Editing Verdun, Quebec (section)

==History==
=== Early history ===
[[File:Maison Nivard-De Saint-Dizier 1.jpg|thumb|left|[[Maison Étienne Nivard de Saint-Dizier]], built in 1710]]
There is archaeological evidence of [[indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous peoples]] in the area as early as 5,500 years ago.<ref name="maison">{{cite web |title=Maison Nivard-De Saint-Dizier |url=https://maisonnivard-de-saint-dizier.com/ |access-date=14 March 2022 |language=fr-CA}}</ref> A [[portage]] along what is now the boulevard LaSalle was used to pass the [[Lachine Rapids]].<ref name="shgv">{{cite web |title=Un peu d'histoire... Bref historique de Verdun |url=http://www.ville.verdun.qc.ca/shgv/histoire.htm |access-date=14 March 2022 |website=www.ville.verdun.qc.ca |archive-date=6 January 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070106144602/http://www.ville.verdun.qc.ca/shgv/histoire.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

A [[trading post]] was established at nearby [[Fort Ville-Marie]] in 1611 and colonization of the [[Island of Montreal]] began in 1642. In 1664 the Île-Saint-Paul (now Nuns' Island) became a seigneury.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

The first colonial settlers were [[militia]]men granted [[Concession (contract)|concessions]] in 1665 in exchange for defence against the [[Iroquois]]. Afterwards, the area was known as ''Côte-des-Argoulets'' (Sharpshooter's Ridge), in reference to the [[arquebus]], an infantry gun.<ref name="noyau" /> The settlement was where the [[Saint Pierre River (Montreal)|grande Saint-Pierre]] river drained Lac à la Loutre into the [[St. Lawrence River]]. The lake has since been filled to create the Turcot [[rail yard]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Doyon |first=Frédérique |date=2012-10-06 |title=Dans les rivières souterraines de Montréal - Retour aux sources des villes |url=https://www.ledevoir.com/culture/cinema/360904/retour-aux-sources-des-villes |access-date=2022-03-14 |website=Le Devoir |language=fr}}</ref> and the St. Pierre partly covered over and partly integrated with canals.

In 1671, the [[Fief]] of Verdun is created when land is granted to [[Zacharie Dupuy]], who derived the name Verdun from his native village of Saverdun in France.<ref name="cdn-encyclo">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Verdun |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/verdun |encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |date=March 4, 2015 |access-date=14 March 2022 |archive-date=4 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211204102709/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/verdun |url-status=live }}</ref> Two years later he donated the land to the [[Congrégation de Notre-Dame]],<ref name="dicobio">{{Cite DCB |title=Dupuy, Zacharie |volume=1 |last=Auger |first=Roland-J |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/dupuy_zacharie_1E.html |access-date=14 March 2022}}</ref> who in 1710 built the building now preserved as the [[Maison Nivard-De Saint-Dizier]]. This house is named for [[Étienne Nivard Saint-Dizier]], whose father bought the lands from the nuns in 1769.<ref name="Le voisinage Crawford.">[http://patrimoine.ville.montreal.qc.ca/inventaire/fiche_zone.php?affichage=fiche&civique=&voie=0&est_ouest=&appellation=&arrondissement=26&protection=0&batiment=oui&zone=oui&lignes=25&type_requete=simple&id=1209 "Le voisinage Crawford."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006130552/http://patrimoine.ville.montreal.qc.ca/inventaire/fiche_zone.php?affichage=fiche&civique=&voie=0&est_ouest=&appellation=&arrondissement=26&protection=0&batiment=oui&zone=oui&lignes=25&type_requete=simple&id=1209 |date=2011-10-06 }} Grand répertoire du patrimoine bâti de Montréal. Accessed 1 July 2011.</ref>

Following the [[Great Peace of Montreal]] in 1701, farmers settled along Lower Lachine Road (now boulevard LaSalle), which connected Fort Ville-Marie with [[Lachine, Quebec|Lachine]].<ref name="noyau"/>

Around 1800, Chemin de la Rivière-Saint-Pierre (now rue de l'Église) was opened.<ref name="noyau">[http://patrimoine.ville.montreal.qc.ca/inventaire/fiche_zone.php?affichage=fiche&civique=&voie=0&est_ouest=&appellation=&arrondissement=26&protection=0&batiment=oui&zone=oui&lignes=25&type_requete=simple&id=1205 "Le noyau institutionnel et commerçant de Verdun."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006130544/http://patrimoine.ville.montreal.qc.ca/inventaire/fiche_zone.php?affichage=fiche&civique=&voie=0&est_ouest=&appellation=&arrondissement=26&protection=0&batiment=oui&zone=oui&lignes=25&type_requete=simple&id=1205 |date=2011-10-06 }} Grand répertoire du patrimoine bâti de Montréal. Accessed 1 July 2011.</ref> The [[Canal de l'Aqueduc]], now Verdun's northwestern boundary, was dug in 1854 to furnish Montreal with drinking water from the St. Lawrence.<ref name="aqueduc">[http://patrimoine.ville.montreal.qc.ca/inventaire/fiche_zone.php?affichage=fiche&civique=&voie=0&est_ouest=&appellation=&arrondissement=26&protection=0&batiment=oui&zone=oui&lignes=25&type_requete=simple&id=1199 "Secteur du canal de l'aqueduc."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006130703/http://patrimoine.ville.montreal.qc.ca/inventaire/fiche_zone.php?affichage=fiche&civique=&voie=0&est_ouest=&appellation=&arrondissement=26&protection=0&batiment=oui&zone=oui&lignes=25&type_requete=simple&id=1199 |date=2011-10-06 }} Grand répertoire du patrimoine bâti de Montréal. Accessed 1 July 2011.</ref>

In 1874, a group of local land-owners met in a farmhouse called Le Pavillon, located at the corner of Lower Lachine Road and Chemin de la Rivière-Saint-Pierre, and decided to found the village of Rivière-Saint-Pierre. Chartered by the government of Quebec, it became the municipality of Verdun the following year.{{cn|date=November 2024}} Settlement had been hampered due to frequent flooding, but a dyke was built starting in 1896; its completion resulted in a population boom.{{cn|date=November 2024}} The dyke itself became host to Verdun's popular Boardwalk, before land reclamation in the 70s led to the expansion of the waterfront park along the whole length of Verdun's riverbank.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

The first Église Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs (now part of the school of the same name) was built in 1899, followed by a combined town hall, fire hall, and police station in 1908. The tramway also arrived in 1899, connecting Verdun to downtown. A larger [[Église Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs de Montréal]] was built in 1914.<ref name="noyau" />

=== 20th century ===
[[File:Moving Day. 4th Ave. Verdun BAnQ P48S1P02642.jpg|thumb|right|[[Moving Day (Quebec)|Moving day]] on 4th avenue, 1938]]In 1881, the Montreal Hospital for the Insane was founded as a Protestant counterpart to the Catholic Hôpital Saint-Jean-de-Dieu (now Hôpital Louis-H.-Lafontaine) east of the city. It would be built on two farms, purchased in 1887 and 1907, in the western end of Verdun. Affiliated with [[McGill University]] in 1946, it was renamed the Douglas Hospital in 1965.<ref name="aqueduc" /> Today, not only is it one of Verdun's largest public institutions, but its campus is one of the borough's most important greenspaces.

Verdun became a town in 1907 and a city in 1912. Between 1911 and 1924 the population tripled and urbanization expanded rapidly "westward" (according to [[Geography of Montreal#Street directions|"Montreal directions"]] - actually due southward), and the farms were divided for residential use. The Moffat area west of rue Desmarchais was built in with "plexes"—the typical Montreal layered apartment—between 1920 and 1930,<ref>[http://patrimoine.ville.montreal.qc.ca/inventaire/fiche_zone.php?affichage=fiche&civique=&voie=0&est_ouest=&appellation=&arrondissement=26&protection=0&batiment=oui&zone=oui&lignes=25&type_requete=simple&id=1207 "Le voisinage Moffat."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006130751/http://patrimoine.ville.montreal.qc.ca/inventaire/fiche_zone.php?affichage=fiche&civique=&voie=0&est_ouest=&appellation=&arrondissement=26&protection=0&batiment=oui&zone=oui&lignes=25&type_requete=simple&id=1207 |date=2011-10-06 }} Grand répertoire du patrimoine bâti de Montréal. Accessed 1 July 2011.</ref> and the Crawford Park area in the far west of the town was built starting in 1945, in a more suburban style unlike the orthogonal grid used in the rest of Verdun.<ref name="Le voisinage Crawford."/> The [[Verdun Natatorium]] was built in 1930, the Verdun Hospital in 1932, and the [[Verdun Auditorium]] in 1938.

The municipality of Île-Saint-Paul, occupying what was by then universally known as [[Nuns' Island|Nuns' Island or Île des Sœurs]], was annexed to Verdun in 1956. Then a chiefly agricultural area, it was rapidly urbanized following the opening of the [[Champlain Bridge, Montreal|Champlain Bridge]] in 1962, with development including contributions by the famous Modernist architect [[Ludwig Mies van der Rohe]].<ref>[http://patrimoine.ville.montreal.qc.ca/inventaire/fiche_zone.php?affichage=fiche&civique=&voie=0&est_ouest=&appellation=&arrondissement=26&protection=0&batiment=oui&zone=oui&lignes=25&type_requete=simple&id=1210 "L'île des Soeurs."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006130757/http://patrimoine.ville.montreal.qc.ca/inventaire/fiche_zone.php?affichage=fiche&civique=&voie=0&est_ouest=&appellation=&arrondissement=26&protection=0&batiment=oui&zone=oui&lignes=25&type_requete=simple&id=1210 |date=2011-10-06 }} Grand répertoire du patrimoine bâti de Montréal. Accessed 1 July 2011.</ref> Rapid development would continue to the present day, with the erosion of the sensitive natural woodland of the Domaine Saint-Pierre becoming an increasingly pressing concern.

[[File:Bureau d'arrondissement de Verdun.jpg|thumb|left|Verdun City Hall, now the borough hall.]]
Back in Verdun proper, in the post-war period, the area around the church, along rue Wellington and rue de l'Église, became the nucleus of commercial development. A new city hall was built on Rue de Verdun in 1958.<ref>[http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/pls/portal/url/page/arr_ver_en/rep_vie_quartier/rep_histoire_patrimoine/rep_batiments_historiques/hotel_de_ville_verdun "History and Heritage: Verdun City Hall."] Ville de Montréal: Arrondissement de Verdun. Accessed 1 July 2011.</ref> The Green Line of the [[Montreal Metro]] was extended into Verdun in 1978, its construction delayed due to a collapse in rue Wellington during the construction of [[De L'Église (Montreal Metro)|De L'Église]] station.<ref>[http://www.metrodemontreal.com/green/deleglise/history.html "De l'Église Metro: History and trivia."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606223230/http://www.metrodemontreal.com/green/deleglise/history.html |date=2011-06-06 }} Metrodemontreal.com. Accessed 1 July 2011.</ref> Besides De l'Église in downtown Verdun and [[Verdun (Montreal Metro)|Verdun]] station in front of the town hall, [[LaSalle (Montreal Metro)|LaSalle]] station was built in vacant land in a former industrial area in the east of the borough, left vacant by the demolition of the vast British Munitions Supply Co. facilities; the Metro station would become the heart of a new residential area called La Poudrière after the munitions factories.<ref>[http://www.metrodemontreal.com/green/lasalle/history.html "LaSalle Metro: History and trivia."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606223538/http://www.metrodemontreal.com/green/lasalle/history.html |date=2011-06-06 }} Metrodemontreal.com. Accessed 1 July 2011.</ref>

However, improved access to downtown Montreal meant a decline in local commerce. A program of subsidies and revitalization starting in the 1990s reinvigorated the rue Wellington commercial corridor.<ref name="noyau" />

Verduners voted 68% "no" in the [[1980 Quebec referendum|1980 sovereignty referendum]] and 59.6% "no" in the [[1995 Quebec referendum|1995 referendum]]. In 1992, Verduners voted 53.66% in favour of the [[Charlottetown Accord]].

=== 21st century ===

In 2002, the municipal [[reorganization of Montreal]] saw the city of Verdun become a borough of Montreal. [[2004 Quebec municipal referendums|The majority of Verduners chose not to hold a demerger referendum in 2004-2006.]]

Earlier in the 20th century, Verdun was a partially [[Dry county|dry community]], with taverns, night clubs and cabarets banned since 1965, and alcohol sales restricted to restaurants with liquor licences, grocery stores and the [[Société des alcools du Québec|SAQ]].<ref>[http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_pageid=2480,4772982&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL "'Prohibition' in Verdun and the Scott Act."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121002091129/http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_pageid=2480,4772982&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL |date=2012-10-02 }} Ville de Montréal: Arrondissement de Verdun. Accessed July 1, 2011.</ref> In December 2010, the borough announced that it was planning to allow some microbreweries or performance spaces to sell alcohol.<ref name=SRC>{{cite news|last=Coutié|first=Maxime|title=Feu vert à l'ouverture de bars et tavernes|url=http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/Montreal/2010/12/09/002-verdun-bars-permis.shtml|access-date=28 December 2011|newspaper=[[CBC News]]|date=9 December 2010|language=fr|archive-date=23 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120523190207/http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/Montreal/2010/12/09/002-verdun-bars-permis.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> The ban was eventually lifted entirely in 2013, and today Verdun is home to many thriving [[microbreweries]] and bars.<ref name="gentrification2" />

In recent years, Verdun, along with the neighbouring [[Le Sud-Ouest]] borough, have experienced rapid [[gentrification]] and social change. Long considered to be one of the city's poorer neighbourhoods, it's today one Montreal's most desirable areas to live, with a large influx of students and professionals arriving in the last decade.<ref name="gentrification1" /><ref name="gentrification2" />

In 2019, Verdun hosted a part of the [[Montreal International Jazz Festival|Jazz Fest]] on [[Wellington Street, Montreal|Wellington Street]], to much praise from the public and critics.<ref name="Jazz fest">{{cite news|title=Verdun satellite site a hit with Montreal jazz festival fans|url=https://montrealgazette.com/entertainment/music/jazz-fests-new-verdun-satellite-site-a-hit-with-residents-visitors|publisher=[[Montreal Gazette]]|location=Montreal|date=29 June 2019|access-date=4 February 2021}}</ref>

In 2020, it was listed as the eleventh "coolest" neighbourhood in the world by [[Time Out (magazine)|Time Out]] magazine.<ref name="Coolest">{{cite news|title=Montreal's Verdun borough ranked as world's 11th 'coolest' neighbourhood|url=https://globalnews.ca/news/7387278/montreal-verdun-11th-coolest-neighbourhood/|publisher=[[Global News]]|location=Montreal|date=8 October 2020|access-date=4 February 2021|archive-date=13 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210113154035/https://globalnews.ca/news/7387278/montreal-verdun-11th-coolest-neighbourhood/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.timeout.com/coolest-neighbourhoods-in-the-world|title=The 49 coolest neighbourhoods in the world|date=11 October 2022|access-date=22 February 2021|archive-date=31 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210331130452/https://www.timeout.com/coolest-neighbourhoods-in-the-world|url-status=live}}</ref>