate from my initial list of lakes with the Lapalme-Legault-Angerbauer placenames. Much like I integrated Lac-à-l'Épaule into my pathmap by its association with George-Émiles Lapalme, I will also include Lac aux Loutres. The architectural firm Béïque, Legault, Thuault has proposed the Lac à la loutre project with the aim to transform the zone between the Saint-Pierre and Turcot interchange into a thematic parc. At the heart of the project is the restoration of the ancient Lac aux Loutres. This wetlands was once the bulging part of the Rivière Saint-Pierre – the precursor to the Lachine canal. The canal now follows Rivière Saint-Pierre's course and Otter Lake is embedded somewhere underneath the Turcot rail yards, having been filled in during the 19th century.

As this ghost lake is in my immediate vicinity, it is fitting to add it to the pathmap. This lost lake that has changed through time is also in line with the Tongue Rug project’s focus on the mutability of shifting placenames, maps and even geographical features through time.